Alternatives to Amazon.com?

[Desdichado]

I've had great experiences with buy.com too, although I admit not recently. And I do remember talking to someone directly on the phone, who really took care of me when there was a hiccup with my order for the Epic Level handbook.

 

[Urbandruid]

Well, when you have a bad experience with a company on making a major purchase how often do you give them a second shot? Doesn't happen in the business world. Hardly happens in the private world either.

Oh gosh, they screwed up my order and charged me $500 for nothing. Now I can't reach anyone and I can't get my money back so I can't even buy another product because I don't have gobs of disposable income just hanging around which is why I went to the cheapest site in the first place. But I'm sure it was just a little hiccup in their operations. So here's another couple hundred dollars..

Nuh-uh. Companies have 1 chance to impress a customer. BUT that's not why they scare me. What scares me is that they have no contact information other than a mailing address in california. And if you live within twenty miles of the company I'm sure it might not be a big problem to stroll down there and get matters straightened out.

Check their website for a phone number. Heck look for an email address. None. All they have is the blank webform to fill out for information.

They used to have a phone number and that's how I found it. I was frustrated in my search and I typed in "buy.com sucks" on a search engine - Which immediately brought up a dozen sites where users were complaining about the service received or rather not received from buy.com. Also if you check out the BBB site you can see the rise in complaints about the company in the last three years.

About 6 years ago I had a great experience with BUY. I bought my first PDA from them. There was a phone number, there were friendly people and fast delivery. I was very happy.

So I'm not saying DON'T USE BUY.COM. (well okay I am a little bit) but I am saying that I find it rather disconcerting that such a large company offers no means of easily addressing any complaints from customers or even answering questions about any of the merchandise or shipping.

I also found it scary that not even the companies they ship through had any contact information about them. No name, number or email address. Nothing.
Similarly large sites usually offer phone service, email and these days - live chat with customer support. So maybe that's how you're saving the extra $15 on BUY.Com - they fired all customer support.

Every other big name online store listed in this posting has at least two of those three things on their sites. So please buy from BUY.COM and I hope you have marvelous success with your online shopping experience.... just know that if there is a problem.. its all yours.

 

[reveal]

Well, when you have a bad experience with a company on making a major purchase how often do you give them a second shot? Doesn't happen in the business world. Hardly happens in the private world either.

My point is, if it's an isolated incident, no matter how large, people shouldn't go spouting "DON'T SHOP AT XXXX!" Especially when others say they've had no problem with it.

Example, I had a really bad experience with DHL. I came on here and posted by horrible experience as a warning of what could happen. I don't expect people to stop using DHL because of my one bad experience but I do want them to be aware that it could happen.