Bernhard’s Austrian Cookbook - Never received the cookbook I pre-ordered!

I used to be a fan of Bernhard’s Austrian Cooking (http://bernhards.at), a website where Vienna chef Bernhard Baumgartner offered free Austrian cooking recipes.

When I saw a note on his website at http://cookbook.bernhards.at saying that he was creating a cookbook, I jumped at the chance to own a copy. I had tried a few of Bernhard’s recipes with great succes, and wanted to learn more about traditional Austrian food. I used PayPal to pre-order my copy of Bernhard’s Austrian Cooking: The Traditional Austrian Cuisine.

And that was the last I saw of my money.

Not only have I yet to receive the cookbook, but he’s taken down his website, as well.

I’ve tried several times to contact Bernhard, but haven’t received any response as of yet.

Since apparently over 200 people all over the world have pre-ordered Bernhard’s cookbook, I thought I’d make a quick post about it here on the off chance that there are other people scouring Google for answers on a weekly basis, too.

I tried asking PayPal to look into things for me, but unfortunately they won’t investigate claims made more than 45 days after the purchase date, EVEN for preorders.

They did mention that they reserve the right to reopen claims within 180 days if they receive “multiple complaints about a seller”, so I filed a complaint, and would strongly encourage anyone else who lost their preorder money to do the same. Maybe with enough complaints PayPal will decide to do something about this situation.

I was able to claw back my £21.88 with the help of my bank. Most credit card companies offer some kind of protection, as well. Contact your bank or credit card company (depending on how you funded your PayPal payment), and see if they can help you get your money back, too!

If you’re stumbled onto this post, and you have any more information on what might have happened to chef Bernhard Baumgartner, his website, his Austrian Cooking School in Vienna, and the cookbooks we all paid for, please leave a comment!

I’ve archived recipes very similar to what used to be found on his website, so feel free to have a look around!

———-

December 18 2007: I pre-ordered Bernhard’s Austrian Cookbook and paid via PayPal. The cookbook was going to be released February 15 2008 and would be shipped at the end of February.

March 9 2008: Got an email from Bernhard explaining that the book would be delayed:

Bernhard Baumgartner
bb@bernhards.at
Date: Sun, Mar 9, 2008 at 1:21 PM
Subject: Post delay Bernhards cookbook

Hello [KaySquirrel]

Today I must inform you that the book you ordered will not be posted before the end of April this year. I hope you can wait this compareably short period of time. Let me explain the delay:

I am in the middle of negotiations with a financial sponsor for my book and hopefully the web project as a whole. If these negotiations come out well for me, I will be able to make a huge step forward towards my being self-employed by financing a cooking-studio here in Vienna where I intend to hold cooking classes and to shoot videos and pictures for future web projects.

Second is that I did not think about the legal issues when offering products, like my book, on a website. I have to be very careful now to be sure that every step I take is on the legal side of our laws here in Austria.

Please, you showed your support for my project before, when you pre-ordered my book, I ask you for even a little more support by being patient and forgive the delay.

The new date for the books to be posted via mail is: April 30th 2008. You can rely on that, the pre-ordered books will be sent out at this date, either with or without my sponsors page in it.

I hope you can live with this news, if not, you can always get a full refund. So far more than 200 people from all over the world have pre-ordered more than 250 books.

This amount of trust blows me off my feet and I hope that you keep trusting me.

Thank you so much for your support and have a nice day.

Fair enough, I thought. While disappointed, I did appreciate being updated on the status of my pre-order. I emailed Bernhard back right away to let him know that I was alright with a bit of a delay getting the book, because I was sure it’d be worth it in the end!

The end of April came and went, and I hadn’t received my cookbook. The website still said that the release date was April 15 2008..

By mid-May, I figured there was more than just slow mail service to blame for me not having received my cookbook.

May 19 2008: Bernhard’s cooking website had been down for the past few days, so I sent him an email mentioning this, and inquired about the status of my pre-order.

