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[jts]

Unless you live in France. Then it's whatever, you'll know better than me.

Sorry I created this thread but I must vent about this, and I'm also doing it for some advice and feedback.

To begin with, I must have been out of my mind to not just go with Amazon.

I live in a EU country where the Switch's price is steeper than normal, and normal EU price is already quite steep. So importing was always a very likely option for me. I import stuff all the time, blessed EU.

Amazon.de is my usual go-to, but from Amazon.de Nintendo Switch pre-order thread it stemmed that Fnac.com was running some sweet deals. And indeed they were. They had a few different ones over the days but the gist of it was about 350€ for console+Zelda and also some store credit back. So I went with it. And so did a few Gaffers and surely more people as well.

I preordered the console, Zelda: BotW and the official Nintendo case. Over a month ago.

Then the timeline goes like this:

Wednesday, March 1st:

The items in my order start to move. They split my order into 3 different deliveries, Zelda gets shipped first and gets a tracking number for DHL delivery. Almost immediately after that I get an SMS from DHL with delivery estimate for March 3rd, release date. Great! I live a bit remotely, usually deliveries are one day longer than for big cities.

But the Nintendo Switch's status goes to something like "waiting for supplier" and "shipping estimate March 2nd". I get a bit nervous that I might miss launch weekend. But actually before the day it's over it changes its status to "shipped" or in french "en transit". It gets a DHL tracking number as well but this number is a bit larger and not found in DHL's tracking website. Any tracking website.

I keep refreshing the tracking page but nothing happens before Wednesday's over.

Then nothing happens before Thursday's over.

And then nothing happens before Friday's over. 48 hours since the product changed to status to "en transit" and the package still hasn't been scanned by DHL.

But meanwhile that Friday, Zelda actually arrives. I can't play it or anything, but it arrives.

Nothing happens on Saturday.

I didn’t expect anything would happen on Sunday.

And nothing is happening this Monday (it’s already 7PM here)

At the same time, it's important to note that Fnac cuts down the contact ways for their costumers to a very, very minimum. A chat? LOL. It's a goose chase to try to find a phone number, you're just sent through an infinite loop through their website. The best I've found is to direct message them @FnacVousAide on Twitter. Miraculously I’ve been able to exchange a few messages in english with them.

When I first approached about my Switch not getting scanned:

(the other of the 2/3 products is the case that by then have changed its status to shipped as well)

Yeah, it's totally the carrier's fault /s. I actually even contacted DHL, they just told me to keep contacting the shipper, because it's certainly not their fault. Which of course I believe.

Today, after I gave them my full IT’S BEEN 5 DAYS HAVE SOME DECENCY PLEASE, they just tell me:

So,

-I can’t cancel my order because it’s been “shipped” - so it’s not like I can buy it somewhere else.
-“Shipped” for 5 days and still doesn’t show up in tracking
-They apparently have no idea what’s going on and can’t tell me when it’s going to be fixed: I have to accept to stay in this limbo indefinitely. Have paid, can't cancel, don't know when I'm going to get it.

This is not just me, again - from what I gathered this happened with every foreign order here. A fellow Gaffer said that apparently something came up in their Twitter that they just allocated all their Nintendo Switch to local deliveries and their stores - and from what I’ve read around the web, it is true that most French costumers got their consoles - even on GAF.

Basically what seems to have happened here is that they just decided to take a big dump on international buyers in favour of the local market, and fed us a provisional DHL tracking code to change the status to shipped so we can't cancel our orders. Super scummy.

To make things worse, I have my birthday coming up Saturday and I was really counting on the Switch for the party. I’ll live, but it was such a nice timing, absolutely ruined without any consideration.

I’ve reached them after the last message to insist if they can force cancel my order, because I want to buy it locally - for 50€ more. Alternatively if they can offer any compensation for this total bullshit.

A few questions:
-Can I ask my bank to cancel the charge on my card, claiming a dispute with the seller?
-Can I refuse the DHL delivery if I buy another console meanwhile, and they still send me a console, and is that binding to a return/refund?

Anyway, yeah, fun times with the launch of the console I anticipated the most in maybe 10 years :/

Sorry about the rant, and sorry if it's poorly written, I just hope it helps someone to decide NOT to buy at Fnac if they ever come across this post.

Screw Fnac.

 

[TanookiTom]

This really sucks. I am facing exactly the same situation.

It's pretty clear that they didn't have the systems in stock they promised. And to make matters worse they created some kind of DHL tracking number, changed the status to "in transit" so people can't cancel their orders anymore.

Tried contacting them by mail in English apologizing for my lack of French - they just replied in English that they couldn't cancel my order because it's already been shipped. Yeah... right ;-)

I know that when ordering within Germany you can just refuse the parcel when you want to return the order. But I am not sure if this would work with international shipments?

 

[Rellik]

I'd go to the bank and discuss a chargeback if it was me.

 

[jts]

This really sucks. I am facing exactly the same situation.

It's pretty clear that they didn't have the systems in stock they promised. And to make matters worse they created some kind of DHL tracking number, changed the status to "in transit" so people can't cancel their orders anymore.

