onSale

Pros:  Price

Cons:  Incompetent management, Poorly trained personnel, No customer support.

Full review
Title 15 USC Ch. 2 Sub. 1 Sec. 52 states:
(a) Unlawfulness:
It shall be unlawful for any person, partnership, or corporation to disseminate, or cause to be disseminated, any false advertisement -
(1) By United States mails, or in or having an effect upon
commerce, by any means, for the purpose of inducing, or which is
likely to induce, directly or indirectly the purchase of food,
drugs, devices, services, or cosmetics; or
(2) By any means, for the purpose of inducing, or which is
likely to induce, directly or indirectly, the purchase in or
having an effect upon commerce, of food, drugs, devices,
services, or cosmetics.

This fits my dealings with Egghead/Onsale to a "T".

Quick version:
29 Dec 1999 Problems start.
May 2000 Problem resolved (not to my satisfaction).
22 different customer "service" people.
10 CSR supervisors.
3 Supervisor, supervisors.
8.5 hours of documented phone calls.
57 E-Mails.
49 unanswered E-Mails.
1 Unanswered phone call to the CEO.
1 Unanswered E-Mail to the CEO.
1 Unanswered Fax to the CEO.
The word "apologize" was stated 132 times from when I started counting.
0 (zero) offers to resolve the situation.
35 Demands that the situation be resolved.

In December of 1999 I made my first purchase with Egghead, it came through with no problem. Goods were selected, money was charged, goods were delivered and everyone was happy. Later that month I attempted my second purchase (notice I said attempted). It was 4 orders for 3 different types of jewelry, 2 came through fine. When the fourth item did not arrive with the first three I started the calls. I was told that the item had been shipped the day I called (stall tactic), it was not. One week later I called again, the response was "Oh sorry we meant that item is out of stock when we said it had shipped". One more week and 2 more phone calls later I cancelled the order, 5 days later my money was refunded. Further research on my part uncovered the company that was supposedly shipping the item did not exist. The contact number was some family in Grand Rapids Mich. that had no idea what I was talking about. The supplied E-Dress did not exist and the WhoIs contact information for their domain name (no website existed) was bogus. Ok, anybody can make mistakes and the logistics involving a large corporation are never perfect, so on to the next order.

Next I attempted to purchase a number of scanners this went through without a hitch. I then tried to purchase other computer hardware and accessories. This produced some minor shipping problems that added up to more phone time (mostly on hold) but was finally resolved.

And now the last endurance trial. I attempted to purchase another group of scanners (with a debit card). I won the bid and got confirmation that my card had been charged..great, bedtime. Two days later I check my E-Mail again and had 2 more messages from Egghead mailed shortly after the confirmation message I received. The first stated that my scanner order had been cancelled as per my request and my money had been refunded (no such request was made and don't forget about the 3-5 business day lag time in their refund process), the next message stated that the cancellation message was in error but to make it all better they reinstated my order and re-charged (read stole from me) my debit card. The next sound heard was several checks bouncing due to the double charge to my account, not to mention the fees I had to cough up and the embarrassment caused to me. Another round of phone calls and apologies ensued, not once did anyone at Egghead ever ask what would it take to make me happy. I not only had to repeatedly demand cancellation and refund for items that had not even shipped yet, but also demand over and over again that they compensate me for the bank charges and the time and embarrassment I incurred due to their incompetence. As I was maneuvering through this maze of so called supervisors one stated to me that it was not their problem and that they did not represent Egghead or Onsale and refused to connect me with a supervisor. Throughout these trials I kept my civility and tone more than reasonable, yet continually encountered defensive (not hostile) attitudes when I would ask to speak to the supervisors. After Egghead finally refunded my money and paid the bank charges I cancelled my account, which they only deactivated. Several other calls were made before they said that my card numbers had been removed from the servers (I still do not believe this).

Records and notes I have kept from the first order on show I had spent $2450 with Egghead while they maintained less than %40 success rate for filling my orders. I declare an order successful if I do not have to make any follow-up inquiries as to where the items are or why they have not been shipped as promised. Several Egghead supervisors had stated that their charging policy was going to change by April 2000. They stated that by this time Egghead would only charge after the items had shipped. As of July 2000 this still has not been brought into effect (Lie or more incompetence? Jury is still out).

Follow up:
I have one employee and two co-workers that are ex-Egghead customers due to Egghead not getting the shipments right and stalling on the refunds. One co-worker ordered a scanner for a PC got one for a Mac sent it back and was refunded $5.60 out of $82.00 (this one is still ongoing).