May 26 2008: The email I sent bounced back, saying that his bb@bernhards.at email address wasn’t valid. Not good!

I did some googling, and found Bernhard’s Austrian Cooking School website (http://www.austriancookingschool.com), with a different contact email address.

Hmm, his letter said that the cookbook release was delayed because he was in talks trying to get funding for a cooking studio, where he could give cooking lessons. Isn’t that just what I’d stumbled onto?

May 27 2008: Sent Bernhard an email to both his email addresses bb@bernhards.at and bernhard@austriancookingschool.com (In case the first one started working again), requesting an update on the situation.

The bb@bernhards.at email address bounced back to me again, but the bernhard@austriancookingschool.com one didn’t, so I was hopeful that it wouldn’t be too long before I received a response.

June 3 2008: Still no response to my email. Starting to get a little annoyed now.

Sent the following letter to Bernhard via snail mail, as his postal address was included in the PayPal confirmation of my pre-order. The same postal address is listed in the WHOIS information for his austriancookingschool.com website. There is a different address listed in the WHOIS information for his bernhards.at website, which might come in handy if I need an alternate postal address for him.

Hello Bernhard,

I’m writing to you as I have unfortunately been unable to reach you online. Your bernhards.at website has been down for over 2 weeks now, and your bb@bernhards.at email address is no longer working.

I also emailed your bernhard@austriancookingschool.com address a week ago, but have not yet received a response.

I pre-ordered your cookbook in December 2007, and the last update I heard on it was that the shipping date was postponed until April 30, 2008. It’s over a month later now, and I’ve still not received the book.

I understand that you were having issues with copyright and sponsorship, but I am concerned and a little disappointed at the lack of an update on the situation, and the disappearance of your web presence. Websites and email addresses don’t (or, shouldn’t) disappear all of a sudden, so it is my sincere hope that nothing horrible has happened to you or your website!

Please, when you have a chance, I would appreciate it if you could let me know what is actually happening with the book, or if the project has been canceled or moved to another website or something.

Thank you very much,

[KaySquirrel]

June 16 2008: Still no reponse to either my email or snail mail queries.

While writing this post, I notice that Bernhard’s Cooking School website is now down, too. I only checked it just last week, so it must have been taken down within the last few days!

I was looking forward to receiving the cookbook, but the lack of updates started to worry me. Now that both websites have been taken down, and my snail mail query has so far had no response.. I’m starting to feel more than a little jerked around here.

The only next step I can take is to contact PayPal to lodge a complaint and request that they refund my order. I’m reluctant to do that because I would still like to wait a little bit longer to see if maybe answers will be forthcoming.

By the beginning of next month, though, it will be over 6 months since I placed the pre-order, and a month since I sent the letter via snail mail.. I think that if by that time I’ve not heard back, I’ll have to see if I can claim my money back via PayPal.

June 24 2008:I’ve opened a claim with PayPal, but it seems their automated claim processing system closed it right away — most likely because it has been longer than 45 days since the purchase.

However, as my purchase was a PRE-order made on December 18 2006, and the original release date of the cookbook was only going to be February 15 2008, it seems the deadline to make an Item Not Received claim with PayPal expired even before I was ever supposed to received the cookbook to begin with?!

I’ve escalated my Item Not Received claim to PayPal’s customer service department, explaining the situation.

I’ve also managed to track down yet another altnernate email address for Bernhard, from the WHOIS information on this page. The @gmx.net address is one provided by an ISP, so I’ve sent yet another email there, requesting an update on the status of my preorder.

June 25 2008: The email I sent to Bernhard’s @gmx.net ISP email address did NOT bounce back, but I have not received any response to it as of yet.

I did, however, get an email back from PayPal customer service:

Our policy is to investigate a claim if it has been filed within 45 calendar days of the initial transaction. Unfortunately, we received your claim on 24/06/2008 which is after the 45 day deadline and, therefore, we cannot look into this claim. If it is still within 60 calendar days of the initial transaction date and the item was purchased on eBay, please contact eBay for further information as you may be able to file a claim with eBay directly.

