If you ever thought about shopping at K&M Elektronik, don’t do it. They suck. Here’s why:

I bought a wireless card from them a while ago, which, over time, bit the bulletkicked the bucket. I am supposing that I was seeing thermal problems, since the card would always start out fine, but then degrade and finally cut the connection as it “warmed up”. So far, so good. That can happen. Understandably, I wanted the broken card exchanged. They gave me three options:

  • Get my money back, minus an apparently time-dependent “fee” of 2,70 Euros. (Hello? The card is broken. You sold me broken stuff.) :o
  • Exchange it for another card with unknown Linux support right now and let me pay the price difference, without the chance to return it if it doesn’t work in Linux. (Errr, no.)
  • Send it in and give me a replacement, but even then I can’t be sure that I get the same type of card. (Not even close.)

The rep’s explanation was that I bought the card as “Markenfabrikat” (=”brand name”) without being guaranteed a specific brand of card. Riiiiight. Now I’m really not so sure I bought anything except abysmal customer service. :barf:

Needless to say, I went for the money option and took what little money was left straight to a competitor, which has this far always had good service, even in borderline cases.