"Note: for www.ca.buy.com
I made a purchase on the 30th of October, 2006. Initially it was because my regular etailers were charging exhorbant amounts for shipping ($12-$20 for a small box "
"Never again will I turn over a credit card number to these morons. It took a month to cancel an order which I should have been able to cancel with an hour after they processed my CCr. Before you order from these amatuers, notice that they have no phone number available for you to call to complain about your order. I found other web sites from disgruntled BUY.COM customers who published all the phone numbers BUY.COM does not want you to have acces to. By the third phone call I demanded to talk to a supervisor since I could tell that nothing but complete BS was coming out of the CSR's mouth. After being on hold for 34 minutes (long distance call NO toll free number) I was finally was connected to a supervisor who assured me order would be cancelled and credit card credited. Three days later no credit to my credit card. Only when GOOGLECHECKOUT got involved did I get my money refunded. Keep in mind BUY.COM's support center is out of India and these people answering the phone have no idea how to handle a problem if it deviats from the script they are told to follow. Below is my email to GOOGLECHECKOUT outlining my problem:
>>After speaking with Buy.com regarding why after 4 days, my order still showed a status of being in process, I was told by buy.com that GOOGLECHECKOUT was having trouble charging my credit card even though the charge for my order hit my credit card account 4 days ago! Then I was told the product was on back order. Its apparent that GOOGLECHECKOUT has not integrated itself into other vendors systems, the end result being that I, the consumer have to play middle man to resolving billing issues. I will not be a test subject while GOOGLECHECKOUT fixes all the bugs in their system> CANCEL MY ORDER AND REFUND MY MONEY. Find other morons willing
to stand for a sub-standard, not ready to launch service.
>>Thank you for your response to helping me cancel my order with Buy.Com Just to inform you that after receipt of this email I did go to the Buy.com web site and Cancel my order. It has now been 9 days and my order still has not been cancelled and remains in a Cancellation Requested status. Buy.Com infers from their web site that if my order gets shipped before my Cancellation request is processed, then my order can not be cancelled.
Keeping my cancellation request on 'hold' for 9 days, certainly gives Buy.com a lot of discretion to NOT cancel my order.
Keep in mind that it initially took Buy.com four days to process my order through GOOGLECHECK.OUT only then to tell me the item was on back order. The reason it took Buy.com 4 days to tell me the order they received from me was NOT IN STOCK? They blamed GOOGLECHECKOUT telling me that GOOGLECHECKOUT had not processed my credit card, yet the credit card charge for GOOGLECHECKOUT showed up on my CC online account 5 minutes after I placed my order.
Foolishly, after I realized that a purchase with Buy.com and GOOGLECHECKOUT came with many caveats, I then did a search of Buy.com customer service issues and found a multitude of people who have similar unsatisfactory experiences with Buy.com and GOOGLECHECKOUT
By association, GOOGLECHECKOUT has now been indicted as offering a poor service as well. The fact that you have chosen to associate the GOOGLE name with Buy.com indicates a distinct shift in GOOGLE's priorities and shows a lack of due diligence regarding your selection of business partners.
The impression I have of GOOGLE is quickly changing and it is not for the better. It appears that GOOGLE is squandering their name in order to make a buck. I will not use GOOGLECHECKOUT again (nor BUY.COM), despite the incentives that your discounts offer and will be very wary of any GOOGLE branded services I see in the future.
Google may be getting bigger but I don't see them getting better.
"
"I've ordered from this company a few times. I don't know why I keep coming back because they are one of the most unresponsive companies I have ever dealt with online. I can promise you this, this is the last time I ever order from this site.
My latest order, which was placed on 10/19/2006, was supposed to have shipped about a week ago. I simply ordered a book (I knew better, but Buy.com was the only website I could find that had the book "In-Stock"). So, I placed my order and got the confirmation email from the company the very same day.
