"This was one of the worst buying experiences that I have ever had online. I purchased a dvd box set from A&E and when the item arrived, the box that held the set was missing. I called A&E about this, and, they informed me that there was no box set with this collection, contrary to what was showing in the photo that accompanied the item. There offer to compensate me was, to credit my credit card for the cost of shipping the original order. When I declined there embarrassing offer, they instructed me to pack the merchandise back up in the box that it was shipped in, and use the enclosed mailing label...which I agreed to do. Little did I realize that I was going to have to pay the almost $4.00 cost of shipping the item back to them. And, when I investigated further, I discovered that only the cost of the item....and not the original shipping charges would be refunded. What this meant, was, that it was going to cost me almost $7.00 to return something...it was CLEARLY the fault of A&E that I was in this position to begin with. I will NEVER...EVER purchase ANYTHING from these people again. They should be ashamed of themselves."
"This was actually an order from shop.historychannel.com, but since I couldn’t find historychannel.com listed and The History Channel is part of A&E, I'm entering it here.
The quick and dirty is that we will never order from these people again, and for a whole variety of reasons that can only be touched on here.
Just SOME of the things that went wrong with what we believe was a placed order:
The DVD collection we wanted to order originally didn’t go into the cart at the posted price. We then tried to order the collection as part of a bigger combination, advertised for less than the collection by itself but it wouldn’t add to the cart. No explanation. Finally had to order the first collection (gift already promised to our son-in-law) at the price we didn’t want to pay. Website said order was placed and we’d be receiving an email shortly but more than a day later we have yet to receive that confirmation.
So we then try to call “customer service”: about a dozen calls. Ugly experience! Philippine based, all calls were too low a volume, many operators had too much accent to understand even if they talked loud enough to be heard (phone numbers ***-***-**** and ***-***-****). Strictly canned responses, and a very limited repertoire of those. Holding for a supervisor will likely be a ten minute wait if you don’t get disconnected. I tried emailing a complaint, only to get an automated response back that said without an order they can’t respond. I don’t have an order number to give them! I made a bunch of calls this morning to A&E corporate in NYC, but no help to be found there, either. These people either truly don’t care or truly don’t get it. I did find another email address on the website (also given in one of the call-on-hold messages), but that email was returned as undeliverable. I also found another phone number for customer service, but when I called them they said that A&E changed their customer service company effective October 15th, 2008 and they were no longer the people to talk to.
I suggest you try screaming into the wind instead. It’ll be just as productive, and the wait times are much less. As for me, I still don’t know what, if, or when I will receive the gift for our son-in-law, or how much I’ll really be charged when/if it happens.
UPDATE 2/6/09
Things have gotten no better! I continue to check the web (but there is no way of tracking your order or its status!) and calling. A caution I need to interject here: when you order be very careful about what you are being charged. As I’ve experimented with the site I have discovered numerous instances of promotions that once in your cart are not priced per the listing. If you want to make the call to the order number (just Philippine boiler-room operators), they’ll simply say the offer is “expired”. Yet the site will continue to show the promotions in an apparent attempt to sucker you in.
About my order: promise shipment by the 15th of January (posted on the web offer; there were no emails with dates to me). I have received a partial order, but three weeks after the promise shipment date, the order is still incomplete and the company tells you NOTHING. Calls to the Philippine boiler room result in only, “We’ll keep you informed”. No projected delivery date whatsoever. Ironically, the website shows the remaining needed DVDs as being in stock! They truly don’t care, and I already established no one at corporate in NYC cares either.
A&E produces some excellent shows, but purchasing them is a fool’s endeavor. On February 14th (30 days after promised shipment) I will re-evaluate the situation. Without confirmed shipment I will be filing a fraud complaint on ic3.gov and getting my credit card charges reversed. I wouldn’t take that attitude so readily if it weren’t for the dozen or more hours—plus the money—I have invested in this.
UPDATE 2/17/09
Order still not completed. As you may recall, this was a gift that had a promised ship date of by 1/15/09. The remaining part of the order continues to be in stock (has been for a month now); A&E "customer support" acknowledges this and also that it has not been shipped. They continue to say it is "escalated" and they will "keep me advised". This has been going on for over a month with no change in status or communication from anyone whatsoever. As noted earlier, you will have no luck contacting anybody unless you want to talk to a "boiler room operator" in the Philippines.
IC3.gov complaint for Federal internet fraud has now been filed.
UPDATE 2/20/09 (but posted on 3/06/09)
On 2/20/09 we received email notification that the remainder of our order had been cancelled. No reason was given; the remaining item was in stock and had been listed as such at the website for the prior few weeks. If we want it now we must pay the full non-sale price, more than $50 higher.
Any non-profane language could not describe my feelings toward these low life forms. Suffice it to say our gift giving, now more than a month beyond the promise date, has been altered. Someone, however, needs to alter these people out of business.
Interestingly, the email notifying us of the cancellation did not come from the same internet domain as A&E, the order, or what little response I did get from complaints. Instead, the domain was “seenon.com”. I will be checking reseller ratings for that domain and may well post something there.
Good luck to any fool wishing to order from A&E or History Channel. You have been warned!
"