A warning about reichelt.com

[perdrix]

Back at the beginning of this month I found reichelt.com selling the FLIR One Pro at an attractive price of GBP354.82 plus £4.99 postage and packing so my shopping cart showed a total of GBP359.81.   I chose Paypal for checkout.   Unfortunately they didn't charge my Paypal account the amount shown in the shopping cart - they charged me €417.19 which Paypal converted to GBP374.56.

This meant I was overcharged by GBP14.75.   If I'd known this was going to happen I would have purchase elsewhere.

reichelt refuse to refund the difference saying that I opted to pay in Euros - I DID NOT AT ANY STAGE CHOOSE TO PAY IN EUROS.

Even stranger to relate Paypal have so far sided with reichelt.

So be warned DON'T BUY from reichelt.com and pay using Paypal.   I THINK IT IS VERY LIKELY THAT YOU WILL BE CHARGED MORE THAN SHOWN IN THE CART.

David

[Pluscrafter]

I think there is a warning banner underneath the paying options, were they write, that you only can pay in euros, when you use paypal.


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[German_EE]

If you purchase goods from a German company you must expect to pay them in Euro. A conversion from GBP will take place at some point, either at your bank or at Paypal and this is what you are seeing.

I recently purchased some goods from the UK and, again, Paypal was used. At one point I saw a message on the screen informing me that the goods cost X GBP and Y Euro would be deducted from my bank account. Here the system is operating in reverse and at no point would I expect a UK retailer to accept Euro funds.

[tszaboo]

You must be new online. Companies do this since the beginning of online shopping. Fighting over who converts the money, because they can make a few % there. Get used to it. Reichelt has nothing to do with this.

[newbrain]

Paypal offers the choice of using its own exchange rate and charge you in your account's or card's currency, or let your bank do the conversion, charging the card in the seller's currency.

Banks are not philanthropic organizations, but I have found PayPal's exchange rate to be very close to extortion.

[perdrix]

The entire crux of this is that the website "Shopping Basket" showed me a price in GBP, so I should therefore have been charged in GBP.  To have charged a greater amount in a different currency is just not "right".

Paypal agreed with me on this as does the law (I have checked) and a refund for the difference was issued.

Obviously if the shopping basket had shown a Euro price, I would have expected to be charged in Euro.

David

[2N3055]

The entire crux of this is that the website "Shopping Basket" showed me a price in GBP, so I should therefore have been charged in GBP.  To have charged a greater amount in a different currency is just not "right".

Paypal agreed with me on this as does the law (I have checked) and a refund for the difference was issued.

Obviously if the shopping basket had shown a Euro price, I would have expected to be charged in Euro.

David

Unfortunately you are wrong. Legally Reichelt cannot take your payment in anything than Euro. Conversion must be made during payment by third party that can do money exchange. Reichelt however should make that plain and clear...

[perdrix]

What on earth makes you think that they can only charge Euros?   This was the Reichelt.com website, NOT reichelt.de.  They even have a UK telephone number!

Many companies I deal with will accept payment and charges in multiple currencies.

If they truly CANNOT accept payment in GBP they blooming well shouldn't advertise in GBP and show Shopping Cart contents in GBP.

[2N3055]

Legal entity is German based, There is no Reichelt LTD UK..
But I agree with you, they should keep it transparent and let you know how it will be billed exactly..

[ebastler]

So, which part of the big green warning box didn't you understand? 
I think you should change the thread title.

[perdrix]

I'm pretty certain that this warning WAS NOT THERE when I placed that order!

David

[Bassman59]

That warning WAS NOT THERE when I placed that order!

Open a dispute with your credit-card issuer.

[KaneTW]

Just another case of PEBKAC.

[jmelson]

What on earth makes you think that they can only charge Euros?   This was the Reichelt.com website, NOT reichelt.de.  They even have a UK telephone number!

Many companies I deal with will accept payment and charges in multiple currencies.

If they truly CANNOT accept payment in GBP they blooming well shouldn't advertise in GBP and show Shopping Cart contents in GBP.

I run a one-man shop, with a web store (osCmax) running on a PC in my basement.  Even ** I ** can take payment in US$, Euro and GBP.

Jon

[2N3055]

What on earth makes you think that they can only charge Euros?   This was the Reichelt.com website, NOT reichelt.de.  They even have a UK telephone number!

Many companies I deal with will accept payment and charges in multiple currencies.