Tried contacting them by mail in English apologizing for my lack of French - they just replied in English that they couldn't cancel my order because it's already been shipped. Yeah... right ;-)

I know that when ordering within Germany you can just refuse the parcel when you want to return the order. But I am not sure if this would work with international shipments?

Live and learn, innit. What kind of expectation do you have? Shipped this week still?

Current orders say it ships from next Friday...

I'd go to the bank and discuss a chargeback if it was me.

I may try that tomorrow.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Feels bad for you man, hope everything will be alright.

My fnac order went great btw, even if i'm still waiting for the zelda bag :x

 

[ne1]

Another similar experience here, with Switch and Zelda ordered but only Zelda received.
Tried to contact them by phone today, but the only number I could find could only be called from within France since it was some kind of premium rate number.
Now they've deleted the fake shipping number from my order but it still says shipped and I still haven't heard from them.

 

[Yaari]

Same issue I'll be facing then I suppose. But I ordered last minute, so that's my own fault. They still sold it to me as if it was actually in stock though, rather misleading.

 

[Elfotografoalocado]

Fnac never gave problems for me in Spain, but it's so painfully overpriced that I don't tough it anyway.
Damn I feel it for you, hopefully they'll send it when more stock comes?

 

[TanookiTom]

Live and learn, innit. What kind of expectation do you have? Shipped this week still?

Current orders say it ships from next Friday...


I may try that tomorrow.

I am really certain we are going to the get the second batch. I still have the fake tracking number and it still gives the same error message. If I could speak French I would spam their Social Media channels ;-)

 

[Slaythe]

They are AWFUL.

Listen to me :

They did deliver the switch, but :


- Zelda wasn't going to be sent until next week and THEY DID NOT TELL ME ABOUT IT. I had to insist that they give me an answer.

- THEY CHARGED ME TWICE FOR THE CONSOLE, so that's 600 euros instantly gone in my account and now I'm fucked to make my rent. Can take up to 15 days for refund.

And I'm in FRANCE.

 

[RocknRola]

Fnac is one of those stores, at least in Portugal, that's great if you actually go there. Ordering anything from them is a mess. Takes way too long, every single time.

The local similar franchise in Portugal (Worten) does a much better job with online stuff, by a big margin. Which is odd because Fnac is huge compared to it.

In any case I hope you find some sort of solution OP, that situation sucks :S

Fnac never gave problems for me in Spain, but it's so painfully overpriced that I don't tough it anyway.
Damn I feel it for you, hopefully they'll send it when more stock comes?

And yeah, they usually charge 10€ + on every game versus any other retailer around here. Overpriced for sure. I mostly just buy films & books from them (they always have a great selection of Blurays, which is awesome).

 

[skynidas]

I always buy from Fnac here in Spain and it is great. I hope your problem gets solved.

 

[PotionBleue]

I would wait more than five days before worrying about an international order, you seem a bit impatient.

They may truly have an issue with tracking numbers, you are accusing them with little evidence.

However, I agree that Fnac customer service has terrible contact options, even for French customers living in France. Thankfully I've never had a problem with my Fnac orders.

 

[Harlequin]

Don't they have some sort of consumer protection office in France that you could contact about this? (Or maybe you could just contact the one in your own country, seeing as Fnac are obviously doing business there... not sure which would be the better option.)

 

[ne1]

Live and learn, innit. What kind of expectation do you have? Shipped this week still?

Current orders say it ships from next Friday...


I may try that tomorrow.

On the my orders page I clicked 'colis non livré' on the switch and at the end I chose for them to reexpedition the order, which now have resulted in the bastards canceling the switch part of my order. I don't even... -_-
But that's what you wanted so choose reimbursement instead and hopefully they'll do that. It took about a day for them to "respond" for me.

Edit: And now, just 45 min after the first email from them I got one from paypal about a partial reimbursement, so I've gotten my money back. There's that, at least.

 

[ne1]

I would wait more than five days before worrying about an international order, you seem a bit impatient.

They may truly have an issue with tracking numbers, you are accusing them with little evidence.

Normally I would agree about five days being more than fair to wait but since they supposedly posted it at the same time as Zelda, which arrive on time, I would say that there actually is some evidence. Also I contacted DHL and there isn't, nor was, any more package posted to me. So them saying that it was posted is a lie.

 

[R_thanatos]

Yeah ..fnac is only a good option if you go to their actual store.
As a french , i can tell you that their online service is not optimal... AT ALL

 

[jts]

So... yesterday I insisted with them over Twitter message if they can cancel my order since I want to buy local - as an answer to the fact they can't tell me when they can fix this shipping issue.

Today they answered me that they can't, so I should just refuse my delivery.

1 hour later or so I have an email from Fnac saying that the order is cancelled as per my request. 🗿

YES! It certainly pays off to pay a bit more and get this over with, and I can't imagine the hell it would be to deal with them again if I had any issue with my Switch. I went to a store where I had already checked for stock and reserved a unit and got mine.

