"Ordered a simple APC surge protecter for ethernet. Item was in stock and "allegedly" shipped promptly (or rather the USPS was notified of an intent to ship but it was never shipped anywhere near my order date.) I picked the free shipping since odds are it was shipping from LA (it was) and I live in the city. After ten days of not getting the item I was finally allowed by buy.com system to submit a claim for the item. Didn't hear back from the company for a couple of weeks at which time the item finally magically showed up on October 7th. Atrocious customer service. Coupled with the horrendous "customer support" (or lack thereof) I would NEVER shop here again. It's too bad as years ago they were my favorite etailer. Just a disaster now."

"I ordered a wireless access point for my computer from Buy.com on 9/24/05 and was promised prompt delivery. On 10/2, I received a cancellation notice that my order was not available. I checked their website and found the product in stock at a higher price. I called customer service (someone in India!) Who continually said, "I Understand your situation, however you will need to talk to a supervisor". Of course there were no supervisors in all of India or California! She was not able to do anything. I was cancelled because they wanted to charge a higher price! I will never purchase anything from this store again!"

"I ordered a Lexar 512MB SD card from Buy.com which came with a Buy.com $10 mail in rebate. Well, after I sent it they claim I never sent in the invoice even though I did. They use Continental Promotions Group to process rebates and that company specializes in rejecting rebates.

DO NOT BUY FROM THEM IF IT IS A BUY.COM REBATE AS YOU WILL LIKELY NEVER RECIEVE THE REBATE."

"Very satisfied. I recieved the part fast and in very good condition. Installed the part and it works great."

"This used to be one of my favorite Internet superstores. I’m not sure what had happened to them, but they just don’t seem to care about their customers anymore. I’ve been a loyal customer for almost three years now, and have made a good amount of electronics/computer purchases through them. In reviewing the message boards here, it appears that I am not the only one who’s been having issues with Buy.com. My latest problem is as follows:

September 27, 2005 - In preparation for a relative’s birthday, I ordered a digital camera online via Buy.com. At the time, the item showed as “backordered”. I called customer service* and they told me that the item should be in stock very soon; therefore I ordered it with 2nd day air delivery.

*Buy.com’s customer service is being outsourced out to India and the service is absolutely terrible. These folks have absolutely no authority to do anything in resolviing issues. All they do is apologize and tell you that they will forward the issues onto corporate. Absolutely useless!

September 28, 2005 – I logged onto Buy.com’s website and found the camera to be “in stock”. I was extremely excited since I had it shipped 2nd day air and expected that I would be receiving the item by the 30th.

September 29 – I logged onto Buy.com’s website to check on my order status. It is still showing “Sent to Warehouse”. The camera is still “in stock”.

September 30 – I logged onto Buy.com’s website to check on my order status. Again, it is still showing “Sent to Warehouse”. The camera is still “in stock”.

October 1 – I logged onto Buy.com’s website to check on my order status. Again, it is still showing “Sent to Warehouse”. The camera is still “in stock – very low quantity”.

October 2 – I logged onto Buy.com’s website to check on my order status. Again, it is still showing “Sent to Warehouse”. The camera is still “in stock – very low quantity”.

October 3 – Again, status still showing “Sent to Warehouse” and item “in stock – very low quantity”. I called customer service and the call was again routed to India. I spoke to a CSR and she told she has no idea why my item had not shipped yet. I then asked her if I could go ahead and cancel and re-order, since it appeared that my original order is just hanging in the queue somewhere. She then proceeded by telling me that I cannot cancel the order; however, the item should be shipped today or tomorrow. I expressed my displeasure of paying for 2nd day air shipping and not receiving anything after a week. This is totally unreasonable since they have the item in stock.

October 4 – I checked my order status online and it was still in “Sent to Warehouse Status”; however, the item on Buy.com is in “sold out” status. I again called customer service and this time the rep told me that my order has been placed on “backorder”. I asked him why is it that they’ve had this item in stock for an entire week and they’re unable to ship one out to me. Again, all they do is apologize and offer no value in return. He then tried to tell me that it had been out of stock but the computer did not update their web pages. I nearly fell off my chair. Treat your customers with respect, don't make up stupid lies. I then asked to speak to the supervisor and again, all he did was apologize and offered to personally keep an eye out on my order. I then asked him about another order I am having problems with and he told me that his system is down and asked that I call him back in 15 minutes. I called him back after 20 minutes, and the customer services rep told me he had left for the day. I then asked if I could speak to another supervisor, and he told me none of the supervisors will be in until tomorrow.

