Buy.com’s customer service department is staffed by imbeciles

By | November 6, 2007

I just sent this letter to the contact email address for a recent buy.com press release:

Subject: Buy.com’s customer service department is staffed by imbeciles
Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2007 00:27:12 -0500
From: Jonathan Kamens <jik@kamens.brookline.ma.us>
To: [elided]

[elided],

I got your email address from a recent press release about buy.com.  Perhaps you could do me the kindness of passing this message along to someone at buy.com who actually cares about the impression the company makes on its customers, as opposed to the illiterate, incompetent imbeciles who are employed at its customer service department.

I placed an order from buy.com on October 24.

On November 1, I received a shipment from buy.com.  When I opened it, I discovered that it contained someone else’s merchandise, i.e., the shipping label for my order was placed on the wrong box.

I contacted buy.com through their Web site that night, explained the problem, and asked for them to arrange for the incorrect merchandise to be shipped back to them and the correct merchandise to be shipped to me instead.  I had to contact them through their Web site because buy.com provides no way to contact them by telephone.

Almost two days went by before I received an answer from buy.com, and when the answer came, it was (as you can see below) completely and utterly useless, and I responded as such.

Again, it took almost two days before I received an answer, and once again that answer did not actually address the problem I had reported.

While all this was going on, I contacted the intended recipient of the order I received (I got their name and address from the packing slip within the order and was able to find their phone number on the Internet) and told them I had their package.  They, in turn, contacted DBL Distributing, the shipper who was supposed to have sent them the merchandise and sent it to me instead, and told DBL that I had their merchandise.  A representative from DBL contacted me last night, and arranged to (a) mail me a return tag to ship back the incorrect merchandise and (b) ship me the merchandise I was supposed to have received, by second-day air, at no additional expense to me.

After this experience, it is extremely unlikely that I will ever consider purchasing from buy.com again.  Furthermore, I will be posting this letter on my consumer activism blog and urging others to refrain from patronizing buy.com as well.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

——– Original Message ——–

Subject: Re: Shipment was Damaged, Defective, or Wrong [Ref:[elided]]
Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2007 20:56:45 -0800
From: support@customerservice.buy.com
To: jik@kamens.brookline.ma.us
Hello Jonathan Kamens,

Thank you for contacting Buy.com.

This is in reference to your email regarding order #[elided].

We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. We work
hard to ensure satisfaction. We look forward to helping you with all
your shopping needs in the future.

As this order did not work out for you, we will be glad to guide you
through our return process. If you have not already received a Return
Merchandise Authorization number (RMA), please check our easy online
return feature by visiting:

https://secure.buy.com/corp/support/guestordersearch.asp

You will find here step-by-step instructions on the return
process. You will be notified of your options concerning the return of
your item. For more information, on our Return Policy, please visit
our website at:

http://www.buy.com/corp/support/returns/default.asp?What=return policy

We thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter. 

Sincerely, 

Alvin
Buy.com Customer Service
www.buy.com
Order #: [elided]

Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:

If yes, click here:
https://secure.buy.com/s.asp?r=[elided]&e=jik@k&b=1

If not, click here:
https://secure.buy.com/s.asp?r=[elided]&e=jik@k&b=0

To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help section of our web site.

