Deviltech - really bad experience

Hi all,

I've tried to purchase two laptops from this company, whose website is Deviltech.de, and had a really bad experience. I've realised I'm not the only one affected, but one on hundreds of people.
I will explain my situation, and I hope I prevent someone from going through the pain I'm on.

Long explanation:

Spoiler

21/06/2013
I order two computers from DevilTech on their website, DevilTech - High Performance Systems-_Home# for a total amount of more than 2.500€.

24/06/2013
I pay the order by bank transference

01/07/2013
I receive an email saying that there's going to be a dealy on the orders because of Intel Haswell's bug. They say that computers will be ready by end July / mid August.

26/07/2013
I request cancellation of the order and getting the money back. I get confirmation within hours from someone of customer services by email that this has been processed.

06/08/2013
I request explanations for the delay on returning the money. They reply and tell me they're sorry and that they hope to do the refund in the next days.

20/08/2013
I send again an email telling them that I'm still waiting for the refund. I get a very rude and unprofessional reply saying, and I quote: "!!! your message has been forwarded to our invoice centre !!!".

01/09/2013
I remind them again by email that I'm still waiting for the refund. I get the same answer again, "this has been forwarded to our invoice centre". I'm quite sure their CEO got this message, as customer services CC'ed Stefan Rieb.

09/10/2013
I get in touch with the company now through Facebook, as I had seen one successful case of someone getting his money back this way. I tell them my problem and I get the reply "I'm going to check it".

15/10/2013
When no other answer has been received, I insist by asking again and I get replied with a question this time: "You order two computers, right?" I answer seconds after they send the message, saying "Yes, why?". I got no reply.

16, 20 y 22 del 10/2013
I keep insisting for three days sending them messages asking about my order. No answer to any of them.

26/10/2013
I get answered finally after criticising them publicly on Facebook. They say "Hello, sorry, I'll come back to you on Monday" (Monday 28th).

28/10/2013
I ask for an update. No answer again.

30/10/2013
I get replied and they say "they have sent the money today". I felt good at this point, but I was still not confident until I could see the money back into my bank account.

5/11/2013
As I suspected, no trace of the money. I send them a message reporting so.

6/11/2013
I get replied saying they will check the bank account number and that they will get back to me tomorrow".

7/11/2013
I ask late this day if they were able to check it. They tell me that within 3/4 hours they would check it, as they were not at the office. I get replied 5 hours later, after asking once more, saying "we've checked and it's the right account".

11/11/2013
I still don't see the money in my bank account. I ask for a screenshot to prove that they had made the transference.

12/11/2013
They reply saying that they're sending me the screenshot the next day.

13/11/2013
I ask about the screenshot again. They tell me they're not able to access their bank account at the moment, and that they're going to call someone with access to do it; I never got the screenshot. Biggest lie from all the process, and the one that makes me fear the worst.

17/11/2013
I keep trying, I insist.

18/11/2013
I get replied! This time something new (ironic mode): "I will check this".

19/11/2013
I insist again if they have checked it. I get replied "yes, but I need the papers from the office".

20/11/2013
I ask again, and they reply with another question: "you ordered two computers, right?" I reply them with a "Yes.", and they ask me how I want to solve the issue; by getting the money back, or the computers. I tell them (again) that what I want is my money back.

26/11/2013
So, I get replied at this time - I always had to publish some bad-publicity message on their Facebook wall to get replied, there was no other way of doing so. They say they've checked it and that they're sending me the money - here, they confirmed the first one was a lie: they had never sent the money before. I tell them that I would wait one week to see the money on my bank account, and that if I couldn't see the money by 9th December I would start legal actions, I would sue their company.

10/12/2013
I send them a message saying that I could neither see the money, nor an answer, nor an explanation of what was happening. I inform them that I was starting legal actions and a public campaign to let everyone know about my situation, that I might not get my money back but that I would make sure that everyone knows how they're scamming people doing this kind of things (they're speculating with our money, making profit of it by postponing the payments).

I get replied the same day - after saying this very same thing publicly on Facebook. They say they have lots of cancelled orders and an too much stock, that they had returned the money to over 100 people and that they will send my money back by this month, "100% sure", they state. They say they've been on the market for 6 years and that they had never been on such a problem like this before. They insist on saying they're sending the money ASAP.

