A Reader's Buycomp Experience

Just wanted to say that the article was very well written and informative, as most stuff on Firingsquad.com is. But I REALLY want to give you a shout out for dissing Buycomp.com. They are the biggest scam operation on the face of the planet. The sad thing is that they're such a big (and nationally advertised) site that probably lures a lot of suckers in, like they lured me in...

The EXACT SAME situation that you described in the article about ordering out-of-stock items and the hassle behind it happened to me as well. I ordered an 8MB Monster 3D II right before the holidays from them, and they happened to just run out of stock AFTER I placed my order (they had them listed as "in stock" for a few days after I ordered too). I had ordered 2 day shipping, but 2 days after the order I received an e-mail instead saying that the product was out of stock and it would come possibly 4-8 weeks later! (of course after Christmas, which would mean a very belated Christmas gift if that's what the item was for) And still charging me for 2 day shipping, EVEN THOUGH NOW THEY SAID THEY WOULD MAIL IT GROUND REGARDLESS! I thought these people were kidding... but it got worse. I called them, and they said that the product was discontinued and that they were not going to get a replacement product from Diamond. Yet they still charged me anyway. Furthermore, they weasel-worded everything about the refund that I DEMANDED to make it sound like they may not give me a full refund, which is when I threatened to sue. The biggest joke? They were still taking more orders for the item on the website! (they may have been lying about the product being discontinued, but I know that a LOT of people were agreeing that the 8MB cards had stopped production.)

It makes me nauseous every time I see their commercials on TV now. They aren't the cheapest hardware sellers anyway (only once in a while), and they are utterly disgusting to deal with. You've done me a great favor by making them look bad already, hopefully you have someplace to post my letter as well so that they would never ever get any orders from a sane person again. I had to eventually pay $10 more for my Monster 3D II, but it was worth it to buy from a small dealer at a show who wouldn't shaft me. Anyway, keep up the good work and hopefully you wind up getting so many "war stories" from this article about bad dealers that maybe a message board/hall of shame can be started somewhere.

By the way, I can agree through personal experience that MicroWarehouse is a good buy and that OnSale is generally poor for getting bargains (even though I have to say that they really have good customer service).