If they truly CANNOT accept payment in GBP they blooming well shouldn't advertise in GBP and show Shopping Cart contents in GBP.

I run a one-man shop, with a web store (osCmax) running on a PC in my basement.  Even ** I ** can take payment in US$, Euro and GBP.

Jon

You get GBP and Euro directly into your multi currency account in USA bank as GBP and Euro, not converted to USD?

[2N3055]

One more thing:

Reichelt converted GBP to Euro right. Look down. It was PayPal that charged more...

[perdrix]

I did raise a dispute and Paypal agreed with me and made a refund.

[2N3055]

So you should change title to "Paypal screwed up not Reichelt"....

[soldar]

This type of situation is common and you need to learn your way around. For a one time transaction people mostly let it pass.

I once rented a car in Spain with an American credit card. At the beginning they charged (not blocked but charged) a deposit of almost 1000 EUR which was returned at the end of the rental. Except the 1000 EUR was charged in USD and when it was reimbursed they reimbursed the same amount of USD, not EUR. The USD had gone down and so it was fewer EUR. On top of that there were currency conversion fees and other fees so I lost almost 100 EUR. All my complaints were for nothing and I never rented from them again.

If you rent from Hertz here they will ask you if you want the charge in EUR or in USD and the answer depends on who charges you lower conversion fees. If you have an American card which charges no conversion fees then you should choose a charge in EUR and the bank will convert with no fee.  Also, they put a block on a security amount but no charge.

These things can get tricky.

[tooki]

Unfortunately you are wrong. Legally Reichelt cannot take your payment in anything than Euro. Conversion must be made during payment by third party that can do money exchange. Reichelt however should make that plain and clear...

This is absolutely untrue. It's common for businesses to accept multiple currencies, and businesses that do this a lot often have foreign-currency bank accounts for this purpose. (For example, businesses here in Switzerland often have both Swiss Franc and Euro accounts, sometimes US dollars, too. In countless developing nations, businesses use USD or EUR accounts instead of volatile local currency.)

Here's Germany's Postbank's page on commercial foreign-currency accounts, recommended specifically for businesses that do lots of foreign business: https://www.postbank.de/firmenkunden/fk_neu_fremdwaehrungskonto.html

[amyk]

I think that may be a misunderstanding that legally, they must take payment in Euro, which does not prohibit (nor require) accepting other currencies.

[rs20]

I'm pretty certain that this warning WAS NOT THERE when I placed that order!

So reichelt.com is doing exactly the right thing by voluntarily adding a warning to their website based on your experience?

[tooki]

I think that may be a misunderstanding that legally, they must take payment in Euro, which does not prohibit (nor require) accepting other currencies.

And even this may not actually be legally binding. According to one interpretation of the law, only the government and other monopolies must accept payment for debts in Euro cash. Prior arrangements with any other kind of business can be contractually held to other conditions, e.g. payment by card or bank transfer.

(Sorta like how in USA, businesses are required to accept cash for debts only; a non-debt transaction, such as a sale in a store, does not have any such requirements.)

[2N3055]

Unfortunately you are wrong. Legally Reichelt cannot take your payment in anything than Euro. Conversion must be made during payment by third party that can do money exchange. Reichelt however should make that plain and clear...

This is absolutely untrue. It's common for businesses to accept multiple currencies, and businesses that do this a lot often have foreign-currency bank accounts for this purpose. (For example, businesses here in Switzerland often have both Swiss Franc and Euro accounts, sometimes US dollars, too. In countless developing nations, businesses use USD or EUR accounts instead of volatile local currency.)

Here's Germany's Postbank's page on commercial foreign-currency accounts, recommended specifically for businesses that do lots of foreign business: https://www.postbank.de/firmenkunden/fk_neu_fremdwaehrungskonto.html

And those businesses have to be registered for money exchange, or they have to keep separate accounts for every currency. And they cannot use that money directly, for other purposes before exchanging it. There is also bookkeeping that gets complicated.. Bottom line is, usually companies will NOT accept foreign currency unless it is their business. And also, Paypal and credit cards will be settled in local currency by design.

[tooki]

Nobody said it made things easier. (It makes things cheaper, for businesses that both sell and buy in another currency in sufficient volumes that the exchange fees would add up to more than the cost to run the added infrastructure for the other currency.)

You said it’s illegal for them to accept payment in anything but Euro, but that’s not true.

And while PayPal may be more restrictive, it’s not uncommon for international companies to use a separate credit card merchant bank for each currency.