‘Tis the season to deal with horrible merchants…

In the past, when ordering online, I have tried to stick with reputable merchants, such as Amazon.com, JCPenney.com, Dillard.com, but this year, I tried two different ones that didn’t turn out so well.

The first one was DVD Donkey. My husband had ordered a season series from this merchant, and when the order was never received we contacted them, and received no response. Since we were charged for this merchandise, we phoned our credit card company to dispute the charges. As we investigated further, we learned some things about DVD Donkey. First, they never respond to e-mail, and second, they have no valid contact number. Even the number provided for the credit card transaction had been disconnected. In the interim, we received the merchandise via registered mail, but only after threatening to have them investigated for fraud. We also found that all television series ordered were just mere amateur recordings from the television show and not an authentic copy. One set even had a duplicate DVD in there. While DVD Donkey did make the effort to edit out commercials from these recordings, it’s evident that these were not professionally done.

We also learned that this company has changed names numerous times, and there was not even a name on the return address. For returns, buyers must go through yet another website, which results in no response. Thankfully, we had the option of disputing this and our account has been credited for this amount.

The next horrible merchant of the season is Buy.com. I’ve known others to order from this online store, and for even something as simple as a flash drive, it takes about 3 weeks to receive, so I made sure I placed my order over a month ahead of time. This merchant, of course, immediately charged me for my merchandise upon ordering. After almost 3 weeks of checking status and seeing this item was still on order and had not even moved to order processing status, I sent an e-mail to inquire about delivery, and Buy.com responded that the item was on backorder. At that time, I was looking at other options to purchase the same or like item from another source, and I received an e-mail from Buy.com stating my item would be shipping in the next couple of business days. Yeah, whatever. Again, I kept checking status, and finally, since this was to be a Christmas gift, I phoned them. This was no easy feat either, since I had to locate a number by searching the internet –there’s no contact number on their site. The first number I found had been disconnected (hmmmm…sounding familiar already), but I finally found a working one. I sat on hold for approximately 45 minutes –at least it was long enough for me to clean a room in the house and fix dinner, so my time on the phone was productive. Finally speaking to a live person, then getting passed to another, neither of which could understand the numerical sequence of my 9 digit order number (okay, I know I have a southern accent, but how hard is it to understand numbers), I was able to discuss my issue.

After finding that neither person could tell me if I would receive the item I ordered within the next 6 months, I asked about a like item that would cost me about $20 more. All the while I had been corresponding with Buy.com, I was receiving e-mail promotionals for this item on a daily basis. I was then informed they were out of stock on that item as well. Funny –I had just received a promotional e-mail about an hour before my call with them. However, they were “nice” enough to offer me a similar item at twice the cost. How convenient for them. I declined, of course. I could get that same item for less than they quoted at Best Buy or Amazon.

After thinking about it and deciding I should probably cancel this order, I sent an e-mail to Buy.com to find out the cancellation policy and how that works. In response to my inquiry, I received a confusing e-mail that I responded to by asking for clarification. Apparently, the person I was e-mailing with at Buy.com cannot comprehend the difference between a request for cancellation and an inquiry for information, because she canceled my order –even after I specifically stated in my e-mail that I did not wish to cancel yet, but rather that I was seeking information.

To end this frustrating ordeal, I phoned Buy.com and spoke to a representative who was exceptionally rude. When I would ask a question, she would talk over me, and I finally had to result to continuing to talk until she finally stopped. This childish game took a few minutes, but was worth it because she finally stopped using that tactic when I would start to speak. In addition to her taking such a stance to handling the issue, she would periodically giggle in the background while I was explaining the history of the issue and what resolution I was seeking. Realizing this was probably the next worst merchant in cyberspace (DVD Donkey being the worst), I told her to go ahead and process the cancellation, to which she replied that cancellation would still be subject to Buy.com approval. Fine, whatever. I opened another dispute with the credit card company and they have been wonderful through this entire ordeal. Imagine that. Good customer service –a concept that completely escapes Buy.com.

It’s unfortunate that merchants such as these ruin opportunities for new online businesses to establish themselves, because rather than trying a new merchant in the future, I’ll stick to those who have proven themselves time and again.

I recently learned about an Italian court using, or rather, abusing their authority to force parents into renaming their child “Gregory” after the saint whose feast day was the same day this child was born on. The parents had selected the name “Friday”

Five months later, a city hall clerk brought the name to the attention of a tribunal. Apparently, there is an administrative norm barring parents from giving “ridiculous or shameful” first names to children. The tribunal claims it was protecting the child from being the butt of jokes, stating it believed the name would inhibit his ability to develop “serene interpersonal relationships” and forcing the family to accept the new name this court assigned.  Talk about ridiculous. While the name, Friday, is not common, who’s to say what is shameful or ridiculous? Who sets the standard for such measurements? Obviously, they haven’t taken a gander at some of the names in the U.S. phone book like Mia Egg, Elmer Feathers and Idoma Best

Read more on this story at the link below.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071218/od_uk_nm/oukoe_uk_italy_name

We have a family tradition of watching Christmas themed movies every year beginning Thanksgiving weekend. This year, I searched the movie channels to see what was new, and I found a couple of really neat ones, and as expected, those were either based on a revelation in someone’s life that there’s more to it than the things money can buy, or based on a miracle that couldn’t possibly have occurred without divine intervention. There are many thought-provoking ones out there, but my favorite is still George C. Scott’s portrayal of Ebenezer Scrooge in that timeless Dickens’ classic, A Christmas Carol.

There are so many aspects to this movie that touch my heart time and again. It’s a powerful film no matter how many times I watch it, but there is one thing sticks in my every single year as the holiday shopping season begins. What happened to the time depicted in A Christmas Carol where Scrooge’s nephew, Fred, presents his wife, Janet, with a single, special gift that carried thoughtfulness and meaning behind it? She was moved by that one gift, and so appreciative –never once did she indicate, “Why didn’t you spend more on me?”

I hear so many people around me say they want to cut back on spending this time of the year and buying lots of stuff takes away from the meaning of Christmas, but afterwards, year after year, I hear those same people say they overspent. So, why do we do that?

I believe in years past, we’ve set expectations for our family and friends, and we fear that cutting back on the value of a gift would send the message that the recipient of our gift has somehow become less special. The best thing to do is be honest with friends and family. It could be that they have the same feelings about gift exchange. Perhaps the answer is to do something special with those we love –whether it be a pot-luck dinner, attending a free orchestra concert (those are not difficult to find around the holidays), or maybe just taking in a movie.

Think about it –the most previous gifts we can give someone is our time and our love. If you’d still like to give a small gift to emphasize what someone means to you, check out Sensible Life Magazine’s Home and Relax sections for ideas you can purchase at Dollar Stores, or quick crafts you can make.

To read about the tradition of gift giving at Christmas, click on the link below.

http://www.theholidayspot.com/christmas/history/gift_tradition.htm

Merry Christmas from Sensible Life Magazine!