Bad service endemic in the whole world now? Anyone deal with tme.eu?

[Lightages]

I am getting accustomed to bad service as that is the best you can expect here in Chile. Oh yes, bad service at twice the price! No joke. SO when I was looking for a new multimeter I decided on a Brymen BM869 based on everything I had seen and read about it. Of course the only way to buy something from Brymen here in South America is from Brazil under the Minipa brand name, but at 3 times the real price. There was also the option to buy the rebranded Greenlee equivalent for 2 times the price. Then I saw people mentioning tme.eu here in the forums.

I had some email exchanges to try and buy and almost had to twist their arm to answer. I thought perhaps it was just a problem with language or their worry about dealing with someone in South America. So we finally got things straight and I paid using paypal. Well I have been waiting a long time to get the package so I tracked it. It was sitting in Brazil customs for a week! When I discovered it went to the wrong country I emailed the salesperson at tme.eu and got no response. I then copied the email to their department for exports and got no answer. I then emailed again to one of their sales managers in their headquarters asking for help and still have no response again after two days.

Are these guys just a big website with no service? Anyone have any experience with them?

The package is now somewhere in the international mail system limbo after being "returned to sender because of wrong address".  If I don't get any help in the next few days I wll have to file a claim with paypal but I would prefer not to if there is a chance that tme.eu will pick up the ball again.

[madires]

Had no problems so far. They got a local sales office with a pleasant service hotline in my country.

[iloveelectronics]

Are these guys just a big website with no service? Anyone have any experience with them?

The package is now somewhere in the international mail system limbo after being "returned to sender because of wrong address".  If I don't get any help in the next few days I wll have to file a claim with paypal but I would prefer not to if there is a chance that tme.eu will pick up the ball again.

If I were you I would have filed a claim with paypal already. Try to contact the Brymen company in Taiwan directly and inquire about how you can get one in Chile. They are very friendly and responsive people. You probably won't get as low a price as tme.eu (I don't know how they managed those prices) but at least you won't be ignored.

[Lightages]

I did contact Brymen before buying from TME. Brymen gave me contact information for Minipa Brazil and Greenlee US as my only other options.

[iloveelectronics]

I did contact Brymen before buying from TME. Brymen gave me contact information for Minipa Brazil and Greenlee US as my only other options.

Well, I guess they have to protect their regional distributor's benefits after all. Anyway, if you get your refund and will consider the BM-867, I do have one for sale

[chickenHeadKnob]

I did contact Brymen before buying from TME. Brymen gave me contact information for Minipa Brazil and Greenlee US as my only other options.

Question for you: how did tme handle the whole EU VAT thing, did they charge it and expect you to apply for a rebate somehow? Their website isn't clear on that. I am in the same boat as you in that I want to buy an 869 but I have been sitting on my hands/procrastinating because thats what I do!  .

 Actually procrastinating usually saves me money but in this case I might buy the Greenlee from a local electrcal-HVAC  contractor supply shop.

Good luck with your endeavour and best regards

[lewis]

Question for you: how did tme handle the whole EU VAT thing, did they charge it and expect you to apply for a rebate somehow? Their website isn't clear on that. I am in the same boat as you in that I want to buy an 869 but I have been sitting on my hands/procrastinating because thats what I do!  .

 Actually procrastinating usually saves me money but in this case I might buy the Greenlee from a local electrcal-HVAC  contractor supply shop.

Good luck with your endeavour and best regards

They should not charge EU VAT at all on the sale if the goods are being sent outside the fiscal EU. However, your local customs authority may levy GST or HST (as well as import duty), on the value of the goods when the package arrives in your country, depending on your import laws, the value of the order, what it is, etc. So while you should never pay European VAT, you might have to pay Canadian VAT on the value of the sale.

This is the British customs bit about VAT treatment of exports, it's the same throughout the EU: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/managing/international/exports/goods.htm#6

[Lightages]

They did not charge me VAT. I considered the Greenlee version but I did not feel like paying twice as much for the same meter.

[madires]

They did not charge me VAT. I considered the Greenlee version but I did not feel like paying twice as much for the same meter.

Conrad (well known in the EU) sells the Greenlee too for about twice the price of the Brymen DMM. That kind of price marketing is really braindead!  BTW, I have to pay the Polish VAT (23% instead of Germans 19%) :-(

[Lightages]

I have now waited 9 days for a response from TME. I have sent emails to three different people and filled in their online complaint form. My package is somewhere on the way back to them after being sent to the wrong address. I would recommend anyone considering buying from TME to stay away from them. Very poor service. Or should I say, non-existent service. I will be filing a claim with paypal. 

[ttp]

Any news? Have you got your refund or sorted out anything with TME?

[poorchava]

I've been buying from TME alot, as it is a Polish company which has grown a lot recently.

I've never really had any problem with their customer service. I bet they get tons of emails a day. You would need to call their exports office at +48 42 645 54 44. I am sure they speak english and probably other european languages too. They don't have Skype hotline though. It's usually true for all such companies that you get much better effect calling them directly rather than emailing.

I actually find them rather devoted to customer satisfaction. Maybe the shipping company screwed things up? (that one I had MANY times...). They usually use DHL for international shipping.

[leniwiec]

I've been buying from TME alot, as it is a Polish company which has grown a lot recently.

I've never really had any problem with their customer service. I bet they get tons of emails a day. You would need to call their exports office at +48 42 645 54 44. I am sure they speak english and probably other european languages too. They don't have Skype hotline though. It's usually true for all such companies that you get much better effect calling them directly rather than emailing.

I actually find them rather devoted to customer satisfaction. Maybe the shipping company screwed things up? (that one I had MANY times...). They usually use DHL for international shipping.

