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I am a regular on-line shopper and I have spent thousands of dollars on everything from computer hardware to Christmas gifts. Attempting to order something from Buy.com was by far my worst experience. I needed to buy a computer backup system and, after shopping around, the best deal I found was on Buy.com. According to the website, the product was in stock and usually ships in 1-2 business days. I requested 2-day shipping and signed up for Google Checkout in order to get a $10 discount advertised by Buy.com.

I placed my order on Wednesday and Monday afternoon, the product had not shipped. I submitted a customer service request to find out the status on my order and apparently Buy.com adds 4-5 business days to your order processing time if you use Google Checkout.

Two days later (now one full week after I had placed my order), my order status changed from "Sent to Warehouse" to "On Order" - indicating that it was actually NOT in stock as advertised. At this point, I cancelled my order - or should I say I "requested cancellation". This process apparently takes 7-10 business days during which time my order could still ship.

I have waited several more days hoping that my order would cancel in less than the advertised time. Now I will be buying a similar product at a local retailer for approximately the same price. At least that way if Buy.com does ship my order, I will be able to return the other one and I won't have to deal with Buy.com any more.

Oh, and by the way, according to Buy.com, the product is currently in stock and normally ships in 1-2 business days.

So now let me outline the problems in more detail. First off, Buy.com advertises a discount for Google Checkout. What is NOT advertised is a delay in processing for Google Checkout orders. Not only does this give a black eye to Google, it raises questions about the Buy.com infrastructure if they cannot complete the required transaction in less than 4 days - these types of transactions should be completed in a matter of minutes.

Secondly, Buy.com clearly does not have adequate communications between their sales and stock systems. This is what I do for a living. I am a software developer and system architect. I deal with systems far more outdated than most retail systems. At WORST, we are able to perform cross-system updates once a day. In most cases, even our older mainframe systems have updated software that allows us to get real-time data.

With so many other RELIABLE options out there, I will not be using Buy.com ever again.