Online shopping is starting to really suck

[korova1]

Just a rant. I am waiting at the airport, bored out of my skull.

I don't know if this happening to lots of other people these days since we totally jumped to the digital/online bandwagon and don't actually have any physical record stores to go to but I've had nothing but problems recently with online orders. This may be due to such high volumes of orders being place nowadays (who knows?). I've been shopping online for 10-12 years back to the days of "CD-Now" and "German Music Express", purchasing shit I don't really need, but hey, it is fun, right? My shopping habits might be changing soon.

I assume eventually there will be a backlash from consumers if this crap continues in the future, but get this, I placed four (4) orders on 3 different online CD, book, and movie retailers in the past three months. I wasn't planning on giving out the retailers... aw, what the hell... it was CD Universe (CD boxset), Amazon.com (a book), and Red Sun Records (more CD's). Anyway, I started buying this stuff way back in July because they are presents for my wife, who has a birthday on October 3rd.

Three of the items I ordered were listed as "in stock" or as "pre-orders" when I placed the order and over the 3 month period all three of those orders failed to show up at my door. Since that time the barrage of emails started to arrive. I found out all 3 of those orders are basically "out of stock" - each one of the individual orders - scrubbed, cancelled, kaput.

Today I just got my last email stating my fourth item out of those four orders I placed a long time ago on CD Universe is "now permanently on backorder and most likely will never be available by the target date". WTF? The day before my target date? Is this supposed to be funny? What is the fucking point of online pre-orders? Why list the order as a pre-order if you aren't 100 percent sure it will be available by that date? Now I have NOTHING to show for the presents I was planning on giving my wife for her b-day.

The humorous thing is I've seen two of these now "out of stock" items at local retailers in my city in the past couple of months at the indie book and CD stores. The prices were comparable, if not cheaper at the actual stores. At this point I no longer have any faith in online ordering, before if it was in stock... you got it in a timely fashion. Nowadays it is a guessing game 50/50 chance... fuck that.

Support your local record stores, online ordering is a crock of shit. Don't list the item if you don't have it in stock. How hard is it to keep track of this stuff?

BTW, and this isn't a plug, but so far, out of my 30 or so online retailers, Ideal Copy is the only online store who has had the class to write a personal note when contacting me with the disappointing news that an item is out of stock and "they are willing to keep trying to find the item" from their suppliers. Maybe some of the online big boys could learn a lesson or two from IC. Now I am going to scour the local stores that are left to try and find some sort of replacement items I was planning on giving my wife for her birthday.

It doesn't end there... even my last Itunes order was fucked up beyond belief, I got only partial part of the album I ordered back in June and one of the clips cut off. It took me three weeks to get that rectified.

Well, enough of my rant... but I am slowly getting less and less interested in my computer for picking stuff up.

Anybody else occasionally getting tired of this shit? (TD Bank customers put your hands up) Just curious.

[obs]

I've had no major issues recently. In the past, I've had two cases, from two different etailers, where I emailed them to confirm the specific version advertised on their website (widescreen DVD, original release CD), and they replied yes, but product received is no (fullscreen DVD, re-release CD).

For stuff that is time-sensitive, I wouldn't order it online if it's not something they have in stock. If it says "in stock", and it hasn't been sent out in a few days, I would cancel (if time sensitive).

With pre-orders of CDs, I've noticed that whatever release date they have listed, it's often pushed back by 2-4 weeks.

[bigwavedave]

Because I still have 3-4 decent physical stores to shop at, I keep my on-line shopping to a minimum. That said, I agree with korova1 that Ideal Copy provides great on-line service.

[Spudboy]

I gave up on CDUniverse years ago. I, too, had a rash of pre-orders I made that suddenly came up as "out of stock" or "on backorder indefinitely".

I would pre-order, wait & wait for weeks, and then receive the dreaded "sorry" e-mail. And then, the local Best Buy would have the item in spades for much cheaper.

Hmmmmm.

Still looking for my girl with auburn hair and tawny eyes...

[korova1]

Yeah, I took your advice and cancelled the orders for good after I found two of the four items in stores last night. Plus I saved about 10 bucks on those two items! One of the local stores is cool enough to put things on shelves before the record company release dates... THANK God. So my wife gets two of the four things I planned on getting her. Now I know where to go.

No more "Pre-orders" for me. Screw that shit. After 12 years of consistent quality and reliability making online purchases, today my online shopping just became my last resort. Hell, even Ebay is better than the service from some of the peeps I mentioned. At least the stuff shows up at the front door. I just dread the days when this is going to be the only way to purchase anything.