When Galaxus Sends You the Wrong Things

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Many weeks ago I ordered something from Galaxus and it didn’t arrive when it was scheduled to. A few weeks ago I ordered one thing but instead got half a dozen things. I thought “Why do I have so many extras, before realising that the order was wrong. They sent me the order that someone else had made.

For a while I thought “What do I do, do I let them know about the mistake or do I tell them. In the end I let them know about the mistake. By eventually I mean within half an hour, not five weeks. They told me to send them a list of all the items I had received in mistake, and to send it back to them.

When you see that Galaxus has made a mistake they will want the European Product number of each item, as well as for the package to be sent back. The Swiss post makes it quite easy to send an item back to the sender. You go to the Swiss post site, and within a few minutes you can register the return, and the next day a post man will pick it up as he delivers other packets. For fifty centimes more they will print the label for you. It’s cheaper than buying printer ink to print one page, and then have it dry up before the next time you print.

A few days after the incident I checked my orders list and noticed that the mistake I had declared was catalogued in their system under my name. The charge was zero francs but their system had catalogued the value of the items. If, for any reason, I had taken too long to send back the package, or an item had been missing I suspect I would have been charged for it, which would have been fair.

I was tempted to tell them that I was a blogger, and that if they let me keep the items I would write blog posts about each item. In the end I simply sent back the order within a day of realising.

Such an event tests your morality. It would be easy to say nothing, and see whether they ever notice. I didn’t want to take that chance. I like using Galaxus for ordering things online and if there was a mistake then I would want people to announce it, in the hope that I would not have to wait too long for a mistake to be fixed.

On their blog they speak about return rates in the French and German speaking parts of Switzerland but not about their error rates, and how often people are honest enough to report them. After ordering things on Galaxus over several years I have had one occurrence of something not arriving when anticipated, and another of getting the wrong thing. They are quick, and reliable so I will keep using them.

In Switzerland we have the luxury of not having to rely on Amazon. I see this as a luxury because Galaxus collaborates with plenty of online shops but provides a single point of entry. If you order things you can see a list of providers, and the difference in price.

I also appreciate that they use the Swiss Post rather than DHL, Fedex and other carriers. I like that they use the local post, and local couriers like Planzer on occasion.