"Updated address and placed an order using a $10 off coupon. Order had incorrect address listed (despite updated already), so I emailed them to update it. No response. I wait a day, and realise that if it gets shipped I wont get it. No response from buy.com. Requested to cancel the order. Email several hours later saying the order is cancelled. Another email five days later saying they have shipped the order minus the $10 off coupon! And they have shipped it to the wrong address.

Tried calling them but couldn't get a live person. This is terrible business practice. On further inspection it shows that they ONLY cancelled the $10 off coupon, then said they were trying to cancel the main order. Then they wait a few days so you think it's cancelled and ship it anyway.

I am working through my credit card company to get a refund, as I cannot reach a person at buy.com to talk to, and my emails go unanswered. Absolutely the worst company I have ever dealt with."

"Since ordering a Sandisk Ultra II CF card on July 29, I have had only trouble with buy.com. At first they said it's on back order, with no idea when it will be in stock again, and then when I asked to cancel, they said, it already entered shipping process. They promise that if in the end I do not want the order, I can just refused the package no quesitons asked. Finally after three weeks, it was shipped, of course I refused the shipment, and not it has been more than two weeks since they receive the shipment back, but I still have not gotten credit back yet. My advice is never to buy from them again. Their customer service is worst I have experienced, and their phone operator in India just do not handle the job well at all. "

"Beware Buy.com's free shipping. My order (including the status information) really was delayed about a week before shipment. I tried to cancel, and three days later Buy.com shipped my order anyway (after canceling my discount code). Their customer support suggested I refuse the package when it arrived, which I did. A month and several e-mails later, I still have not received credit for it. Read the fine print on their shipping before you order."

"Despite past negative experience (and a review I posted here before), I've made a mistake of ordering from them again.

Ordered an item listed as 'In stock.' They charged my credit card right away (of course!). After 9 days of silence, I asked for status update, at which point they told me, the item was on back order.

When trying to cancel the order, I was told that it would take 305 business days to approve (sic!) the cancellation and then another week to get a refund. After numerous calls to the (outsourced, of course) customer service and repeated requests to talk to the manager, got my order cancelled and refund posted.

I will not do the same mistake for the 3rd time..."

"I order a TV Wonder tuner card on Friday, July 23. On Monday, I got the email that the card is not available so I decided to request to have the order cancelled. On Thursday, I didn’t hear the status of the order so I assumed the order would be cancelled because it had been 4 days since I requested for cancellation. I just went and got the card from a local store which is even a couple dollars cheaper. On Friday, I got an email that the item was shipped that day (Friday) and they got my cancellation request too late. What’s this? Is this a joke? I request the cancellation since Monday…? I emailed them a couple times on how to return the item. They gave me 2 options (1) Simply reject the item and they will taking the rest with no question asked (2) Accept the item and called for RA #.

I just rejected the item and the card was delivered back to their place on August 10. I get no credit to my credit card so far even after several emails The last email I got from them was that “they’re requesting for credit and IF approved….”. That email was on August 18. I email on September 1 again and threaten to do the charge back with my credit card and file a complaint with BBB but they never response to my email now. Thus, I will take these two actions later on.
"

"If you'd prefer not to read my long story, let me sum it up - Buy.com is a dishonest, misleading company with pitifully poor customer service. There are many other companies out there who are above-board and helpful. Give your business to one of those companies and save yourself the hassle of dealing with buy.com.

I am a police captain at a municipal police department and on Thurs, Aug 26, I ordered 52 books of the same title from buy.com. These books were for a promotional process and the receipt of them was needed quickly. The website showed that they had 52 books in stock and I selected the quickest shipment option which was 2-day shipping. Thus, I expected to receive these books no later than Tues, Aug 31st - the day we were scheduled to issue the books to the promotion candidates.
Tues, Aug 31st came around and no books had arrived. Late in the day, a shipment of only 15 books came in. Wed, Sept 1, I tracked down a customer service number (had to call information because buy.com conveniently does not list a telephone number on their website - the number, for those interested, is: ***-***-****). I called and talked to "Bob" (which I would bet is not his real name). "Bob" said that there would be a delay in shipping of all the other books and he had no idea why the site said they were all in stock (although he confirmed that it did in fact say all 52 were in stock) and gave me the option of cancelling my order, along with submitting a credit for my credit card and a credit for the 2-day shippingL he said this would take 2 days to process. "Bob" told me that if any books arrived via UPS after my cancellation, that all I had to do was refuse to accept. I checked my account on the website later that day and it showed my order was cancelled.
Fri, Sep 3rd - 3 shipments came in on Thursday. All were refused. I checked my account page on the web-site. Now it does not show that my order was cancelled, and instead, shows the purchase of 52 books with 2-day shipping. Another call to customer service to speak to "Aaron" (again, very doubtfully his real name). "Aaron" says that there can not be any credit to my credit card until all the refused shipments have made it back to the warehouse. A request to speak to "Aaron's" supervisor led me to "Kenny Smith" (alas, once again, a suspicious name), who gave me the same run-around. Not to mention, if the books somehow don't make it back to the warehouse, I will have to file a claim!!! "Kenny" said there is no way they can credit my account right now. "Kenny" had no response for why "Bob" told me that in two days my account would be credited the cancelled books. "Kenny" said it was a misunderstanding.

