I placed an order on buy.com for a new headset to use at work. The item is/was listed as "In Stock" and "ships within 1-2 business days." I placed the order on Friday April 23rd at about 6am PST and awaited my new headset. Within 30 minutes, my order status changed from "processing" to "sent to warehouse" and I just knew I would have it before the end of the next week. By the next Wednesday (3-4 business days later) my order was still listed as "sent to warehouse." So I sent an email to buy.com customer support as they have NO was to contact them otherwise. I received an auto-response within 20 minutes, telling me my question would be answered in the next business day.
The next day, Thursday April 29th, I did receive a response. It read: "We apologize for any confusion regarding the status of your order. We are happy to report that your order is on its way! Item #90128088 Plantronics H-181 Behind-the-Neck Style DuoPro(tm) with Noise Tube Microphone from your entered the shipping process on 4/28/2004." I went and checked my order on their site, and it was still listed as "sent to warehouse" but as it takes they 1-2 business days to do just about anything, I waiting for 24 hours to see if my order status would change.
24 hours later, on Friday April 30th, it had not changed. So I tried to reply to the email they sent to me. I stated that I do not believe my order has shipped as it had not been billed yet. Further, it was still listed as "sent to warehouse," whatever that means. I, of course, received an auto-response telling me they would respond within 1 business day. 1 business day later (now we are at Saturday May 1st), I received a response that said: We apologize for any inconvience the delay of your order may have caused. We are happy to report that your order is on its way! Item #90128088 Plantronics H-181 Behind-the-Neck Style DuoPro(tm) with Noise Tube Microphone from your order shipped on 4/29/04." So again I checked my order status.
Finally it had shipped! However, it shows the shipping details as "Shipped on 4/30/2004 via FedEx Ground Service." So not only did they lie to me once, but twice!
I can understand not being able to ship every item in 1-2 days. However, I would respect them as a business, and as a CUSTOMER if they would just have told me the truth from the beginning. Perhaps, "we are sorry, but out warehouse is backed up with orders at this time and you order will be delayed 4-5 days."
I don't know if I will be ordering anything via buy.com again.