[Tragic]

I just did my first ever intl. wire transfer for a watch this past monday, the 11th..
The company did not accept credit cards or paypal.
This was a straight from the manufacturer purchase, not a gray market site or anything.
Using the most current exchange rate, I sent the amount of my invoice, rounding up to the nearest 10$
This cost me a 40$ fee on my end to send.
Yesterday, amazingly, I received an e-mail from the company saying I'm the equivalent of 30$ short! O|
I KNOW I sent the full amount, at the proper rate.
I can only assume there was a fee/fees on the RECEIVING end from their bank for processing and possibly currency conversion.
Can anyone confirm if this is standard practice in German banks?
I sent a copy of my receipt for the transfer and basically told them to either send me the watch, or refund my full amount sent.
This is a watch I've waited 3 months for and not inexpensive, not for me at least.
I feel they should have been aware of bank fees on their end and included that in their invoice.
To expect me to send an additional 30$, for a fee of 40$ is crazy!
Not to mention their bank will no doubt take another cut and they'll tell me I'm 10$ short!:rodekaart
I'm guessing/hoping they'll reply monday that my watch is in the mail, but who knows?
If they don't, stay tuned for further rants that aren't nearly so pleasant!
Thanks for reading my rant and info and or opinions are welcome!

 

[Brian D.]

Hey Tragic,

Sorry to hear about your ordeal there. Personally I have not bought from overseas myself , mainly because of things like this. I've heard of people having no problems at all, and others who have had horror stories worse than yours <| . From the way it sounds, they are charging a fee for a fee:-S :-S . That sounds just utterly ridiculous to me. If that is the case, I would agree that they should state that and include it in the invoice. I had ordered something thru the mail from a catalog once and they sent me a letter saying that I didn't include the sales tax when I sent in the payment. I looked at the order form and there wasn't anything about sales tax from my state having to be included. Granted it's not the same situation as yours is, but to be aware of such things in advance would be the proper thing to do.

 

[stuffler,mike]

Well, indeed German banks take fees for overseas transactions if they aren´t exempted from the transmitting bank. Most of the transmitting banks in the US know their partner-bank-fees, some don´t. Sometimes it´s up to the knowledge of the bank clerk.

Within the European Union things are handled different. They aren´t allowed to take more than for "domestic" transactions.

 

[cnmark]

Well, indeed German banks take fees for overseas transactions if they aren´t exempted from the transmitting bank. Most of the transmitting banks in the US know their partner-bank-fees, some don´t. Sometimes it´s up to the knowledge of the bank clerk.

Within the European Union things are handled different. They aren´t allowed to take more than for "domestic" transactions.

Let me add something to Mike's info:
I do recieve my salary in USD from outside Germany to my German Bank. The German Banks convert the money at the time of arrival to EUR - automatically. In case there is a drop in the USD/EUR conversion rate in the time between you sent the funds and the arrival of the funds, this will cause an additional loss.

But - I checked the exchange rates for Monday and Friday - in your case this did not happen, the rates did not change this much.

What I do not like in your particular case is, that the company you ordered from does not bear the fees for recieving intl. funds themselves, and tries to backcharge you. This is annoying. No, not only annoying, it is disgusting.

I do lot of international business and it is considered good business practice that a seller bears the fees for recieving funds. The seller may incorporate this fees into the initial offering price, but never, never backcharge the buyer. The buyer bears the fees for sending, the seller for recieving. Nothing else.

 

[Bhanu Chopra]

Tragic,

Sorry to hear that you had you are going through a bad experience.

I have purchased several watches from Germany as recent as last week. They have ben purchased from the manufacturers as well as AD.

I go through my bank for wiring the funds and they tell me exactly how much the other party will receive (including fees) and charge me $20 fee for upto 10K transaction. Usually major banks have an agreement and know the fee structure.

Although lately I have been thinking of opening a EU bank account at the frequency I purchase watches there :-D

Please keep us posted and I have confidence that the watch manufacturer will have "customer is right" attitude.

Cheers

 

[Tragic]

I got word that the watch is shipped with no further funds needed on my part, so all's well that ends well (assuming shipping goes smoothe!)
It's a Damasko dc57 btw.
Damasko makes GREAT watches, but they're a bit rough around the edges to buy from directly from the U.S.

 

[04lund2025]

John.....glad things have worked out so far. Looking forward to seeing some shots of it!!!! |>

Stephen

 

[NSG1Tausend]

Super Tragic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:-! :-! :-! :-! :-! :-!
Regards
Robert

I got word that the watch is shipped with no further funds needed on my part, so all's well that ends well (assuming shipping goes smoothe!)
It's a Damasko dc57 btw.
Damasko makes GREAT watches, but they're a bit rough around the edges to buy from directly from the U.S.

