KaySquirrel’s Journal Thingy

For the past few years, I’d been a huge fan of Bernhard’s Austrian Cooking, a website where Vienna chef Bernhard Baumgartner offered free Austrian cooking recipes, as well as tips and advice. When I saw a note on his website announcing the creation of Bernhard’s Austrian Cookbook, I jumped at the chance to own a copy, and pre-ordered it via Paypal.

I paid £21.88 to pre-order a hardcover 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 the website doesn’t exist anymore, either.

I’ve tried several time to contact the site owner, but haven’t received any response as of yet.

Since apparently over 200 people all over the world have pre-ordered the 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.

If you’re stumbled onto this post, and you have any more information on what might have happened to Bernhard, his website, and our cookbooks, please leave a comment!
———-

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:

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: I emailed Bernhard to inquire about the status of my pre-order. His Austrian Cooking website had also been down for a few days by this point, so I mentioned that as well.

May 26 2008: The email I sent bounced back, saying that the email address wasn’t valid. Not good!

I did some googling, and found the Bernhard’s Austrian Cooking School website, 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 (In case the first one started working again), requesting an update on the situation.

The @bernhards.at email address bounced back to me again, but the @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:

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 @bernhards.at email address is no longer working.

I also emailed your @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 the Bernhard’s Austrian Cooking website is now down, too. I only checked it just last week, so it must have only gone 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 are 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 claw back my money from PayPal.

June 24 2008: Got a comment on my blog from someone else who preordered the cookbook and hasn’t received it yet. I 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, this latest one seems to be provided by his ISP, so I’ve sent an email there requesting an update on the status of my preorder.

June 25 2008: The email I sent to Bernhard’s 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 the austriancookingschool.com 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 Yahoo Groups 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:

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 29 2008: Received a comment here from someone else trying to find out what happened to Bernhard’s website.

June 30 2008: Received a comment from a 2nd person who pre-ordered Bernhard’s cookbook and didn’t receive it. Will 3 complaints to PayPal about a seller get them to investigate things despite it being 45 days after the purchase date? I sure hope so..

GraphJam: Pop Culture for People in Cubicles - Song chart memes and pop culture explained in graph form.

I love this site!

Sausages with Oregano, Mushrooms & Olives

Ingredients:
450 gram pack reduced-fat sausages
1 teaspoon sunflower oil
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 garlic cloves, sliced
400 gram can cherry or chopped tomatoes
200 ml / 7 fl. oz beef stock
100 grams / 4 oz pittes black olives in brine
500 gram pack mushrooms, thinly sliced

Directions:
1 Using kitchen scissors, snip the sausages into meatball-sized pieces.
2 Heat a large pan a fry the pieces in the oil for about 5 min until golden all over.
3 Add the oregano and garlic, fry for 1 min more, and then tip in the tomatoes, stock, olives and muchrooms.
4 Simmer on gentle heat for 15 min until the sausages are cooked through, and the sauce has reduced a little. Serve with mashed potato or pasta.

*I’ve not tried this one yet, my husband clipped it out of the newspaper for us to try.

Tuna Patties

Ingredients
1x 425g tuna in springwater, drained and moisture squeezed out
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 brown onion, diced
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
1 cup cooked corn kernels
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
1. Break up the tuna into small flakes with your fingers, then stir through the chopped onion, corn kernels and spring onion till thoroughly mixed. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Stir the egg into the mixture till it is wet, then slowly add the breadcrumbs till the mixture holds together (but is not doughy).
3. Heat some oil in a frying pan then shape 2 tbsp of the mixture into a small patty with wet hands, then place in the pan to fry. Flip over once golden, and drain on a paper towel. Repeat with remaining mixture.
4. Serve with fresh veggies and with a spicy, fruity salsa or chutney, or sweet chilli sauce in a pinch.

These are freezable!

*For those of us in the UK who don’t get massive cans of tuna: The cans I have are 185 grams net weight, 130 grams drained, so I drained 3 cans, used 2 1/2 cans of it, and threw the leftover drained tuna into a pasta salad the next day.

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 Karen at the DFS office in Edinburgh saying that the sofa would be delivered on May 29. When I called her back at 01316575403 to confirm the delivery date, she explained 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?

Weetabix Brownies

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
2 tablespoons cocoa
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar
4 bars Weetabix , crushed
8 ounces butter , melted
1/4 cup milk

Directions:
Mix all dry ingredients together. Add melted butter. Add milk as required to keep mixture moist (may need a little less or a little more depending on how moist mixture is). Press into a greased tray. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes at 180 degrees celcius. (Ice with favourite icing.) Leave to set in fridge.

