"5/29/2013: This review will be updated as CostCaptain responds to my order. As many other reviewers noted, my hypothesis is: They are selling items at a discounted price that they do not have in stock, nor perhaps ever will have in stock. They charge your card immediately, and then hold on to your money until you complain enough to get a refund. Maybe they make money off of interest from holding your money, or perhaps some people forget and they may get to keep that money. And maybe the good reviews here are just a sham. Keep in mind, BBB gives CostCaptain an F (http://www.bbb.org/atlanta/business-reviews/computers-hardware-software-and-services/costcaptain-in-atlanta-ga-7004935).

Or maybe we are all wrong, and CostCaptain is legitimate. This review will tell my story as a customer.

On 5/28/2013, I ordered an Acer Projector (bit.ly/159T45g). I bought from Cost Captain, because their site makes it appear that they have it in stock and available for order (while every other site I have looked at appears to be out of stock). Additionally, they offered the item for nearly $100 less than the MSRP (while most other sites are selling it for close to the MSRP amount).

After placing the order, my credit card was immediately charged, and I received an email confirmation of the order. I then started looking at the bad reviews here, and started to become concerned that I also fell into this trap, and will have lost $700 waiting on a non-existant good.

But I could be completely wrong about this. So, today, 5/29/2013, I sent them an email asking whether they had my product in stock, and if they did not, to please cancel my order and refund my money. I will wait a day to hear back from them.

Right now, I give them 3 Stars. That will go up or down according to how they handle my order. Here are some possible outcomes:

1) If they have the product in stock, and deliver it to me in a timely fashion (about a week), I will change this review to 5 Stars and edit it to say that I was completely wrong about CostCaptain -- and that the bad press they receive here is completely unfounded.

2) If they do not have the product in stock, they email me back within the day and tell me that they have canceled the order and issued a refund. That refund should be returned to me in as timely of a manner as they charged me for the product (immediately). If this happens, the review will remain 3 Stars (because they should have told me at the time of order whether it is out of stock or not (as other ecommerce sites do)).

3) If they do not have the product in stock, and I am not given timely and honest correspondence and consequent refund of money (with absolutely no hassle to me), I will change the review to 1 Star and follow up with BBB (and further actions as I deem necessary).

Stay tuned. I am a real person, and honest. I will not delete away any of this if my suspicions are proven inaccurate or accurate -- I will only add to these comments.

*******

Update 5/29/2013: ****@**** replied to this reseller rating review with this message:

"Hi Jay, I noticed you have placed your order yesterday and it is currently being worked on in the shipping queue. We'll keep you posted. Best, Matt"

Note... this message implies I will get the product I ordered, without definitively saying that is the case. A few minutes later, my email to support asking whether or not they had the item in stock was replied to:

"Hi,
We do apologize for the delay and inconvenience! Availability is limited and we are working with the manufacturers to secure inventory, however, there is a shortage on a lot of high demand items. Since we cannot provide you with the item or an ETA for the item, we have cancelled your order and issued a full refund. Please allow several business days for your financial institution to process this transaction.

Thanks,
Customer Care"

So, I will not get my order, because CostCaptain was taking orders for products they do not have and do not know when they will receive. This latter email seemed honest, and I appreciate that. But I will still have to wait "several business days" to get back my money for something that I should not have been charged for because the product never existed?

(Also note, that even though CostCaptain has admitted that they do not have the product and do not know when they will get it, they still have the Acer H6510BD MR.JFZ11.00A for sale with no out of stock disclaimer.)

I am marking my rating to Two Stars for now. If I get my money back by 5/31/2013, it will go back up to Three Stars. If I still do not see my money refunded by 6/7/2013, I will drop the rating to One Star. Whatever happens, I do not believe I personally can trust CostCaptain to have any product they have for sale, or ship anything I order. And will not order from them again.

Will update again when I get my money back.


********
Update 5/31/2013: Received my money back. I'll move the rating to three stars. All in all an annoying process that would have been avoided if CostCaptain just told me that they did not have stock. "

"It took 3 days to process my order and another 2 days to get the product to the carrier. Unacceptable."

"The items I ordered were exactly what I was looking for but the processing and delivering was a complete mess.

First they didn't tell me that the product in white was out of stock until I called in to ask why delivery was taking so long.

Then they got me with the CostCaptainPrime. If I didn't call to inquire about it they would have charged me a yearly membership fee. Also if you're going to ask people to pay for an "Amazon Prime" type service why does it take almost a week to arrive?"