We do reserve the right to reopen any claim for investigation within 180 calendar days if we receive multiple complaints about a particular seller. We will contact you by email if this is the case.

I recommend to stay in contact with the seller in order to find a resolution that you are both happy with.

So, as I had feared, there is no exception to there 45 day rule, even for preordered items that are only scheduled to be released outside of that ‘45 days after purchase’ window anyway.

I did notice that they said they reserve the right to reopen any claim for investigation within 180 calendar days if they receive multiple complaints about a particular seller. I’ve updated the other person I know of who’s also trying to track Bernhard down, with this latest developement. Perhaps if they file a claim with PayPal that will be enough for PayPal to reopen the case, but at this point I don’t hold out much hope of seeing my money again.

“I recommend to stay in contact with the seller in order to find a resolution that you are both happy with.” — Yeah, that’s cute. Since emails and snail mail letter don’t seem to work, I’ll just hop on over to Austria, shall I?

June 26 2008: I found an Austrian Cooking Group on Yahoo where someone else was trying to get in contact with Bernhard to find out what had happened to his website. I made a post there, asking the group if anyone else has had the same awful experience with preordering his cookbook:

What happened to the £21.88 I paid to preorder Bernhard’s Austrian Cookbook?

It’s been almost 6 months now since I paid £21.88 via PayPal to preorder Bernhard’s Austrian Cookbook, and to date I have not received a book, OR a refund of my £21.88!
On December 18 2007 I preordered Bernhard’s Austrian Cookbook, and was told that the release date would be February 15 2008.

On March 9 2008 I received an email from Bernhard saying that cookbook release would be delayed until April 30 2008.

By May 19 2008 I still had not received the cookbook, so I emailed Bernhard to inquire about the status of my preorder. The email bounced back, saying his email address was invalid, and I noticed that his website at bernhards.at was no longer working anymore, either.

On May 26 2008 I found another website belonging to Bernhard (austriancookingschool.com), so I sent an email to the contact email address listed there to inquire about the status of my preorder. The email did NOT bounce back, but I have still not received a response.

On June 3 2008 I noticed that Bernhard’s Austrian Cooking School website had been taken down and was no longer accessible.

I sent a letter via postal mail to Bernhard’s contact address inquiring about the status of my preorder and explaining that I had not been been able to contact him online. I have still not received a response to that inquiry, either.

On June 24 2008 I was found by someone else who is still missing the money they paid to preorder the cookbook, too! They’d left a message on my website where I’ve written about this whole awful experience (link available upon request).

I’ve also asked PayPal if they can look into things for me, but unfortunately they won’t investigate claims made more than 45 days after the purchase date, EVEN for preorders.

They did mention that they reserve the right to reopen claims within 180 days if they receive “multiple complaints about a seller”, so if the other person missing their money makes a claim as well, hopefully that will be enough for PayPal to investigate this further.

I had been a fan of Bernhard’s Austrian Cooking website for the past couple of years now, and I never would have imagined that this would happen. I trusted that when I paid my money, Bernhard would send me a copy of his cookbook.

All of my efforts to contact Bernhard both online and by snail mail have so far gone unanswered. I’m left feeling completely ripped off, and stupid for sending him my money in the first place..

Does anyone have any additional information as to what might have happened with all those preorders, or have I been scammed out of my £21.88 here?

~ Kay

Maybe someone in the group will have some answers.. I’ve also sent messages to Bernhard via both his Yahoo Groups profiles here and here, asking for an update on the status of my preorder, or a refund of my £21.88 if the book project has been cancelled.

I also stumbled across this page which reads:

http://www.austriancookingschool.com - Bernhard’s Austrian Cooking School - Austrian chef Bernhard Baumgartner is teaching traditional Austrian cuisine at Vienna nightschool VHS-Hietzing. Learn to cook Schnitzel, Strudel, dumplings, Goulash or whatever you want to learn. Choose cakes and desserts only for your class. The class includes shopping trip to open-air market Vienna Naschmarkt, for the trip back to school choose between Taxi or public transport. 4-course Lunch and drinks included.

