The perils of internet shopping

[Doomer]

Last week I placed an order with an e-tailer. It arrived today. Upon opening it I found that most of the order was missing. Out of 10 items, I got three. I imediately called the e-tailer and reported the shortage and they are now "investigating it".

The box was intact and well taped. It doesn't appear that anything fell out in shipment. The weight on the box says 9 lbs. There is no way the 3 items plus shipping material weigh 9 lbs. and of course the packing slip lists the missing items as "shipped". and no, this isn't a multi-box shipment.

The bottem line is - It's my word againest theirs. They, of course, say the missing items where supposed to be in the shipment and I say they were not. Neither of us can prove it one way or another. I suggested that maybe this is a case of employee pilferage and they say they can't rule this out but are investigating. I don't doubt this will be settled to my satisfaction as they are a reputable vendor but I can't help but wonder how this could have been avoided.

The amount of the missing goods is about $50 which is not life threating but I have the uneasy feeling that they think I may be trying to rip them off. I'm not.

Anyone ever have to deal with something like this?

I can't believe I posted this in HT. SORRY. Mod please move to OT.

 

[Jmman]

Even thought this isn't really the place for it, the same thing happened to me about 3 days ago. I ordered a 17inch monitor from C4sure, and when it arrived the box was empty!!! LOL!!! My UPS driver was laughing as he walked up with this huge box that only weighed about a pound. Needless to say, I refused delivery so I would not run into the same situation you are in....

 

[sun818]

It could happen to the other way also. I purchased two routers, which I ended up returning because they were ISDN and not Cable/DSL routers. Total weight was 6lbs. I dropped it off at one of those UPS Authorized Outlets. The warehouse credited me for only one. Huh? They said they received only one package, 3lbs. So, between Authorized Outlet to the warehouse, one of the routers got pilfered.

So many people handle your package that it is difficult to track. If there is dishonesty with an employee, they rarely get caught early on...

 

[SKORPI0]

Here is a useful website to check on a company rating by customers.

Reseller Ratings

They also have a Forum section. Hope this helps, I've been a victim too. E-mailed the company and never heard from them.

 

[thegreatjeff]

Many good retailers will take your word for it and ship it anyway...Amazon.com comes to mind...I've heard they're pretty good with stuff like this, and defective products.

 

[SimMike2]

I strongly second the Reseller ratings site. I always check this site before buying from someone new. In the personal responses, people have talked specifically about the type of problem you had. I never buy from a site with negative comments like this.

 

[Gustavus]

Doomer,
I had a somewhat similar experience. A few years ago when memory cost an arm and a leg, I ordered a 128 Meg stick at some incredible price (high that is) from a supplier in the Bay area. What I received was 64 Meg of a much slower RAM. I did eventually get it straightened out -- since I had started a charge back with the CC, but the merchant was convinced I was cheating him. He was oriental so we had troble communicating, but he said repeatedly that I had been shipped what I ordered and paid for and that I was trying to cheat him. I still suspect that one of his employees was shipping the cheaper items and taking the real ones, but I have no proof. Thank God for credit card companies who will provide some leverage in cases like this.

 

[abracadabra1]

buy.com is great w/ rma

i fried my duron o/c it so i wrote to them and they gave me an rma and sent me a new chip.
great company- can't go wrong

 

[FrontlineWarrior]

you actually told them you OC'ed it and fried it? and they said ok?

 

[huesmann]

That's why you pay by CC. Contest the charges and let the CC company deal with it.

 

[directcom]

Yes.

 

[slaman]

I have never had a problem with online shopping as of yet except for trying to cancel an order

They process it so fast. I like the bigger companies like Onvia.ca (my absolute favorite, can you say $50 off $200 for Canadians!) and I just received my package from etailer.ca today also. Arrived in an absolutely HUGE box with a tiny package inside. They shipped the same day I ordered and had friendly customer service. I assume if there's a problem with shipment, most larger resellers will take the customer's word. I am trying to stay away from the smaller companies (they have bad customer support, rude voice answers, and take a long time to ship)

 

[poolshark]

resellerratings is our best defense

 

[403Forbidden]

I'm not suprised to hear that Computers4sure sent an empty box.

They have a history of scamming people.

 

[kylef]

I hate to say it, but that's why I ALWAYS ship Fedex if it's available... Hands down the best worldwide shipper in the business.

 

[AndrewR]

Amazon.com is awesome with returns. I had to use them a little while ago, and it was one of the best experiences with returning an item I've had. Another company that does extremely well with warranty replacement, in my experience, was NEC. They shipped out two monitors (first one was defective, second sent to replace that) to me and paid for return shipment of defectives with door-to-door service overnight. It was fantastic.

 

[jadinolf]

Sounds very familiar.

In June of '98, Comp-U-Plus sent me an empty box and the outside seal was also not broken. They refused to make good on it. It should have contained a Sony CDRW but just had the empty box inside.

I posted it on Reseller Ratings.

Thank you Mastercharge! Saved me $300.

 

[MontyBurns]

An interesting and informative back-and-forth on a non-hotdeals topic, and not one person has stepped forward to tattle about how we're all going to hell for discussing this in the wrong forum???? What is this, MyCoupons?



Doomer: I'm not sure which e-tailer you're talking about (tell us!) but I would think most of the larger ones would be more than willing to eat $50 in a case like this. Of course, maybe this was one of the larger ones, and we're in for a shock.

Several months ago, back when free shipping was the rule rather than the exception, I placed a fairly large CD/DVD order with 800.com. Something around $80, I think. Waited, waited... order never came. 800.com was great about free shipping, but they regularly used untrackable USPS deliveries. I called, the person said it shipped and I should have it. He asked me to wait another 48 hours and call back. I did, they knew about my previous call, and without hesitation the rep said they'd send an entirely new package right away. They also sent a postage-paid label and asked me to return the first shipment if it ever arrived.

 

[directcom]

^

 

[pugh]

I gotta give a thumbs up to buy.com. Someone had cancelled my first hard drive order . So i called them that day and they shipped out my HDD the same day and it got to me thursday..i had just called them on tue afternoon..i was happy with the quick reponse..They gave me free shipping too!!

 

[Banshee Mullet]

For my $.02, Overstock.com shipped my Asus MB via FEDEX in sturdy packaging included in the price. I'll definitely buy from them again, assuming another decent deal comes around. Sure beats the bashing that UPS normally puts on packages. The difference is truly amazing. No dents, no dings, no puncture with FedEx. What do the UPS guys do to the boxes? I don't think I've ever received a FedEx shipped box with any sort of destruction to the container. Certainly can't say the same for UPS. I'm lucky if 1 in 5 doesn't have some massive rip down the side of the box. Luckily no damage yet, but I swear they play kickball games at lunch with the boxes.

I've had no problems at all with buy.com and bought more than 20 separate orders from them since last Christmas. Everything arrives on time and no problems. I've dealt with customer service a couple of times for questions about split shipments and they knew what was going on,,,,no guesswork. Very satisfied. Coupons make it all the much better. Need to get a few more credit cards for the new customer coupons.

 

[thegreatjeff]

You think UPS is bad, try USPS!!! I think they bomb the packages instead of playing games with them...either that or bet on which one will stay afloat the longest in a bathtub...

Off topic here, but I'm using the Opera browser here on a 32mb of RAM, 233mhz processor...it's SOOOOO much better than memory-hog Netscape...and it's also better than IE5, though not as noticeable...I'm using it cuz Internet Explorer (version 5, the one I usually use) decided to not work AT ALL today, even reinstalled it...not sure what's going on...