Normally when I’m posting a blog about not buying from someone, I’m seething with rage. Today is an exception. I’m here to warn you against the use of PCMall.com; now I don’t remember when I last used there services, which is why this little story worries me so much. Last night, I got an email from them with the subject “PC Mall Order Status“, it went on to inform me that my order of a 256MB compact flash card, to the tune of about $54.95 (after s/h & tax) had been canceled. Now… I didn’t place this order, so I was a little confused. I assumed that it was a phishing message of some sort, but it was to a legitimate alias (through my proper email naming scheme). So I went to their website and plugged in the order number and my zip code from many years back (just happened to guess right the first time) and it did indeed show me the order. Right about then, I got a lot more concerned. It said that I placed an order on 2/16/2009, though it had indeed been canceled.
This occurred last night (on President’s day) so I figured I’d wait till this morning and do the next logical thing: Call Customer Service. Which I did.
I call up the 800 number listed on the bottom of every page of their site. I get the standard options, I press “2” for home/office sales. As soon as I get someone and tell them my order number, he says that I’ve got a web order (no shit) and that I need to talk to another department. Soooo… their sales people won’t actually deal with sales, just the sales _they_ want to, apparently. He transfers me and I get another menu, except this one only has two options and wont take any input. I stabbed the keypad of my phone repeatedly and nothing worked. Eventually it took an entry, or just gave up and let me through. Someone picked up (after a total of 12 minutes of waiting) and the instant I told them I had a question about an order, you could hear the utter displeasure and loathing in the rep’s voice. I’m fairly sure the one word that crossed their mind at the time was “fuccccckkkkkkk”, cause that’s what their voice sounded like. “Great”, I think to myself, “they’ve got some of the most displeased call reps, ever.”
Moving along, I explained to the rep my situation and order number, to which they put me on hold to investigate. They come back some minutes later to inform me not to worry and that it is just a generic email and an error at that. I tried to explain to the rep that I can log into their website and pull up the order. Hell, it even has my address on it. The rep has none of it and just repeats that it is an email error. I thank them and hang up because obviously nothing I say to them is going to alter their view of the situation. The fact that their rep is so audibly pissed off (that I noticed it, and I’m fairly dense when it comes to these things), and that they claim that an order placed in MY NAME to MY ADDRESS is just an “Email error”, yea… scary.
In Short: PCMall obviously has no idea what is going on; their customer service is a joke, their phones are broken; if you can get through, they are slower than hell to answer and frankly it is startlingly overpriced. 256MB Compact Flash for $39.99? Shit, I can get a brand name 8GB Card on Amazon for less than that.