The relative’s birthday is in two days and I still do not have the camera in hand. I can’t cancel my order and Buy.com can’t tell me when they will get the camera to me. My guess is that they “get you” when you order something that’s on back order. Since you have no option of backing out of the sale, they continue to sell what they have in inventory and take care of you later.

**UPDATE**

It's now October 11th and after numerous calls to their customer service center in India; I give up. I think I'll start shopping elsewhere and just reject the package when they decide to deliver it.

Suggestions for others who are having problems with Buy.com:

1) Don’t bother with emails; they are useless.
2) Call customer service at 1-***-***-**** and don’t bother dealing with regular reps. They have no more access or authorization than what you see on your desktop at home. India has no authorization to take care of you. Ask for the supervisor!

I will update this posting everyday with the latest status.
"

"Ordered on 9/27/05.
Send to warehouse...on 9/30/05 # days after my initial order. I send email to Customer Service requesting a timeframe for shipment. After getting no reply, I attempted to cancel the order the night of 9/30.
Received email 10/01/05 from CS, "Just wanted to let you know that the item(s) have shipped and are on the way to your door."
On 10/04/05 still no tracking info except " The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper or shipping partner on October 04, 2005 to expect your package for mailing. This does not indicate receipt by the USPS or the actual mailing date."
So, after I attempted to cancel my order, I was told that it was shipped when in fact it was not. They just told me that to keep me from canceling the order. I will not ever do business with this shady company again.
Finally received the item on 10/7/05.
"

"10/3/05: My order shows "sent to warehouse", so i called CS this morning to find out whether my order will ship today.. i found it odd that not only did i have to verify my full name and address, but also my telephone number and email address (i got into an argument with one of them because i gave a wrong tel #.. apparently knowing my own name, address, and email address, wasn't enough..

Anyways.. i just wanted to find out if my order will ship today and I couldn't understand one thing the guy said.. apparently CS is being outsourced to India so that makes sense.. after i had him repeat it a 3rd time.. seems like he was just reading off some scripted piece of paper about processing time.. he might as well just asked me when i placed the order and that's it since pulling up my account obviously means nothing.

Anyways.. crossing my fingers that i will not be a victim of buy.com like others have reported and that i will get my items. (not giving them a rating for a few more days until i see what develops, although CS def gets a D)

Update 10/4/05 AM: Only 1 of 5 items I ordered in the same order has shipped.. the others still show "sent to warehouse"

Update 10/4/05 PM: The rest of my order shipped, fedex shows it'll be here tomorrow, so i'm happy. Aside from lousy customer service in that they hardly speak english and aren't very helpful nor informative, they did a good job getting my items shipped out in good time from warehouses very close to my home address. I will revise my rating from don't know when i make all items are received as ordered and none need to be RMA'd.

Final Update: All items were received in pretty good timing and good condition. Although part of my order took a whole extra day for processing, it left from a warehouse close by that i received it the following day. Everything seems to be working; no defective merchandise. I do realize that if something turns out to be defective, it will likely be hell to RMA it back to buy.com (judging by other reviewers and their experiences)"

"I have no idea what happened to Buy.com. They used to be on a par with Amazon but now they are just plain awful.

I ordered a bluetooth headset Sept 12th and paid via PayPal. After about a week I checked the staus and it still said "Sent To Warehouse" which I am only too aware is buy.com speak for "Out Of Stock". I wrote and asked why the website had said it was in stockj when it wasn't. The reply was that it was indeed now out of stock and I could cancel and reorder when it came in.

This has been a familiar dance with my past three orders with buy.com. I have had to cancel ALL of then for the same reason. If I call I am transfered to India. We all know how that goes.

The difference here was that I had already paid via PayPal and thought my refund would be instant. Nothing came. I contacted Buy.com and they assured my my CREDIT CARD had not been charged. Considering I paid from PayPal funds this didn't please me. I wrote agin and told them it came from PayPal. The reply was that I wasn't to worry as my PayPal account hadn't been charged!!! I wrote back and asked if they had any idea what PayPal is and how it works and told them I HAD paid. I got no reply.

I had to file a complaint with PayPal to get my money back which took about 5 more days. No follow up from Buy.com at all.

Buy.com has become yet another internet swindle site, which is a shame 'cause it used to be great."

"Place order on Monday to be ship fedex express on 9-30-05 check status of my order ( STILL IN WAREHOUSE )"

"Poor service. The item I ordered was listed as "Sent to Warehouse" for 4 days. Sent email asking for status, because item was suppose to ship in 1-2 bus. days, and was told the item was "sent to warehouse." Not very helpful.