This saga, I'm sure, is not over. I anticipate having to call them once again to get something finalized.
Amazon.com also let me down on this order, but not to the extent that buy.com did.
Barnes and Noble, however, are coming through for us.
"

"Listed as shipping on 8/13/2004. Still has not arrived. No response from BUY.COM"

"They refused to cancel my order even within the 30min window that their site guarantees. Although the product didn't actually ship until a full 8 business days later, they did not cancel it. There is no customer support number accessible on the website and email support is atrocious.

They also never refunded my credit card. I am out $90 and so am talking to my credit card company to help me rectify the situation.

Please do not buy from Buy.com. It will only be bad in the end. Do not play Russian Roulette!"

"I ordered several DVD's (which were by my surprise *cheaper* than deepdiscountdvd.com, which is where I order sometimes). I have ordered many times over the years from Buy.com and have never had a bad experience! "

"Avoid Buy.com like the plague. To cut a very long story short, I ordered a Canon G5 digital camera from Buy.com on July 27, 2004. There was a $30 instant rebate. The same day of my order, I e-mailed Buy.com to double-check I could return the item. I had already checked the Returns page but couldn’t see any reason why I couldn’t return it but e-mailed Customer Support to make sure.

Two days later (07/29/04) I get an e-mail telling me “…product is currently unavailable from the Manufacturer. You can view our return policy online at…”. Unavailable from the manufacturer? Then how can other vendors get it? Instead of actually answering my question, they lazily pointed me to the Returns page, which I already looked at. I do not consider that an answer at all.

After going back and forward on what their terminology means, I eventually assumed the order cancelled. After all, if the item is unavailable, why keep the order open? Wouldn’t it be reasonable to assume the customer would go elsewhere? The next e-mail I get on 08/05/2004 is Buy.com telling me my order has shipped! I e-mailed Buy.com twice requesting my order be cancelled, to supply me with an RMA and asked if I can refuse shipment when the box arrives.

I got replies saying the order was cancelled (a bit late now, eh?) but nothing about refusing shipment on my order. I e-mailed twice more about refusing shipment, this time no replies. Anyway, on the 08/10/2004 I shipped the box back at my expense, they got the box the next day and I was told via e-mail a credit was going to be requested on 08/16/2004.

The story so far? I’m still waiting on the credit to my credit card. I’ve e-mailed half a dozen times, no reply. I’ve called 15 times over the last few days and suspect I’m being transferred to India each time. I can barely make out what’s being said due to the thick Indian accent. Every time I’ve called I’ve been told their computer is being “upgradation” and is down, I assume the person meant “upgraded.”

I’ve written a letter to the CEO and complained about their appalling service. For reference, their phone number is ***-***-****. When you call, just wait on the line for the operator. If you press 0 or another non-recognized key they eventually hang up on you. When you get to the operator, ask for Customer Service, then you’ll be put through to India.

I’m disgusted. Buy.com has had the digital camera for over three weeks now and on August 16th I was told they had requested a credit, so far, nothing. The credit is for over $500 USD, not an insignificant amount. I personally would avoid them completely. Buy.com have gotten really bad recently. A year or so ago, they were great, that was then, this is now.

Adrian Neilson.
"

"I placed an order for RAM on 7/31/04. After several days of of no shipment I contacted Buy.com to determine status. Only then did they tell me that it was backordered. I then tried to cancel my order both via email and on their website. I was unsucessful and after two weeks I got notice that my RAM had been shipped, even though I did not want it! Rather than return the RAM and risk not having my credit card credited I kept it. A lesson learned. NEVER buy from Buy.com again! Very poor cusormer service. Beware."

