A warning to shoppers of DiscerningReader.com:
If you are considering an online purchase from DiscerningReader (DR), you'll want to read this before doing so. My experience with this merchant was one of the most disturbing that I have ever had online.in many years of web purchases, I have never been treated in such an unethical and unprofessional manner. Because of this, I felt responsible for filing this complaint (something I've never done before) in an effort to warn other consumers.
I had heard some negative feedback regarding DR's treatment of customers, several months ago from a mailing list that I was subscribed to, but I (regrettably) chose to ignore it. On June 11th, I made my first-ever purchase from DR.
My order consisted of seven books, which were marked on their site as: "Availability: Usually ships the same business day". This terminology is the same as Amazon.com, and so I think most book shoppers have become accustomed to trusting that this phrase means "it's in stock". At least, you get that impression on Amazon, conversely because of all the "not in stock" books that you see marked as "usually ships in 2 to 3 weeks" or some longer duration.
I was surprised when I later found out that DR only sent me three of the books that I ordered; the other four were on backorder.in the nearly two weeks following my purchase, I noticed that these four books were still labeled with "Usually ships the same business day" on their website, even though they were backordered for me. I can understand how big of a job it must be to keep an accurate availability status, updated constantly for a store full of products. But for reasons that are left to the shopper's imagination, DR does not take the same approach as many other small online bookstores, who choose not to put an availability status on their products at all. This practice prevents these other bookstores from misrepresenting themselves in any manner that would have a suspicious appearance.
At this point I was considering a cancellation of the four backordered items, and was surprised to find that their site's "order status" page had no functionality to "cancel" a backordered item. I thought that was unusual, since most bookstores do provide such a capability. Because they have no telephone number listed on their site, I went to their "Quick Fix" customer support page. What transpired next was anything but quick.
I should say that, up until this point, I was not all that concerned with my experience with DiscerningReader, and probably would have remained a periodic customer of theirs on a cautious basis, even though I had to wait longer (than I felt their site initially lead me to believe) for most of the items in my order. Unfortunately, at this point is where the major events began.
On 6/18, I sent a "customer care" message to DR through their "Quick Fix" page. My email inquired as to the status of the backordered items, and also asked them what my options were for canceling any backordered items. Although it is common practice for merchants to handle customer support inquiries within 24 hours, I received nothing for the next several days except for an automated message telling me that they "should get back to me within 24 to 72 hours".
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