Well, that was the last I heard from them. Here it is, October 31st (well, it's actually 20 minutes before Oct. 31st here in Michigan), and when I review my order online, it is still listed as "Sent To Warehouse." Let me point out that the item was listed as being "In-Stock" when I placed my order, and their free shipping was supposed to take place within 7-9 days of placing my order.
Well, here it is 12 days later & I haven't heard from the company, nor have I received the item I purchased.
The last order I placed with the company (prior to this most recent one) was very similar. I placed an order for a memory card on March 10th, 2006. And I didn't receive the card at my house until 2 weeks later on March 24th.
DO NOT order from this company. They have horrible communication skills & never keep you updated on what's going on with your order as they perpetually list it as being "SENT TO WAREHOUSE." It is pathetic that they take almost 2 weeks to simply send out an "In-Stock" item. And when they do finally ship it, expect them to ship it out using 3rd Class mail which will delay your order even more (unless you want to pay a lot of extra $$$ for them to overnight your package to you which is obviously an option). Oh, and one final thing, the tracking number they gave me for my March 14th, 2006 order never worked. Whenever I checked USPS and entered the tracking number, I was shown a message stating they were expecting a package from Buy.com, but didn't have any more information regarding the shipment. This is an absolutely horrible company to deal with.
***Update: 11/1/2006 12:28am EST
Received an email from Buy.com regarding my order. Here's their standard reply:
"We apologize that the delivery of your order is taking longer than expected. Due to a setback from the manufacturer, item #39971217 on your order is currently on backorder. However, we do not have an estimated time of arrival. Thank you for your patience."
Let it be know that I had to contact THEM to find out the status of my order after it was late being shipped by almost a week. And as I indicated in my review, the object was CLEARLY listed as being "In Stock" when I placed the order. Suddenly, they have no idea when they'll be receiving any future inventory.
Looks like I'm going to have to cancel this item & special order it from Borders Books or something.
***Update (actually, this was resolved about 2 weeks ago).
I asked Buy.com to cancel my order since they didn't know when they'd be receiving any new stock. They told me they had to "review" my cancellation request and that it would take 10 days to determine if they would grant me my cancellation request. And, if the item came into stock while the review was still in process, they would ship the item out. Basically, they were holding me hostage and keeping me from ordering the item from another site.
Finally, I had to threat to report them to the State Attorney Generals Office (in their state & mine), report them to the Federal Trade Commission, & report them to the Better Business Bureau. After the threat, they finally cancelled my order.
If you want to file a complaint against these guys, here is their information & places to do it:
Buy.Com, Inc.
85 Enterprise Suite 100
Aliso Viejo CA 92656
Business Started: 10/01/96
File Open Date: 12/29/97
Principal Contact: Doug Pearce and Robert R. Price
Phone: ***-***-****
Toll Free: ***-***-****
Fax: ***-***-****
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION: http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/consumer.htm
CALIFORNIA ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE: http://ag.ca.gov/contact/complaint_form.php?cmplt=CL
CALIFORNIA BBB: http://www.labbb.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Business/CompanySearchResults.aspx?RedirectCode=7111&CompanyName=Buy.com&sm=
I hope this helps other who have been scammed by this unethical vendor."
"Typical Buy.com switch.
Order a "special" listed as in stock. Then when you ask where your order is it is out of stock and they tell you it's problems with the manufacturer. Yet I was charged for the item."
"I bought a 250GB Western Digital USB/Firewire External Hard Drive from them after I received an email. I ordered it the morning of Monday, October 23. It shipped that day from Fremont CA and I had it on my desk in NW Ohio by 7pm on Tuesday, October 24. By taking advantage of the buy.com Visa card offer I saved 30%. This experience was great for me. I got a BRAND NEW Western Digital 250GB hard drive for just over $71.00 total and it was ordered, processed, shipped, and delivered all in less than 36 hours. I don't know how they did it but it really happened. Perhaps the planets were aligned just right or everyone involved was just having a great day, but I definitely have to give buy.com an A+ on this transaction."
"Item page said "ships in under 2 days", except it took almost 5 days before they shipped it."
