Technoethical - no workstation, no refund

@Aku.trisquel
> do you know, how it was shipped(or that it was)

No, I'm not aware if it was shipped, but there has been and is no indication for such. Mr. Turbureanu several times claimed per e-mail that shipment is delayed because he's looking for better parts or some libreboot/software issues (claim is he built it for two other clients some time ago that might be the two reviews on the shop site, but apparently can't/won't anymore, plus he didn't publish my negative review on the site), better packaging, got delayed for family matters, and so on. On the 2023-09-30 he claimed he would ship in the coming week. Similar on other occasions, claiming within 6 weeks, but none of these happened of course. On the 2023-12-05 he claimed he was prevented from delivering because of "cashflow issues" (despite I paid in full and in advance). On the 2024-10-11 in response to my written postal letter he said after other personal matters, he'll work on my order with priority, and since then I didn't get any more responses nor updates from him. Basically, given there has been no claim that any shipment took actually place till this day, and I might be allowed to expect that there's at the very least a tracking ID, if not insurance, included in the paid shipping fee, for no shipping documentation produced nor such claim made, obviously this didn't take place.

For these reasons I'm on a path of escalation, both reporting it to authorities, warning against the shop, etc., and especially so since I found there's more affected people with similar cases in the category of high-price items. On the basis that the plans for delivery never materialized, that I still didn't get any path to refund or resolution, can't have any idea if he actually ordered/built anything or not. Seems he's just withholding my money indefinitely, without something in return.

Of course, I asked for a refund, because I lost all trust in whatever Mr. Turbureanu might or might not put together. If shipment is eventually made, I would not accept the order and return it. He could then remove the "temporarily out of stock" and sell it to the next customer.

Granted, I do understand that business can be difficult, there can be supply-chain issues and so on. I wonder if Mr. Turbureanu spent my money on some parts but then was unable or unwilling to put together some machine according to his own spec or better, so the money is sunken/stuck in this but no good product ready from it. I doubt that I still want something after this long time, in case he's fiddling/tinkering around with stuff. This scenario kind of conflicts as the claim is that he sold & delivered it twice some time ago. If the money was not spent, I wonder where it went to and why I can't get it back. Romania is an EU member state so I wonder if I/customers get some consumer protection to return an ecommerce order. Finally, I don't see how/why support this kind of business practice that leaves me with the loss/damage and delay, especially given the claims and business conduct. Any big electronics shop takeout, be it online or physical, is far, far better! :-( In my own few business dealings, of course I always try to protect customers/clients from damages at my own expense, despite this isn't always fully that easy, but just can't be their loss. I can imagine, for running any such kind of online shop, there's always some mail loss, returns from customers, supply-chain, quality issues and so on, and the business needs to take care of that and factor it in somehow I assume, otherwise can't remain operational for long, if all of that is calculated far too tight or any little thing goes wrong. I mean, what's the course to make the Technoethical high-price item customers who didn't get their orders delivered whole again?

@Aku.trisquel
> You guys should try to skip the internet, and get them on the phone. Old school, telephone, letter in the mail : D

Yes, I did sent a letter twice. Could be that the official address from the registries need some minor adjustments, because the first letter was returned as undeliverable from the Romanian postal service. The other one got delivered, probably to a post box or something, but eventually Mr. Turbureanu got hold of it. I'm glad he responded to it on the 2024-10-11, but since then I don't get any more updates or replies via e-mail. I have a hard time imagining it'll lead to some progress or resolution if I repeat my same points in another written postal letter, given the one delivered wasn't much successful in that regard. Now, based on your advice, I guess you're suggesting I "old school" should go to his place and meet him in person, to see what he's up to and how I'm going to get my money back. I mean, I guess that's eventually ending up as the only remaining option, right?

@andyprough
> A single 16GB stick of DDR3 ram and no hard drive for 2,000 Euros? Wow.

For many years, I have been supporting the FSFE with donations, so OK also order from libre businesses. This has been my first order of a somewhat more decent workstation machine, as otherwise I'm on many old, second-hand, low-powered notebooks. Mostly because back in 2023 I wanted/needed something that's sufficient for doing some video/streaming I wanted for starting some business things back then. For lack of hardware delivery, these options/opportunities have elapsed/expired since then :-(