Buy.com what a nightmare!



(Posted 07-07-05)

This is my experience with buy.com and I will say at this point in my life this has to be the worst customer service out there, period. Sure I’ve dealt with some bad companies over the years, but even if their responses had been out of line, lame or uncalled for, at least they ‘bothered to respond?’

In the early hours of Tuesday June 21st, 2005 I went online and visited the website of www.buy.com. Advertised was a 256 MB Lexar CompactFlash card. If you purchased this card online for $26.55 you could get free shipping along with two $10 rebates. This in time would bring the total down to $6.55. I ordered this item. Shortly after this, I went to bed. Lying there for a while I thought about what I had just done and I went back online again. After reading it through a second time it basically said;

“If the item is purchased from 6-20 to 6-21 then the rebates are valid.”

I thought about this for a moment and realized that this could mean from the first few seconds into Monday 6-20 to (24 hours later at) midnight of the same day, hence, ‘to 6-21.’ Remember this didn’t say 6-20 AND 6-21. I sent them an email regarding my concern from their website.

The following morning there was an automated acknowledgement in my inbox from buy.com. From then on and for the next week I emailed this company TEN TIMES. I did this twice from their website and eight more times from my own email account. Each time I got the same automated response stating that my email was very important to them and that they would be getting back to me!

Two days later on Thursday 6-23-05 I got an email informing me that my item had been shipped out. (By that point I’d already emailed them six times without any kind of response aside the automated ones.) In every email that I sent, I said that if the rebate was valid for Monday 6-20 only, then to cancel my order. I also mentioned that if it was sent and I refused the item at the time of delivery (and it was sent back to them), would a refund be credited.

That same day I called the only number I had for buy.com. I was put through to a representative in India called Bob. After explaining all the above he assured me that he would personally email the SAME rebate department (that I had tried emailing for two days and who still hadn’t responded to my inquiries). He also assured me that ‘if I refused the item at the time of delivery I would get a FULL refund.’ I asked him for that in writing and he said that another department would be emailing me that in writing within two days. When I asked him if I could be transferred through to the rebate department he told me that no such number existed. When I asked if I could talk to the CEO of the company he said that that wasn’t possible.

By Saturday 6-26-05 buy.com had billed my VISA for $26.55 for something that I hadn’t even got yet. Might I also add, for an item which they still hadn’t bothered to respond to me about.

Today is Saturday 11-5-05. To this day I’ve never received the CompactFlash card in the mail (to refuse) and not once has this disorganized company tried to call or respond to any of my TEN emails. In the end I had to take this up with my bank and VISA had to credit my account. What a way to run a business eh?

Regards and thanks for your reading, Johnny Anderson.

(Complaint filed with the Better Business Bureau Saturday 06-25-05)



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https://members.tripod.com/~johnnyspage/buy.html