AUDIO BOOK CLUB.COM----LET THE BUYER BEWARE!
Nov 01 '00
To my fellow Epinioneers and my avid subscribers (as well as my numerous detractors...LOL). I want to share a letter that I wrote to this "company', and I use the term loosely. Be careful that you do not fall into the same trap that I did, for as my Dad used to tell me, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. P.T. Barnum would have LOVED me. What a sucker I was to fall for this song and dance. Oy! I thought that we Jews were supposed to be pretty smart. Right now, I feel like the world's biggest dummy. Be careful, everyone. It's not a nice cyberuniverse out there, as I found out to my profound regret.
The following is my tale of woe:
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing to express my anger with the staff attitude on Audio Book Club. I am referring to an incident on the site on October 31, 2000.
Let me briefly recount my experience:
I finally found your phone number online (no mean feat in itself) and called you at 317-541-8920. The lack of a 800 number should speak volumes about the type of company you are in advance. I responded to an e-mail from Cybergold sometime in the early part of October
which promised me a $10 cash rebate, 4 audio books for a penny, and a free cassette player for joining your club. If was not satisfied with the items, I was
given the option of returning them to you for a full refund. I should have been suspicious from the very start that this was a scam, because my credit card was billed even BEFORE you processed and allegedly mailed the items to me. Actually, I ordered a FIFTH audiobook, fool that I am, because it seemed too good to resist for only an additional $7.95. This would have made the charge to my credit card $7.96, plus a small charge for shipping and handling, right? WRONG! My card was billed on October 14 for $21.71. I waited patiently for the items to arrive. I went back to your FAQ section of your website and was told to wait 10-14 days, which I did before I initiated any contact with you. I started with an e-mail telling me that the Audio Books had been mailed. Well, I waited until October 31, which I consider to be a fair and reasonable time--more than two weeks. I found my account number on the e-mail that you sent me telling me that the items were mailed. I also sent you an additional e-mail asking you to advise me as to what carrier was sending the parcel---UPS, FedEx, Airborne, etc. You never replied to either my second or third e-mail. I called your company on the morning of Tuesday, October 31, and had the misfortune of speaking to a surly and arrogant character named TIM. He acted like he was doing me a big favor by even talking to me. I asked him how the parcel was sent, and he advised me that it was sent via fourth class mail, and that the "shipping and handling" charges for this wonderful and very safe method of delivery was a mere $13.75! I was infuriated. Not only haven't I received the items, but Audiobooks.com has the GALL to charge this outrageous amount of money for fouth-class delivery. I live in a large co-op in suburban NYC, not exactly the safest and most secure area in the world. If this parcel was dropped on my doormat, indeed if it EVER was mailed in the first place, which I still have my doubts about, it should NEVER be left on a doormat of an apartment building. Not for $13.75!!!! This idiot (he sounded like a real hick) told me that it was MY
responsibility to let my post office know that fourth-class mail should be held for pickup at the post office, and that I should pick it up myself. What an imbecile this guy is. Does he think that this is somewhere in the wheatfields of Nebraska? To add insult to injury, he also told me that they will make absolutely no attempt to reship the items that I have never received until November 15, which is another two weeks from now. I told him to not to bother. I was going to contact my credit card company to put the entire matter in dispute. I realize that it's not a lot of money. I have already paid for $10 of the charge as a show of good faith to my credit card company, and the dispute forms are presently in transit to me...FIRST CLASS...LOL. I am also going to contact the BBB Online as well as Bizrate, and am also going to copy and paste this letter into an Epinions.com review of your "product". Audiobookclub.com, I'm afraid that this time you didn't scam some pink-haired old lady in Peoria, Illinois. All of your banner ads and e-mailings will come back to haunt you if enough people like me are victimized by your scam operation. As a small business owner, I can honestly say that it is companies like yours that give Internet retailing the bad name that it has so unfairly earned.
I am a new customer of Audio Book Club. As a result of this experience, I definitely will not use Audio Book Club again. I definitely will tell people about this matter. I believe that this kind of service will have a negative impact on your business.
I know that you wish to correct this situation as quickly as possible, so I am asking that you kindly mail this order to my home using some sort of "signature required" method at no extra charge to me, and I will then pull the Epinions article, and advise Bizrate and the BBB Online that this matter has been resolved to our mutual satisfaction. You have until November 10 to rectify this matter. You can begin by sending an e-mail to me as soon as someone in higher circles has read this letter. If it doesn't reach upper echelons and ends up in the cyberbasket of some low-paid peon of a "customer disservice" representative, I guarantee you that heads will roll. This is not a threat...It's a promise. I make a VERY good living. I live in Hartsdale. Hillary Clinton lives 5 minutes away from me, in Chappaqua. (To my great misfortune...LOL).
This is a VERY affluent community. I would think that you would have surmised by now that you are dealing with someone who is going to pursue this matter until I get complete satisfaction.
So far, all I have gotten from you was a $21.71 charge to my credit card and a LOT of "tsuris" (aggravation). It's time for some payback.
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Sincerely,
rotsa
If any of you have experienced similar problems with this company, I would greatly appreciate it if you could post comments at this article. Be anonymous if it makes you more comfortable. Misery loves company.
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Epinions.com ID:
rotsa
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Member: ROTSA RUCK
Reviews written: 48
Trusted by: 10 members
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