I reply saying that that doesn't explain the mistreatment I've been receiving, and that they had done nothing but lying to and ignoring me. I tell them I will continue with legal actions until I see any progress, as my case should be a priority after having been waiting for 5 months to just get a refund. I tell them I would wait one more week to make the case public.

30/12/2013
Refund has still not being processed, I let them know that my case is going public, and that they should be ashamed of what they do.

I get a reply right away saying again "You get your money back, 100% sure", and get blocked from Facebook, closing up the last friendly option for communication I had left, as sending emails and making calls did not work at all (I've been able to talk to them many times, by I was told I needed to talk to Mr. Rieb - CEO - who, surprisingly, is never at the office, not even at the times they tell me "he's going to be here, for sure"; I've even given them my phone number so he could call me back, and he never even tried).

15/01/2014
I contact the company one last time, sending them a link to this topic. No answer.

22/01/2014
I call the company again. They say Mr. Rieb is on holidays and he can't do anything about refunds. Will call back again next week.

Short explanation:
- I placed an order to purchase 2 laptops from DevilTech on June 2013. Prepayment via bank transference was mandatory, and did it a few days after placing the order for an amount over 2.500€.
- I had been waiting over a month to get the laptops, until I received an email from them expecting to deliver the computers by middle August 2013. I couldn't wait that long, and decided to purchase the laptops on PCSpecialist.co.uk
- I cancelled the order, and got confirmation from them within a few hours. This was exactly on 26/07/2013 14:28.

Well. We're on January 2014, and even though I sent loads of emails, made tons of calls to their "customer service", contacted them through Facebook, I still don't have my money back. They have lied to me over and over again, promising they would give me my money back.

Finally, I got blocked from their Facebook page. If you try to find bad reviews about DevilTech, it's really hard to do so, because you will find only information on their Facebook page, forum, or any other place where they have control over it and delete all negative messages.

I just want everyone to think twice when purchase a computer with this company. I don't say they do the same with every order, but I've been witness of many other guys having the same problems, or similar (like waiting 6 months to get their computer - for which they're still waiting).

This is the last message I received from them before being blocked for publishing it:

DevilTech said:
"Hello,
We had great problems with the haswell bug. Many costumers cancelled the order because the waiting time was to long. We have now to many notebooks in stock. The problem is we spent to much money in notebooks. We sended over 100 user the money already back. You get your money back this month. This is 100% sure. We are since 6 years on the market and we hat never such a big problem like the Haswell BUG. We send you the Money ASAP.
And please this Mail is only for your eyes."

Has anyone else around here had the same or similar problems? I feel I've been scammed, and that they're playing with my money. There's no other way I can see it for now.

PS: I'd like to keep in touch with anyone having problems with this company to see if there is something else we can do. My email account is [email protected]. Feel free to contact me there, please.
PS2: If I persuade you on buying a computer from their company, please, send me an email. I would like to know about you and thank you personally.

 

This is like a deja vu of Kobalt Computers...

 

I'm sorry to hear about this, sound absolutely terrible

 

I am in the same situation... ordered and cancelled due to the delivery date.

Endless calls and emails and no money back.

Am contacting the German police... if you want to join just let me know.

 

Hey there

I'm not quite in the same situation as you guys just yet, nevertheless i'm really interested in this post.

I ordered my notebook on 6 december after it was recommended to me by a friend.
They promised my a deliveryterm of three weeks, but since that mail I have not been able to contact them at all. They're not picking up the phone nor returning my emails. Only recently have i started to notice the amount of bad comments on their Facebook by disgruntled customers. So naturally i'm starting to get worried now since I paid alot of money.

Maybe they only ignore their international customers, so tomorrow I'm letting German friend of mine call them. I'll keep you posted.

 

Someone should make this topic a sticky so the disaster that was Kobalt Computers doesn't happen again.

 

Let us know... I contacted them this morning. As usual, the guy on the phone said that remembered my case and said Stefan Rieb would be there today and he'd call me.

Of course no call back...

 

So yesterday I practically lived on their facebookpage. I noticed about 3 complaints being removed over the course of the entire day. One of the posters asked if they were on vacation because nobody could get a hold of them. They replied to this post and said that they were just back from vacation. This was the only post that they replied to, afterwards they deleted this post aswel.

