Here's the story:
8 days (more than ample time to receive an item purchased online via ground shipping) before the fall semester started for Jeremy, we got online and ordered his textbooks. I have been known to shout praises and recommend half.com (a branch of ebay) for textbook buying needs. I found it and loved it back in the days when I owned and frequently used CD's because it was one of the only places that I could find Kanye West's first cd edited. Many semesters of school taught me that I could find my books there for sooooo much cheaper than at my school's bookstore. Naturally, I let people know that they should look there for books because the amounts of cash my parents were throwing away on textbooks for me was disturbing. Not to mention that many sellers will let you upgrade shipping to get things quicker.
This semester of school was approaching, and I bought one of the books Jeremy needed on half.com. I would usually get an email a day or two later saying the book had shipped. No such email ever came. I emailed the seller and asked that they would hurry and ship it because my husband needed the book for school. His first week of school came and went, and with no response from the seller, Jeremy had to buy the ridiculously expensive book from his school. Meanwhile, my debit card has already been charged over $100 for something that clearly isn't coming. Ebay is super awesome with customer service (NOT!), so they don't let you file claims on not receiving items until the allotted shipping period (two weeks) has passed. At exactly two weeks, I "filed a claim" about my never sent item. They tell you it will take up to 30 days to process your claim. 30 days later, and no email from ebay or refund of my money. This is where it gets fun.
Go ahead and try to find any contact information on ebay's website...I dare you. You won't find any number, email, or be able to make any sense of their customer service portion of their website. I googled and googled in an attempt to find a number to call to get my money back. I found plenty of phone numbers...all of which were disconnected but one. You have to somehow pick the lucky sequence of prompted menu numbers to find out that you need some kind of claim code from the website to be able to talk to a representative. Don't worry because this claim code is not the number given to me when I filed my claim, instead it is supposed to come from part of the customer service portion of their website that does not exist! I called the same number again and by some stroke of luck navigated correctly thru nearly a dozen menus to get to a live person without the claim code. Then I sat on hold for almost an hour. I am finally on the phone with some fool, from India no doubt (ironically I find the show "Outsourced" hilarious), who takes about 15 minutes of putting me back and forth off-and-on hold to tell me that he cannot do anything to process my claim, he could only direct me to send a reminder email to support@half.com about my case (aren't YOU the support@half.com??). I hang up, send the email with more information than should be necessary asking for my refund. A week later I get a response. One Week. The response asked me if I was sure the item still hadn't arrived (really??), and that my claim would be resolved within 30 days. I responded letting them know that no, after more than two months the item still wasn't here, and also I don't want it anymore! I want my money back!
That was two weeks ago. No response yet. No money back. No acknowledgement that there is an end in sight to getting a refund for an item never sent to me that I ordered 3 months ago.
I will never be visiting ebay/half.com EVER again.
Compare that experience with this...
After two weeks of seeing empty shelves above the "How to Train Your Dragon" blu-ray tag at every walmart and target I went to, I found it on Amazon for $3 cheaper than it sells for at target. And because we have a trial of amazon prime, we got free 2-day shipping on it. I was more than thrilled not to have to waste gas searching for it anymore, and it was actually at my door within 24 hours of me buying it online! Not 48...24!!
Amazon...you have my business from now on.
