GoVegan

Warning: This is going to be one of those long, whiny threads.

A few months ago, I picked up one of those Celestion [almost] 5.1 speaker sets from Best Buy for $150.

The only piece missing was the subwoofer, so I ordered an additional set of speakers from Buy.com which was supposed to contain a center, two surrounds and a subwoofer. I figured I could have a matched 7.1 set and sell the extra center to someone else.

I thought I'd researched it carefully before ordering it from Buy.com, since everyone else was selling it without the subwoofer, but for $70 less. Buy.com's description clearly stated that it includes the sub:





I'm sure everyone can see where this is going. The package showed up and the sub wasn't included. I immediately filed a claim about the missing piece and was told that it would take 10-15 business days for them to respond. That time passed and I hadn't heard anything, so I sent an email which they said they'd respond to soon. They didn't, so I emailed again a few days later, then called their useless Indian support line three days after that and was told they'd expedite my claim. Finally, forty days after my initial claim, I still hadn't heard anything from them, but they finally changed my claim status on the website from Claim Submitted to Claim Denied. They also modified the item's description page with a new disclaimer saying that the sub isn't included.

I called today and spoke to a supervisor, who said that the claim was denied because they didn't have a subwoofer to send to me. That's clearly untrue because they still stock the AVP305 which includes the same sub which was supposed to come with the speakers I ordered. It seemed that the supervisor had no kind of authority as he offered me only two options: 1. Keep the product without the sub or 2. Return the speakers for a refund.

Is it unreasonable to think that this isnt acceptable? I just can't believe that they ignored me for 40 days and now the best they can do is let me go throught the hassle of shipping the product back to them.

I'm going to email the claims department and include the above screenshots and keep hassling them until I actually get a response from a human. I think it's reasonable to expect them to give me what I originally ordered.

kayak99

Personally I would pursue it since you have printouts of the webpage. I had a minor problem with buy.com once and they fixed it.

Call again, ask for another supervisor simply explain you bought it with a sub and want it. Also send another letter with all copies.

Last resort, have them send a shipping label, return the speakers and get your money back.

Laser Movies

While I don't think you are being unreasonable expecting Buy.com to do the right thing in sending the subwoofer I have my doubts that they would do that. From my experience their customer service is totally useless and will do nothing when they make a major mistake. At least if it was Amazon they would have most likely made good on the error one way or the other. I think you should either return the speakers for a refund, or see if you could possibly dispute the charges with your credit card company. I'm not 100% certain the charges are disputable but you may have a case since they claimed the subwoofer was included with the speakers at the stated price, and have evidence with the screen captures. Also I noticed you said it was a few months ago (or 40 days?) which could mean too much time has elasped. I think you have only 60 days maximum to dispute a charge. At least I hope they are offering to pay the return shipping for the mix up, otherwise I would refuse to send the speakers back until they do.

calhoun07

Of course, if you send it back, you're going to be waiting a while to get your refund. Buy.com seems to have the slowest, most useless customer service of any website that I have dealt with (that is still online). I wouldn't expect them to send it to you, unfortunately. You said they have it, but it sounds to me like they only have it as part of another set, and they are unlikely to break that set apart to suit you.

I think your best option is to seek a refund to cover what the sub was worth to you. You said you could have gotten this set for 70.00 less from other sites? Well, there ya go...ask for $70.00 back. They clearly advertised something they didn't provide, and I agree they should be able to offer you someting better than send it back for a refund.

namlook

Buy.com has the subwoofer for sale and in stock as a separate item. The price is $300. I think it's very unlikely they will take a $300 hit. They clearly messed up though. I have a feeling they will ask you to return the items for a refund. It's too bad you got screwed. Those Celestion speakers are nice though aren't they?

stevevt

Do you remember when I warned you that the sub was not included in this set? Just wondering.

Dah-Dee

I think you should return it and buy the AVP305 for $418.99

GoVegan

Yeah. I remember. I assumed you were wrong. It was just that Buy.com specifically mentioned it as being included and all the other sites selling that package had a disclaimer saying that it wasn't. When I added in the fact that Buy.com was selling it for $70 more than every other retailer, I was certain that is was included.

Actually they don't separately stock the sub that was supposed to be included. The one that was supposed to be included was the S10, which isn't sold separately, but is [supposedly] included with the AVP305 system.

Yeah, the speakers are really nice. I don't really know a whole hell of a lot about speakers, but I assume it's not terribly important to have a matched sub. I suppose I should just pick up a different one.

Yeah, I don't think that's gonna happen. If I did buy the AVP305 it surely wouldn't be from Buy.com. I've always thought they were a great store, but now I can see that great prices come at a cost. It's obviously a better idea to order from a retailer with a better rating on Resellerratings.com than Buy.com's 2.6/10. Yikes!