Weetabix Cake

Nutritional Info:
Servings Per Recipe: 12

Amount Per Serving:
Calories: 66.0
Total Fat: 0.7 g
Cholesterol: 17.6 mg
Sodium: 23.6 mg
Total Carbs: 13.6 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.8 g
Protein: 2.1 g

Ingredients:
2 Weetabix
113g/4oz sultanas or raisins
142ml/5floz skimmed milk
142ml 5floz water
113g/4oz self-raising flour OR 113g regular flour + 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder + 1/2 teaspoon salt (I used the latter as I don’t buy self-raising flour)
1 teaspoon mixed spice
14g/½ oz artificial sweetener (optional)
1 egg, beaten

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 180ºC, 350ºF or Gas Mark 4
2. Put the Weetabix and sultanas in a bowl. Pour the milk and water over the top and leave to soak up all the liquid.
3. Stir in the flour, mixed spice, sweetener and beaten egg.
4. Spoon the mixture into a 454g (1lb) lined/non-stick loaf tin and bake in the preheated oven for 1¼ hours until cooked. (I greased the loaf tin because it’s not as non-sticky as it should be!)
5. Cool on a wire rack before serving then cut into 12 slices.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries/Chips

Slice up the sweet potato into long rectangular strips about 1cm wide.

Drizzle them with olive oil, and any other seasonings that strike your fancy. (Fresh thyme, chili powder, cracked pepper & sea salt…)

Bake at 400°F/200°C/Gas Mark 6 for about 40 minutes, making sure to check on them at 10 minute intervals.

Remove from oven when golden brown. Toss with more seasonings if desired (more sea salt, or chopped parsley). Serve & enjoy!

* They’re a little mushier than proper fries/chips, but they’re healthier, and taste fantastic!

Cat Laws

Law of Cat Inertia: A cat at rest will tend to remain at rest, unless acted upon by some outside force, such as the opening of cat food, or a nearby scurrying mouse.

Law of Cat Motion: A cat will move in a straight line, unless there is a really good reason to change direction.

Law of Cat Magnetism: All blue blazers and black sweaters attract cat hair in direct proportion to the darkness of the fabric.

Law of Cat Thermodynamics: Heat flows from a warmer to a cooler body, except in the case of a cat, in which case all heat flows to the cat.

Law of Cat Stretching: A cat will stretch to a distance proportional to the length of the nap just taken.

Law of Cat Sleeping: All cats must sleep with people whenever possible, in a position as uncomfortable for the people involved as is possible for the cat.

Law of Cat Elongation: A cat can make his body long enough to reach just about any counter top that has anything remotely interesting on it.

Law of Cat Acceleration: A cat will accelerate at a constant rate, until he gets good and ready to stop.

Law of Dinner Table Attendance: Cats must attend all meals when anything good is served.

Law of Rug Configuration: No rug may remain in its naturally flat state for very long.

Law of Obedience Resistance: A cat’s resistance varies in proportion to a human’s desire for him to do something.

First Law of Energy Conservation: Cats know that energy can neither be created nor destroyed and will, therefore, use as little energy as possible.

Second Law of Energy Conservation: Cats also know that energy can only be stored by a lot of napping.

Law of Refrigerator Observation: If a cat watches a refrigerator long enough, someone will come along and take out something good to eat.

Law of Electric Blanket Attraction: Turn on an electric blanket and a cat will jump into bed at the speed of light.

Law of Random Comfort Seeking: A cat will always seek, and usually take over, the most comfortable spot in any given room.

Law of Bag/Box Occupancy: All bags and boxes in a given room must contain a cat within the earliest possible nanosecond.

Law of Cat Embarrassment: A cat’s irritation rises in direct proportion to his embarrassment times the amount of human laughter.

Law of Milk Consumption: A cat will drink his weight in milk, squared, just to show you he can.

Law of Furniture Replacement: A cat’s desire to scratch furniture is directly proportional to the cost of the furniture.

Law of Cat Landing: A cat will always land in the softest place possible.

Law of Fluid Displacement: A cat immersed in milk will displace his own volume, minus the amount of milk consumed.

Law of Cat Disinterest: A cat’s interest level will vary in inverse proportion to the amount of effort a human expends in trying to interest him.

Law of Pill Rejection: Any pill given to a cat has the potential energy to reach escape velocity.

Law of Cat Composition: A cat is composed of Matter + Antimatter + It Doesn’t Matter.

Garfield minus Garfield