I had a few of my german connections call them but to no avail. I tried a few times myself and didn't get in either. A little while later a friend of mine called them and got in on the first try. Appearantly they apologised and said they were just returning to work from a vacation. They said that all the parts for my order had arrived in their shop and that they would start the assembly immediately. They promised a delivery by, and I quote: "The end of the week, or the start of next week".

Now I'm happy that i've finally managed to contact them, but i still remain sceptical. They have not responded to a single e-mail since early december. Also they haven't yet opened my PM on facebook (3 days old now), eventhough they always tell the posters to PM them.

One last thing that's worth noting: I finally managed to get onto their forums for the first time ever.

I will keep this updated.

 

Hello guys, I´m having the same problem as you Cordev. It would be nice to talk about it. Please add me: my facebook is Yaros Babenko. Thanks you.

 

DevilTech lied to me again, still no change in my deliverystatus. I have just cancelled my order and demanded a full refund. Eventhough I'm not hopeful of ever seeing my money...

Yaros, I will contact you asap.

Also my German contacts tried to get in touch with them again, repeatedly through the phone or by mail and did not get through. A German bookkeeper then went through their finances and told me they're not doing too good. This firm might be out of bussiness soon.

Let this be a warning to all the people who are thinking of buying from them.

 

DevilTech lied to me again, still no change in my deliverystatus. I have just cancelled my order and demanded a full refund. Eventhough I'm not hopeful of ever seeing my money...

Yaros, I will contact you asap.

Also my German contacts tried to get in touch with them again, repeatedly through the phone or by mail and did not get through. A German bookkeeper then went through their finances and told me they're not doing too good. This firm might be out of bussiness soon.

Let this be a warning to all the people who are thinking of buying from them.

 

Hello guys,

same situation here but a little worst....my order is from April 2013!!!!!

At first delays due to the changing of the new Intel generation, then more delays because of the Haswell Bug....I was in touch with them untill october, when they suddenly stoped answering my mails, and I was never able to reach them by phone, neihter was my friend who lives in Germany....

I am trying to see with my friend if ther is any sector of consumer protection in Germany that can give a help about this....

Well if any of you have any news please let us know

 

That happened to me exactly the same way. I ended up threatening to sue and only then received my money. I immediately went and bought a Clevo P170EM from MySN..which now a year and half later just died because of a bad GPU fan.

No more gaming laptops for me. Once you manage to get your money back, I say just go for a nice, big gaming desktop and you'll still have enough to purchase a dedicated general-usage laptop.

 

You can get replacement fans.

 

Indeed I can. But a mere year and a half after purchase, I shouldn't have to, especially since I treated the laptop like my unborn child, disconnecting it from power when not in use, making sure it's never overheating, not gaming for too long and the like. Never have any of my gaming rigs went down so early.

The main problem is that instead of simply going to the local PC store to get an equivalent part, I have to search for and import a dedicated one.

Edit: OK, MySN contacted me and I'll see how much the shipping costs will be.

 

did you email or start a support ticket? and was it germany or uk you sent to. uk has a live chat on their site.

not heard of any fans die in the past but like any electrical equipment it can happen.

 

Of course it can happen, but it shouldn't happen so soon. I always made sure to keep lowering graphical settings and keeping vsync on to prevent the fans from spinning too fast for too long, made sure to shut down and take out the power from the laptop when not in use, cleaned the fans and grills every few months, bought a heavy duty surge protector to prevent spikes and really gave it the best care I can.

My desktops never encountered such an issue, and I usually bought standard and relatively cheap heatsinks for them, kept them on indefinitely while downloading over night for full days at a time and never cared for their heat buildup, and they kept going and going. I really can't blame MySN as they're A-OK, but this just sucks

 

If it makes you feel any better, the slave GPU fan in my P370SM started giving an annoying buzz after just a month of use. Mythlogic told me it might be an issue with the fan bearing and they're sending me a replacement.

It's unpleasant when it happens, but electronics do break every now and then. This is why I always buy the longest possible extended warranty especially for high-value items.

