Worst E-tailer out there?
 

Just wanted to get everyone's thoughts on the worst E-tailer out there that you have dealt with. Whether you have actually purchased something from them, or just gone to the site, and changed your mind based on the poor communication of the site.

Scott

I'm sure FYE would have to be on the list. Just go to the bargain forum and read the many complaints in the FYE thread.

www.cyberrebate.com

Though they are out of business and filed for bankruptcy almost two years ago. Their business model was to charge ~ 10 times the real price of an item, but then to give 100% "rebates" after a few months. When they folded they had tens of millions of dollars in outstanding unpaid rebates.

I never purchased anything through them.

I would think Dvdexpress, Dvd.com or whatever they are called right now might be at the top of that list. Last I remembered if you posted a bargain from or with a link the Dvdtalk police would lock the thread because of past complaints.

There have been many others such as Buy.com that I think some stay away from including me and alot more that are not around anymore and I can not recall their names at the moment.

It's at the top of <b><i>my</i></b> list, that's for sure, with <i>troma.com</i> finishing a strong second. <p><i>Troma</i>, (which charges $8.00 to ship a single DVD) is a close second - they tend to ignore orders, ignore emails, sometimes charge the wrong amount, and in general screw up everything. Strictly recommended only to those who need some frustration in their lives.

Troma takes the cake. Ouch.

From my experiences, i'd have to go with DVDsoon or Playcentric.

Two HORRIBLE online retailers.

Heat, you beat me to it! Cyberrebate took a lot of people, but I never bought from them. $116 for a DVD today and a $110 check back sometime in the future just never sounded like a good deal. When it all hit though I did join the 'Cyberrebate Alliance' group at MSN to read the horror stories. Sadly, I checked on the group last week and people are still fighting the credit card companies and anyone else they can over this.

Gotta be the worst etailer ever, matched by their customers having the worst common sense ever, IMHO.

Heh, yeah, I still visit the MSN Cyber Rebate Recovery Alliance board every once in a while.

http://groups.msn.com/CyberrebateReb...w?all_topics=1

Though some people have succeeded in getting the credit card companies to pay for their foolishness, it is safe to say that the vast majority were stuck.

Here is the underlying question: If you use a credit card to purchase an item that has a rebate, and you receive the item but not the rebate, do you have a claim against the credit card company? Obviously, the people at the above site do. Personally, I say "no", because they received their merchandise, the rebate is a secondary transaction.

There were many sad stories, though, especially at the beginning (now the people on the board mainly just discuss how to sue in small claims court). People lost thousands to tens of thousands buying stuff that they thought would be fully refunded. The last purchases that were refunded were right before Christmas, 2000. All purchases from that point until the time that the company went bankrupt in mid May, 2001 (and they were taking orders right up until the end) were never rebated. And Cyberrebate was running promotions in the spring of 2001 to encourage people to spend more and more, things like "spend $2,000 [a guess on my part] and be entered to win a free cruise!", etc.

I saw them when they were still operating, but thought that it was crazy to have $150 or so hanging out on my credit card for a few months, just to get a free $15 DVD.

Some people turned the cyberrabate thing into a business and got stuck with $20-30,000 in unpaid rebates. That's gotta hurt.

Yeah, I agree that the rebates were a secondary transaction, and I think the consumer should be stuck with the debt not the credit card company. The only exception to that rule is Discover card, which apparently was advertising with CR to use the Discover card on their transactions.

As much as I was saddened by these people being foolish enough to lose tens of thousands of dollars for a toaster oven and a handful of DVDs, I was even more saddened when I started adding up the millions in credit card debt that those same individuals were refusing to pay. This of course is getting passed onto everyone else who were smart enough to not try to get something for nothing (you, me, 95% of their customers.)