What’s happened to Westfalia.Net?
Thursday, December 6, 2018 at 11:47PM;)
Westfalia.Net (UK) was a goldmine of hard to find and genuinely useful things [click to see]
Wo ist es? This online emporium run by Westfalia Werkzeugcompany GmbH was a goldmine of mostly German quality, hard to find tools, equipment and materials for the homeowner, DIY enthusiast, farmer and hobbyist. Not to be confused with Westfalia towbars, this Westfalia worktools company (“Qualität aus Hagen”) boasted 95+ years of service and had a UK mail order outlet at www.westfalia.net.
I bought plenty of household, car, workshop and gardening items from Westfalia, all traditional quality items that were hard to find elsewhere. Snow clearing blades that sliced through ice, shovels, electric chisels, rare long-reach screwdriver bits, all sorts of accessories and bits for my workshop, and lots more besides. Their power tools proved very good too, provided you didn’t mind the German mains Shuko connectors and bulky UK 13A converters. Even their shipping cartons were useful for storage!
;)
Welcome to our main web site... only it's all in GermanHowever, without explanation, it seems the UK operation has vanished without a trace during the year and the URL now redirects to their German website, with a popup promising a ‘perfect shopping experience’ from their larger German store. Problem now is, the website is entirely in German.
Perhaps this was a pre-Brexit strategic move? Did they decide to bail out of Britain? If there isn’t enough UK trade to justify the extra web design work needed, perhaps there will never be an English language version of their German store. It’s a shame that this highly-rated mail order supplier has shut up shop in Britain.
I also know how ruthless and unpleasant some German firms can be to deal with, and they will simply walk away without a by-your-leave. In the last couple of years I noticed that German PC supplier Medion shut down its UK mail order operation as well. Their range included (surprisingly) kitchen appliances, Medion-branded Dustbuster-type vacuumers and my Medion Internet radio with 2.1 stereo speakers, all of a very good quality indeed. Medion suddenly sold it all off at silly prices and I snapped up some bargains. Now all these have gone without a trace, with Medion merely advertising computer gaming and a laptop or two on a hugely over-elaborate website. I’m gutted that Westfalia.Net and Medion have ditched the UK market.
You can visit the (German) Westfalia site at https://www.westfalia.net and UK Medion site at http://www.medion.co.uk
Reader Comments (3)
I too am missing this great online store. I purchased a steam juicer from them years ago and many other accessories. I now need a replacement pan for the steamer and so very disappointed to see they appear to have vanished. Any updates would be welcome. I feel rather guilty as I have pointed many friends to their site to buy equipment from them.
It looks like you can still contact Westfalia by phone or email, try
Contact Us
It might go through to Germany but I expect they will speak English. Worth a go.
My guess is they will never resurrect the English web pages, but you never know.
A few years ago I purchased a foldable warning cone, with LED beacon on the top, from this company. It was used for the first time today, 14 September 2020, very successfully. I decided to look on the company's website to see what else was now available, and was sorry to see it has closed down. Thanks for the helpful update from your company.