The following rant is one I posted to digg.com as a comment in response to a link where someone explained their own troubles with Buy.com. I thought I'd share my own experience with them and why I refuse to do business with them.

Here's my comment in full:

Sadly, this is par for the course for Buy.com.

Last year (2004) in September I bought two 1GB compact flash cards for a sweet price of about $55 each after mail-in rebates (max. 2 rebates per customer) or $80 each before rebates. The rebates could only be obtained if I mailed in the materials (including the bar code off the packaging) within 30 days of purchase.

The package finally arrived! Damaged. Already open. And missing one of the CF cards. I immediately alerted Buy.com, and their web site said they take up to 15 business days to take care of things like this. The automated email response I received in reply to my report said that they only take 5 business days to process such claim requests.

I give Buy.com the benefit of the doubt, and waited 18 business days before doing anything further. I had not yet heard back from Buy.com about replacing the missing (and paid-for) CF card.

My time window for submitting the rebates was quickly running out, so I e-mailed Buy.com and told them that if I didn't hear back from them within two more business days, I would submit a charge-back through American Express for the price I paid for the missing CF card. I also told them that after 2 more business days, I would refuse delivery on any replacement CF card, since by then it would be too late for me to get the rebate.

I hear nothing from Buy.com. So I call American Express near the end of October and initiate a charge-back for the $80 I paid ($79.99 actually) for the missing CF card. American Express says it will take 6-8 weeks to process the charge-back. They were very helpful and friendly.

I sent Buy.com another message to let them know about the charge-back, requesting that they do NOT send a replacement CF card since I will be having American Express refund the purchase price. Additionally, I tell them that if they ignore me yet again and send me a replacement and I don't have the option to reject the delivery, that I would begin charging them a $1/day storage fee for inventory space to store their CF card until they provided me a way to ship it back to them AT THEIR COST.

I waited until the very last possible moment to submit the rebate application and materials for the card that I did receive. Still I hear NOTHING from Buy.com, and now it's nearing Halloween.

After the rebate deadline ends, and while American Express was processing my charge-back, lo and behold, a package from Buy.com arrived at my house unexpectedly. It's the second CF card. Too late, Buy.com, the charge-back was already begun, and there's no way I'd qualify for the rebate on the second card if the charge-back was canceled. I determine to contact Buy.com and ask them to send a return shipping envelope so I can return the card to them.

In the first week of December, I hear from the third party handling the rebate on the Kingston brand CF cards. It was a rejection notice saying that my rebate was rejected, despite the fact that I qualified 100% and followed the instructions TO THE LETTER, meeting EVERY requirement. Fortunately I had the foresight to document everything I sent in. The third party claimed the bar code I submitted "was not the required UPC symbol" when in fact it was. I'm glad I took a photo of the UPC code I sent in to them.

I sent the third-party rebate folks an e-mail telling them that the UPC symbol WAS included. Then I called them on their toll-free number. Their customer service person told me to FAX over my evidence of purchase to them so they could reconsider the rebate. I'm sorry, but I was not going to pay a long distance phone call charge just to send them something they already had.

Yes, I was being cheap at this point since it would only be 5 cents. It was the principle that mattered. I insisted. Finally the customer service manager just had me read the bar code to them over the phone, told me that yes indeed, it was valid, and that they would resubmit the rebate. I should hear from them within 5-8 business days.

Well I got my rebate. And after storing Buy.com's CF card for more than 80 days, I figured my storage fees added up to enough to pay the $80 purchase price, and so I seized the card as my own as payment in full for storing their card.

And I never did hear from Buy.com ever, once, after the very first automated e-mail they sent me, excluding the unexpected delivery of the second CF card that came waaaaay too late.

I intend to never buy from Buy.com again, and tell everyone I know to avoid them. If it weren't for American Express (a company I very highly regard), I'd have been short-changed the second $25 rebate. As it is, because of Buy.com's own incompetence, failure to communicate, and three months of inaction after finally sending the replacement CF card after me telling them not to, I got the second CF card for free.

Not really. The time and frustration I spent trying to resolve the problem was more than the value of the card. And I did store the replacement card, unopened in it's original package for over 80 days in case Buy.com got a clue and provided me the means to return it to them.