Half Full of Bugs -- Caveat Emptor
Written: Feb 05 '02 (Updated Sep 14 '02)
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UPDATE 9/02: Half.com is now fully integrated in eBay's system, and things have improved somewhat. For that reason, I've raised my rating from "Avoid it" to "Below Average," because there's still work to be done. Buyer/Seller Ratings are now handled the same way as on eBay, which is a big improvement. I haven't done much business with Half.com since the problems I desccribe in this review, but comments I've received from other users seem to indicate that there are still difficulties related to contacting sellers directly in the event of a problem. I'd recommend going through eBay's system to seek resolution. Every Half.com user is now automatically registered with eBay, and if you implement eBay's "Safe Harbor" procedures, you'll be able to not only find your seller's e-mail address, but also their mailing address and phone number. Remember, eBay and Half.com are one and the same now, so use eBay's better tools to their fullest!
Oh yeah, and they've "fixed" the bug I mention in my review below by changing the search pop-up menu to read "DVD/Movie." It's really more of a lawyer's solution than a software engineer's. 8-P
---- Original Review --------------------
I’m usually called a perpetual optimist, a “glass half full” kind of guy, so to be the seemingly lone naysayer amidst a torrent of rave reviews feels kind of strange. But I feel it my duty to tell you that the Emperor is only Half clothed. Here’s what happened...
I have been a Half.com member for several years, so I was pretty familiar with the way the system works. Then, on September 28, 2001 I decided to see whether Half.com carried any of the recently released Farscape DVD’s (have you seen Farscape? Great show! [www.farscape.com]). So I went to Half.com’s web site, clicked the “DVDs/Movies” tab, entered “Farscape” as the keyword, and then (and this is important...), I chose “DVD” from the type popup menu and clicked the Go button.
Okay now, if you had done the same procedure, what would you expect to happen? You’d expect to get a list of DVD’s with “Farscape” somewhere in the title or description, right? Only Half right. You’d get a list of items containing the keyword “Farscape” somewhere in their descriptions and/or titles, but those items wouldn’t necessarily be DVD’s; they might also be VHS tapes. Now, the items in the list are marked as DVD or VHS, but if you’re expecting to see only product types that you chose in Half.com’s user-interface, then you might easily overlook that column of information. And that’s exactly how I got into trouble with Half.com.
Having chosen to see only DVD’s in Half.com’s user-interface, I just didn’t expect the list of results to also contain VHS tapes, and so when I saw an item at a price I liked, I bought it. It wasn’t until I received the confirmation e-mail from Half.com that I realized what had happened. I immediately went to look up the seller of the VHS tape that I had accidentally ordered, but Half.com did not list any contact information for the seller. So then I went to Half.com’s customer service “center” to see if there might be a number I could call, or an e-mail address I could use. There wasn’t. What there was, was a “Report a Problem” button, which let me compose and send a message to Half.com service in the web browser window. I received a confirmation e-mail to let me know that my problem report had been received, but it did not contain a copy of my message, so I didn’t have a copy for my records; which I would have, had I been able to use a standard e-mail address.
When, eleven days later, I received a message telling me that my order had shipped, I once again used the “Report a Problem” button to ask about the status of my previous problem report. Five days later, I finally received the following response from Half.com customer service representative, “Chris D.:”
David, at Half.com, purchases you make are from other Half.com members
across the country. Once you place an order on Half.com, the process of
your item being shipped to you happens immediately. Half.com emails the
seller, the seller confirms and ships the item to you within 24 hours of
that confirmation. This often happens within hours of you placing your
order.
Due to the nature of this system, buyers can not cancel orders once they
are placed. All sales are final, except for those cases defined in the
Half.com Buyer Protection Policy.
The “Buy Protection Policy” basically states that if you buy something from Half.com, and it doesn’t work, then it’s protected for up to $750. But nowhere do Half.com’s policies and guidelines discuss any recourse given to problems caused by bugs in their website. When I sent another message, trying to explain in even more detail that the problem was a direct result of a feature failure of their website — and waited another couple of weeks for a reply — “Tami K.” finally told me that “all sales are final,” and that, “there is nothing that we can do for you about this matter.”
Well, to make a long story short, I finally reported my Half.com experience to the Better Business Bureau [www.bbb.org], and on November 16, 2001, I received the following message from the Customer Service Manager:
Dear Sir:
I do apologize for the inconvenience you experienced with our site. As a one time courtesy I have credited your account for 13.64. As you can see below it quite clearly states that it is a VHS. You also have the option of using our "report a problem" button. This enables you to email the seller and try to work this out. Please remember you are buying from individual sellers and it is up to them to authorize the return. Please just keep the VHS tape.
Again, we apologize for this inconvenience.
Nancy Fenn
Customer Service Manager, Half.com
So there you have it: Half.com grudgingly refunded my whopping $13.64 — but that wasn’t the point, which they apparently missed entirely. The whole point of my exercise was to bring glaring problems with Half.com’s system to their attention, in the hope that they would address the problems and make sure other users don’t have the same experience. But not once did they address the fact that their search engine doesn’t filter results as their user-interface leads users to believe it will (a bug that is reproducible to this day!). Never once did they mention the fact that they don’t always publish seller contact information, so there is virtually no recourse for buyers who encounter a problem. And never once did they address the fact that there is no direct contact information for Half.com customer service; only a web interface that let’s Half.com delay and defer service for their own convenience.
It’s really hard for me to believe that Half.com’s parent company is eBay, which gives buyers and sellers dozens of ways to contact each other in the event of problems. It seems like a no-brainer for Half.com to acquire some of eBay’s proven web technology and improve their system greatly; but I suppose there must first be a desire to do this. Based on my experience with their policies, their customer service staff, and the admonishments that I received from the Customer Service Manager, it’s apparent that Half.com has no interest in improving their customers experience. Their only interest seems to be in ensuring that all sales really are final.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
_beowulf
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Location: San Jose, CA, USA
Reviews written: 14
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Just another techo-weenie.
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