"Buy.com will not cancel my order and thus is holding my bank account hostage,

I ordered a USB to RS232 adapter cable at 6:00AM CST on Thu 12-Aug-2004. Order number 19748378. Website claimed it was in stock. It should have shipped in 1-2 business days. I used my credit card so they had instant access to the money. By Monday the item still hadn't shipped so I asked them to cancel the order. They said it might ship before they could cancel it. It is now 01-Sep-2004 (15 business days later) and I don't have the cable and the order is still pending. I have sent at least 7 emails asking them to cancel the order. Their canned response is the following ...

"We apologize for the difficulties you have experienced with your order. Unfortunately, item#10273693 was delayed in the fulfillment process.

We do not yet have an estimated shipping date. You will, however, receive a shipping confirmation email as soon as your order does ship."

What a laugh. Obviously any normal customer wouldn't put up with such lousy service. There is no way to talk to them on the phone. I think if I could talk to them I could get things fixed but I cannot find any way to phone them. So my last option was to open a new bank account and move all my money to it. What an inconvenience! I haven't closed my old bank account but it is essentially being held hostage by Buy.com. I refuse to put any money into the account until they cancel the order. They apparently will not cancel the order. Because Buy.com didn’t ship on time and because they refuse to cancel the order I want to take some further action. Does anyone know if Buy.com’s actions would be considered breach of contract? If anyone knows to whom I should report them please let me know.

****@****"

"Absolutely the worst online shopping experience to date. Received an incorrect item and they put shipping a replacement on hold for an 'investigation'. Three weeks later, no item, no refund, nothing. Emails indicated I should open another order for the item while the other was being researched. Not a chance. Reconsidered the purchase of printer consumables from them to the tune of $2000 a month and went with another online vendor. Burned three times by this vendor now and would not even take delivery of free merchandise from them..."

"I ordered a memory card from this company two months ago. Before I ordered it, I called them to make sure what type of memory card is fitted to my digital camera. They said since I have an Olympus camera I should buy a XD card. So, I ordered it. However, after I received the product, I found something wrong. The card is not the same type as that in the camera. I called Olympus company to ask what is going on. They said they have changed their memory card type from Smartmedia to XD, and my camera does not work with XD, but with Smartmedia. I called buy.com to exchange the XD card with Smartmedia. Their customer representative told me that yes they will do that and I need to wait 3 to 5 business days to hear from them. A week passed without hearing anything from them. I called them and they told me the same. I waited another week. Again, for the next week I had not heard anything from them, not even an email.

This pattern was repeated several times, so a month had passed without any result. Whenever I called them, the customer representatives and managers told me the exactly same thing like a mantra that they also waits to hear from their “return department” about my case. A month ago when I called them, one of the managers, Arrick, promised me that whether or not the result is promising, he will inform me the result in any case. However, another month passed without hearing from them and the manager Arrick.

Today I called them to complain this. A supervisor in the customer service department said that the product is not refundable under any circumstance. So, I told him two things I feel uncomfortable: First, when I ordered the product, one of the sales representative in the company confirmed that the XD card is right product. However, he made a mistake. Secondly, their customer representatives kept telling me that my case will be taken care of by the return department and all I need to do is just to wait. But, suddenly, now they change their word and say that from the beginning my case is not acceptable and the product cannot be returnable or exchangeable under any reasons. I feel they are doing a kind of game with me. I don’t understand what kind of customer service is like that. Whenever I called them, I needed to explain from the first story about my case every time. Don’t they have any system that can save a complaint of a customer? Their customer representative doesn’t know what they are doing. I checked with rip-off reports for them. There are so many complaints against them, which suggests that they are doing a bad business practice.
"

"I placed an order for over $200, sometime later I received an email that my order was cancelled with no explanation why. I quickly emailed them back to find out why. Several weeks later with no reply I sent another email. Finally after the third email over a month later, I got a response. They claim my credit card information was incorrect and that their "corporate" tried contacting me several times, which is an outright lie. They then proceeded to explain to me how to pay with a credit card. Then they simply said to put the order through again. No apology, or even understanding of the poor customer service on their behalf. They seemed to expect me to pay more for the original order I placed as well. Very poor business practice. I normally give a place a second chance but not these guys."