October 03, 2016

Perils of the Web

I've been having bad luck with web-based purchases this year.

A few months ago I put in an order to NewEgg for a couple of 256G flash drives, about $500 worth. Well, they shipped (they say) and Fedex delivered (they say) and I never saw them. So I put in a complaint and it was "investigated" and in the end NewEgg kept my money and Fedex said that they were sure it was delivered, and I ended up with nothing.

There are three likely possibilities here. First, Fedex delivered to the wrong address. Second, they did deliver here and one of my neighbors took it. (The package was shipped without "signature required".) Third, from their point of view: I actually did receive the package and am trying to rip them off.

That last one is wrong, but I'm sure it's happened other times, probably quite a lot.

So I'd like to get more of those flash drives but NewEgg is off my list now.

There are certain OTC pharmaceuticals I use pretty regularly, and I've been getting them from drugstore.com. Once in a while I put in a huge order, and when I get low weeks or months later I put in another one. Like last Thursday.

Well, like a lot of places like that they have multiple warehouses and it turned out one of the things I wanted shipped from Nevada and the rest shipped from Illinois. All of them shipped Friday afternoon by Fedex overnight. Or so they said. I got tracking numbers and everything.

Well, the one from Illinois was delivered today, right on schedule. ("Overnight" means "over a weekend" if one gets in the way.) The Fedex status for the other one suggests that they did the computer stuff with Fedex to get a delivery number, but Fedex never received it. And neither did I.

So back on the web to file a complaint. But not gonna happen. Turns out that drugstore.com got acquired and last Friday was its last day in business. The web site redirects to Walgreen's now, and my login doesn't work on the Walgreen's web site.

I'm a victim of short-timer syndrome, I suspect. Last day of work forever for an employee in Nevada, who said, "Fuck it" and didn't finish the order to ship it. Probably closing time came and the manager said, "No overtime!" and chased everyone out even though there were still orders to finish.

I've been buying stuff through the web for 20 years and this is the first (and second) time I've ever had problems. This second time wasn't as expensive; the order that didn't ship was about $30. All I can do is sit here and seethe. Fortunately, the stuff I needed most was in the box that did ship which I did receive.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Daily Life at 06:13 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
Post contains 472 words, total size 3 kb.

1 I shipped a PC a couple of weeks ago. Left at the wrong location, UPS didn't attempt to get a signature, it's gone. Fortunately I bothered to insure it (and it was just an old box I was donating), but the bad service has rather put me off. UPS was told they didn't deliver it properly within an hour of the dropoff and couldn't even be arsed to look for the package until Monday rolled around. I was fortunate that they admitted up front that they misdelivered the package.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at October 03, 2016 07:16 PM (/lg1c)

2 Well, it's time now for me to put in an order with Safeway. I feel confident with this one: they've never blown an order in more than 100 deliveries.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 03, 2016 07:29 PM (+rSRq)

3 Back when you ordered "online" from paper ads in Computer Shopper, I ordered a computer. I was starting to wonder where it was, when one of my neighbors came over and asked if I was expecting a computer in the mail. Turns out somebody decided to be generous and deliver it to the local church instead. (Theologically, I don't think that works out.)
I've had UPS leave 'signature required' packages on my front porch. Just a $1000 rifle coming back from warrantee repairs, nothing important.
It's a crap shoot, not going and picking up things yourself, that's for sure. I've always gotten the stuff in the end, but I've doubtless ordered a lot less stuff than you that way.

Posted by: Brett Bellmore at October 04, 2016 02:02 AM (l55xw)

4 The office at my apartment complex will accept packages if people aren't home, but obviously that only works if the delivery agent bothers to try.  I ordered sneakers from Amazon last week--apparently they're trialing their own delivery service now, and I got to be a test subject.  Even though I live on the first floor, and was sitting in my living room in front of a window that the delivery guy had to walk right past--I know because I saw him do it--he simply put the package on the ground in front of my door and knocked once.  Now that I think about it I think I'll complain if there's a way to do it, although the shoes weren't signature required. Airborne also used to leave expensive "signature required" packages on your door without knocking, like a Windows XP beta CD back in the day, or a $400 SCSI drive I'd ordered online.  That last one was left where it got snowed on, too.  Fortunately it didn't soak through the package, and the drive was in an anti-static bag.

Posted by: RickC at October 04, 2016 02:00 PM (ECH2/)

5

I'll be darned. The second box was just delivered.

Fedex tracking says it was shipped Monday, and Fedex took two days to get it here.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at October 05, 2016 11:17 AM (+rSRq)

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