EBUYER! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

frivolous_fay

If you ever feel the urge to spend a few hundred quid with ebuyer, DON'T BOTHER!

We wanted to order a new hard drive and two mice. When we checked the prices, ebuyer came out the cheapest, plus I could go through quidco. :T

Here's what happened next...

We placed the order on boyfriend's account. We wanted the parcel delivered to my work address - ebuyer's notes explained you could do this if you had ordered before. Boyfriend has used ebuyer before, so this shouldn't have been a problem. It didn't give us the facility to add a delivery address, so we changed the address that we could see.
- ORDER CANCELLED - we'd changed the credit card address (oops)

We tried again. Fair enough, they don't want to deliver to work. Used my credit card this time for convenience.
- ORDER CANCELLED. (We guessed it was because it wasn't boyfriend's card)

We tried again. I particularly wanted to use my card, but also still kind of wanted the stuff delivered to work. Ebuyer allow you to pay with paypal - the instructions state that if you pay by paypal, they will only deliver to the address shown on yoru paypal, account. perfect! as the address associated with my paypal account is linked to my work address. Cue a load of confusing screens telling me to add a credit card (card is on the account already - I tried adding that card and it said it was already there...?!) Gave up that time. Apparently the order got as far as the payments department and was then
- CANCELLED

It was really getting annoying. I decided to open my own ebuyer account. tried again to use paypal - had a bit more luck this time. Put the payment through - logged in to paypal to check. Payment refunded?!
- ORDER CANCELLED

Ok, I thought, I'll give up on paypal. I put my credit card details on the account, put through the order, and went to bed.

Next day, I checked my email.

'Dear Sir / Madam,

It has been brought to our attention that your credit card has been used on another account OR you already have an account with us. This may be due to the fact that you have registered previously and have now forgotten your details. Unfortunately we cannot allow you to place orders on numerous accounts and each Ebuyer customer is only permitted to have ONE account.

If you cannot remember your login details please either:
1.Use the forgotten password link.
2. Use Enotes

Under no circumstances can we now allow for more than ONE account per person.

THIS ORDER HAS NOW BEEN CANCELLED AND IF YOU STILL REQUIRE THE GOODS IT MUST BE PLACED ON YOUR FIRST ACCOUNT.

We apologise for any annoyance and disappointment this may cause you.

I went to look at the status of the order on my account. I discovered...
ACCOUNT CLOSED

At this point Quidco was showing up 3 rejected payments for the various orders...

I rang ebuyer. We finally got to the bottom of various problems.

- If your paypal account shows an address other than your billing address, you're not able to use paypal for your first order.
- You are only allowed one ebuyer account per person. I explained that there were two of us.
- You are only allowed one ebuyer account per address. (At this point the lady gave use special dispensation to have two open.) She uncancelled my account. She uncancelled my order. :T

5 days later (free delivery option :T ) - today - I receive an email that delivery has been attempted. Fine, I think, I'll pick it up from the post office this evening. Then I notice it's being delivered by City Link and that I have to rearrange delivery, or collect it from the depot. Where's the local depot?

Hemel Ruddy Hempstead, a 30 minute drive away, and I don't have a car.

I get on the phone to the depot.

Can they arrange for a Saturday delivery? No.

Can they transfer it to a different depot? (Friend has offered to help) No
Can they redeliver to a different address? Not without ebuyer's say so.

I get on the phone to ebuyer.

Can they get city link to deliver the parcel to my work? No
Can they specify a time of day? (Boyfriend can only take a half day off work ) No
'I'm running out of options here. Can you suggest anything that will help me get my parcel?' 'I'm sorry, I can't.'

I have five days to arrange delivery or collection, otherwise my order will return to ebuyer for refund. In my last chance to get this sorted, this evening I'm going to speak to a neighbour I barely know, on the offchance that they will be at home during office hours and are willing to take the parcel. (Citylink said I could do that! :eek: )

Seriously.

Shop elsewhere. In future I will be.

frivolous_fay

Well, the neighbour can't help.

Guess I'll be waiting for my refund!

Froglet

Hi Fay.

I bet you wish there was a symbol on here that shows steam coming out of one's ears!!

I have had a few minor problems with some internet sites but usually i just give up if the ordering process is as difficult as that.They really don't deserve our custom.It may be quicker and cheaper to use the net for ordering goods but sometimes it is just not worth the hassle and usually you can find an alternative.

