Spent $45.97 for guaranteed next day shipping on 2 label printers only to find out later when they id not show up that it only applies to when they ship from the warehouse which can be 2 - 3 days later. What a SCAM. Buyer beware. Geoffrey Kardon

We ordered a Sharp 46" Aquos TV from Ecost on October 7th. Recieved an email back, thanking us for the order. I noticed that it was on backorder and called to ask about it. I was assured that the TV would be arriving in 2 weeks, and that my order would be fulfilled & shipped.  
Last night I got an email saying they had encountered a problem, and they were cancelling my order. I looked on their website for the same item, and it was there for $80.00 more than when I purchased it 7 days ago.  
I called and spoke to one of their reps, who I am guessing gives the same song and dance to everyone that calls and complains. I asked to speak to a supervisor, I was put on hold, same woman comes back, and tells me that the supervisor cannot change the price, but I am welcome to order it again, for the price it is now!  
So the encountered problem on their part is, the price went up, and they didn't want to honor the order that I had already placed. It amazes me, that a retail store would rather let $1000 walk out the door than to lose $80.00!! I can see why their ratings are so poor. Poor customer service, poor communications, and poor customer satifaction! The economic downturn must not have effected Ecost like so many other retailers. Why else would they let a $1000.00 sale walk away over $80.00? I will now be taking my $1000 to another store to purchase the TV.

eCost has deceptive selling practices. They listed an item I was interested in (LAD16GAENA600) well below the price on Amazon and other merchants. Item Condition showed as "New" and the availability showed as "In Stock" so I ordered. The next day I got email saying "We have encountered a problem in processing your order #E874xxxx. This issue has made it necessary to CANCEL the item(s) listed below. " No other reason was given. How lame is that? I had to call customer service to find out that the order was canceled because the item is not in stock! 4 days later I check the site and the page still shows as "In stock". Since this is my first and last order with eCost I cannot generalize but it appears this merchant is either (1) unreliable and it doesn't have its act together - or (2) they purposefully engage in false advertising. Either way, stay away from eCost and shop with more reputable merchants.  
 
To Linda P.: RE the "pricing error" you mention in your replay bellow. Is that a joke? I just visited the product page on your site and it hasn't changed at all. The availability still says "In Stock" and the price is still the same. (I reloaded the page to be sure). How can you tell me it was an honest mistake and yet not correct it? Today is 11 days after my order, and as many days since your department has been aware of the problem. Last time your people told me that the item was out of stock, now you tell me it was pricing error, yet eCost site has still not been updated to reflect either of those assertions. How can you expect me or anybody to think your company has any credibility?  

This review was modified by its author, Daniel_NY, on 10/20/09 10:29 AM.

Placed an order on the phone, with Alex, and wanted to confirm that the product was in stock. After confiming that the product was in stock at a second party warehouse (Uh-Oh), I went ahead and placed the order. Got the confirmation e-mail the next morning, (Tuesday the 6th), and since then, no one at ecost can tell me what the status is, other than it's "processing". 3 emails and 3 phone calls all have either gotten an automated repsonse, or "we've escalated this to a supervisor". When speaking to the "supervisor" they are "waiting to hear back from the warehouse." If I don't hear back within 24 hours, I am going to the FTC, Texas AG, BBB, and my credit card company, not to mention as many social and business websites as I can think of and post this expirence about ecost.com.  
 
15 Oct - UPDATE - Finally got the order. I shudder to think what would have happened if I hadn't stayed on top of this. Got a call from Linda Potter, but since it was on the home phone while I was at work, I couldn't talk to her. I also got a call from the 2nd supervisor, that the order had shipped, but it was also on the home number, instead of my cell phone, which I did give him the number for. In my final thoughts, I'd like to say BUYER BEWARE. I will NEVER use eCost again for anything. I understand human errors, shipping and warehouse problems, but NOTHING excuses poor customer service. If this expirience is typical, and from reading the reviews it looks like it is, I can only hope that eCost would start training their people to treat every customer like they would like to be treated.  
 
The response below from Beverely didn't help as I couldn't ever get to her voice mail to leave a message, but somehow, 2 different "managers" managed to find my home number, even though I used my cell number as the preferred contact number.

This review was modified by its author, monmix, on 10/15/09 6:54 AM.

