"BargainSpotOnline.com is bad news, judging by my overly lengthy one experience with them. Over 45-days starting on 2006-09-04 and multiple calls yielded no product, and as of today, 2006-12-27, still No Refund.

I wanted a product that only they claimed to have in-stock on 2006-09-04, when I spoke with a live person there who said the product was ready for immediate shipment. So, I placed the order right then for a total of $231.41.

Two days later I checked the order status/account page on the site and discovered that $20.00 had been added to the order total after I had placed the order and printed my receipt. The sneaked-in additional $20.00 shipping charge brought the total to $251.41 -- a vile tactic to say the least.

I called and got the same guy who I originally talked with, and he told me that it was their right to increase the order total for "additional shipping fees." This product couldn't weigh more than 5-lbs in a reasonable size shipping box. And of the original $231.41, $16.43 of that was for shipping. The sneaked-in $20.00 brought the shipping charges to $36.43. I strongly protested and he finally dropped $16.44 of the unauthorized $20.00 increase.

Needing that particular product in a hurry and having trouble finding it stocked anywhere else, I conceded to absorbing the $3.56 of the unauthorized $20.00 shipping cost increase. That increased my cost to $234.97, instead of the original $231.41.

Weeks later I discovered that I had been lied to and gouged, because they admitted to me, when I called again by phone, that he never had the item in-stock when I placed the original order. And they switched me to a similar product from a different manufacturer for a lesser price. Well, supposedly they switched the order to that product.

I kept checking daily and did not receive the credit of the difference in price between the first item I ordered and the one they switched me to after I had complained several times. Nor did the order status page reflect canceling the first item ordered and listing the "switched to" product that they steered me to.

That product, too, was never shipped to me after several more weeks. Finally, when asking for a full refund by phone I got a "I'm hurt" attitude from the guy representing the company. But he finally agreed to refund my money.

Several more days went by and no refund had been issued to my account. Though, when I called again he swore it had been issued, and even Fax'd me a screen-copy of his bookkeeping system page for my order. The page he Fax'd clearly showed CREDIT and not REFUND. As tough I would ever shop with them again. I wouldn't even do a COD purchase from them after all I've learned about their tactics. A subsequent call yielded that he would not issue a refund, only a credit.

I took the matter to my bank. They issued me a provisional refund for the $234.97 and they tried recovering it from BargainSpotOnline.com, but shortly later took the provisional refund back. Because, as they said, by him modifying the sale after it was initially set, and me agreeing to a partial credit of the additional $20.00 that they sneaked onto the order total, I had negated their ability to actively be involved in recovering the money. They called it a convoluted transaction.

I almost forgot to mention: In all of my many phone calls to BargainSpotOnline.com I was able to speak only with the one male person.

At this point I'm livid over this matter. But I do intend to keep trying to get a refund of every penny, and to file complaints about this matter in every place I can.

People need to know that BargainSpotOnline.com presented to me a prime example of "Bad Business Practices." And I'm wondering just how many other people got ripped-off by them, and who never put forth the energy and time to file complaints and attempt to recover their money.


"