I had previously ordered a camera bag from this store in June 2006, and had no problems with that, which is why I felt confident to order a Canon Rebel XTi DSLR with kit lens from them this time around.
It has been 8 days and the order still says "in process", however, they did very efficiently charge my credit card the day after I placed the order. I called their customer service line as well as their sales line to see if I could cancel the order. After being on hold for maybe 2 or 3 minutes, both times I got a recording that told me to use their online form to contact them, and then the system hung up on me. I used the contact form as well as a direct cancellation e-mail, and the automated e-mails read as follows -
From customer service:
"This automated message confirms that your email to Page Computers Customer Service has been received. However, due to technical problems and with a number of emails sent to us, we may have a delay in responding to your inquiries. Please rest assured that we will get back to your concerns the soonest time possible."
From the cancellation department:
"Page Computers is currently experiencing outages with our data lines due to events beyond our control. We are unable to answer emails at this time. Please allow additional time for email responses over the next few days."
I will wait to see what transpires in the next 48 hours before making a final judgement and / or calling my credit card company to reject payment of this charge.
*update 1/31/07: Page Computers responded to my e-mail today with the following:
"This is to inform you that we have been able to cancel the order and the item will not be shipped.
If there has been an authorization number from the Bank for the charge prior to your cancellation
request, we will void the authorization or reverse the charges."
I will update when the charge is reversed; as of now it has not yet been done.
Also, I see that the item I was trying to purchase is now priced on their website as about 18% higher.
*update 2/01/07: I just now received an e-mail from customer service (apparently separate from the cancellation department, who sent me the above e-mail) reading:
"Thank you for contacting page computers.
We apologize for the delay response of your email because we are updating our website and some of our system is affected on it.
Let me inform you that the packaged has ship out already via USPS with a tracking number xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx xxxx, you check it on line at www.usps.com and the only process to cancel it is by refusing the packaged during the delivery on it, So that it would be return to our distributors warehouse and once its confirmed delivered thats the time we could process refunding your account.
If you have further concerns feel free to call us and we are glad to assist."
So I called. After 2 minutes of being on hold the system told me to e-mail them and hung up on me again. Also you will notice that the wording and punctuation in the e-mail above is rather poor. Also, according to my account info on the website, my order is still "in process".
I checked usps.com to track my package. There isn't any information on the package yet, meaning that it was sent out very recently.
I just tried calling again, this time with a specific extension number of the person who sent the e-mail saying that the order could be cancelled, and was able to leave a voice message.
*update 2/02/07: Another e-mail, from cancellation:
"Thank you for contacting us.
The distribution informed us that they ran out of stock
for this item and they cannot give any ETA yet.
That's the reason why we have forwarded this order
to them for shipment ages ago and they weren't able
to have this shipped out.
Please be informed that your order was canceled as requested.
Any charges will be voided or reversed.
Your account will be credited within the next 5-7 business days.
Please allow this length of time for us to process and for your financial institution
to update the change to your account.
You will be notified via email once a credit has been sent to your account."
We shall see.
*update 2/12/07: As of 2/07/07, they indeed credited my account within 5 days of the above e-mail. I suppose this makes me somewhat likely to buy something from them again, although this whole experience was rather frustrating, and I will probably not be making major electronics purchases from them ever again.
Also, they finally changed the status of my order on the "My Account" page to "Canceled".
This review was modified by its author, quietfart, on
2/12/07 10:06 PM.