----Original Message----
> From: jik@kamens.brookline.ma.us
> To: support@customerservice.buy.com
> Subject: Re: Shipment was Damaged, Defective, or Wrong [Ref:[elided]]
> Date: 4 November 2007, 9:31 Hrs.
>
> You seem to have misunderstood this problem.  Please read what I wrote
> below again.
>
> Google Checkout did not reject the authorization of my credit card, as
> you claim below.  In fact, Google Checkout accepted my charge, and you
> processed my order, and you sent me a box, and that box arrived at my
> house.
>
> The problem is that YOU SENT ME THE WRONG BOX.  YOU SENT ME SOMEONE
> ELSE'S BOX.  YOU PUT MY SHIPPING LABEL ON THE WRONG BOX.  Get it?
>
> You screwed up, and as a result, I have a box containing over $200 worth
> of somebody else's merchandise which they've already paid for and I
> don't want, and I DON'T have the $40 worth of merchandise that I paid
> for and wanted.
>
> You need to fix this.  NOW.  You need to tell me how I can return the
> incorrect merchandise to you at your expense, and you need to ship me
> the correct merchandise that I actually ordered NOW, AS FAST AS IT CAN
> BE SHIPPED, AT YOUR EXPENSE.
>
> Please solve this problem immediately.
>
>   Jonathan Kamens
>
> On 11/03/2007 06:07 PM, support@customerservice.buy.com wrote:
> > Hello Jonathan Kamens,
> >
> > Thank you for contacting Buy.com.
> >
> > This is in reference to your email regarding order #[elided].
> >
> > We apologize that Google Checkout was unable to process your order.
> >
> > Google Checkout tried to authorize funds from your credit card for
> > payment; however, the authorization for payment failed. As a result, Google
> > asked us to cancel this order. Please verify your credit card information
> > with Google Checkout and place a new order. This should correct the
> > authorization issue. For further information, please contact Google
> > Customer Support at:
> >
> > https://checkout.google.com/support
> >
> > Please note that we are uanble to send the replacement order with
> > overnight shipping as a mode of shipment.
> >
> > We apologize for the delay and for any inconvenience that you may have
> > experienced.
> >
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Sarah
> > Buy.com Customer Service
> > www.buy.com
> > Order #: [elided]
> >
> >
> > Please let us know if this e-mail resolved your question:
> >
> > If yes, click here:
> > https://secure.buy.com/s.asp?r=[elided]&e=jik@k&b=1
> >
> > If not, click here:
> > https://secure.buy.com/s.asp?r=[elided]&e=jik@k&b=0
> >
> >
> > To contact us about an unrelated issue, please visit the Help section of
> > our web site.
> >
> > ----Original Message----
> >
> >> From: jik@kamens.brookline.ma.us
> >> To: support@customerservice.buy.com
> >> Subject: Shipment was Damaged, Defective, or Wrong [Ref:[elided]]
> >> Date: 1 November 2007, 21:32 Hrs.
> >>
> >> Name: Jonathan Kamens
> >>
> >> eMail: jik@kamens.brookline.ma.us
> >>
> >> Order #: [elided]
> >>
> >> Question/Comment:
> >> ---------------------------------------------------
> >> You sent me the wrong box.
> >>
> >> I ordered a $40 television antenna.  You sent me someone else's order. It
> >> says it was shipped by "DBL Distributing" to customer number [elided], order
> >> number [elided].  $216.24 worth of batteries, headphones, and HD video
> >> cartridges.
> >>
> >> Of course, I had to open it to discover that it was the wrong order, so I
> >> can't tell UPS to take it back.
> >>
> >> I assume that you're going to send me a return shipping label so I can
> >> return the incorrect merchandise to you.
> >>
> >> I also assume that you're going to overnight the correct order to me so
> >> that the product I ordered isn't delayed any more than absolutely necessary
> >> as a result of your error.
> >>
> >> Please respond promptly.
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7 thoughts on “Buy.com’s customer service department is staffed by imbeciles

  1. Unhappy Camper

    I also experienced buy.com “customer support” people who were not reading my email messages and just sending some canned response that didn’t relate to my issue. My issue was very simple but three emails and two phone calls could not resolve it. On the third call I asked them to cancel the order. Hopefully that will go through okay.

    From my experiences on the phone, I don’t think anyone there I talked to could possibly be able to read. So, it is not surprising that they are sending non-responsive responses from their portfolio of canned answers.

    Reply
  2. Simi

    by the way if you call 1800-800-0800 option is 3 for Customer service.

    thanks

    Reply
  3. Guest

    Well, the reply your getting…it seems to me like its a bot. I would contact the phone number directly (here it is: 1800-800-0800) haha youve got to look through forums to get it… It redirects you to the wrong phone number on the site -what a joke.

    i would speak to them directly, because it looks like theire no real support on the e-mail.

    Also i talked to one today, as for the 1-2 day shipping… they ship it in 1-2 days, it will probably get there in 5-7. lol 🙂

    Reply
  4. KD

    I am having a very similar incident. I ordered a product, which I received and was charged for. I also recieved a 2nd box with an item in it that I didn’t order. I’ve tried 3x to get buy.com to send me a return label, but they keep sending canned responses. They are terrible.

    Reply
  5. Dave

    I had a bad experience with Buy.com as well.

    Last year on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) I purchased a couple of items for Christmas presents. Buy.com was heavily promoting holiday shopping on their site at the time. One of the items purchased was a DVD.

    The DVD was opened and played on on Christmas and found to be defective. A music DVD, one of the tracks would not play; it froze the DVD player. This was found to be an issue when using the DVD with 2 different PCs and 3 standalone units. On December 26th when contacted by e-mail, a representative from Buy.com claimed that they weren’t responsible for defective merchandise not returned within 14 days of purchase. (14 days after the purchase date would have been 2 weeks before Christmas).

    I replied that the common practice for Christmas gifts was to allow returns for some time afterwards and at the very least they should stand behind their merchandise and allow defective merchandise to be exchanged for identical non-defective items, but they would not budge –although at one point the guy who sounded like he was probably in some Bangalore call center said that he’d take care of it and get me my replacement DVD, only to backpedal on that promise the next day.

    Also, in order to get through to them and actually get a phone number I had to register on their site, and now I’m on an e-mail spam list from them that their “unsubscribe” feature won’t get me off of. Avoid this shoddy retailer at all costs.

    Reply
  6. Toby

    I had an issue also with Buy.co for a price match, i purchased a camera from them, and since there was free shipping they wont price match. So if you qualify for the free shipping you can not price match. Amazon had the same item for 10 less and free shipping to, but Buy.com kept sending me the same email. There phone number is 800-800-0800 or 949-389-2000

    Reply
  7. abbasegal

    I’m sort of used to people not reading their emails terrible closely, but this is ridiculous! Especially for a “customer service” organization, whose job, in theory, it is to listen to customers!

    Reply

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