My business with Fnac is now mostly done, aside for a little bit of credit I have there (and gosh darn it if I'll not use it).

Since more people piled in with how bad Fnac online is (and some of those stories are awful) I just want to add this other one: the other day I was trying to change/add a payment method, and I figured that I couldn't, even after I deleted my payment method on file. Sigh. So I decided to pre-order something that I can cancel, and I chose Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Did it and that effectively added a new payment method. A few days after that, I cancelled my order and got the respective email confirmation. Some days after that, my preorder got automatically reinstated. 🗿

Kill it with fire.

Spoiler

And btw back in my home country there's Fnac and they've been mostly good to me there, to the point I even got Wii Fit some 10 days before launch. This is probably cosmic payback for that.

 

[TanookiTom]

I would wait more than five days before worrying about an international order, you seem a bit impatient.

They may truly have an issue with tracking numbers, you are accusing them with little evidence.

However, I agree that Fnac customer service has terrible contact options, even for French customers living in France. Thankfully I've never had a problem with my Fnac orders.

Orders within Europe never take this long. Zelda was dispatched on March 1st and arrived 13 hours later to Berlin, Germany.

For the Switch DHL didn't even get the information about the package. So this has nothing to do with the shipment taking long internationally, this is just a fuck-up on Fnacs part. They simply don't have the product they were supposed to sell. And they were dishonest about it. End of the story.

 

[daxgame]

Damn OP what a tragedy. Hope you got your money back already. Keep in mind that EU's consumer rights are\were on your side no matter what, thankfully.

 

[ne1]

Today they answered me that they can't, so I should just refuse my delivery.

1 hour later or so I have an email from Fnac saying that the order is cancelled as per my request. 🗿

I wonder if it wasn't actually cancelled per your request but rather cancelled like my order and it was just a lucky coincidence in your case, if I make any sense.

 

[jts]

I wonder if it wasn't actually cancelled per your request but rather cancelled like my order and it was just a lucky coincidence in your case, if I make any sense.

It may just be but I actually jumped the gun. I thought the rest of my order was cancelled. Which means Switch + Case.

Turns out it was just the case that was cancelled, omg. And the email that says it was cancelled as "per my request", was preceded by 1 minute by another email that says that my delivery failed and that I should choose if I want to be reimbursed or try delivery again. This is completely crazytown.

The ride never ends, I guess.

No biggie though. I'll just refuse any delivery.

 

[Mass_Pincup]

Fnac.com is thrash.

I love their retail store but will never do business with them online.

 

[TanookiTom]

God this company is a catastrophe. After answering to my complaint that it would be too late to cancel my order since it's already on the way, I thought "Ok, I'll wait and try to sell the second Switch".

Today (seven full days after the Switch was marked as being "in transit") I receive two mails:
1st Mail: We couldn't deliver your package, what would you like? Option 1: Delivering it to another address, Option 2: Reimbursing you
2nd Mail: Your order has been cancelled as requested and we will reimburse you.

oh well, so much for my Switch from Fnac ;-)

Really a complete mess how they are handling things.

 

[mikezilla2]

so i take it you would not recomend this site to importers ?

 

[TanookiTom]

so i take it you would not recomend this site to importers ?

Well my Zelda copy even arrived one day early and the delivery just took 13 hours from France to Germany.

But then there was the whole mess with the Switch...

Don't know, these are my only experiences with Fnac and they're not good.

 

[Yaari]

Contacted them on Twitter, they offered to cancel the order. I'll probably do that. Including shipping, it was 313,- EUR.

It was still a bit cheaper than shops over here in the Netherlands but I'd hate to have to deal with this company if I encounter any issues with my device.

Too bad Amazon.fr doesn't ship to me. Stores over here are just overpricing the Switch now just because they have stock while others dont. It's ridiculous.

 

[Li Kao]

Hmm, the Fnac site seems to be grossly shitting the bed atm. Some sort of retaliation from a switch fuckup ? (I didn't follow the thing, probably speaking out of my ass, but I don't know, seeing that there were issues recently and that the site state today...)

 

[jts]

God this company is a catastrophe. After answering to my complaint that it would be too late to cancel my order since it's already on the way, I thought "Ok, I'll wait and try to sell the second Switch".

Today (seven full days after the Switch was marked as being "in transit") I receive two mails:
1st Mail: We couldn't deliver your package, what would you like? Option 1: Delivering it to another address, Option 2: Reimbursing you
2nd Mail: Your order has been cancelled as requested and we will reimburse you.

oh well, so much for my Switch from Fnac ;-)

Really a complete mess how they are handling things.

This happened to me bit by bit except when I thought my Switch was cancelled it was just the Switch Case.

I have to keep badgering them. My Switch is still "shipped" and still not found more than a week later. Ridiculous.
Thankfully I already got a Switch from somewhere else.

 

[Bombless]

Yeah, FNAC online sucks also in Belgium.
My father bought a vinyl and they took over a week to ship it despite it being listed as in stock. When confronted via phone and email no one was able to tell him why it was delayed and they refused to have it cancelled, he then received the product at home without warning as the order page still listed it as not shipped.