Buy.com Complaint - Nightmare trying to resolve problem

Complaint

Review by MisterDNA on 2004-11-12

I buy a lot of stuff online and I rarely have problems. But I discovered that Buy.com is different from most of the sites I purchase from in a very important way: BUY.COM HAS NO PHONE NUMBERS LISTED, NO TELEPHONE SUPPORT, NO EMAIL ADDRESSES LISTED, NO EMAIL SUPPORT, SO CUSTOMERS ARE LIMITED TO WEB-BASED SUPPORT THAT USUALLY TAKES SEVERAL DAYS TO GET A REPLY ON (IF YOU'RE LUCKY)! If everything goes perfectly with your order, I guess that's not a problem, but if there is a glitch, watch out! The problem I suffered: I placed an order for an Iomega REV drive (Firewire model) plus 8 removable REV disks, and over 6 weeks later, I still haven't received the REV drive. There was supposed to be a $50 rebate on the product when I ordered it, but due to their delay, I have now missed the rebate. But in the ultimate irony, they sent me the 8 REV disks promptly! Of course I can't use the REV disks until I get the actual REV drive! And now, according to their policy, I've waited too long to return the disks! I have not idea if or when I'll get the REV drive from buy.com. I've sent 4 web-based complaints, and only received 1 "form" response several weeks ago which said buy.com can not estimate when out-of-stock products will ship. The most annoying (and deceptive) thing is, the entire time I've been waiting, buy.com's site has said the drive ships in 1-2 days, seemingly fibbing to the public in order to steal purchases from honest sites (who at least admit when an item isn't in stock). With dishonestly about availability and no way to actually speak to the people at buy.com, I can confidently say that I will never buy from this company again. I strongly recommend that web shoppers avoid stores that don't offer telephone customer support. Buy.com gives the appearance of a large, reputable company, so many people (like myself) don't take the time to see how poor their customer service is. ***UPDATE: I was scanning other reviews of Buy.com and found their super-secret, unpublished customer support line (based in India, of course), so here it is for all you people who need to contact them: 877-780-2464. I found out the item is still out of stock, even thought the website still says it ships in 1-2 days. I cancelled the order, but it will supposedly take 3-5 days to actually cancel in their system, and if the item comes in during this time, they will ship it to me (which means I can't order the itme elsewhere until I wait it out). ***UPDATE#2: 8 business days after canceling the item that I've waiting 2 months for (and has always said ships in 1-2 days on the buy.com website), and the site still shows my cancellation as pending. I called their unpublished support number and the person I spoke said she would put through an urgent request to resolve my matter. I was told it would take up to 5 days to receive a response... I asked if she agreed that this I had not been treated fairly by buy.com, and she agreed. I can't believe how much energy this is taking...