I was looking for a cordless phone. I had a make and model number and went to Froogle to look up retailers where I could order it. One of the retailers that came up in my Froogle search was the "Buy It Here Store", which looked to be a storefront using a web portal: www.buyitherestore. Vstoremarket.com. I placed an order using my credit card for two of the phones. I received an email confirming the order. The email had the return email address of [email protected]. This was on 11/13/05.
I contacted the "Buy It Here Store" retailer about the order after a couple of weeks, as I had not received the merchandise. Contacting the retailer involved going to their website and filling out a web form inquiring about my order. However, even though I did this numerous times, I never received anything but an auto-generated reply. These replies always referred me back to the website to "access my account" to check on my order. However, when I would do that, I would invariably find that my order was marked "Processing". No shipment date or tracking number was noted.
I repeatedly filled out these webforms asking that someone phone me about my order. I never received a call or an email (except auto-generated emails.)
The "Buy It Here Store" did not have any further information about how I could contact the retailer other than filling out a webform. There was no phone number on the website. When I visited the vstore.com website address (which I assumed was a portal for the "Buy It Here Store" retailer), I couldn't find a telephone number.
I contacted my bank to initiate a chargeback to my card, because I could not contact the retailer and had not received the merchandise, even though my card had been charged.
In the meantime, I did a web search for the telephone number for "Vstore", and was fortunate to find someone had posted it: 1-800-821-6034. I called this number and talked to a young woman. I was still under the impression that VStore was a portal for this "Buy It Here Store" retailer, and I was hoping to get some information from VStore about who this "Buy It Here Store" retailer was, and to warn VStore that I was having difficulty with this retailer.
It was then that I learned that VStore and "Buy It Here Store" are one and the same, and that VStore is NOT a portal company for independent retailers. When I explained my mission — that I had requested information numerous times on my order, the young woman I was talking to looked up my account. She initially informed me that the item had been shipped, but did not have a tracking number or shipment date. Then she backtracked and told me that the order had been cancelled, because the items were not in stock. She told me that I had been sent an email on 11/19/05 notifying me that this item was out of stock and backordered. (I did not receive this email, and my card was charged on 11/22/05.) She told me that when any item was out of stock and backordered, the customer's order for it was automatically cancelled. She couldn't explain why my card had been charged three days after I supposedly had been notified the order was backordered and thus, cancelled.
She also had no explanation for why my multiple emails requesting information had not been answered. Nor could she explain why a credit had not been issued for this charge, since the order had been cancelled almost a month ago. I explained to her that I had already contacted my bank about having them issue a chargeback because I had not been able to contact the "Buy It Here Store" via telephone, and my emails had never been answered other than by an auto-generated reply. She told me that she would have a supervisor contact me, and that a credit will be issued for the charge. I am not holding out too much hope for this.
When I returned to Froogle to look for another retailer that sold this particular phone (I still needed to order one), I noticed that the "Buy It Here Store" was no longer coming up on their list of retailers that sold this phone. I could no longer find any listings for merchandise under the "Buy It Here Store" on Froogle.com. Frankly, I am very suspicious that Vstore.com lists merchandise under different store names and then closes the store or discontinues that store's listings on Froogle after a short period of time — perhaps when the complaints start rolling in?
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