 

I've just updated my first post with a long explanation of the ordering process. It's an amazing read for everyone, and a really scary story for the kids.

I see no other solution than getting the money back by legal means, I will let you know about the whole cost of the process once it finishes so you can think about doing the same.

 

elbrunito have you already started the process?? where and how are you doing it?? I don't see another option here too...

 

It's good to see this thread getting some more attention!

So last week I cancelled my order, and ofcourse I didn't get any confirmation whatsoever.
This monday I called them, and to my surprise, I managed to get through. When I asked about my order i got the usual "With some luck you'll get it at the end of the week". Naturally I got angry and told the guy to finally check his mail because I had already cancelled my order. After much apologizing and excuses about their failing mailsystem, I asked them for a refund. He said he forwarded my mail to their CEO because he's the onlyone who can authorize a refund. And once authorized it would take 2 weeks for them to pay me back.

I highly doubt that I will get my refund in two weeks, I just thought i'd share my story.

So long story short
- They do not check their mails
- They will lie to you as much as they can
- They're horribly managed
- JUST DO NOT BUY FROM THESE GUYS.

 

If you are going to go through legal means, make sure you'll at least break even in the end.

 

Yeah, sure. That's absolutely possible as long as you set a fixed price in advance with the lawyer.
In my case, I'm more sure about it as I need to get back an amount of more than 2.500€.

What I'm sure is that I prefer a lawyer to earn that for his work retrieving the money than letting DevilTech go unpunished and keep my money.


BTW, I'd like to keep in touch with anyone having problems with this company to see if there is something else we can do. My email account is [email protected]. Feel free to contact me there, please.

 

The company name should have been a warning anyway. DEVIL tech. Enough said

 

Makes me feel pretty lucky I managed to get my money back in 2012 from these weasles, and feel very bad for all the people that got swindled by them. I cried all over the forum and to whomever agreed to hear about their foul behavior until I was told they were not "THAT bad" so I shut up about 'em. Bah.

My experience with them, starting on page 27 and another one on page 28:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/sager-clevo/652403-clevo-resellers-european-union-v1-27.html

I also was very vocal in their forums back then.

Anyway, good luck in persuing those A-Holes down. This really makes me angry that these guys kept on with their shenanigans.

 

What a shame. So this is not something new this year, is something they've already done in the past... but to a smaller amount of people.

I've called this week to the company trying to speak to their CEO, Stefan Rieb (this is the only person you can speak to if you want your money back). They've told me he's still on holidays; great move when "the company is in such a terrible condition that they can't even return the money to their customers".

I will try to speak next week to him. I bet I won't be able to do so, but I'll let you know about everything.

 

I am on the same situation, but the IDIOT, last week after chasing him constantly for a day, sent me an email saying that he had transferred the money that day... Of course it hasn't arrived and he doesn't answer my emails asking for proof. More details for the lawyer...

 

An international transference takes some time, give it a few more days; I think 15 days was the maximum amount of working days a transference could take. I'm not completely sure though, but at least I can tell you that they've already told me once they had transferred my money, and it was nothing but a lie to buy some more time.

BTW: I'm starting to receive more and more emails from people in our same situation; please, feel free to contact me by email ([email protected]) so we can coordinate.

 

Have they refunded you the money?
I have the same problem with Deviltech. I ordered my computer seven months ago, and no laptop or money has arrived.
I've reported them to the police and consumer associations.
'elbrunito', you speak Spanish?

 

Yeah, I do, you can contact me via email.

I'm still waiting to get my money back. I've contacted the police as well (as far as we know, this is supposed to be an electronic fraud).
They've confirmed the company is solvent. Actually, the police officer in charge of the case told me they were having a lot of profit, so it's unlikely that they will be shut the company down, and they were even more atonished after knowing about my case when the company had this solvency.

I've seen over the days more and more cases like ours. Everyone says the same thing: "After insisting a lot, Mr. Rieb confirmed that the refund was made", and every single time it was a complete lie (even their "customer service" say that they don't understand why does he say he has performed the refund if he haven't).

 

A big THANK YOU for this thread, i was considering buying from them! Oh my god i can't even imagine the problem i avoided..
I am very sorry to hear this, and i can understand you well since i had a similar problem with notebookguru (what's up with these german shops?!) but i managed to resolve it after my lawyer sent them a formal letter. You can find my post here

 

Hello everybody.