I wonder if this information is still current, and whether perhaps Bernhard can be contacted via the school? Ich spreche ein bisschen Deutsch, certainly enough to ask what has happened to my money..

This page lists telephone contact info for both the Volkshochschule Hietzing and Bernhard’s Austrian Cooking School.

June 26 2008: Since the money for the PayPal payment to Bernhard came out of my Current Account (similar to the Chequing Account I had back home in Canada), I contacted my bank to explain the whole situation, and to see if they could help me reclaim the funds.

June 27 2008: Received a message back from my bank indicating that they had made a claim on the transaction for £21.88 and that I would be seeing the money back in my Current Account within a few days. I love my bank!

June 29 2008: Received a comment on my old Blogger site (which has since been deleted as I moved everything to Wordpress!) from someone else trying to find out what happened to Bernhard’s cookery website.

June 30 2008: I’ve just checked my Current Account balance — my £21.88 is back in there! I also made sure to check my PayPal account to make sure the balance there hadn’t been debited, and it hadn’t. I assume the money has been removed from Bernhard’s seller account — as it should be, because he is not entitled to that money since he failed to provide the cookbook I pre-ordered.

I am DISGUSTED that I had to make a claim on that transaction to get my money back. I have never in my life had to dispute a transaction on ANY of the bank accounts or credit cards that I have ever had. While I’m obviously glad to have my cash back, I am stunned that it had to come to this.

They say a dissatisfied customer will tell twice as many people about their experience than a satified one.

That was before the internet.

Even if PayPal doesn’t care about fraud 45 days after the purchase date, we might get them to investigate this issue by making sure they have the “multiple” complaints they need.

July 18 2008: I received the following message from PayPal today:

PayPal is constantly working to ensure security by regularly screening the accounts in our system. We recently reviewed your account, and we need more information to help us provide you with a secure service. Until we can collect this information, your access to sensitive account features will be limited. We would like to restore your access as soon as possible, and we apologize for the inconvenience.

Why is my account access limited?

Your account access has been limited for the following reason(s):

18 Jul. 2008: We recently received a report of unauthorised credit card use associated with this account. As a precaution, we have limited access to your PayPal account in order to protect against future unauthorised transactions.

Please contact PayPal Customer Service if any of the following applies:

1.You filed a chargeback because you never received an item from a seller.
2.You filed a chargeback because the item you received was significantly not as described.
3.You filed a chargeback because you thought the transaction was unauthorised but now you recognize it.

If none of the above applies and this chargeback is unauthorised, please verify your identity and that you own the credit card in question.

(Your case ID for this reason is [my case ID #].)

Just because PayPal says that fraud isn’t really fraud anymore after 45 days doesn’t make it true. Luckily for me my bank agreed, and filed that chargeback for me.

I sent the following back to PayPal:

Hello,

I received a notice today telling my that my PayPal account has been limited. Case ID [my case ID #]

It also said to contact PayPal Customer Service if I had filed a chargeback because I never received an item from a seller.

This is indeed the case. On June 25 2008 I attempted to file a Buyer Complaint with PayPal because I had never received an item from a seller. That case ID was [different case id #]

Having received no assistance from PayPal in this matter, I contacted my bank and explained to them that I had never received an item I paid for via PayPal. They initiated that chargeback.

I have been in contact with 15 other people who have also been ripped off by the same seller: Bernhard Baumgartner, email address bb@bernhards.at

I hope that they have also all filed complaints about him, and that 16 complaints are enough for you to reopen our claims for investigation within 180 calendar days, like you said you reserve the right to do.

Thank you,

[KaySquirrel]

July 20 2008: Received an email back from PayPal today:

Dear [KaySquirrel],

Thank you for contacting PayPal in relation to a dispute you filed.