"Recently ordered an ATI HDTV Wonder PCI TV Tuner and have made several other purchases through buy.com. I have never had any problems with them, shipping is always quick. "
"The worst customer service! They sometimes have great deals,But beware! They have a customer service center in INDIA that can not help you.
I have sent both Buy.com and Google Checkout as many as 6 emails in 2 weeks and have not had one email back! They cancelled my orders for no reason and I have tried to talk to someone.... no luck. Buy from another store that really cares abou your business. "
"FYI, be careful when ordering from buy.com
I went to Buy.com to order Garmin Nuvi 660. It stated on Buy.com website, in stock and a great price of $749.99. I ordered and then paid via paypal.com. When paying via paypal, Buy.com gets the money right away.
Two days go by I hear nothing. I contacted their customer service department. Definitely outsourced to India or something. Lady barely spoke english. The lady tells me there is a problem with my order and it has been put on hold. Lady does not know why and says she is unable to find out. Keep in mind this is their CUSTOMER SERVICE NUMBER I called.
I then place a call to their corporate office(i think). Receptionist answers, she speaks english. Very nice lady, I tell her my problem and give her my order number. She puts me on hold. Another lady comes on the phone and says, she is unsure why there was a hold put my order, but she would take care of it and the item will ship.
Later that day I receive an email stating that my item is on backorder and it is unsure when it will ship. I call the corporate office again, talk to a guy by the name of Mike. Nice guy. I explain my situation, he gets my number, does some research and tells me that the item is on backorder until late November. AGAIN, when I ORDERED ON THEIR SITE IT STATE IN STOCK.
My money was refunded via paypal within two days, so it ended up good and I feel fortunate."
"I love buy.com, This is the example of best customer service I ever encountered. I bought product from buy.com and manufacturer denied rebate. When I contacted buy.com they covered the rebate. I did not see any online vendor is doing this. Not even amazon.com, I will buy the product from this site even if its 10-15 dollars expensive. Also, once buy.com shipped me wrong product they covered shipping and returns, and that too very prompt service, no frustrations, no worries. Excellent online store. I wish they come out will all good deals."
"I'm sorry to say that Buy.com has the WORST customer service of any online retailer I've ordered from! There's no phone number listed on their site and every e-mail takes 48 hours to get a response. When you do get a response, it's "tough luck". I will not order from Buy.com again, and I hope anyone reading this will not either. [PS - I did finally find the number when I googled "buy.com customer service" and here it is: ***-***-**** -- Good Luck!]"
"Impossible to contact customer service. On day 4 I send e-mail with question when my order will be shipped - got standard B/S e-mail next day. Good thing they canceled my order pretty quickly and I got it shipped from another company next day for just $2 more.
"
"On 8/21/06, I ordered a Philips Plasma TV 50PF7320A(purchased with an extended warranty),and a Philips DVD player. The TV was a "Free Shipping" item. The TV was "in stock" and would ship in "1 to 2 days". The DVD player came within days. It is now 10/19/06 and buy.com cancelled the TV saying "It is no longer available". The same set is still for sale on its web site ($50 less in fact) but now shipping is $199.00! I sent 6 E-mails. I called 3 times (their phone number appears no where on their web site - beware of that alone!) (Found it on a fraud website.) My lesson: Don't shop on price alone! 2 months of wasted
time and still don't have the set for football! I'm checking out B&H Photo! "
"Order never shipped. No customer service responses to email and no phone numbers available to contact the company. No reasons or updates. Just sits in a queue somewhere. Terrible."
"I was reluctant to order from buy.com after seeieng their low scores, though their prices were very attractive! First I ordered cheap stuff, then I transitioned to more expensive, and for the last year it is my favorite on-line store. No problems! Twice I dealt with RMA, the only difficulty was to get a phone number (maybe buy.com should consider adding this contact phone number on their website, b/c I have found it somewhere on the reviews websites...). I strongly recommend these guys, in my personal preference list they are at the same level with newegg or zipzoomfly or buydig.com. And I mean it!"