Ebuyer order a week late, disgusting lack of communication and service.

For The Attention Of The Customer Services Manager

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to express my extreme dissatisfaction with my last experience with Ebuyer when attempting to purchase a new DVD Rewriter and some accessories. I am appauled by the persistent problems, lack of communication, technical issues and unacceptable delays I have encountered while trying to make a simple purchase.

My letter relates to order number 4940102 where I purchased one Pioneer A109 DVD Recorder for my personal computer, as well as some storage media and accessories. The order you will note was placed on the 23rd of July 2005. I opted for the standard delivery, which your website said would be Friday the 29th of July 2005. This would have been an excellent time for the goods to arrive, as I knew a member of my family would be in the property to receive the goods. The order was placed, but unfortunately an item was not in stock. This was not your mistake, I rectified my mistake by choosing an alternative product using your helpful system which allowed me to change the product on the order with ease.

Naturally, I awaited my order thinking no more of it. I received the following email to my account from your automated service a short time later:

From: Ebuyer Customer Services <[email protected]
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: David Nelson <[email protected]>
Date: Jul 23, 2005 8:21 PM
Subject: Order Confirmation (Order No:4940102)

Dear David Nelson,

This email is to confirm that your order (4940102) for the following has been processed and that
payment has been successfully taken.


Item: Pioneer DVR-109 16x DVDR/RW Writer - OEM Beige
Qty: 1
Cost: £27.76

Item: Verbatim DVD+RW 4x Rewritable Media 4.7GB 10Pk
Qty: 2
Cost: £5.66

Item: Ebuyer Plastic Wallets CD / DVD (120 Micron) 100 pack
Qty: 1
Cost: £2.49

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The shipping address for this order is:

David Nelson
62, Croft Street
Galashiels
Selkirkshire
UK
TD1 3BP
TEL: 01896668843

Shipping method: Standard Service* at £5.49

Net total: £47.06
VAT total: £8.26
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Gross total: £55.32
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Deliver by Date: Fri 29th July 2005
Depending on capacity we may elect to upgrade your order for no extra charge and deliver your order
early. Should we decide to do that we will send you an email informing you


I believe under the terms of the relevant distance selling regulations set out in United Kingdom law this forms an acceptance of my order at the stated prices, as a contract between yourselves (Ebuyer) and myself (David Nelson) to supply the goods as listed on the date supplied in the above email. This is a contract that you have at the time of writing still failed to honour.

I understand due to my experience in the retail industry that in business things do not always proceed to plan. When my products failed to arrive on the stated date I was disappointed, but I understood that perhaps the delivery had been delayed. Nothing arrived on Tuesday. I was rather annoyed by this and consequently contacted a customer service representative who was extremely helpful. This was harder than anticipated due to the 11 times I rang the number on your website, got the automated message and was subsequently cut off. When I eventually got through I requested a reduction in my delivery charge to reflect the disappointment and inconvenience I suffered, and the member of your staff to whom I spoke has arranged for such a refund to be processed, and promised that she would contact the warehouse and check on the status of my order.
I would like to add at this point that speaking to this representative has been the only positive part of this order process, and that the rest of it is diabolical. Had this member of staff not been so helpful I would have immediately cancelled the order and closed my account with you.

I was entirely not amused to find the next day that I had received an eNote regarding another item that was out of stock. I have requested yesterday that this be removed from the order and my order dispatched however it appears I will have to wait another day or two until someone actually looks at the eNote and removes the item from the order. The web-based method of replacing/removing out of stock products appears to be not working which is a shame as it was extremely easy the previous time.


In summary I would like to point out the following flaws in my experience with yourselves:

I was informed that orders were delayed due to a warehouse relocation when i contacted a customer service representative. However at no point during or before the order process was I informed of this. My account was debited, my delivery date was confirmed via email and I was given no reason to expect other than the service I received with my previous purchases. This distinct lack of communication is shocking.
When attempting to contact your customer service helpline I did not even get through to the queue, but was immediately disconnected after the recorded message. The message quoted 'higher than expected call volumes' as a possible cause of problems however on the twelfth attempt at calling I was very quickly put through to a customer service advisor.
Your website is slow and frequently times out with many pages refusing to load at all. I checked with a friend of mine via instant messaging who was attempting to place an order at the times I was also trying to use your site and she was experiencing the same issues. In fact due to such issues you lost her sale.
I have now been waiting for one week since my order should have been delivered.


I would like to request that the following action is taken as soon as possible:

If my order has not been dispatched I would like to request that it is done so immediately. If any items are out of stock with the exception of the DVD ReWriter please remove them from the order, reduce the shipping charge appropriately and dispatch the order. I have waited long enough for this.
I would like a written apology from the Manager of the Customer Services Department and I feel it is appropriate that all other customers affected by this mistake also receive an appropriate apology.
I would request that in future if relocation work is planned or other scheduled events may cause such problems that customers are informed and delivery lead times are amended to reflect possible issues. This is common courtesy.

Finally I would like you to note that a copy of this letter has been published at a popular performance computing website which has in excess of 50,000 members. I suggest that failing to resolve this problem may lead to a serious dent in your reputation at the aforementioned website.

I await your reply. If you wish to contact me by telephone please call 07729 399814. If I cannot take your call at the time please leave a message and a direct number to contact you on and I will call back when it is convenient.

Thanks in advance for your anticipated action on this matter,





David Nelson, Ebuyer username djnelson444

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L337 M33P said:

Recently they answered a query about this RMA in double-quick time. I'd say that resellerratings is wholly unrepresentative of the majority's opinion on the service.

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larva said:

I'm not sure where the notion would come from that your personal experience is more representative of the majority's than would the many personal experiences represented on resellerratings.

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larva said:

I'm not sure where the notion would come from that your personal experience is more representative of the majority's than would the many personal experiences represented on resellerratings.

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