My case:

May 2013: I paid for a laptop

December 2013: They said me: ohh congratulations. We allready send you your order.

Today 2013/02: The legless zombie deliveryman has not arrived yet.

I'm banned from their facebook, and i'm sure that all of my e-mail are automatically deleted.

elbrunito, I'll contact you by email to join our efforts.

Anyone knows anything more of these scammers?

 

This is my comment which DevilTech removed without answering:
I have ordered Hellmachine in september!!!
I have not receive notebook yet!!!
I have send official letter requesting returning money in December and the DevilTech has not answered it, did not send money back (2200euro) and did not send me a computer. Every time I call them they say I have to wait 2 weeks!!! When I said I want my money back the telephone guy said 'he knows nothing and can not send me money back, but if I want I can send them e-mail'!!!!

If you had or have problems with them let me know.
[email protected]

 

Oh snap.. can't believe these things still happen

 

Hello,

I am in the same way.

I am spanish, I did the money transfer in Nov2013. They said 4 - 6 weeks of delivery time.
Nowadays, they dont reply emails and calls. I have no computer and no money.

I dont know how to solve it.

Anyone knows¿???

Thanks!

 

Hello,

I'm in the same situation.

In fact, I discovered this thread after doing some searches in gogle to see if I was the only one having problems. Evidently I did not perform my due diligence well enough before placing the order.

Payment sent end of Nov '13
Order canceled by me mid/end of Feb '14, after repeated emails with them
still waiting for my money back

Before actually placing the order I even asked their client service an estimate of the delivery time, they said 3-4 weeks. Hah!

I'd be curious to know how many people actually work there, is there someone else beside the guy answering the emails and this Mr. Rieb he keeps referring to in the emails?

For those that contacted the police/authorities, do you have any updates?

Thanks

 

hello all

Im from spain and i have same problem my laptop broke in 2 time is in warranty and in this second repair all start on 4 october of 2013 and today i don´t know nothing about my laptop. I put claim in ECC. They say for claim arrive to germany i need wait near 6 month... but i think they can´t do nothing because is one simple claim, Now im desesperate and i don´t know what more to do to take back my laptop or money 1314 euros. If someone has managed they return back laptop or money can help me saying what he/she did to take back money or laptop.

Thanks for all.

 

Hello,

I've had issues with DevilTech similar to those reported by Roberto26 above. I bought a laptop from them back at the start of 2012. It was great for a year or so, but then the graphics card developed a fatal fault in May 2013, leaving it completely unusable -- even the start-up screens wouldn't render properly. I sent it off to DevilTech to be fixed under the warranty, and received it back a good couple of months later. It behaved a little shakily but eventually worked normally again.

But then in October 2013 it started going weird again and then finally ended up exactly as it had been before. After another wait of multiple months I got it back, and this time it only lasted a couple of months before failing again in the same way. And now it was out of warranty.

Basically, they sold me a defective laptop -- the layout of the components or something must have kept causing it to fail -- and just kept applying short-term fixes until the warranty ran out and they could try to wash their hands of me. It's also worth noting that throughout all of this all communication with them was excruciating. They would ignore my emails for weeks and then respond with apparently wilful misinterpretations of what I had said, that can't possibly be accounted for just by the language barrier.

When I finally got them to reply, by threatening legal action, they refused my requests to repair or replace the laptop or provide a partial refund on the grounds that they had sold me a fatally defective product. I have also contacted the European Consumer Centre, but it seems they are unlikely to be able to achieve anything. I did find out through them that DevilTech has not gone into administration or anything like that.

To the others who have suffered at the hands of this company's incompetence and contempt for its customers -- perhaps we can pool ideas and figure out something we could do. You could reply here, or my email is [email protected].

