Sendit.com - The company that doesn't send! (sendit.com)

Member Name: AJ26

Product:	sendit.com
Date:	31/03/09 (282 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The goods when you get them are fine

Disadvantages: Everything else, the customer service, the delays and the unauthorised payments

Sendit.com are an online shop that specialise in selling DVDs, CDs and Games. More recently they have expanded their range to include Books, Electronics, Computing, Perfume, Lingerie and Gifts. They also now offer DVD rental in conjunction with Lovefilm.

Their website is fairly easy to browse with tabs at the top of the page for each of the 10 categories. Then menus down the side of the page to allow you to browse best selling, coming soon, latest releases or special offer categories. There is also a search function to search the whole website. Prices compared to Amazon (where I normally shop) tend to be on the whole a bit more expensive although for some things can occasionally be cheaper. For example Quantam of Solace DVD in Amazon is £11.98 but in Sendit.com its £14.89.

They have a fairly good selection of DVDs, games and books but they don't have as big a selection as Amazon especially if you are looking for something that has perhaps been around for a while. At the time I purchased items their book selection was significantly lacking compared to the choice at Amazon.

Post and Packaging in the UK is free which is where it scores a point against Amazon who although have dropped the amount you have to spend to qualify for free p&p you do still need to spend over £5.

I came to hear about Sendit.com through the website ipoints. I had collected lots of ipoints and was looking for something to spend them on. I could get a £30 Sendit.com voucher for significantly less points that it would cost me to get an Amazon voucher. I had a quick look around their site, back in February 2008 when I got my voucher I think they only sold DVDs and games but I was sure I would find something I liked so I ordered the voucher.

It promptly arrived via email with the comment "It couldn't be easier to use your gift certificate" all I had to do was click through to the link and log in with my details. I didn't spend the voucher straight a way and to be honest kind of forgot that I had it. Remembering it later on I had a look round the site but all the DS and Wii games I wanted weren't in stock so I waited longer. Eventually in August I decided that it was time I ordered something so I went to credit my details to my account however it said that the voucher was not recognised. The email stated that gift vouchers were valid for one year so I knew it hadn't expired so sent an email to the customer service on 19th August 2008 and waited to hear back. And so began a long and protracted communication with Sendit.com.

I waited 3 days but heard nothing so sent another email to them. I received a response on 26th August saying that they were sorry and had passed the details to the IT team who would correct it for me. I waited a few weeks and still no response so I emailed them again and got a response on the 9th September saying "I am sorry we are still having a few technical difficulties in the gift voucher use. Our IT team are still investigating into this and as soon as we receive a response we will get back to you. Apologies for the delay." And so I waited, by now a month had passed since I sent the first email, I was starting to get rather frustrated and felt that if the problem couldn't be resolved in over a month with the voucher then it was unlikely to be solved and asked if they could issue me with a new £30 voucher so I could place my order. On the 8th October I received a message apologising for the delay but "We did not have a response to your query from the relevant department." The £30 was eventually credited on the 10th October.

So on the 12th October I placed my order for three items, a book, a wii game and a DS game. The order came to a total of £33.67, I used the gift voucher and had to enter my credit card details to pay the remaining amount.

The book arrived first on the 17th October with the Wii game arriving on the 22nd October. I received an email saying that the DS game which was Solitaire would arrive as soon as it came into stock. When I placed the order initially I was not informed that it was not in stock. However the game was a birthday present for my dad and as his birthday was not until December I was not too worried.

On the 4th November I checked my credit card statement and was surpised to see that two payments had come off for Sendit.com for £11.12 and £14.89 when I should only have had to pay £3.67. I emailed Sendit.com (the only way of contacting their customer services) and asked for the matter to be rectified immediately and the following day I received this response,

"I am sorry to hear extra payments have been taken from your account. I have spoken to our IT team and they have advised me this will automatically be refunded back to your card once the full order is complete, i.e the remaining product has been sent out to you or cancelled off. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused."

Well personally I thought this was a bit of a poor response and perhaps I should have taken it further but I decided that the game should arrive soon, the money would be refunded and that would be the end of it. Time went on and it was now the beginning of December and the game had not arrived and I was still £26 worse off so I contacted them again and told them I wanted the money refunded immediately or I would contact my credit card company and inform them that the payments have been taken without my permission. I also stated that I wanted to be informed if my order is likely to be despatched in the next week if not then I wanted to cancel it and not to use Sendit.com again as I felt that this had been a most unsatisfactory experience.

A reply was duly sent back from Sendit.com and low and behold they had spoken to their buying team and the solitaire game would be delivered to me by the end of next week. However they said "As for your refund however I still cannot issue it to you until the order is complete however as that will soon we hope to have the issue resolved as quickly as possible." I cannot understand why they could not refund the money when they were in the wrong!

The Solitare game finally arrived and on the 17th December I contacted them again to ask for my money to be refunded. 5 days later they replied saying they were processing it and the money would be with me shortly. On the 11th January I contacted them yet again and they replied apologising and stating that "After reviewing with our accounts department we have found that a £30 charge was made and a £30 refund request has been put through to our finance team for them to honour." Well tell me something I didn't know. Finally the money was refunded but the whole experience has left a bitter taste in my mouth.

I was quite happy with the goods I received but the customer service and the fact that they made unauthorised payments which they did not immediately refund is in my eyes unacceptable. Thankfully it was only a relatively small amount but for some people that might be enough to cause them bank charges if they went overdrawn and would they have been just as slow at refunding if it was a larger amount?

I will never use Sendit.com again, although there are some positive reviews about them on this site I feel that I have lost all faith in them. Even if their prices were significantly less than Amazon I would still choose Amazon over them as I have ordered from Amazon many many times and never had a problem. I would give Sendit.com no stars if it was possible I think their customer service is terrible. My advice to you would to give them a wide berth. Also check your credit card statement carefully every month if you don't do so already.

Summary: A company I would not recommend - stick to Amazon is my advice!