Shannon Nutt

I don't see the subwoofer listed in the "features" for the item, and considering the price, this would have jumped out at me immediately. If everyone's elses description didn't include the sub - you should have known (in court language "a reasonable person would have known") that it wasn't included here and was probably a typo by buy.com's data entry people.

Instead of contacting buy.com and confirming, you purchased with a pretty good idea that the item you ordered WOULDN'T have the subwoofer...but in the back of your mind you're thinking "false advertising" and that you'll be covered if the item doesn't come with it. If you're completely innocent in all this and actually thought buy.com was selling a totally different item than every other e-tailer on the net (even though they all have the same product number), then I really don't know how to respond to that!

I think you should take your money back while buy.com is still offering to give it to you, or keep the items you bought and stop complaining.

Deftones

I'd refute the charges w/ your CC company. Clearly a case of misrepresentation. You bought the item based on the assumption that what was listed on the website and pictured is what you'd get.

GoVegan

I don't think that's true. The main reason the Buy.com was previously one of my favorite stores was that they generally have close to the lowest price on most of the items they sell. When I saw that their price for this item is considerably higher for this item than everyone else, I assumed that there was a reason for the disparity. If I was attempting a scam, as you suggest in the next paragraph, I would have at least ordered from x10.com, the one other retailer who claimed to include the subwoofer. Then I could have saved $70 + shipping.

Wow, harsh. Yes, they do all have the same item number. Even Celestion's website uses that item number:

http://www.celestion.com/products/so...le/avp303.html

Celestion's website also confirms that the product (same item number) should contain a subwoofer.

stevevt warned me that he didn't think that the sub was included, so I started from that assumption and worked my way to the incorrect conclusion that it was included. Also, during my research, I did contact Buy.com to confirm the item description and was told that the description is accurate, but that they have too many items to answer specific questions about items.

GoVegan

I have a Buy.com credit card and used it to make the purchase.

Not that Buy.com is the bank who issued the card, but still...

That just wouldn't seem right.

Laser Movies

If that is true why don't you try contacting Celestion directly to see if they would offer any help. I think you have nothing to lose talking with the company about the situation. Anyway they could be partly to blame if they are giving misinformation of their products to distributors.

Why not? The tone of your posts indicate you think Buy.com is screwing you over and doesn't care. I know it wouldn't bother me at all to dispute a charge regardless of whoever issued the card. But you only have a limited amount of time to dispute, and it appears at least 40 days have already elapsed.

GoVegan

Yeah, maybe I'll do that. I was planning on calling them at some point anyway to order a grill for my speakers so I can see if I like it better with or without the grills.

I don't think I'll dispute the charge, though. It just seems like it would be disingenuous. I was under the impression that you were only supposed to do that if you couldn't work things out with the retailer. They did offer to take the product back, so my ability to get my money back isn't really a problem.

I still can't believe that they never once responded to me. I'd heard that their support had gotten bad, but I never imagined it would be so awful. It's just frustrating because they're treating me like a "devil customer" when that's far from the truth. Recently when tons of people were jumping on the $10 off coupon which was mistakenly working for all products instead of the few select $100 plus items mentioned on the coupon, I stayed away from it because it was clearly a mistake and I didn't want to take advantage of it.

Shannon Nutt

Well, if the site claims to have it, maybe you should take your case to them instead of buy.com

namlook

According to many web sites the AVP305 system comes with the S20:

http://www.hightechthings.com/produc...roducts_id=341

Maybe earlier versions had the old S10 sub.

Goldblum

Not true at all. A "reasonable person" would assume that what is listed in the merchant's product description will be part of the product. From the pictures provided, it appears the subwoofer was mentioned 8 times. Likely, only 1 time would have been sufficient for a reasonable person to assume the sub would be included. It's not reasonable for a person to do extra research to see if there was a mistake. The OP already said that he assumed since the set was $70 more, it included the sub. This seems like a reasonable assumption to me, especially considering the 8 subwoofer-related mistakes in the ad.

The OP is correct and should get his money back (including shipping), a refund for the price of the sub, or the sub itself.

Troy Stiffler

This store forum is full of unreasonable ...uhhh... dum dums.

But you are correct here. I say make them refund you, and send a return label.

stinkeye

Buy.com's customer service has went down the drain (see here to view similar problems to yours). Whatever the outcome you choose, you will probably be doing all the work.

chess

Just request a return lable. Life's too short to get wrapped up in this kind of drama.

I would also recommend you stop shopping at buy.com. They seem to have gone wayyyy downhill in the past few years.

calhoun07

I always thought their customer service department was always substandard, even back in the day when great sites like dvdexpress.com were in existence and I would order from buy.com. Buy.com was always a run-a-round when I had a problem, and their customer service reps seemed down right hateful on the phone when I would call in.

In all seriousness, given the fact that good sites like dvdexpress.com went down the drain, I am surprised that buy.com has been able to manage to survive this long. Other great stores have faded into the past, and I predicted their demise long ago, and yet here they still are and people are still having problems with them.