I hope you find a way round it!

aj3001

It's a shame you have had this many problems with eBuyer I have been using them for several years and spent several thousound pounds with them and I can't say a bad word about them

Look on the plus side, average waiting time on the phone is normally about 30 seconds, staff were as helpful as they could be, the listened to you, were easy to contact, the reasons your orders were cancelled were for security reasons, then they use a courrier to make sure your delivary gets to you safetly, it just so happens that you have a problem with CityLink as well

frivolous_fay

My main beefs about the whole experience so far have been...

1. Unclear payment instructions. If they're unwilling to send to a paypal linked address if it doesn't match the billing address, SAY SO.
2. I hate the whole 'must deliver to billing address' requirement. No other company I use does this.
3. Red tape above and beyond what is necessary. How dare they assume I'm an existing customer just because I happen to share the same address? And how ridiculous that two people living in the same house can't both have accounts
4. Inability, or unwillingness, to compromise just a bit and do anything to help me get my item. They were quite happy to leave it at 'She can't get her goods, there's nothing we're willing to do, they'll be returned to us in 5 days.' How is that helpful? If I ran a business, I'd consider it in my interests that the customer actually RECEIVED their goods, rather than say 'I'm not going to help, I'll just wait for my stock to come back, having incurred delivery fees for no reason'

*steam*

mpython

I had a poor experience with ebuyer as well though nowhere near as bad as yours. I only went with them as I was let down by Duck(another eseller) and someone on MSE recommended ebuyer.

I ordered an electric guitar kit for Xmas for DD which admittedly was cheap & arrived quickly. However, on opening on Christmas morning, the amp just gave out a loud hum, ruining the experience. You can return stuff, but if only 1 thing in a kit doesn't work, you have to return the entire package. DD didn't want to part with her guitar from FC so ended up buying an amp off ebay.

Might use ebuyer for price comparison but I'm very unlikely to buy anything from them again.

frivolous_fay

My boyfriend is an IT nut - he prefers overclockers. They have far more thorough details of each product... but they're more expensive.

This time the low price sucked us in

Darksun

I've ordered hundreds of pounds worth of stuff through eBuyer and never had a problem. The delivery to billing address is only required the first time you use a card, it's a security thing to stop people using stolen cards. Quite a few sites use this and it's not really a major problem.

I've also found Citylink to be one of the best courier services - they always deliver on time (giving you an estimate for a specific time, rather than 'sometime between 9am and 5pm).

frivolous_fay

Darksun wrote:

I've also found Citylink to be one of the best courier services - they always deliver on time (giving you an estimate for a specific time, rather than 'sometime between 9am and 5pm).

I asked city link if they could confirm a morning / afternoon delivery - they said that would be an 'upgrade' (ie. not possible unless ebuyer approved it)

I asked ebuyer, just to be sure - they said it wasn't possible.

And I have to say.... the delivery to billing address is a major problem for me... and I can't be the only one.

- I can't get a day off at 5 days' notice!
- I don't consider it acceptable to travel to a depot if it's going to mean paying out for a taxi / bus to get there.
- Boyfriend only has a half day holiday left and city link won't commit to am/pm!
- Saturday delivery is an 'upgrade'!
- I WORK!
- Most of my neighbours are students or weirdos

going2die_rich

I've bought from Ebuyer for more than 2 years now which probably total £2k over that time.

Had a few issues with the wrong item being sent but they've always sent a replacement. Out of the times I had a wrong item, only twice did they actually ask me to return it, the other times they said to keep it as it wasn't worth them refunding the postage costs for the return due to it's weight/price.

I can't fault there delivery either as I like city link but my local depot is only 5 minutes away in the car.

I think you just got unlucky due to the fact you wanted something through your bf's account and delievered to your work. Had it been a straight to home delivery you'd have been fine (most likely). Although the free delivery can sometimes arrive later than stated as I have to admit, Ebuyer have on occassion only despatched the items when they should be at my door so arrive a day late (no fault of City Link).

mpython

I think the time city link p**d me off most was when they put a card through my door as I was out. I wasted Saturday morning driving to their depot to find the parcel wasn't for me but a neighbour! (good job I'm honest and pointed out their mistake). Would they compensate me for wasting my time or petrol? No.