"UPDATE: I canceled my order with Buy.com because I found it available on CircuitCity.com. I purchased it there, waited for confirmation--which came almost instantly--and then canceled my Buy.com purchase. The bundle came within 3 days of being shipped. In the future I'll avoid Buy.com's pre-order items.

I pre-ordered the MGS 4 Bundle from them because they were one of the first places to accept pre-orders. One would think that means they have more time to accumalate the product for the customers especially since they only took pre-orders for one and a half days.
I should have known that it was not going to end well since the information on the website challenged other vendors--they claimed the 80GB PlayStation 3 does not have any backwards compatibility; they also claimed that the manufacturer is THQ Inc. But I've ordered from them before without many problems--this is my first and last time pre-ordering with Buy.com.

I emailed them several times, the first time they claimed that since it was still under pre-order I would have to wait--I emailed them on the 13th, the release date is on the 12th. I emailed them a second time on the 14th, which they replied on the 17th saying that the pre-order is now back-ordered.

This poses a big problem since I am leaving the country in a week and the address it's being sent to will not be monitored. I emailed them my situation and they replied, "Oh you can change your shipping address on FUTURE orders, but ones that have been placed cannot be changed." Why not? The item is now considered "back-ordered" one can change the shipping address without any problems. If my shipment gets stolen, there is going to be hell to raise.

Now I'm stuck with them because all other vendors are sold out. Last time I will pre-order with Buy.com. They're pretty reputable for small $10-$80 items, but big items and pre-orders; they fail, big time.
"

"I purchased a 750GB Lacie External Hard drive from buy.com. Big mistake that was. I had to send back the defective drive which took about two weeks to process.

After contacting customer service about the status of the order through both email and phone I'm simply told that they do not have any information on the delay and that I should wait for the item to ship. When asked if they plan on restocking the item, they gave me the same reply which is ridiculous. They don't even know if they are restocking the item and yet they want me to wait for a replacement. This just goes to show their ignorance when it comes to customer service and their rating here proves it.

It has been over a month since I sent back the replacement and there is still no ETA."

"I bought a Cavalry 1TB hard drive that failed after two weeks. Buy.com only allows returns within two weeks of the order date. I had to deal with the manufacturer and pay for the return. I have received two more drives and they are bad.

The drive was also missing a stand and buy.com denied it came with one. The manufacturer says it does.

I wrote a review about my experience at buy.com but they would not publish my negative review. No reason is given, they just don't appear."

"Bought a bluetooth headset for 69.99 the NEXT DAY Buy.com lowered the price by 35%.
they are not willing to honor the price match policy.
The supervisor says i should return it (I would have to pay shipping) AND ORDER A NEW ONE."

"bought 1 gig kingston value ram from them. pretty good price prompt shipping and no real problems. shipping was a little flimsy."

"Recertified Westinghouse lcd tv 32h240s. found it was defective and shipped back to Westinhouse per their instructions. Did not know I would have to pay $87 shipping costs to return. Buy.com said if I would have sent it to them theywould have taken care of shipping cost. Will know better next time,if I ever do business with them again. Never buy a Westinghouse product again"

"I used to believe buy.com was an alright company. I would still say they are a decent company if you never have a problem. However, if you are like me and you do have a problem with an order you are in store for some fun.

First, they hide their phone number. Currently ***-***-**** gets you to a human, but they aren't useful. These customer service representitives might as well be computers. They don't speak english well, they do not deviate from their scripts, and they say anything to get customers to hang up.

The particular problem I called about was a package that never arrived. I submitted a claim for a lost package thinking this shouldn't be a big deal. The value of my lost package was a whopping $10.24. To make a long story short buy.com denied my claim and my appeal. To wade through this took 3 calls to fedex, 4 calls to buy.com and 2 emails to buy.com. I had to do a chargeback on my credit card because I was angry enough I would fight to the death over that $10.24 now.

The real kicker is buy.com claims their responsibility for all packages ends once they give the package to the carrier. Here is some of the email they send.

