The order from hell

Full Review
Do not buy from this vendor if your need for the product is somewhat urgent and if you don’t want to risk tying up a couple of hundred dollars if they don’t ship. I had purchased an occasional book or cd from them and had no problems so thought a larger order would be ok. I needed to have a replacement for my laser printer ready before it died and ordered the Samsung ML-3051ND printer on June 8. It is now July 1 and there’s no news of it . When I ordered, the website showed that it was in stock. The price was attractive, $209 after a $60 rebate and included shipping. Although it wasn’t rated as highly as the Brother HL-5250DN (which was available for $179 from Newegg, including shipping) I preferred the Samsung because you can also output to a rear tray thereby having a straight paper path for envelopes and thicker materials. On the same day that I ordered, they charged my credit card account for the price of the printer and cost of shipping!

Two days after placing the order I received an email that the it would be delayed because they were out of stock. My subsequent emails inquiring about news elicited replies that they would ship whenever they got it in. No company who properly manages its supply chain would tolerate not knowing when its goods would be available for sale. The replies all stated that I had the option of canceling the order. Occasionally, since placing the order, I’ve seen on their website that the printer was in stock again. On June 27 a call to customer service (after interminable waits) again resulted in being told they didn’t know when they would ship. I was told that I could not speak to a supervisor as it was night time in the Philippines. At this point I decided to cancel the order through the website. I was told I would get an email response to my request within one business day. Two business days later and no response, I sent them an email requesting confirmation of the cancellation. Their reply was that they were processing my request and would respond “within the next few business days." What does a "few" mean to them? They also said that they could ignore my request to cancel.

July 1 afternoon, they emailed me twice that they had cancelled the order. So here's the lesson: they don't know when their goods will come in, they don't know when they will respond to the customer and they don't seem to care. I've learned my lesson and will avoid Buy.com from now on. Let's hope that my credit card account is credited in a timely manner.

Good ending: Two days later, July 3rd, they credited the total amount back to my credit card. On July 5th I ordered the same printer from PC Connection ($254.05 including ground shipping) and it was shipped on the same day as promised. On July 6th it was delivered, several days before expected, and it works great. Everyone I spoke to knew what was going on, spoke native English and all were professional.