ALTERNATE.nl

Uit eigen beweging

As many others, I have some trouble/complaints with an order at this shop. Whether or not the root cause lies in the Corona crisis I leave up for discussion. Surely it has (still) some impact, but other established web shops can deal with it too, somehow: AH, for example, will not let you order if they do not have capacity. Their other web shop proceeds orders swiftly, also for third-party sellers. Maybe an unfair comparison, because shipping groceries or books might not need the same know-how shipping IT hardware requires. But I think you get the motivation I am coming from.

(FIXED, SEE EDIT BELOW)
What is rather shocking (but in the end not too surprising) is the fact that my ekomi review apparently has been removed. I sent a "certified review" on May 22 and with the latest update on May 24 is has not yet been published (but a recent 10 star review has been). Apparently common practise as seen on https://nl.trustpilot.com/review/www.ekomi.nl or https://nl.trustpilot.com/review/www.ekomi.de.
How many similar reviews may have been dropped for the sake of keeping that silver trust emblem?

My original review (see below) did only yield one star, but I feel I gave rational reasons for this decision and even complimented the customer service for the things that did work well.

I understand that the impact of the current crisis and subsequent negative PR can hurt a business pretty hard. Paying significant money upfront to an untouchable party (alternate.nl has no physical shop anymore, as far as I know) requires trust. So it is natural to shift into damage control mode and silence negative reviews when possible. But this practise certainly induces a severe lack of trust and, to be frank, is disappointing and shady to some degree.

So, alas, another complaint, on this platform. But I am happy to rectify parts of my review if there were peace-of-mind and a renewed base of trust.

Last, sorry for an English review on a Dutch tech site. I am aware of my low Dutch skills, so I chose a language where I may be a little bit more articulate in. This can be a red flag for some locals, so I apologize for stepping out of bounds here.

~~~
EDIT: Original review eventually turned up on ekomi. Maybe there is some auditing happening on ekomi for less favourable reviews before posting them through? Anyway, glad to see transparency is restored.