 

Hi, I'll also add the problem I had with them that is still unsolved.
I also bought a fragbook from them in november 2011, delivered received in december 2011.
In november 2013, 1 months before end of warranty) the laptop stopped working with a graphical issue.
I contacted them, ups took the laptop and then started the problems.
Thay said they couldn't fix it, that it was sent back to MSI, etc ... This all, lasted for 4 months.
Then I got a mail informing that they made intensive test that everything is working great and sent back the laptop.
I got it (in march 2014) back, pulgged it and then nothing. The HDD was dead and even without hdd the laptop was rebooting itself after a few seconds without finding any device to start.
I sent them a mail, threaten them to suits them, but as usual they said they have done nothing wrong, blah blah blah.
I also contacted the european consumer center that also is useless.
I then bought a new HDD and installed it. I started to made a new win7 installation and as I saw the 1st time I started the laptop, it kept rebooting after some seconds, preventing me to install win 7 and to use the laptop, ofc.

But what I discovered is that it's not my laptop at all. I had a dead pixel in the center of the screen that appeared red, and it's not there anymore, means they are thieves completely, as they sent me a dead machine that is not mine.
I'm considering also going to the police and the court house in order to suits them really strong.

We should maybe do a campaign on twitter, or fb to inform people that this company is not serious and even worse that they are thieves, etc ...

actually I found a fb page already : https://www.facebook.com/DeviltechOb?ref=stream

 

I have posted my accounts of my contact with the Devil on other places, but here they are again:

Hi all, I'm not looking for a computer just here to warn from ordering from Deviltech.de.

I ordered a Deviltech devil 7800. They wanted money in advance via wire-transfer (This should have been warning enough but I had a couple of friends (4) who had ordered before with no problems).

I bought a computer from them in October LAST year (2013). All seemed well and I got a preliminary delivery date in December, since it was a bit late I was offered some games and a mouse. When end of December came and no computer had arrived I got worried and started emailing them, I got some answers after almost a month that they were waiting on some parts and that I their ceo would reply(he never did). After a couple of months with emails back and forth (most from me since they only replied once a month or so..) I got an email saying that they did not think my computer could be delivered, and that was the end of my communication with them.

Meanwhile I had started an consumer complaint with the European consumer center service office here in Sweden, and they contacted the German counterpart who in turn contacted the company. The company did not reply, and the case was closed. After this there is not much to do according to the officials, a small-claims court case would most likely be too expensive in comparison to the computer. However an investigation in Germany was initiated according to the swedish ECC.

At the same time as my order a friend also ordered a laptop and he has experience almost the same thing as me, with the result of no computer after a year.
So my last advice, DO NOT ORDER FROM DEVILTECH.DE. You might have luck, but if you end up like me there is not much to do except weep for your money and carry on.

I have seen a couple of threads like this in other forums, but I figured one more could help.

Regards,

Whizkaz

 

Sorry to hear about all this terrible trouble with DEviltech. Definitely never going to buy from them. And I'm really reading all these reviews on this forum to see who to trust and who not to.

But what happened with Kobalt Computers? I bought from them in 2011 right before they closed and had no problems. What happened?

 

Any updates from you guys regarding this company?

My story is the exact same as yours. Ordered a laptop in 2013, still waiting for a refund. Always the same lies and excuses. Even had a phone conversation with them where I asked for Mr. Rieb. He wasnt in the office at the moment. Then a little later in the conversation I asked for the persons name, he answered Stefan Rieb. Okay then..

 

Hello everyone,

My husband and me are also victims of DevilTech, we ordered a laptop (1000 euro) in June and still no answer. We live in Germany and are able to put a direct pressure on them, but unfortunately NOTHING works. We went to the police already and have now started a sue process. After our lawyer sent a warning letter to Rieb, he sent us an email asking for our bank acount number to transfer the money... But nothing. Today a tv programme was already broadcast, about DevilTech deceving people (one guy wanted them to repair his notebook within the warranty time, but they refused, or lied again). We are trying now to push our story through in a newspaper or a tv channel.
Keep you updated... And so sorry to hear that so many people suffered from these cheaters

 

Hi guys,

Short story: we're in the same bout here.

Ordered and payed for a laptop last year in November but they don't reply to our mails and don't keep their promesses.

A quick look around on the net quickly shows they aren't to be trusted and now we are going to cancel our order.

We doubt they are going to send us our money back asap, if even at all... so we thought it might be a good idea to post a suggestion here to stick together and all press charges together, so the costs aren't as high and we have a much bigger chance towards success/justice.

If you are interested you can contact us through this profile or simply by replying to this thread.