The "free shipping" doesn't compare to other vendors. They sent the item out USPS. No other online company that I do business with uses USPS.

The price was good, but I got what I payed for...which is very slow service. If you don't mind waiting a couple of weeks for an order, buy.com is for you."

"First time buying well i should say attempting to buy from them and am very dissatisfied. I went through the steps of ordering correctly paying through paypal and recieved both a reciept from paypal and an order confirmation from buy.com, 3 hours later i get an email saying my order has been cancelled because i did not complete the transaction (which was completed). The email stated that previous emails were sent asking to complete the steps of the transaction (not true the only email i got stated my transaction was complete and i could track my order from their website). The email also stated that no money has been taken from my paypal account(which again was not true $80 was taken from my account). After emailing their customer service asking why my order was cancelled (since this is the only option to contact them)i received an email with no info. why it was cancelled in the first place or wether i wanted to reopen the order rather stating my paypal account has been reimbursed and it will take about 3 days to take effect . Thank goodness for that but i did not want to cancel the order, i dont send a payment through paypal to get it right back. Just a big waiste of my time and i was def. looking forward to the order."

"This was my 5th purchase from this store, I've been very happy with their prices and products and you just can't beat their free budget shipping on any product. Plus since they send out 10% coupon codes all the time, combine it with a rebate and you usually get a great deal."

"No problems what so ever. My item was a great price and had free shipping. I received it in a timely manner. I've purhcased form them in the past and have never had any problems."

"I am attempting to place an order, and being stopped at every turn.

Their price on an X-FI Platinum wasn't so good, but between a $15 coupon and $30 off for signing up for their credit card it was great. No where did it say you couldn't combine offers, and even entered them both for me. Then, when I went to check out it told me I had to chose one or the other. That would have been nice to know 30 minutes ago.

Anyway, it was still a good price with free shipping. However, on check out they charged me for shipping. It says to get free shipping I have to select "budget shipping" which takes NINE DAYS where most sites give free 2 day. Well, I can't select budget or even standard shipping as they are greyed out, leaving me with the charge of $14.05-$21.46 for my "free" shipping.

I figured I'd call customer support and straighten this all out. Wrong. There is no phone number and they are ignoring my email. I am TRYING to GIVE them MY MONEY, and they are making it impossible! What will their service be like when I have a problem, or want my money back? I may just screw it and pay $15 more to get my product and be sure I'll get it rather than mess around with these fools.

So much for an enjoyable shopping experience.

[Update]

I decided to bite the bullet and order from buy.com anyway, even if they forced me to go 2-day. It gave me an error when I ordered, wanted me to fill out my address again, and then my free shipping showed up. So, I placed my order again, and it told me to log in again, so I did, and then placed my order. It accepted it that time. Hopefully 1 and not 3 soundcards will show up at my door soon. According to their fine print, if I choose budget shipping it takes up to 9 days to get here, but it also takes 3-5 days for them to put my order in a box, instead of 1-2 days for other forms of shipping. So, it could be 2 weeks, but others (plants?) have claimed to get their order in 2 days, so we'll see.

Oh, and they never replied to my emails. Lets hope I have no problems...

[Update]

Been 48 hours, status is still "sent to warehouse." I called their service line 1-***-***-**** and spoke to a new Enlgish speaker in India. I tried change the shipping address (a friend pointed out it would be more convenient to have it shipped to work, where I would be) but they can't change anything once the order is placed. He also said my order should ship today.

[update]

No it didn't ship that day, but it did ship about 30 hours after that call, and it showed up Oct 4, or 8 days after my order. So, over all not bad: I got my order and I got an ok price. So, besides the service and being evasive about coupons and shipping methods, I'm somewhat satisfied."

"Indifferent cutomer service! I placed an order on 8/18, product went out of stock shortly after. Came back in stock on 9/8, still no delivery. I cancelled the order on 9/12. Now, 9/26, cancellation is still "in progress", which is ridiculous, since they could cancel it with a key-stroke if they wanted to. Instead, they decide to keep me waiting for a delayed back-order for a product that shows "in stock" on their site. All that the customer service emails always say is "we forwarded your cancellation request, it can take a few days, however the order might still be shipped in the meantime".
Basically, I can't order anywhere else, since I may end up with two items of the same product. And cust. service won't do anything else for me. I used to be a happy, returning customer for years, but I decided to never buy there again from now on."