"Great customer service support. Would shop here again. Prices was competitive and lower then most big E-Tails and Retails"

"Read the reviews before you order, wish I had. Something is fishy when a place has apparently all 1s or 5s, just saying? Placed an order the evening of the 16th of May. Got confirmation email. Was hoping it would ship Friday, checked and it was listed as processing. Went on line to look at reviews for Cost Captain and found terrible experiences by others. Was really hoping my item would clear up and ship. I went on line Monday afternoon around 4 pm EST and saw the item was still "processing". I sent in an cancellation order. Received confirmation of cancellation. Email indicated 24 hour action. Now it is Wednesday morning no further word from Cost Captain and the order shows processing. I guess the next step is to contact BBB in Atlanta.

Cost Captain sent notice of cancellation on 5/22 saying refund would be done in seven days (what a rip off if that had happened) now June 1 and still no credit.

So far my bank does not see it. Wells Fargo is a fairly reliable institution. We shall see.

I see the immediate refund dated May 22, has not found its way to my Wells Fargo checking account. I think I am probably out my money. I will go to the BBB in Atlanta with a complaint if the money you see has not been credited to my account by June 7.

BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY, HOPE YOU READ REVIEWS BEFORE SHOPPING. THEY ARE JUST DISHONEST PURE AND SIMPLE AND I WONDER WHY RESELLER RATINGS PUTS UP WITH THIER OBVIOUS DISHONESTY.

The refund has been received. In fairness it was posted to our account on 5/28.
"

"I purchased my item on 4/27/13 and did not receive a confirmation email, order number or receipt. I assumed my order did not go through, but I saw on my credit card statement that I had been charged the next day. I called cost captain on 4/29 at 4:30pm EST, which is 30 minutes before it closes, but the automated message told me that Cost Captain had already closed. Why post online that they are open until 5pm EST if they were already closed at 4:30??? Poor business practice.

I sent cost captain an online message asking for a receipt and an order #, and received an automatic response saying that they typically answer in less than 24 hours. TWO days later (48 hours), I still did not receive a response. I proceeded to write two more messages, still no response. What I DID receive, was a product shipment confirmation instead. I'm very unhappy that I never received a response to any of my messages and to this day, I still don't have a receipt for my purchase. There wasn't a receipt included with my shipment either."

"When I ordered the items I needed they were out of stock seemingly 'everywhere'. CostCaptain was the only place where they would accept the order knowing it would be back-ordered. The order arrived, exactly as expected, before any of the other sites showed them in stock. How much better can it get? 100% satisfied. CostCaptain earned a bookmark as a preferred vendor in my browser."

"Fast, cheapest price, and exactly the correct item. Will use them again."

"Great price. Very glad I found CostCaptain!"

"DO NOT ORDER FROM HERE IF YOU ARE LOOKING TO GET SOMETHING QUICKLY!!!! I ORDERED A PRODUCT FROM THEM ON A FRIDAY AND GOT EXPEDITED SHIPPING (1-2 DAYS) BECAUSE WE NEEDED IT BY THE FOLLOWING SUNDAY, BUT MY PRODUCT NEVER EVEN SHIPPED UNTIL THE WEDNESDAY AFTER AND THEY SOMEHOW MISSED DELIVERING IT ON THE NEXT FRIDAY SO WE HAD TO WAIT ALMOST A FULL WEEK AND A HALF FOR SOMETHING THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN HERE IN 1-2 DAYS!"

"Very satisfied with my panasonic heated eyelash curler. I just got it in my mailbox today. Thank you very much."

"CostCaptain sold me a memory stick for my PSP, by far it was the best price and the best shipping I could find. The checkout was easy and the product arrived quickly. I'm very pleased and if I need anything like that again I will be coming back."

"I have dealt with them on 2 occasions. They are low priced and ship fast."

"Product was as listed on the web. Quick shipping. I appreciate the service."

"I ordered a simple, small item from CostCaptain on May 2nd. Today is May 16th and I still hadn't heard from them or received the item. I tried to call. Surprise! No number listed online. You need your order number to send a message. I never even got a confirmation email yet my bank was charged the full amount for the item on May 2nd. I finally heard from them today and they said they will ship the item tomorrow. So, after 14 days they haven't taken action on my order. I will never go through CostCaptain again. They have horrible service, a bad website for customer support and apparently the most disorganized and slowest warehouse out there. Avoid this retailer. "