Lacking in real-person customer service, bad inventory control
Written: Dec 18 '05
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I live in the Midwest, my family up and down the Eastern Seaboard. So I *always* buy my Christmas presents early so I have plenty of time to ship them (and leave a margin for error or weather causing delays in shipping). I usually also buy and ship a birthday present for my niece, who has a birthday between Christmas and New Year's Day.
So in the last week of November/first week of December, I purchased a toy for my niece's birthday present (a Bella Ballerina Home Ballet Studio). This is not a particularly "hot" toy, but the local stores in my medium-sized town weren't stocking this item at the time I was ready to ship, so I looked online.
According to Froogle, not many online stores had the toy either, and the only one showing it in-stock was eToys. So after looking at their shipping policies, I decided I had plenty of time, and placed the order.
About 10 days after I placed the order, I got an e-mail from eToys telling me the item was back-ordered and they would make every effort to deliver the toy by Christmas. I wasn't too worried - as a birthday present, this item could arrive a day or two after Christmas and still be fine.
I did, however, want to find out the exact time-frame they were discussing, and never did succeed in finding a phone number at which to call them, which set off some alarm bells in my head.
This morning, I received an e-mail that they had canceled my item, as they did not know when they were going to receive more in stock! I ran out, racking my brains to figure out which stores might have this inexplicably "hot" toy...only to find about 10 of them at my local Target (my first stop). The real kicker was...it was almost 1/2 the price quoted on eToys. Even with shipping, I'm coming out ahead!
Maybe they are better during the non-busy time of Christmas, but I will never order a Christmas present (or a birthday present for any of the children in my family with near-Christmas birthdays) again.
The fact that they show an item as in-stock when it's not is reprehensible for a company that exists only as an online retailer - they should have a better inventory control system. And making it so difficult to talk to a real, live person inspires absolutely no confidence. And that's not just me as a consumer talking - that's an Internet professional who designs web sites for maximum usability critiquing their service!
I also find bizarre the fact that you can't change or cancel your order once you've placed it if they haven't yet fulfilled it - we're all human, it shouldn't be so difficult to get into the system to change an address, at the very least.
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Christmas/Birthday present
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Epinions.com ID:
chasmosaur
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Reviews written: 7
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