I ordered the $19.95 auto inflating blood pressure unit from ecost and it works great. I tried several other home blood pressure devices and was never satisfied. Reading were all over the place and I expected the same here. I was surprised by the consistancy and accuracy of this meter. For under $20 bucks with free shipping I received a unit that out performed units I spent $100 on! If you need a reliable blood pressure unit for home use this is the one! ecost.com is definately the place to shop online. I will be back often to check for more great deals.  
George K. NE PA

*******UPDATE*******  
 
I did indeed get in touch with Linda Potter. She was extremely helpful. I have sent the item back to ecost and have received a full refund. Thank you, Linda. Hopefully you can get your customer service on track and you won't have so many people complaining. THANKS, AGAIN! Lori  
 
*********UPDATE***************  
 
I bought a digital camera and it did not work when it arrived. I contacted ecost and the lady I talked with said that I had to use the extended warranty that I purchased because Fuji was on their return "exception" list. After questioning her about this, (I could not find Fuji as an exception on their website)she put me on hold and then came back on and told me that I could send it back but I could not get a refund.... and because they did not have the same item in stock, I would have to pick something off their website of the same or lesser value and they would trade. I told her I would look around on their website and would get back to them to let them know what I wanted.  
 
I found another camera that I wanted so when I called them, the person that answered told me that the proper procedure was to send the item back to them, they would credit my bank account and I could then buy whatever I wanted. He told me they would email me instructions with a RA# and a UPS shipping label.  
 
I waited a week and never received anything. I called them again and a girl told me that they were still processing it and I should hear from them in the next 72 hours.  
 
Again, I heard nothing. I called them back again today and they told me that I could not return the camera... they said I had to use the manufacturer's warranty. We did a 3-way call with the manufacturer and the manufacturer said that I could send it back to them (at my cost) and when they received it, they would decide if it was covered under warranty and if it wasn't, then they would call me and tell me how much it would cost to fix it. That's a little open-ended, don't ya think?  
 
The last two times I have called ecost I have asked to speak to a supervisor. They put me on hold and no one ever picks up the phone. This all seems a little fishy to me.  
 
At this point, I am extremely upset with ecost. I have gotten four different answers from four different people. Either their customer service department doesn't know their job or ecost has trained them to jerk people around in a way to get out of having to honor their warranty.  
 
I would also like to note that it was packed in such a way that the camera itself was not tight in the box. There was a total of about 10 styrofoam peanuts in the box. Clearly not enough to keep that camera from banging around in the box. I noticed one of the other people who posted on here said the same thing.  
 
I have a call in to Linda Potter but have not heard back from her yet.  
 
This issue has not been resolved and I will keep you posted.  
 
In the meantime, I'm going to use every social media outlet I know of to let people know how ecost treats their customers.  
 
ECOST HAS HAD MY MONEY FOR A MONTH NOW AND I STILL HAVE A CAMERA THAT DOESN'T WORK!

This review was modified by its author, sorrylew, on 11/2/09 8:11 AM.

10/08/09  
An update on our situation: I received a call from Linda, as many of you have, and she is fabulous! I don't know where this comapny found her, but they better do all they can to hold on to her. She was very professional and followed thru with what she promised. She even tried her best to find the product for us thru other avenues. Charges are no longer pending on our bank account. She really helped the process move along. Linda is the reason I am changing the rating I originally posted.  
 
We are so glad we read this site prior to placing an order with eCost.com, so we knew what to expect. Despite all the negative reviews, we decided to give them the benefit of the the doubt. We realized that a lot of the complaints were with electronics and we were ordering a chair - I mean, what could go wrong with a chair? eCost.com had the best price (red flag #1) and the website showed In Stock (apparently red flag #2), so we ordered the item.  
 
We got a confirmation e-mail within a few minutes advising that we would be notified when the item shipped. Of course, in their defense the e-mail does say "Pricing and availability are subject to change up to time of shipment. We reserve the right to cancel any order before it is shipped."  
 
Then, we get an e-mail that says "Your eCost Ring Purchase - Protect your ring with a warranty." Didn't we order a CHAIR? (red flag #3)  
 
This e-mail prompted me to go to our account and check the status of the shipment - it showed "Backordered" (another red flag). I then checked my bank account and it already has a payment pending to eCost thru Paypal. I honestly don't think that charges should be made, pending or not, until an item actually ships.  
 
So, this morning, we get the e-mail we pretty much expected - "We have encountered a problem in processing your order and have had to CANCEL the item(s) listed below for the following reason:  
 
CR - Order canceled per customer request  
 
We apologize for this inconvenience. No charges will be or have been processed to your credit card for these CANCELLED item(s)."  
 
