I ordered something a few days ago from DV247 (which I believe used to be Digital Village, which I've bought loads of stuff from in the past), thinking that the expected 4-6 day delivery delay is a Christmas thing. Its because they are posting from Germany, not the UK, despite posing as a UK Store.

So the device that I ordered needs a UK plug conversion. They have thrown this adapter into the delivery package apparently. For free.

That is clearly sneaky behaviour and a sure sign of an untrustworthy Company in my eyes. If I was aware that I needed a convertor to make it work safely then that should be my responsibility, not a good will gesture without charge.

Reading reviews on TrustPilot it seems that this is a common theme, along with packages not being delivered and using a crappy delivery company that I've never heard of in the UK. I can't remember seeing a Company with such a low score either, 2.9 out of 5.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/musicstore.de

 

Buy an Euro plug, cut the UK one off, connect the three wires and you won't need an adapter. It's really easy. Although I would leave it just as it is because maybe one day you'll decide to sell it to someone from the UK.

It's much worse with the US bought thingies because you need a 110-220V transformer/adapter that is on the *really* costly side.

Years ago I bought Presonus Faderport [still in use] from the US and got it with a 110V adapter that I can use for everything but powering the Faderport. Also, the adapter was 2A [needs quite a bit of juice to power the fader] and the more amperes means more expensive. It does work with 1.5A one, but I wanted to buy one that is completely to Presonus' specs.

Well, the point is, it was somewhere around 20+ Euros and the Faderport was $100.

 

Last edited: Dec 22, 2021

DV247 *used* to be a UK store, but it was bought by Musicstore Koeln and is merely a UK-fronted store for the German products. They do have warehouses and fulfill some stuff from the UK I think but it still ultimately comes from the German retailer. And yes, usually with EU plug adapters, same as if you bought from Thomann etc...

 

They used to jave an actual store in Clapham I once visited which I'm sure closed down, but they also (I guess until recently?) had one in Essex or Romford I thought?

 

I might have confused things, I'm in the UK and the German company must have sent a unit with a Euro plug, to plug into my UK sockets. So that's a PSU made for EU currents (120 or 110, whatever it is) that needs converting to UK standards (I thought its 240, but I'm not sure). Can't see that being covered by Insurance if it catches fire, gets knocked out and shorts etc. Totally different wiring as well as I understand it. Those Euro plugs go in either way up and in the UK ours has a set circuit, Live and Neutral in a set position.

And yeah, you can make an argument about it being easy to fix, but its not the point. If you know that you have to put an adapter into something that somebody bought, you must be aware that they thought they wouldn't need it, if they didn't add that to the order themselves? Surely right? It feels to me like a deliberate deception in the way its set up.

So reading through the reviews it gets much worse. This is typical. Nobody realises that this is a German Company now. They don't make it clear at any point either. Delivery is apparently horrific through another apparently bad Company, who between them lose packages and sometimes don't seem to get resolved. You can't request a refund until it has been returned, but you can't return it until it first arrives, so its an endless loop. Feels like con merchants to me, but seemingly legal.

But it doesn't stop there apparently. On 4th October somebody reported getting Import Taxes of £150, probably related to Brexit. Who would buy something with an additional £150 by choice, if its available inside the UK for much less with next day delivery? Clearly there are many people who aren't realising that this is not a UK based Company. I had spotted those potential taxes when they sent loads of attachments that look like legal cover to wriggle their way out of something that I'm not seeing right now. Far too long to read as well and only Lawyers can be bothered with that stuff. That's never a good look. So I'm probably only seeing a small portion of how they are operating.

Luckily in my case I ordered through AmazonPay and I've made a refund request, but I'd rather have had my item delivered next day on Monday or Tuesday this week already for a few pounds extra. I don't know what Gear4Music are like, but they have a 4.8 rating from 100k reviews and next day delivery. Seems like night and day to me. Good reviews seem to be the exception from DV247 and even the good ones look like stooges. Replies are arbitrary and never deal with the issues or explain why things are bad. Its always dealt with out of the public eye. Again, never a good look.

Funnily enough its the Behringer version of the Faderport that I ordered. I'm not really in a rush to get it but its not just a single issue with DV247 apparently. You can make arguments around Christmas, which seems fair and its why when I saw 4-6 days delivery I assumed that would be related to Christmas, not because it would take them 4 days to give it to the courier, who it has been with for a day in transit and still not arrived. So that looks like more issues down the line that I'm not even willing to see how they unfold... Hopefully the Amazon refund will be straight forward, but who knows. Sounds like they do protect you though and comms with Amazon were really fast and efficient this morning.

I'm probably lucky by randomly choosing that payment. It looks like others who paid on card have a nightmare ahead. And probably many people will write it off as a loss, which is just wrong, because it affects all of us when Companies behave this way.

 

Yeah funny you mention that, because I was just thinking that I'm sure I went to a Digital Village with my mate 10 years ago and we walked there from Balham. Clapham sounds like walking distance. I thought that they used to have 4 stores in London and they were called North South and West or something like that. I'm sure they had one in Manchester at some point as well and reading today they seem to still have shops in the UK. So why would you ever think differently?

Its shit when you have to check on TrustPilot before buying something from a name that you've used for 20 years or so, to see if anything has changed.

 

Yeah cheers for the clarification. I wish I'd known this last week. I would never buy anything that needs plugging in from Thomann and the import things had me worried at one point, like I'd pay more in Import Taxes than what I paid for the replacement earpad.

That was my second bad experience of Thomann, after they kept making excuses about why my pop filter still hadn't arrived. They did offer a refund in all fairness, but those two experiences mean that I'd never knowingly order from Germany again.

 

Yes, me to, but the business failed and was purchased by the largest German retailer, so while the name was kept, there's little in common with the original company.

Now that the UK is no longer in the EU, ordering from EU countries is a bit more of a pain than it used to be...

 

Last edited: Dec 22, 2021

Yeah it feels arse over elbow now after Brexit. This separation thing looks really bad and you'd think they would just consolidate inside Germany and make things clearer about the UK shops and what they can fulfil easily. It makes no sense to me to risk the reputation of the German Company by being sneaky and ignoring whatever issues there are. But I'm not a clever businessman watching numbers roll into my bank account, so I know nothing about what's best.