On October 31 I attempted to purchase a Sony KDL-46EX700 46" flat panel TV from the Buy.com website. The advertised price of $1,099.00 with free shipping was about $200 cheaper than any other advertised price that I was able to find. The item was (still is...) listed as a marketplace seller offer from TigerDirect that stated "usually ships in 1-2 days". Well, I placed the order and waited 10 days without hearing a word from either Buy.com or TigerDirect - at which time I emailed TigerDirect. After allowing 2 more days to go by, TigerDirect finally emailed back saying "due to circumstances beyond our control, we cannot ship the product you ordered". Not the biggest problem I've ever had with a retailer... But, then the TigerDirect customer service department included an unsolicited offer to substitute a "comparable product". Ok, so now I'm angry - this looks exactly like a classic "bait and switch scam". I told them to cancel my order and make sure my credit card was not charged. I then emailed Buy.com to let them know that I didn't appreciate being exposed to that kind of scam from one of their marketplace sellers and that I expected them to correct this situation.in response, the Buy.com customer service department sent an email saying "we really have no control over (and... No responsibility for) the conduct of our marketplace sellers... And they included a $20 gift certificate for my trouble. I was more than a little offended to think that Buy.com was asking me to go away for $20 - and doing nothing to correct the problem - but I might have left it at that until I opened the Buy.com web page and discovered that the fraudulent advertisement for a Sony KDL-46EX700 flat panel TV for $1,099 with free shipping. As of this writing (on November 13th) this misleading bait and switch ad remains on Buy.com.
So, because Buy.com obviously intends to do nothing to abate the bait and switch scheme being perpetrated on their website, as I promised I would, I will publish this bad service story far and wide... And I will never again patronize Buy.com or TigerDirect. I hope plenty of others will read this and make the same choice.
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