Saturday, February 28, 2009
Has Costco ever heard of logic???
Let me tell you a tale of online shopping frustration.
I wanted to buy an article from Costco that I'd found through an online review. So, I went to the Costco Web site, and found the article in question. All went well - until I tried to buy it.
First of all, they won't ship to a Post Office box - don't ask me why. Since I don't receive mail at my residential address (I don't even have a mailbox outside my home), this was a real problem. I couldn't for the life of me imagine why they wouldn't dispatch my order to my P O box - after all, they ship via USPS - but there wasn't much I could do about it. Sighing, I gave them my physical address, and went on with the transaction.
Then, when it came time to give them my credit card details, they wanted to know the card's billing address. Guess what? It's my P O box. And - guess what again? As soon as I entered it, their system rejected it with another note that they don't ship to P O boxes! This, despite the fact that it wasn't a shipping address, but a billing address!
Just who designed this system for Costco? Who are the clowns who approved it for retail use? Who's the imbecile who decided not to ship to P O boxes? And how many orders has Costco lost through not paying attention to the reality of their customers' lives?
A big Thumbs Down to Costco - and, yes, I canceled my order, rather than bother trying any further maneuvers through the labyrinth of their ordering system. I've got better things to do with my time. Sam's Club has given me excellent service so far, so I'll see if they have what I need.
Peter
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8 comments:
Recently I ordered something that they said they were shipping USPS and allowed my PO box as the address; come to find out they shipped UPS (who doesn't deliver to the post office) and it was a mad scramble to change the shipping address before it got sent back.
Very few credit card orders will accept a P.O. Box for a billing address. The reason is because there is no way to tie the ordering party to the P.O. Box. The possibilities of fraud are rife.
Anon, respectfully, I don't agree. I've been ordering goods online, to be sent via USPS to my Post Office box, and used it as a shipping and billing address, with many companies, for over eight years. Only Costco and CRW have had a problem with using a P O Box address. The others have been quite happy with it, as tens of thousands of dollars in transactions demonstrate. Even when ordering something that has to come via UPS, my billing address is always a P O Box, and it never causes trouble - except with dumbass systems like Costco's.
Tell me about it. I used to live in a town in PA which had no street names, all streets were coded. My address was HC89 Box31 which, despite looking like some sort of PO box, was my actual physical address.
That caused some fun internet/phone orders, even with live people who failed to grasp what I was explaining to them.
As an unwilling internet merchant, there is a way to verify PO box billing addresses. It costs to use a live person to call the card center but it can be done. If you are a merchant call your customer rep and ask about it.
We sell time critical material, and like most in our position, we generally ship UPS or FEDEX because USPS does not give adequate service in many areas. Brown and Fedex three day ground delivery often turns into 7 to 10 days by USPS. By the time the buyer gets the goods the need has passed. So no, we do not ship to PO boxes.
Not surprised at all Peter, one more bow to Corporate You WILL do as I say mentality...
That looks like the same Costco that, a few years back, put up a "no guns" sign on the entrance of all of the stores in Phoenix.
What really irks me is that for a few years I bought from Costco online and always had stuff shipped to a mail drop outlet that accepted USPS, UPS, Fedex, etc. It was only a few months ago that Costco decided to "enforce" the policy. Given that members have to give an account number, it seems Costco would have no problem checking the customer's history to verify that they haven't been scamming them.
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