Page 1 of WHO CAN I COMPLAIN TO ABOUT INTERNET ORDERS

I ordered a disc at the beginning of the year from an American website and, depsite being told it had shipped, it never turned up. I contacted the website frequently and only got their automated response, until one time they sent a proper response and promised to send a disc out to me. Since then nothing, only the same old automated response every time I send an enquiry. Does anyone have any advice? Is there a body I can send a complaint to? Any help appreciated here.

What was the site?

You might have to just put it down to experience, I think...

I would have contacted my credit card company to arrange a charge back. However I don`t know what they will say about an order that was placed several months ago. Contact them and find out.

The only way I got a response from a similar supplier was to bombard them with over 100 copies of the same complaint email.

Also, let us know who the supplier is.

If you used a credit card, talk to your CC issuer. Give it the details of your correspondence and tell it why it`s taken so long to apply for a chargeback. You`ll find that 9 times out of 10 the issuer is on your side and will take this up for you.

What`s the troublesome website?

Anil
_____________________________________________________________
Site Reviewer
DVD Reviewer
My YMDB Top 20

Thanks for the responses. The site was dvd.com.

Chargebacks can be issued up to 6 months from the original transaction date. Longer in case of fraud. Hope that helps.

I had this problem with an outfit in Canada when I started with DVD. Regular emails for six months and then they said they were going wholesale only because of too many lost discs.

There are, however, two things to remember:

1) When a disc doesn`t turn up, it`s usually the fault of the courier (be they UPS, DHL, USPS or our own Royal Pain... I mean Mail.

2) Most US or Canadian suppliers include in their small print a line about not accepting responsibility for items lost in the post - unless you pay insured carriage (which usually works out twice the price of the disc.) If you buy from them, you implicitly accept their T&Cs and are therefore without a leg to stand on.

Sometimes a supplier will be friendly and you might get a replacement. Most of the time they will assume you are coming the old soldier and will not even respond. Unfortunately the international mail system is a bit of a lottery, so you take a gamble if your order will turn up at all. There`s little or nothing you can do about it.

Oh, and using your cc`s chargeback system when there hasn`t been an instance of fraudulent use is probably the best way to stop international suppliers shipping to the UK at all, so please think twice about using the facility lest you f*ck things up for the rest of us. ;)

J Mark Oates