Wait - CUSTOMER REQUEST???? Um.....NO! We did not cancel the order. So, I call eCost.com and speak with Ryan who explains, very nicely, that the warehouse/supplier cancelled the order because they are completely out of stock and that they are the ones who "mis-coded" the reason code.  
 
So, I am fine with this because, like I said, we read this site before ordering and knew we had a 50/50 shot (probably more like a 10% chance) at actually having a good experience.  
 
Now, we just have to wait for access to our money, b/c they have it pending as a charge on our account. Then, I can go somewhere reputable and purchase my item. Ryan says this should take place today - we'll see.  
 
Oh, and lastly - the item still shows In Stock on the website.  
 
UGH!!! Should have listened........  

This review was modified by its author, chloe3197, on 10/8/09 3:01 PM.

I had chosen eCost on the advice of a fellow techie friend. He purchased a GPS from them and has had no trouble with it. I also did the same on September 2 hoping to have it before the weekend as I was leaving for Houston Texas Sept. 7. I purchased the item and selected Overnight shipping which I epxeted my package to arrive by late afternoon on Sept 4th. I was within the shipping guidelines for time and credit card clearance. However, eCost did not get the product out to me as stipulated. I did not have my GPS by the time I left. I was very upset and spoke to many customer reps who did not understand the issue. Fortunately I was given to Linda. She worked dilligently to resolve my issue. I am happy to say that I will give eCost another try because of Linda's efforts. I think this is a good place. However, there are some kinks to be worked out. Linda is fantastic and a tremendous asset to this company. Note to eCost managment. You have different stipulations on your website for shipping. For standard overnight your web site says "Standard Overnight  
 
Delivery by 3:00pm the next business day after shipment to thousands of cities and by 4:30pm to most other areas. Orders must be placed AND credit approved no later than 5:00pm Eastern / 2:00pm Pacific." This is confusing as Linda stated to me that the times are CST based. And if you use over 20 warehouses this information has to reflect time zones of those warehouses. This is not only confusing for your customers but for your employees such as Linda. As I said I will use eCost in the future. Attention to this issue will make my experience more enjoyable.

I placed an order for a wireless dongle for TV. It was in stock when ordered - now it's backordered. This is a recurring theme for eCost - they list it one way, then it shows up in your account another way.  
 
This is definitely a negative business practice. If I do not hear from eCost within 1 day, I will be putting a stop payment on the credit card and contacting the Better Business Bureau and any other online rating site I can find.  
 
I emailed eCost and received an automated "we will contact you within 48 business hours". That time is essentially up. I better hear from them soon.

Bought a 32 inch HDTV for my parents. With an extended warranty. Needless to say the TV went bad after 5 months. Later found out the TV is a 5 year old TV...ECOST did not care to hear their customer REP. TOLD ME THIS BY THE SeRIAL NUMBER !!!!. When I was told it was a NEW refurbished I believed(along with many others) it was from 08 or 09 !!.....I had bought a 47 inch for myself along with an Ipod and many other things but believe I will never buy from them again. I am also one of those dummies that joined their platinum membership which is worthless. I am sad to hear them tell me OH WELL it's a 5 year old TV and they last only 5 years. I have this phone conversation TAPED..Hard to believe. They lost me as a customer and I will tell everyone else what they did.MY parents were better off with their WORKING big clunker. SHAME ON YOU !!!!!!!!

This review was modified by its author, bellavi, on 10/5/09 4:59 PM.

Excellente service, A+ product quality. Customer service excellent too, Mr. Julius Orozco was the representative who attended me, and all was alright.  
Way to go eCost!

Linda in Customer Support was great, and was able to resolve my issue quickly after my previously frustrating experience with e-mail and phone support!

EVERYONE: File your complaints with The FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION. Your complaints can help the FTC detect patterns of wrongdoing, and lead to INVESTIGATIONS and PROSECUTIONS. These are not legal business practices. Obvious bait and switch scams; selling defective merchandise, misrepresented as refurbished, then referring you to the manufacturer if you want it fixed; attempts to remove serial numbers, a fair indication that the merchandise was probably stolen Help put these DIRTBAGS out of business and put them in prison where they belong.

I've ordered a few things from ecost and have had both good and not so good experiences with them. I ordered a refurbished Apple ipod from them and it arrived in a timely manner, looked like new, and works just fine. I've been using it for about 4 months now without any problems. I was very happy with this order.  
 
I also ordered an Aerobed (inflatable bed) from them about one month ago and it arrived in a very damaged box with an insufficient amount of packing material (which explains the damage), but fortunately the bed was in it's own box and this box didn't sustain any damage. It also seems fine and, aside from the poor packing job, I'm pretty happy with this order.  
 
