I ordered a popular but widely unavailable television series (Boston Public) for someone who wanted to use specific episodes as a teaching device in the Public School system. I ordered the product from DVD Donkey.com (at www.dvddonkey.com). The complete series cost $53.99, and I used a credit card to pay for the order. As I write this, the site is still active, and is still advertising the same series. I ordered the series on December 7 at 11:11am (Order # 176836). The site indicated that there might be a 3-4 delivery period for some items. Since most online business are legitimate, and DVD Donkey.com has an extensive site, I assumed it was a legitimate business.
They even have a page specifically devoted to their "guarantee" which reads as follows: "100% Quality Guarantee"."We guarantee all our merchandise is of the highest quality. Rest assured that when doing business with DVDDonkey you will always receive exactly what you paid for!
Return Policy:
30 day 100% Unconditional money back guarantee!
Exchange Policy:
If a customer is delivered the wrong item, they may exchange it for the correct one.in this circumstance, please EMAIL US within 5 days of having received the package for an exchange authorization number. All you must do is send the product back in its original state.
Defects:
Upon receiving new shipments we always examine our merchandise for damages and defects. Please note that it is also your responsibility to make sure everything is satisfactory. All defects must be reported within 5 days in order to receive your exchange for an exact replacement of that item."
Since the site is still active as of today (January 26) one can review their extensive listing.
After waiting four weeks I emailed the company and received the following email:
"Your order is in back order, it is in our top priority to ship it to you, we will keep you updated on the status of your order, if you do not wish to wait any to this please reply to this email and we will refund you right away, you can also call our customer service line.
Order Info
Order #: 176836
Order Date: 12-07 11:11: 07
Products Backordered: Boston Public Complete Television Series On DVD,
At DVDDonkey, we are comitted to providing our clients with the highest level of customer service.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or comments.
Toll-Free - 1-877-7-TV-SHOW or email us at [email protected].
I thought that perhaps there was simply a production delay, or perhaps the product had sold out since it was around Christmas.
On January 12 I received the following email:
"Your order is in back order, it is in our top priority to ship it to you, we will keep you updated on the status of your order, if you do not wish to wait any to this please reply to this email and we will refund you right away, you can also call our customer service line.
Order Info
Order #: 176836
Order Date: 12-07 11:11: 07
Products Backordered: Boston Public Complete Television Series On DVD,
At DVDDonkey, we are comitted to providing our clients with the highest level of customer service.
Please do not hesitate to contact us with any questions or comments.
Toll-Free - 1-877-7-TV-SHOW or email us at [email protected]."
Today I entered the company's name and performed a Google search and discovered many other customers who had been ripped off. They claimed that they, too, had never received any items, but had been told of similar delays. When I tried to email the company today or phone them, the email came back as undeliverable, and the phone number did not work.
The site has apparently been active now for four years, according to some of the customers complaints on other web sites. The fact that they continue to do business online despite all of the unfulfilled orders shows just how little the United States government is doing to protect online customers and legitimate online buisnesses from such unethical companies. I have greatly curtailed by online business as a result of this, and other negative experiences. I would think that the largest online businesseswho have much to lose if such scams continue to undermine trust in ecommercewould try to protect their good reputations by taking action against such long-running scams.
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