[KaySquirrel], if in case we will reopen a dispute and turn into a claim due to many claims filed against the seller, we will be sending you emails about it.

This will be our priority because we will begin on taking the money back from the seller’s account.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,
[PayPal representative]

Ohh, now that it’s their money they want to get back, it’s a priority — even though it’s been over 45 days since the date of purchase. Nice. When it was my money that was missing, PayPal didn’t care one bit.

While an email to let me know that my claim has been reopened would be nice in terms of satisfying my curiousity, I don’t think it would accomplish much. I mean, it has been over 45 days since the purchase, and PayPal’s own rules imply that theft is no longer theft after those 45 days, so.. I guess they’re on their own at getting their money back, hm? I wish them every success.

July 22 2008: I got another email from PayPal today:

As part of PayPal’s commitment to excellence, I want to make sure I met your needs in my response. Would you please take a minute to answer a few questions to let me know how I did?

Ooh, would I EVER! Archived here, for my own amusement:

How likely are you to recommend PayPal to a friend or acquaintance as a way to send or receive payments?

0 - Not at all likely

Please tell us why you feel that way about your likelihood to recommend PayPal.

I recently had an Item Not Received claim refused by PayPal, even though it was a pre-order for a cookbook only due to be released over 45 days after the date of purchase. Luckily, my bank thinks that theft is still theft after 45 days, and helped me get my money back.

I then got an email from PayPal about “unauthorized card use” on my account, so I emailed you to confirm that it was indeed a chargeback I’d filed for the item not received, and that there were 15 other people who had been ripped off by the same seller: Bernhard Baumgartner bb@bernhards.at

PayPal emailed me back saying that you would email me again if you decided to reopen a dispute and file a claim against the seller because of multiple complaints about him, and that this would be your priority because you will be trying to get your money back from the seller’s account.

When it was MY money that Bernhard had taken, there was nothing PayPal would do about it.

Now that it’s YOUR money that he’s run off with, it’s a priority of yours to get it back, even though it’s been over 45 days since the date of purchase?

Given the complete lack of assistance provided by PayPal in this case, not only would I never recommend to anyone that they use PayPal’s services, but I am actively and enthusiastically discouraging people from using PayPal.

There are enough scammers and con-artists out there who steal from people well enough on their own without PayPal being a willing accomplice to fraud.

While I look forward to the email from PayPal informing me that the seller is being investigated, I sincerely hope that more information will not be requested from me about the issue. If PayPal can make up rules pretending that fraud is no longer fraud after 45 days, I should be allowed to adhere to the same.

I recommend that PayPal stay in contact with the seller in order to find a resolution that you are both happy with.

Well, they asked!

If 200 people pre-ordered Bernhard’s Austrian Cookbook, that’s a total of £4376 taken from people who sent Bernhard their money in good faith and never got their cookbooks. Shameful!

I would urge everyone who might still be missing their pre-order money to contact their bank or credit card company, depending on how the PayPal payment was funded. You might be able to reclaim your money that way, just like I did.

In early March 2008, we purchased a chocolate-coloured fabric 3 seater manual recliner sofa from DFS in Glasgow, and were told that the delivery would be in about 12 weeks or so.

On May 27 2008 I received a voicemail from 01316575403. It was Karen at the DFS office in Edinburgh calling to let us know that our sofa would be delivered on May 29. When I called her back to confirm, she said that even though we’d bought it at the Glasgow branch, the Edinburgh branch would be taking care of the delivery. It’s all the same to me, as long as we get our sofa!

On May 29 2008 The DFS delivery men arrived. As they bring in and start unpacking the first part of the sofa, I realize that it’s not the chocolate colour we’d ordered, but green. When the delivery men come in with the 2nd part of the sofa, I explain to the one who seemed to be in charge that I have to refuse delivery of the sofa because it is not the colour we’d ordered.

His response? “Well, we’ll have to leave this here and you can call the shop to sort it out.”

Lie number one.

