My NetMarket nightmare began when I found myself looking for solar park lights for our church during the summer of 2004.netMarket had the right light, the price was right - albeit shipping excessive - so we purchased the membership and bought 13 lights at $100.00 a pop (plus shipping). I thought I would use the service myself and purchased what I thought was a boombox with CD and cassette (it was so labeled) only to find that the unit only had a cassette player.
I contacted NetMarket and was instructed to return the item for a refund, plus my shipping, up to $10.00. So I returned the item and spend a little over $10.00 to ship it with insurance. Now I am basically out of $40.00 (the cost of the radio plus shipping).
Lo and behold a few weeks later I receive a box from NetMarket with the same radio in it that I had returned weeks before! Seems that no one bothered to read the printed note that I had included telling them of their error and that I wanted a refund, not an exchange. I even told them in my note that I never plugged the radio in or used it; there was nothing wrong with it other than that it didn't have a CD player (as the website claimed it did - since corrected). I called NetMarket again and was instructed to ship it back and to write "refund only - no exchange" on the box. Plus they claimed they would reimburse me for another $10.00 for the shipping. I again mail the item back to Chicago, spending another $10.00 in the process. Now I am out $50.00 ($30.00 for the radio $10.00 for shipping the first time $10.00 for shipping the second time.
Several weeks later, after waiting patiently for my $50.00 to arrive on my credit card statement, I receive an email telling me that the vendor has no record of the large, insured box that I sent them and that I would have to follow up with the USPS. (One can't help but think that the box was indeed received and some incompetent person never bothered to record the fact that it was received or follow through on the return.) So, another trip to the Post Office (didn't someone say, "Time is Money?") where I am told that I will have to fill out a detailed form, provide proof of value, and then wait for the Post Office to mail a form to NetMarket that they are required to sign. Then, sometime after that, I would receive a check.
In the meantime, calls to the supervisor "Bob" went unanswered and several other calls to well-meaning customer care representatives all yielded the same thing: nothing, nada, zero, zilch. I did eventually receive my check from the post office for the cost of the radio only excluding all shipping costs. Knowing that I would never see the money NetMarket originally promised to reimburse for my shipping (at one point I was instructed to fax all my receipts and info to them but they never acknowledged the fax) I figured I would cut my losses and simply cancel my membership. But it wouldn't be that easy. An eager customer representative (C.J.) assured me that he could fix the problem. He would have a certificate mailed to me for $45.00 toward any NetMarket purchase. When I asked him point blank if this was some deal like, "buy $100.00 worth of pantyhose and we will send you 45.00 in S&H Greenstamps" he assured me that no, this was 45 bucks I could use to buy whatever I wanted, no strings attached. When the coupon finally arrived I discovered that it was only applicable toward shipping costs. Silly me, duped again.
Well, I finally girded up my testosterone and called to cancel the service once and for all no matter what they offered (they could promise free gasoline for life delivered by Prince Saud al Faisal himself and I wasn't going to change my mind!). The gal in customer care didn't put up much of a fight. After a cursery reading off of the "When a Customer Calls to Cancel Membership Say This" chart, she gave in and said that a refund check for the balance of my membership would be in the mail. Yeah, I'll look for it along with my million dollar sweepstakes check from Ed McMahon.
Tony
Brockport, New York
U.S.A.
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