I've recently purchased some items from suissegold.com. Because bitcoin is irreversible, i always use my due diligence before making a purchase. In suissegold's case, i read some trustpilot reviews, some reviews on their facebook wall, i looked up their VAT numbers, their address,... However, i couldn't find any information about them on bitcointalk.
This is why i wanted to share my experiences with suissegold...
First things first, the proof i did order some silver... This is one of the items i bought (i bought several items, but i do not want to share an inventory on this forum... Anonimity and stuff)
Now, for a small timeline of the things that happened:
- On the 10th of december 2017, i purchased a couple items from suissegold. The total bill was less than 1000 pound (i'm not disclosing how much less). I payed the bitpay invoice, and my transaction was confirmed after ~2 hours (if memory serves me correctly)
- I immediately received a couple mails, indicating they received my payment... After this: radio silence regarding my order
- On the 13th, i broke radio silence since i was getting impatient... I did a couple purchases from bitgild, and they usually arrive at my doorstep after 3 working days, so i was fed up that after 3 working days,
bitgild suissegold (fixed a typo) didn't even send me an update. I asked them some basic questions - Instead of answering my questions, suissegold decided to force me to fill in AML documentation and send an utility bill and a scan of my passport... Bummer... I already payed them, so i was forced to upload the documentation they asked. After reading their FAQ i could only come to the conclusion they reserved the right to ask anybody to fill in their AML bureaucracy (even for a 1€ purchase), however they only HAD to ask for this documentation for puchases of 10.000 pound and over... In other words, i felt like they don't trust their customers OR they use the AML documentation for stalling purposes...
- I immediately filled the documentation, uploaded everything and sent a followup question, re-asking basically the same questions as before
- The next day, they had to admit they didn't have everything i ordered in stock, they had to backorder, so i'd have to wait a couple of days... Why on earth they didn't notify me off this problem from the very start of the order, i'll never know. I felt like information this important should have been brought to my attention as soon as possible, and it was very unprofessional of them to wait untill i took some initiative before they gave me this info. From this point out: radio silence again
- On the 8th of januari (29 days after ordering), a dhl courier is standing on my doorstep. I didn't realise it was suissegold's package, so i accepted it without checking the content.... Big mistake: only half my order was included.
- I immediately mailed suissegold to inform them of this problem, and about a day later, it became clear to me that, eventough it took them 29 days to backorder "some" items, they still didn't have all items on stock, and they'd have to backorder some more, unless i agreed to receiving replacement products. I immediately agreed to this
- Some days later, i received a mail from suissegold, informing me my order was completed. I had to contact their support department to get my hands on the tracking code, so i'd know when to expect dhl this time
- On the 16th of januari (37 days after the intial order), i finally received the second part of my order
The packaging was fine, but the envelopes in which my items were packages reeked of cigarette smoke... Opening the packages was like stepping into a pub about 10 years ago (before the ban on cigarettes). The smell was so bad, the items itself actually still smell like cigarette smoke.
This was a problem that was equally bad for the first and second part of the order. One of the items i received has a nicotine "coating".
All in all: for me, suissegold was NOT a scam... I'd still use them in the future, but ONLY for smaller orders and ONLY when i'm able to wait a couple of months for my goods... I'd personally only use them if their price is a lot lower than other online retailers AND i'd make sure i mail them at least once a week to get the latest status. With suissegold, don't expect any proactive mails, don't expect to be contacted when they have problems, don't expect them to send tracking numbers, don't expect them to have everything they sell in stock, DO expect to fork over a scan of your utility bill and passport (even for smaller orders)... You either wait, or you start contacting them yourself