"I do understand you have reported non-receipt of your order and
apologize for the inconvenience. However, although we always try to do
everything in our power to resolve every customer issue, unfortunately
at this point we are unable to assist you further in this matter.

Per company policy: "Title to goods passes to you upon delivery to the
common carrier." (http://www.buy.com/corp/legal.asp). Basically this
says that once a product is in transit via the shipping carrier, the
ownership and responsibility of the product has passed from Buy.com to
the customer."

Purchase at your own risk!"

"They seem like they would be a good store. I was going to buy the Age of Conan Collector's Edition pre order and they had it for a little lower than retail price. After a while I decided to get a regular preorder from somewhere else for an unrelated reason. I cancelled my order (during the time where it was ok to do so) and went on my way.

On the 21st I got and email saying my order was on it's way. That was a tad annoying, but a thing to note is that it was a rare item, offered at the lowest price, and was shipping on time. I recieved the item and it was factory fresh, everything in pristine condition and speedy delivery. I got it only a day or two after my other pre order which had one day shipping.

The only thing that bugged me was the shipping of my item inspite of me cancelling it. And my debit card bounced from the purchase.

My advice, if you want to buy from here, just make sure it's where you want to buy from and you shouldn't have any troubles. Their order cancelling and a payment that ignores a bank account limit seems to be their only problem. And the fact your shipping isn't revealed until after you give them your payment info. But they have normal shipping rates.

I would try to buy from them again if I needed to. Prices are good."

"I didn't realize this was ordered through Buy.com; it came from Holabird Sports; but it arrived quickly."

"I placed my order on 5/27. On 5/30 it went to "in the shipping process" where it cannot be cancelled because it is being picked from the shelves, packaged, and stacked on the loading dock. Great, where are the shelves? How long does it take to get to the shelves? My order should say it is in processing, we don't have it in stock and we have charged your account! If you don't have the item, don't advertise it for sale. Very poor way to run a business and lose customers. Not a good thing when the economy is doing poorly."

"I will never order from BUY.com again after the way I was treated. I ordered wedding bands for my wedding, and for the shipping address put on my fiance's home address. I got an email 24 hours later stating that they couldn't ship to that address because it was not on file with my credit card company. I had to look everywhere on their site to find a phone numer, then I experienced long hold times, then was transferred all over the place before finally getting to a supervisor who I could barely understand because of her accent. I tried repeatedly to give them my home address which was on file with my credit card, but they refused to take it, saying there was no way they could modify an order once it had been placed. My main problem was the constant "don't care" attitude I received at all levels. There's $1500 worth of my business they missed out on, and a customer so upset at them that I'll never order again."

"I guess I was lucky. Thrilled with the service & delivery; product arrived as promised on the website. Numerous emails form them with tracking updates on the shipping. Product actually arrived way earlier than promised.

I will definitely buy from buy.com again."

"I've been a happy buy.com customer for years until I ordered an Asus Eee PC 900 from them. Their website showed the item to be in stock, but very few left, so I ordered it right away. I really wanted it quickly so I could have it for my vacation the following week, so I paid extra for Second Day delivery.
The next day they e-mailed me that it was sent to the warehouse. On the third day they e-mailed me that it was backordered.
All this time their website still showed the item as being in stock.
I feel that I should have notified by the very next day if the item wasn't available, especially since I paid for priority service. This is unforgivable.
I'll continue to use them for items that I'm not in a hurry to receive, but never again for something that I need soon."

"As a computer Systems Builder, I have access to directly purchase many components, but that requires that I purchase in at least minimum quantity to receive the best prices. I build mostly high-end gaming computers with many of the same preferred parts, so purchase qty. of each of these,- but have found that in some instances, as with the new Corsair CMPSU1000HX 1000W modular power supply, that it is possible to purchase only one for my personal build at near wholesale, or at least somewhat lower than MSRP from newegg.com,- or in this case, Buy.com, who had the absolute lowest price and immediate availability (substantially lower than newegg).