True, I also using TME as my supplier and in last 4 years (2-5 orders / month) there was no single fail from their side.

[Lightages]

An update.

I had tried for 9 days for a response by email and I had sent the email to 4 different people in the company. I finally called them on the 27th of November and I spoke to a Malgorzata Slewa. She assured me that I would be taken care of and that they would send anther package out as the one they had sent was either addressed wrong or sent to the wrong. I waited for a few days and asked her if my package had been sent and she said they would try again, that was the 4th of Dec.

I have been checking on the status of my purchase on line in my account, and today the whole purchase history has been removed and they show no record of my purchase. I called again and they cannot do anything because Malgorzata Slewa is away until Monday and I am running out of time for a paypal claim so I have no choice now but to put in a claim with paypal.

Ridiculous service, unresponsive, and I feel like I am being lied to. I tried, gave them the benefit of the doubt, but after 40 days of waiting for them to do the right thing I give up.

I should also add that now my money has been in their hands for over a month, and I will have to wait for another month a least before I get it back.

[ttp]

I have received a parcel from TME today in Australia, shipped 3rd Dec and if I was in DHL service area I would have it on 6th Dec. I have to admit we have good customs here, they don't hold small parcels.

I'm not trying to talk you into giving TME second chance but they seem to provide reasonable good service and very good prices for some stuff, I'd definitely use them again.

[Soertier]

I bought a lot a stuff from TME in two orders, mostly small products, and they have sent me everything correctly. So far, so good.
I also bought from Conrad and I have always had some  products missing from the order or a different product was sent. However every issue was fixed after talking to them Conrad personal via e-mail.

[Lightages]

I am certainly glad you got your purchase. It seems that like any other test of customer service, it is when things go wrong is where it is apparent or not. Sure any company can look good by taking money and then shipping out something, but that is not customer service that is selling.

I gave them all the time I could to respond and ship my package correctly and they haven't done anything. This is where customer service is supposed to take over. I was patient, spent my money to call them when they didn't respond to emails to 4 or 5 different email addresses. 40 days of waiting and calling and getting nothing is what I would call giving them many chances.

[Wytnucls]

It's the curse of the 71E. Give it some love, that might help. 

[Lightages]

Update:

One full day business day after filing a paypal dispute, TME has not responded to the dispute. Ironically today I received my paper invoice by mail, from the people who can't get my meter to me and don't answer emails. And still, all my purchase history and invoice information have disappeared from my account on their web page.

Two more days of waiting for a response from TME on the paypal dispute and then I will escalate it to a claim.

[Lightages]

Latest update:

TME obviously don't care about their customers, nor about their reputation. After waiting three full business days for them to respond to my Paypal dispute, they have done nothing. I have now escalated the dispute to a claim. I seriously doubt they will bother to respond to the claim either and I will probably be left with a 30 day wait for a full refund. For all my troubles I will have a nice invoice from TME that they managed to get to me by mail, even though they can't get my purchase to me.

My recommendation:

Stay away from TME.

[Lightages]

Last update:

TME did not respond to Payal's request for information in relation to my claim, and so Paypal has refunded my money. In short, deal with TME at your own risk as they do not have any customer service worth talking about. After all this time all I got from TME was an invoice and a lot of trouble.

Thumbs down for TME.

[Bored@Work]

Thanks for keeping us updated.

In the past I occasionally recommended TME here, since I never had problems with them (living in Europe). What you describe sounds pretty much like a breakdown of processes so your case got lost, or your case became a hot potato no one at TME wanted to touch. Anyhow I think I'll refrain from recommending TME here in the future.

[Lightages]

The sad thing for me is that I really wanted the Brymen multimeter and TME appeared the only dealer for me that I could find. If anyone has another source of a Brymen BM869, I would like to know. If not I will be getting am Amprobe AM160 or UEI DM397 fro  Test Equipment Depot, unless someone knows a reason to not deal with them I ave given up on T-Equipment also as they seem unwilling to deal with anyone except the exceptionally honest and perfect people in the US without making the dishonest thieves of the rest of the world prove they are not thieves.

[Lightages]

Really silly. I just went to my TME account to see if there was anything different, and yes there is. When I sign into my account a notice pops up saying "Note! Check the status of your payments. Unsettled payments information is available in the “Sales history” panel - the “Unsettled invoices” tab." Of course there is nothing at all in my sales history, nothing at all.

Brymen will go nowhere fast with their wn brand if they let people like this represent their product.

You would think that someone from TME would try to contact me after they see money being removed from their account!

I cannot stress this enough, TME has no customer service. Deal with them at your own peril.

[chickenHeadKnob]

The sad thing for me is that I really wanted the Brymen multimeter and TME appeared the only dealer for me that I could find. If anyone has another source of a Brymen BM869, I would like to know. If not I will be getting am Amprobe AM160 or UEI DM397 fro  Test Equipment Depot, unless someone knows a reason to not deal with them I ave given up on T-Equipment also as they seem unwilling to deal with anyone except the exceptionally honest and perfect people in the US without making the dishonest thieves of the rest of the world prove they are not thieves.

The thing with all of these dealers and other middle-men is that they are all useless, "useless eaters". They add no value.  The standard markup seems to be 100% - a doubling, every time the product changes hands, sometimes a bit less and often even more. I even include amprobe and greenlee in this as I think the amprobe 160 is essentially a brymen 859 (I think). I suspect BRYMEN has contractual obligations to not sell direct or open up a grey market but if they had wanted to they could have sold the 859 direct to the web for $150 and still make more than 100% margin themselves. This situation is insanely stupid.