A few days ago I ordered a refurbished HP laptop, a PC headset, and a Linksys wireless router. Although they stated that all three were in stock, only the headset and the router have been shipped. I hope that the computer will be shipped soon, but given the experiences of others mentioned below, I am a little concerned. A small delay is ok, but I'll have to see just how long this delay continues.  
 
I do have one fairly major concern about ecost, however. Judging from the lack of packing material in the box containing my second order (which was directly responsible for the damage the shipping box sustained while in route) and also from the reviews I've read below in which others have stated that they've had the same experience, I worry that I'll be scammed on this most recent order and I'll explain why.  
 
Based upon the fact that I planned on ordering many items from ecost (admittedly they've got very good prices), I purchased a Platinum Premium membership before my most recent order so that I could get free shipping on this, and future, orders. However, what ecost buried in the fine print is this: their free shipping is done via UPS Basic service. After calling UPS, I discovered that these shipments are (1) uninsured and so the purchaser assumes all liability for any damage to the shipment and (2) left without a signature, regardless of how secure the location is.  
 
Now, I don't blame UPS for this since they've made companies using this form of shipping aware of their policies. I DO, however, feel it is a bit, well, unethical for ecost to use this level of shipping without clearly indicating that this level is used for all free shipping offers under their Platinum Premium membership, especially given that one must purchase a membership to get this "free" shipping.  
 
So, let's take a hypothetical. Let's say ecost ships out the laptop computer I've ordered, ships it without the proper type and/or an insufficient amount of packing material (knowing full well that if the computer arrives damaged, they have my money and I'm left with a damaged computer and absolutely no recourse), and let's say it arrives damaged. I have no way to get a refund (due to their "All Sales Final" policy) and no way to collect any insurance (since they shipped it via UPS Basic), and therefore I must pay out of pocket for any repairs to the computer (which sort of defeats the purpose of saving money by buying a refurbished computer). So, ecost is in the clear and I am out the cost of my computer purchase.  
 
To be fair to ecost, they have not yet shipped out my HP laptop (but hopefully will soon, given that they claimed it was in stock) and so I have no idea whether it will arrive properly packaged, undamaged, and in like-new condition, as it should. I also have not yet received my PC headset and wireless router (which have been shipped), so I also can't say anything about my experiences with this order either. But you can be certain I will be updating this post and I'll be fair and objective about my experiences. The outcome depends on ecost.  
 
UPDATE: To date, I've ordered 3 refurbished laptop computers (one of which I alluded to above), a printer cable, a PC headset, a wireless router, a refurbished ipod, and an inflatable bed. The computers all arrived well protected and without any damage, and they were all in like-new condition. I should note that I shipped everything via UPS second day air (including the refurbished computer I mentioned in my original review), which involved an added expense, but at least everything was insured. About one month out, I've not had any problems with any of the computers. All other items I purchased (some of which I've mentioned above) also arrived without damage and have been working without any problems. So, overall I'd have to say that I've been very happy with the online purchases I've made through ecost. Some words of advice to others:  
 
1. The Platinum Premium membership has not been very useful thus far. I don't think it's worth the expense.  
2. Although the Platinum Premium membership provides free shipping, this shipping is done through UPS Basic service and is therefore useless if you wish to ship expensive items such as computers, TVs, etc. Be warned that there is no shipping insurance with this level of service and UPS reserves the right to drop the package without signature.....regardless of whether the drop-off point is secure. See above for more information. Personally, I'd never consider shipping expensive items without insurance and therefore UPS Basic is not appropriate, whether or not ecost provides it for free.  
3. Many items that you purchase from ecost (refurbished, for example) are "final sales", meaning you cannot return them to ecost should they fail. That said, it might be advisable to purchase a warranty if possible.  
4. I still have reservations about the way ecost ships their merchandise, and apparently others agree with me on this. The items too often arrive without sufficient packing material and thus risk damage in transit. Again, I'd strongly advise shipping insurance for this reason.

This review was modified by its author, fukada, on 10/20/09 2:37 PM.

I placed an order with eCOST in September 7th and have been charged $82.95 in September 11st. I have been waiting to get my package for three weeks. So far, I actually do not receive my package.  
 
At first, I sent an e-mail and then contacted customer service center. In fact, it didn't work!  
They told me that I have to send another e-mail to deal with my order! It really makes me exhausted. I could endure this no longer!  
I paid the money to eCOST already. Could I acquire my goods? PLEASE!