Having read so many negative reviews regarding Buy.com, I was hesitant to order from this company, but I read reviews carefully and 'between the lines', and know that while people will readily take time to post a bad experience, few will take time to post a positive one. Also, many of the complaints are for problems that could have been avoided if customers had read and followed this companies policies regarding receipt/return of items,- such as the person who claims to have ordered a 52" LCD TV and received a 47"; Buy.com's written policy states customer is to note any physical damage or discrepancy to the shipping packaging and refuse delivery,- or if no visible packaging damage, recipient is to have the delivery service persons unpack the TV on delivery and in the event of discrepancy or damage, that the customer is to refuse the delivery and the item will be repacked, returned/refund credited at Buy.com's expense.
That was probably worst case scenario cost/logistical nightmare for merchant (or the buyer in this case, because they failed to take appropriate action in refusing the delivery).

Buy.com is the brainchild of a simple guy from California, making near wholesale prices available to the public,- much like my own and many techs favorite online reseller,- newegg.com. With thin profit margins, these merchants either have to purchase huge lot quantities of product or contractually commit to minimum numbers of product in order to receive quantity discounts; in doing so, their customers reap the benefit of being able to purchase at near wholesale prices. In some instances, such as with large LCD televisions, the manufacturer of the product will directly drop-ship to the merchants customers, which means that i.e. Buy.com does not have the infrastructure or facilities to directly handle return of such items and requires that customers address any problems upon delivery of the product with the manufacturers shipping carrier and the manufacturer (a fact that they outline with absolute clarity in their product receipt/return policy). Once the customer accepts delivery of the television, they are the responsible party for dealing with any warranty service, with the manufacturer.

If buyers want the convenience of returns and easy customer service, they should shop at BestBuy [not Buy.com] or another retailer, as these services are built into their selling prices .In most cases, Buy.com actually provides reasonable cust service within its policy limitations, to avoid costly problems often caused by the customer that Buy.com would have to absorb and eventually add to their sale prices (meaning the rest of us get to pay more because of their ignorance). Buy.com could improve on allowing for management to determine some adjustments based on fairness outside of rigid policy in extenuating circumstances. Newegg has a model for cust service that Buy.com would do well to emulate, but that would require that they use their own local fairly paid staff, NOT farm outside to contractors in Bangladesh who read [in poor English] from a rigid flowchart on "policy" like a script,- which DOESN'T work in many unavoidable real world situations that will inevitably occur due to no fault of the customer, and result in a frustrating, often futile waste of time, requiring Credit Card Investigations and Chargebacks, and probably alienation and loss of those customers and their referals forever.

This order went flawlessly, from placement to processing,- quickly and competently packed and shipped. I would purchase again from this merchant, and would recommend that others not be put-off by the negative commentaries, many of which were clearly at least partially problems due to the customers actions or lack thereof in appropriately addressing foreseeable issues covered by the merchants receipt/return policies.

With the exception of large LCD TV's (which I DO NOT recommend be purchased from any source other than a reputable manufacturer authorized retailer with reasonable no penalty return policies for defective product), I would encourage those looking for bargain prices on the same quality merchandise they would pay considerably more elsewhere for, to consider Buy.com a reliable merchant; - there are few instances where you will not be fully protected by your Credit Card coverage in the event that the merchant does something that causes inability to comply with its policies (such as failing to respond to your timely request for providing RMA within sufficient time for you to honor merchants stated 14 day return policy),- wherein your Credit Cards protections will ALWAYS supercede any of the merchants disclaimers,- requiring only that you document your good faith attempts to comply with the merchants return policies,- crediting you with a provisional chargeback pending investigation, and leaving the merchant responsible for recovering or forfeiting their merchandise. If this is over your head, you would be well advised not to shop online.

BTW, Buy.com appears to have an eBay store under the obvious name "Buy", that has a GREAT feedback record and lists ALL of the identical receipt/return policies and shipping price structure. Some may feel more comfortable shopping thru that outlet with a little more direct oversight, using PayPal,- as I may in the future. Hope this review is helpful."

"I received a wrong order and when I immediately contacted them and returned the item it took a whole month for me to receive the correct replacement item. The price was good but the service is questionable."