 

[dtmartin46]

Sorry to hear about your abd experience... I have bought a watch via overseas wire (For me it was to Australia) and the Merchant i bought from was very cool. He basically told me the exact price of the watch in AUS $ and then converted it to American $, quoted the conversion rate, as of whatever day he emailed me. This American $ amount way essentially 'locked in' for me and he just said 'please send the wire asap, and i will assume any difference in price.'

I asked him more about this practice, just because i was curious, and the respose was that if you do enough international business, generally speaking, it'll work out in your favor 50% of the time, and against you 50%... Law of big numbers applies. (Unless you are in a country whose currency is always moving against U.S. $'s...)

We deal with International wires at my work all the time, and it's difficult to get them to work out to the exact $ amount you're sending because of the many, many different possibilities of currency fluctuation. Add to that the fact that usually, the internationl xfers will take more than one business day to be processed, and you get the picture... It's just a very difficult thing to do, most of the time... Honestly, they shouldn't expect for you to be able to nail their $ amount, or... frank amount on the penny. (It's franks in germany, right??? :think: )

Thats a really bad example of a company policy. Hopefully it is just oversight on their part, and they'll just eat the probably small difference. Hopefully, you'll have your watch soon!!!

 

[Tragic]

Sorry to hear about your abd experience... I have bought a watch via overseas wire (For me it was to Australia) and the Merchant i bought from was very cool. He basically told me the exact price of the watch in AUS $ and then converted it to American $, quoted the conversion rate, as of whatever day he emailed me. This American $ amount way essentially 'locked in' for me and he just said 'please send the wire asap, and i will assume any difference in price.'

I asked him more about this practice, just because i was curious, and the respose was that if you do enough international business, generally speaking, it'll work out in your favor 50% of the time, and against you 50%... Law of big numbers applies. (Unless you are in a country whose currency is always moving against U.S. $'s...)

We deal with International wires at my work all the time, and it's difficult to get them to work out to the exact $ amount you're sending because of the many, many different possibilities of currency fluctuation. Add to that the fact that usually, the internationl xfers will take more than one business day to be processed, and you get the picture... It's just a very difficult thing to do, most of the time... Honestly, they shouldn't expect for you to be able to nail their $ amount, or... frank amount on the penny. (It's franks in germany, right??? :think: )

Thats a really bad example of a company policy. Hopefully it is just oversight on their part, and they'll just eat the probably small difference. Hopefully, you'll have your watch soon!!!

They saw the error of their ways dt..lol.
I REALLY don't mean to knock Damasko here as it's my favorite brand.
This was just the culmination of a lot of language/communication problems really.
They're just really not set up well for direct sales, especially non EU.
I hope my problem here hasn't put anyone off the brand because it's a superior watch for the money in my opinion and there are very able A.D.'s to deal with for non EU customers :-!

 

[cnmark]

They saw the error of their ways dt..lol.
I REALLY don't mean to knock Damasko here as it's my favorite brand.
This was just the culmination of a lot of language/communication problems really.
They're just really not set up well for direct sales, especially non EU.
I hope my problem here hasn't put anyone off the brand because it's a superior watch for the money in my opinion and there are very able A.D.'s to deal with for non EU customers :-!

I noticed on the Damsko site that they are looking for distributors in the US and in Asia. So probably they know their problems.
Still, something like your experience should not have happened.

(It's franks in germany, right??? :think: )

Euro and Cents. And I agree to your statement, the best way to handle intl. transfer is always to deal with a prearranged, agreed and fixed exchange rate, if the original price is stated in something else than USD. Regarding fees it remains what I stated before, buyer bears sending fees, seller bears recieving fees.

 

[JohnF]

Hi -

Sorry I didn't see this earlier!

The ONLY way to do this sort of transfer is by SWIFT. Your bank *should* be able to handle this without any trouble: SWIFT is an international standard for transferring monies, and any bank not capable of handling such a transfer isn't terribly credible.

Unfortunately German banks are notorious for charging absurd fees, usually based on what commercial transactions cost (when I send someone €40000 then I don't get upset with €50 in fees, especially when I can take this as a part of COGS. But when I send €100, then it's absurd: but for the bank, they charge everyone the €50. That's why the EU had to force European banks to handle things as if they were domestic transfers.

Don't get me started on how rapacious German banks are: suffice to say that there is a lot of incompetence there as well, and the customers are expected to shut up and pay.

Put it down to severely underdeveloped European consumer activisim: as little as I like the man, Ralph Nader did some good in the US. Germany and Europe in general realy need their own Ralph Nader-type, and stop being so passive about their economic power.

Darn, now I've started to rant again...

JohnF

 

[Micha]

(It's franks in germany, right??? :think: )

That was Belgium, Luxemburg and France before the Euro ;-) Germany had the Deutsche Mark