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my missing DVD (a small rant)
On December 4, I placed an order with a half.com merchant for a (new) DVD, to be shipped by media mail (the only option available). According to half.com, the seller was required to ship within, I think, 48 hours. This should have been fine for a gift I needed at the end of December. On the same day I ordered another DVD from an Amazon associate, also via media mail, and that one arrived within about 10 days. Afer a couple weeks passed I began to fear that my DVD from half.com had gone missing.
However, there was no way to ping the merchant to find out what had happened. The merchant's email address was hidden, and half.com only accepts feedback/requests via their web form. The web form, in turn, would not accept a missing-package complaint until January 7, because media mail can take up to 30 days in the worst cases.
So this afternoon I filed the report, and tonight I got email from half.com. To quote: "We wanted to let you know that the following order was shipped late on January 1, 2003 by [...] The seller apologizes for the delay and you should receive the item shortly."
Out of curiosity, I decided to check out the order via the web site, mostly to see if they had even bothered to update the shipping date (they hadn't). And there I found a more interesting story:
The seller screwed up with a lot of packages, which is probably their fault but they point to the post office. The bigger screwup, however, was in not letting customers know, which might be either the seller's problem or half.com's (or both). At the very least, shouldn't I have received an "oops, resending" message on January 1? Couldn't someone have updated the transaction record with the new ship date? Sheesh.
This was my first experience with half.com. I only went there because Amazon's database was having problems with that item for a couple days. I think next time I'll wait for Amazon or try to buy locally. All of my Amazon purchases arrived promptly.
However, there was no way to ping the merchant to find out what had happened. The merchant's email address was hidden, and half.com only accepts feedback/requests via their web form. The web form, in turn, would not accept a missing-package complaint until January 7, because media mail can take up to 30 days in the worst cases.
So this afternoon I filed the report, and tonight I got email from half.com. To quote: "We wanted to let you know that the following order was shipped late on January 1, 2003 by [...] The seller apologizes for the delay and you should receive the item shortly."
Out of curiosity, I decided to check out the order via the web site, mostly to see if they had even bothered to update the shipping date (they hadn't). And there I found a more interesting story:
Dear Buyer, We have re-shipped your DVD set by USPS. We are very sorry for the inconvenience, but USPS returned ALL of our packages due to the post date we had from (Post marked the day before shipment).. USPS cls we are not to ship unless the date post marked is the exact shipment s has caused a tremendous amount of time and confusion as we sold and shipped over 3,500 packages. If you left negative feedback, please leave a follow up once your package arrives. If you did not leave any feedback, please wait until the package arrives. We don't need any more negative due to USPS. We are loyal to our customers and hope you understand... We guarantee that you will receive your item soon. Thank you and have a Happy and Safe New Year.
The seller screwed up with a lot of packages, which is probably their fault but they point to the post office. The bigger screwup, however, was in not letting customers know, which might be either the seller's problem or half.com's (or both). At the very least, shouldn't I have received an "oops, resending" message on January 1? Couldn't someone have updated the transaction record with the new ship date? Sheesh.
This was my first experience with half.com. I only went there because Amazon's database was having problems with that item for a couple days. I think next time I'll wait for Amazon or try to buy locally. All of my Amazon purchases arrived promptly.
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BTW, I also had good experiences with Alibris and the sellers who market through them.