Buy.com Lives Up To Bad Customer Service Rep
I bought a refurbished Sandisk Sansa e250 mp3 player from Buy.com for a very good price — just $39. When the package arrived, it contained a software CD, the player, and a set of headphones. The 3 items were loose in the shipping box — there was no product packaging at all, aside from some bubble wrap. No USB cable was included. The cable is needed for charging and for loading music, and is listed in the item description on the web site. I sent a service request to Buy.com asking for the cable. I was told to contact the manufacturer or request an RMA to return the item — at my expense. Neither was acceptable.
I sent another request explaining the situation and asking for the cable. I got a response saying I might be able to get an RMA if my order qualifies. It’s obviously a canned response that doesn’t address my email at all. The cables are only a few dollars online, so it would be cheaper for me to buy one (obviously not from Buy.com) than to pay return postage on the mp3 player. I’m still going to pursue this with Buy.com, though, and see if I can get an actual human being to respond and explain why they can’t just send me the cable they forgot. I’ve also sent a complaint to Google Checkout, which I used to place my order. And I’ll be visiting all the reseller rating sites to lodge my opinion of Buy.com
Speaking of reseller rating sites, Buy.com’s lifetime score on ResellerRatings.com is an abysmal 4.47 out of 10, with the six month score dropping to just 2.07 out of 10. Compare that with Newegg.com’s lifetime score of 9.72 out of 10.
Based on my experience so far, and the experience of thousands of other users, I would strongly recommend avoiding Buy.com.
UPDATE: I just filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. It’s surprisingly easy to do so.
I also updated Buy.com’s WikiPedia page with the following information:
As of November 25, 2007, the popular online retailer rating service ResellerRatings.com gives Buy.com an “Overall Customer Satisfaction” lifetime rating of 4.47 out of 10, with the score dropping to 2.07 out of 10 for the prior six months. The lifetime score is based on 3128 reviews. By comparison, Newegg.com’s lifetime score is 9.89 out of 10.