I think it’s so cute when people assume that just because I tend to be friendly and polite that they can afford to underestimate my tolerance for bullshit. I always get such a kick out of the look on their faces when someone gives me due cause to get, as my husband so diplomatically puts it, more confrontational than one would expect.

I told the deliveryman that since this was not a chocolate sofa, it was not MY sofa, and would not be left in my livingroom but removed from my house.

The deliveryman called the shop in Edinburgh, and I got a call back from the same Karen who’d left the voicemail 2 days ago. She said that on the paperwork that had been sent to them by the Glagow office, the colour option said “Zoe Fern”.

I told her my paperwork said no such thing. She played the Yes It Does No It Doesn’t Game with me for a bit, until I told her that I was looking at the original order form and it did not have the word “Fern” anywhere on there.

It reads: Beaumont group, 3 seater manual double recliner, Zoe.

Her response? “Oh, well Zoe MEANS fern, so it wouldn’t SAY fern.”

Lie number two.

Zoe is the type of fabric we selected, NOT the name of the colour. The colour options are Bark, Chocolate, Cream, and Fern.

How very strange that after chanting Zoe Fern Zoe Fern at me for several minutes, and telling me those two words are on the paperwork, she now decided that she only sees the word Zoe on there, same as I did. I told Karen that I was refusing delivery of the wrong colour sofa, and that my husband would be visiting the Glasgow branch at lunchtime to sort things out.

As the deliverymen are taking the sofa away again, I heard one comment to the other “I betcha the brown one’s in the back of the truck!” So funny!

At lunctime, when hubby dropped by the Glasgow office, it turned out that the word “fern” had been written in pen on the carbon copy of our order form. Well done, DFS!

Remember when Karen said that the paperwork “wouldn’t actually say fern because zoe means fern”?

That was lie number three.

After explaining the whole issue to the DFS representative in the shop, he went away to investigate, and came back offering hubby a few options. They could arrange loan furniture for us while we waited for the chocolate one we’d ordered, or he could have a Bark (lighter brown) coloured one delivered to us in a week.

Given the shining example of customer service provided by both the DFS deliverymen and then by Karen in the Edinburgh office, hubby and I felt it best to request a full refund of our money, and to get a sofa elsewhere.

Apparently the DFS representative at the Glasgow store told hubby that they would be investigating to see why the word fern was added to their copy of the order form after we’d left the shop. It seems that the salesman didn’t fill out the order form correctly, and apparently when this happens they will go back to the saleman to ask if he remembers what colour he sold. In this case, the salesman obviously didn’t remember — which can happen when you are selling several sofas a day, right? The more logical approach would have been to contact us to confirm our colour choice, because we would certainly know what colour sofa we’d ordered. Instead of taking a few minutes to contact the customer, they asked the salesman to try to remember what colour we wanted. Really sensible approach to order processing, DFS!

The DFS rep said they are also investigating why the delivery guy said they had to leave the wrong sofa with us. I know exactly why he said that: He didn’t want to have to lift it again. It’s not his job to care about whether the customer gets the right colour, it’s only his job to deliver sofas.

While sat in the Glasgow shop, ordering the sofa, the sales rep explained to us that since DFS knew that their delivery people were often the “last contact” the customer had with the company, they were trained in customer service, to ensure that customers were left with a good parting impression of DFS. While that didn’t exactly happen in our case, I can absolutely confirm that my experience in dealing with the DFS deliverymen was just as difficult and frustrating as having to deal with the DFS office in Edinburgh by telephone.

Unfortunately for DFS, consistency is not an acceptable subsitute for competence. I’m almost thankful that they managed to make such a mess of things right from the start that we just decided to get a refund of our money and go elsewhere. Since they thought nothing of modifying an original contract without the customer’s consent and lying to me on the phone before they’d even managed to get the right colour sofa into my livingroom, I can only imagine what kind of nonsense and lies they’d have told us if we’d had to contact them to make a warranty claim at some point in the future.

What does ‘DFS’ stand for, anyway? Dodgy … service? Dreadful … sofas?