ALTERNATE.co.uk レビュー 

I ordered an air conditioner from the website because they offered the lowest price. The website advertised a specific 2-day delivery window on the product description page, which was one week from the time of purchase, and this was confirmed in the order confirmation email. The company is in Germany, delivery was to the UK. After the first day had passed in which I might have gotten my product, I realised I never got an email confirming dispatch. I emailed customer service, who said it should be with me soon. Whilst waiting for an email response I called, and was told it had not yet been dispatched (nobody could tell me what happened there). When I emailed back to state that I'm confused about the contrasting information, I did receive an apology and was told it would be delayed.
However, I wanted to complain about the fact that I was not informed about the delay in any way. I called customer service, and I pointed out that clearly if it hadn't been dispatched today, it wasn't going to be delivered tomorrow. I pointed out that I had specifically asked a relative to be available those two days to accept the delivery, and was therefore unhappy of not being told of the delay. I was told very unapologetically that "the system can't know you're waiting for the product because the shipping label hasn't been created yet", and that "there were so many orders on Black Friday weekend that we are delayed". The response was rather rude, and I actually said that I realise it's not the person's personal fault, but that I'm giving feedback to improve the system. Customer service told me I'll just have to wait and that I should have expected delayed shipments (?). I pointed out that that's not really my problem if their system doesn't work, if a delivery time is advertised and can't be kept I should be informed. The man blatantly did not utter a single word of apology or seemed in any way to understand why I was giving feedback. Eventually I got the delivery one week late.
To be honest everything would have been fine if I had been informed of the delay ahead of time of delayed shipment. I would not have bothered to write this review if I wasn't so unhappy with how my call to complain was received by the man I talked to, and that he was simply rude and unapologetic.

You can look at my review of a different company about the same item i ordered, this review comes from that experience.

After the aforementioned previous dealings with a different company, i emailed alternate to ask them when they would have the item i wanted back in stock. A day or two later they got back to me telling me they get it back in stock on the 30th of august which would probably mean a delivery date of 4th or 5th of september. Couple more emails to confirm it was 100% going to be the black colour and not the green (again from previous company) and other details, i was happy and pre purchased the item even though it was a fair bit more expensive with alternate than the original company (but not any different from the price of other sellers).

Fast forward to last week, I contacted just before the 30th to confirm that the item was still on schedule as it is hard for me to re arrange time off work (i need to give at least 1 weeks notice for time off) and i had booked time off on the 4th and 5th of september. After a couple emails i still did not get the question i asked answered but it did appear to be on schedule.

I get an email on thursday (the 31st of august) to tell me that my item has been dispatched and will be delivered on friday the 1st of september. Contacted shipping company to reschedule the delivery to the 4th of september and BAM i have the item i paid for.

This should be the norm for any company but after my previous dealings with a different company about this item i was really delighted to finally have an end to a saga which started in february this year.

Thank you alternate, would use again.

Ordered a bread maker which arrived badly damaged. I sent it back for a replacement two months ago and since then i am on the phone every week to get the new one. I wrote several emails and nobody seems to be able to solve the problem. Apparently they lost the machine but UPS says that it arrived over a months ago. This is not ok at all. I will never order anything from this company again.

Ordered a bread maker, which arrived badly damaged in transit - the fault of UPS. However I have been trying in vain to contact Alternate for 4 days now. No response to several e mails; the only phone number I can find is in Germany and they're not answering.

My conclusion is that despite the attractive price I would be reluctant to buy anything from this company again.

I did have good opinion of this company. I placed an order for 2 items as test purchase and they arrive ok and in good condition. And they were a good price. I'm now looking to order another 14 to finish the job except that they have a 12 of one item limit. Why they cannot explain, it is just hard coded into their web site. And this is not a money limit, it is 12 x £15 item or 12 x £150 item or both. So I for 14 I need to place 2 orders and pay 2 lots of postage! They have offered alternatives, such as paying by bank transfer but uk bank to german bank is same cost as postage. It's frustrating that as a customer I can't order what I want except in two orders so I've knocked them down to 3 otherwise I would have given them 5 based on my previous order, or 5 if they had fixed this or come up with a work around that wasn't as expensive as 2 orders.

UPDATE: I now have a solution, Alternate did a Euro order, to be paid with paypal. I switched paypal to pay in Euro and then used my 0 fee card, no paypal, no bank fee, no double postage. Shame I couldn't just order on their website which would have been simpler.

Good prices, fast delivery (item actually arrived a day early), had exactly what I wanted in stock, I'll definitely be buying from them again