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Review 4/5/2010
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*BUYER BEWARE*
This was my first purchase from Ecost.com and I was really excited because they had the lowest price on an espresso machine that I have had my eye on for awhile. On 03/15/2010 I purchased the Cafe Roma espresso machine on Ecost.com (http://www.ecost.com/Detail.aspx?edp=48813650). This was a refurbished machine, however it was at least $50 cheaper than any other advertised price on the Internet for the same refurbished product. I was excited not only because they had the item at a low price, but because it was listed as "IN STOCK" on Ecost's website. The espresso machine was going to be a gift for someone who had a birthday coming up in a week and a half.
I happily placed my order on the 15th thinking that I had scored a great deal with perfect timing for it to arrive on time as a birthday gift. Fast forward to 3/19. I had not received any e-mails with shipping or tracking information yet. I began to get worried as the item should have shipped out by now. I went to the Ecost website to view my order and I was shocked and angry at what I saw when I viewed my order. Next to the status on my order said "BACKORDERED". What a minute I thought, when I ordered I could have sworn that the item was listed as "IN STOCK"? So I went back to the item listing on the website and sure enough, right there in bold black letters the availability said "IN STOCK". So how can an item be listed as "IN STOCK" when in fact it was listed as "BACKORDERED" after I ordered it? I was mad. Now not only did I not know when Ecost would get the item in stock, I definitely wouldn't be getting it in time as a birthday present which is why I had ordered it in the first place. Had the item been listed as "BACKORDERED" on the website, I could have chosen another retailer and gotten the present in time.
I was also mad that it was still listed as "IN STOCK" on the website even though my order page listed it as being "BACKORDERED". I wondered how many others had ordered or will be ordering this item not knowing that Ecost doesn't have it when their website says that they do. So I fire off an e-mail to Ecost to see what is going on. Maybe it was just a glitch or something and it didn't update the availability of this one product this one time when it went out of stock. Here's the response I got from Ecost:
"Dear Valued Customer, Thank you for your recent inquiry. According to our records, the item Breville Cafe Roma Expresso Machine - XXESP8XL is currently out of stock. Please be advised that as of this time, there is still no estimated delivery date of this item. Your order will automatically ship out as soon as warehouse receives new stocks. We apologize for the inaccurate information on our website. As much as we would want to be accurate in delivering information on our website, we do update it periodically. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Please call our CustomerServiceCenter at 1-877-888-2678 for further assistance and updates on your order.
Thank You,
Customer Service Specialist
eCOST.com"
So they update their website "Periodically"? An online retailer that specifically lists the current availability of their products only updates their website "Periodically"? Not only is that just poor business execution, that is sad. Then I finally get another e-mail from Ecost on 3/31 saying that they encountered a problem with processing my order and my order had been canceled. The reason for cancellation......the item I ordered has been on backorder for more than 60 days. 60 DAYS! So not only had the item been on backorder for at least the 15 days since I place my order, but Ecost hasn't had the item for over 2 months! I couldn't believe it. The item has been listed on their website for more than 2 months as "IN STOCK" and the entire time was "BACKORDERED" and Ecost knew it and did nothing about it. Even after I advised them about the issue on 3/19 they never changed the availability of this item on the website from "IN STOCK" to "BACKORDERED". In fact, the truly sad thing is, the item (http://www.ecost.com/Detail.aspx?edp=48813650) is still listed today (4/5/2010) as being "IN STOCK".
This was my first experience with Ecost and it was also my last. They may have the lowest prices around, but it is not worth the hassle of having to deal with a business that can't even get simple orders right. Not only was there a problem with inaccurate advertising on their website, once alerted to the issue, they did absolutely nothing to correct it. To me, that is a complete and utter failure of management within the company. Maybe they do this with all of their products as bait and switch to keep the orders coming in when they don't actually have a product to sell. I hope they either fix the basic issues of operating an honest business or shut their doors so others don't have to go through the unpleasant experience that I did.
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Business's response - by Donovanon 4/12/2010
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Thank you for contacting us. We apologize for the inconvenience this has caused you. Please give me a call at 800-555-3613 ext 4127 with your order number so that we may research this together. Is there another product you are interested in?
Linda Potter
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