Elektro Lommelen from Oostmalle has been under fire for years. During the corona crisis, operator Ivan Lommelen started selling white goods online in addition to his physical store. From day one, the webshop had competitive prices for washing machines, refrigerators and ovens, among other things. In return, customers sometimes had to wait months for their orders. Our consumer section For You Solved received complaints about the store almost every week. These were always resolved after the newspaper’s intervention, but not all victims were so lucky.
After all, there were also complaints at consumer organization Testaankoop and the FPS Economy. “It quickly became clear to us that this company did not take its legal obligations very seriously,” says spokeswoman Laura Clays of Testaankoop. “Apart from the long delivery times, we also saw complaints about non-compliance with the legal warranty. That is of course unacceptable.”
Both the Economic Inspectorate (FPS Economy) and the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office dug deeper into Elektro Lommelen’s questionable business practices. “The investigation started by the FPS Economy is still ongoing,” says spokeswoman Lien Meurisse. Important: the Economic Inspectorate’s investigation only focuses on whether violations of economic law have been committed. It does not intervene in individual disputes between consumers and companies. The Antwerp public prosecutor’s office also started an investigation into Elektro Lommelen’s commercial practices, but that file was dismissed. The public prosecutor’s office did not consider Elektro Lommelen’s actions as deliberate fraud or punishable.
Last summer, a second investigation was started following new complaints. “That investigation led by our Ecofin section is still ongoing,” is all the Antwerp public prosecutor’s office can say about this today. The Elektro Lommelen webshop was suddenly taken offline at the end of August. The building where the physical store was located has since been for sale. Although no bankruptcy has been declared, it remains quiet on the side of Elektro Lommelen. Hundreds of victims are still waiting for their paid orders.
Yet that does not stop the former managers from embarking on a new online adventure. The webshop www.e-techworld.be was launched in mid-September: a website where consumers can buy small electrical goods such as TVs, laptops and smartphones. The online store is run by the private company ‘Lore Distributie Center’, with registered office in an office complex on Steenweg in Herk-de-Stad. The founders are none other than Ivan Lommelen and his wife, who headed Elektro Lommelen for many years. At the end of 2023, they both resigned as directors of NV Lommelen and set up a new company. This is now used to run their new webshop.
Although the managers of Elektro Lommelen were not banned from working, it remains striking that the entrepreneurial couple is active again. “This is just revenge,” sighs a victim who paid 850 euros for a refrigerator, but is still waiting for her order. “I am a single mother. Almost a thousand euros is a lot of money to me. It’s scandalous that these people want to get rich at the expense of their customers. I regularly pass their home in Heusden-Zolder. There are two large Porsches parked in front of the door. If they sell them, they could already pay a large part of the victims. But they don’t. Instead, they just start over. Just scandalous.”
No response
Whether the website www.e-techworld.be is reliable remains a question mark. Trustpilot, which measures the reliability of a website based on reviews, currently gives the webshop from Herk-de-Stad a score of 1 out of 5. The negative reviews mainly come from victims of Elektro Lommelen. Since the website has only been around for a short time, it is impossible to find out whether any orders will arrive on time this time. In any case, the prices are very competitive, just like at the time with Elektro Lommelen. e-techworld.be does not have an accessible customer service for the time being. The telephone number listed on the website does not work. The registered office in Herk-de-Stad is a PO box address where the managers sporadically show up to collect the mail. For U Solved sent several emails to both Elektro Lommelen and E-Techworld on Monday, but received no response.
