Good sellers, but site administrators are lazy, arrogant swine.
Written: Jan 13 '04 (Updated Jan 13 '04)
| Ease of Ordering: |
 |
|
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| Selection: |
 |
|
| On-Time Delivery: |
 |
|
|
| Full Review |
This automated non-auction store works fine as long as you don't have a problem. If you want to tell them anything, though, God help you. They make themselves unavailable except through a canned Q&A system so cumbersome, clueless, unresponsive, and frustrating to use that it might as well not exist. There is no "contact us" e-mail, no e-mail address in any other form, no telephone number, nothing. They DO NOT WANT TO KNOW YOU EXIST.
eBay has the same problem now -- some clown there has apparently decided to nip in the bud the problem of those pesky customers getting up on their hind legs and actually TALKING. Really, how arrogant can you get? They might as well hang a sign on the door, "Too big to be bothered to talk to our customers," or possibly, "Where customer service is an ugly rumor."
So what was the problem I'd tell them about, if anyone were listening? Well, several, really, but the worst (aside from their holding themselves incommunicado) is their mail service. On many items, you can choose between what they call "Media Mail" and what they call "Expedited Service." Expedited usually costs $5.00 extra. Naturally, "Media Mail" takes forever. So twice or three times I have ordered things on which I specified "Expedited Service," only to find that they, too, took an eternity to reach me.
So I looked in their fine print for a few hours one day (which is what you have to do in the event of any sort of problem or question with them), and discovered that they define "Media Mail" as more or less slow-boat-to-China service. OK, so that left "Expedited Service." Now, this is the 21st century, right? So when you hear of an expedited service, you think, FedEx 2-Day, UPS 2-Day, or maybe U.S. Postal Service Priority Mail, right? Sure enough, if you look up "expedited service" in their definitions, two of those couriers are mentioned, so you figure you're OK. BUT: two OTHER services also mentioned, and they're both "Ground Delivery." As far as I can tell, "Ground Delivery" is a euphemism invented by shipping companies for "Rip Van Winkle service," since that's who you might as well be as wait for them. Half.com's rules state that it's the seller who gets to choose which "expedited" service he uses. Since "ground delivery" costs a fraction of REAL expedited delivery, naturally it's what they all use.
Half.com admits that stuff mailed "Expedited Service" -- yeah, the one you paid $5.00 extra to get -- might take "2 to 10" days to be delivered. (As I recall, this is in contrast to the regular service, which I think they had the balls to say might take "10 to 30" days.) Naturally, it seems always to be 10 days, and never 2.
Whatever 10 days may be, it sure ain't my idea of expedited anything -- and I don't like the scammy-smelling way they have handled this. In fact, I think half.com is deliberately misleading their customers. And I HATE it that they not only don't listen, they don't even let you talk.
The selection is unparalleled, and I haven't had a bad experience with a seller yet. But the people running the store (so to speak) are apparently such a sack of arrogant scum that I hate even using their service now.
Will I use the site again? Oh probably -- they've got too much good stuff too cheap to ignore. But I don't love 'em any more.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? half.com
|
|
|
|
About the Author
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
|
