DON'T BUY.COM Advisory

[MegalosSkylaki]

How do you mean ?

Aren't they different ownerships ?

Or in a figurative sense?

MegalosSkylaki

Anyway, it is quite odd that when I google-ized 'DON'T BUY.COM', I found a Music Co. that recommended several Music download Co's.- -

-- but gave a "Don't Buy From.." to a Music Co. with a common management (!) it appears with Buy.Com.
I think they meant it in a literal sense.

[MegalosSkylaki]

Now I give you that my writing isn't as polished as some consumer opinion posters on the Net, whose words sound like Testimonials

But that may not be such a bad thing if you consider how one consumer opinion poster turned alleged or so-called "coupon fraud" into a BUY Recommendation !

Best wishes.
MegalosSkylaki

[soulja]

ya i ordered. a few things from there without problems, they shipped it like 2 days later but not bad of a service

I have removed several severely off-topic posts at request of the thread originator. Considering the importance of this discussion, please refrain from posting in this thread unless you wish to discuss the business practices of Buy.com.

Best Regards,
Robert Richmond

[uethello]

I'm not trying to criticize you guys, but... if you got something there three years ago, that's not what he's talking about. Even if you bought something recently, shame on you, pay the extra two dollars and go to newegg.

A vendor with this poor a rating deserves nobody's business until they clean up their act. If you acknowlege their poor business practices and still order from them, you're just reinforcing them.

[MegalosSkylaki]

In a way, this is part of the sad part of bad Vendors, especially when they are big Co's.

They take business away from more consumer respectful Co's , with their promises of "deals".

In my case, I baled out before I hit the Buy Button, because the "free shipping" offer did not materialize. Even if it was still an acceptable "deal", I felt in principle that something was not right, and in practice, I asked, "How else are they going to mess up ?'

Now, taking business away from Vendors that work hard to build up their reputation and their customer base, can put a smaller Company out of business.

It also places other big Co's. with an unfortunate dilemma: maintain their high standards--and lose business to a Co' that don't worry noticnbly about that. Or lower the bar, and match them "deal for phoney deal"

Sadly, many CEOs/Execs have their Bonuses tied in to meeting certain "goals". Profits in a quarter, or year, may be one of them. A company that has money flowing in through spam about Deals, but cuts back on costs , by lowering it product quality in some way--including customer service--can increase paper profits in the short term.

Hence the Bonus flow, even while the long-term prosperity of the Co. is jeopardized. How long can a company go on with this kind of a rap sheet ?

Unfortunately too long, if people read the "deals" in their email --but not the ResellerRatings that come with those non-deals.

MegalosSkylaki

P.S. Write letters to Co's where some employee went out of his way to help you, or used exceptional good sense in resolving a problem

. Customers and Employees in some sense have a common interest --they both want to be treated well by the Company.

[MegalosSkylaki]

You know, when you compare 1 month to six months, that one month has to make quite discrepency to change the six monhs.

Let's look at the about four weeks since I first posted DON'T BUY.COM , and see if we can learn something.

First, catching up from where we left off at

ResellersRatings to see how goes the oddly-named Vendor...

VS=Very Satisfied SS- Somwhat Satisfied
VD=Very Dissatisfied SD=Somewhat Dissatisfied

VD 12/23
VD /21
VS /20
SD /20
VD /18
SS /18
VD /18
VD /16
VD /16
VD /16

The "Very Satisfied" came from a Consumer who "Wanted, ordered, got". Rather reminds me of the Poster who was "pleasantly surprised" nothing bad happened !

OK, let's look at some coments-same site, look toward bottom of page...
" e-mailed several times but got no reply. It is impossible otherwise (to phone] Maybe they should look at their Ratings here"
"Buy.Com has gone downhill fast. They do not reply to e-mails. I wouldn't have ordered if I had seen all the negative Ratings for thee last six months here at ResellersRatings "

This Poster reported that there is a well-hidden telephone number--but ! In truth, I am hardpressed to believe this statement myself ---and I have had to deal with DON'T BUY.COM This definately has to be investigated ! "..the catch is you have to pay $10 to speak to someone" HUH ?
The price of a long distance call?
An Impost for speaking to someone at the Company? Utterly amazing, if true.
Ah ! But was does lend some credance to the above statement is this post:
"Steer clear of this joke of a Company, all they want to do is take your money and spend their time figuring out how to cheat you out of more of it"

Don't sound like this $10 is totally beyond it ! But it might be...

And now for the "last Six Month RatinG" Dropped to 3.88 from 4.8 a mere month ago !

MegalosSkylaki

[pchristy]

I closed my BUY.COM account two weeks ago. They used to be a stellar customer-service oriented reseller. Now, they have grown so big they could care less about you or what you think. My last few orders have been nothing but problems -- and they send the same form response letter back over and over. I think their rating here of <3.8 says it all....

[genecrumpler]

I've gotten my credit card company to reverse a charge for a Hasselblad after 60 days. Key here, have everything documented.
It also may help that my wife and I have charged over 1/3 million dollars on the card.

[MegalosSkylaki]

Ah ! The joy of reviewing the very first Post for DON'T BUY.COM -you may still llok it up up under 'buy.com' at RESELLERSRATINGS -- that much hasn't changed, only its name has not yet been changed to more accurately reflect its reputed business practices.

Ah ! but there is a reason for that ! As one Rater ofof the old year, MMM, 12.23.03 put it:""To me, this blatently false adverstising !"

So why should it change it name, to reflect its policies, when it won't change its policies, to be in keeping with its promises !

But back to the very first Poster of the New Year !
Regretfullly the Rater fell for the old two Rebate routine-- with both rebates requiring an original UPC.

These situations, of course, are not unheard of. But the frequent resolution is to waive that requirement on one of the Rebates--unless there is no indiction that both would be honored.

I am certain many of you have encountered this situation --with varying outcomes.

Not much variable about DON'T BUY.COM, though.

2004's first Poster at RessellersRatings seems to have had quite some difficulty in raching this Vendor . No variability from others experience here.