On January 25th, The Consumerist posted a link to a deal listed on SlickDeals. Onsale.com had a backpack for laptops on sale for $30 with a $30 rebate.
I was getting tired of lugging my current bag around, so I jumped on the deal and ordered one.
Then I waited.
The next day I got an email from Onsale.com stating that my order had been received and was in process.
The day after that I got an email stating that my order had been processed and giving me an order number so I could check the status on line.
Then I waited some more.
After a week with no further communications, I decided to check my order progress online. I logged in and it said it was “in process”. Hmm. Pretty slow.
So I sent an email in asking what the deal was.
No answer.
Today (more than two weeks later) I checked the web site and it said my order had been canceled! WTF?
So I called them. I have to admit that they got on the phone pretty quickly. Maybe two minutes before I was talking to a customer service agent. And he was pretty helpful, I’ll admit that too.
I gave him my order number and explained the deal. He looked it up and said that there had been a problem with my credit card and that they had sent me an email about it. Since I hadn’t replied to the email within 48 hours, they automatically cancelled the order.
I never got an email about my credit card.
He verified my email address. It was the same one that I had received the other two emails at.
He apologized and asked if I wanted to place the order again. Considering that the rebate coupon stated the sales receipt had to be dated between 1/15 and 1/30, so I wouldn’t qualify for the rebate, I declined his offer.
I can’t say I’m a happy customer at this point.
And yes, I checked my spam folder to see if it had caught the email about my credit card. It had not.
And yes, I probably should have called after the first week, but why should I have had to?
I won’t be trying to buy from onsale.com again.
