Bad Experience with Fishpond.com.au Orders/Estimated Date of Delivery

Lmykol on 16/03/2011 - 14:24

In a few words, DON'T TRUST THEIR ESTIMATED DATE OF DELIVERY!

This was my first time dealing with Fishpond.com.au

I placed an book order with Fishpond.com.au, during the "Free shipping" period (Ordered on the 7th March)

On the ordering page, I selected "Free Standard Shipping, in 4-7 business days". After selecting this option, the order summary displayed:
"Estimated dispatch: 11/3/2011 - 14/3/2011", and
"Estimated delivery: 14/3/2011 - 18/3/2011".

This information corresponds to the confirmation email sent after order was placed, which stated:
"Estimated ship date: 11/3/2011 - 14/3/2011", and
"Estimated delivery date: 14/3/2011 - 18/3/2011".

So you'll undoubtedly realise that their "Free Standard Shipping, in 4-7 business days" actually mean they'll DISPATCH it in 4-7 days after the order was placed, and will take ANOTHER 5 business days for it to be delivered! That was the first place I got fooled.

After the order was made, I logged onto Fishpond.com.au and checked my order status. To my surprise, it now says:
"Estimated arrival: 18th March to 26 March"… almost a FULL WEEK later than the initial stated date.

I contacted the website's help desk about this (Luckily they DID return my message in 24 hrs as they've stated). The customer service team responded first saying that I've selected free shipping, which takes 6-10 days to arrive. But 18-26 March was not what they initially stated (and the reason I placed the order) and is 9-15 days AFTER order date!

After raising this issue, in their 2nd response, the customer service team said this is "due to a system error the wrong delivery dates are displayed on your order confirmation." and offered me the option to return the book upon arrival for a full refund, or receive a discount as an apology for late delivery…

My suggestion for anyone else ordering from Fishpond.com.au is either spend the extra money for "Fast delivery" which will supposedly send the item within 24 hours and arrived in 2-5 days… Or weigh the extra cost for postage verses getting it elsewhere that is more reliable.

Also, please note that when they say they'll beat Amazon prices, they meant Amazon US, not Amazon UK.

Hope this experience help some of you with deciding which company to give your orders to…

General Discussion

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Comments

  • issh on 16/03/2011 - 14:58

    My suggestion for anyone else ordering from Fishpond.com.au is either spend the extra money for "Fast delivery" which will supposedly send the item within 24 hours and arrived in 2-5 days… Or weigh the extra cost for postage verses getting it elsewhere that is more reliable.

    really depends on when you want it
    i.e. urgency

  • Trance N Dance on 16/03/2011 - 15:43

    Do you have a $10 off coupon?
    I know it's probably gonna be slow but I don't need the item in a hurry and it's the cheapest from what I can see anywhere atm from fishpond.

  • RandomNinja on 16/03/2011 - 21:07

    As far as issues go, this one is pretty minor IMO. Delays can be annoying, but at least you'll get it (hopefully at the right price!)

    If you can't wait for it, there's always the option of paying retail shudder

  • mykol on 17/03/2011 - 15:31

    Well the problem is I do need it quite urgently. Although not urgent to the point that I need it delivered within the week (Fast shipping).

    It is very annoying when a company tell you one thing before the transaction, and after you've given them your money, they tell you something else. In this case, I was told it would be delivered within 10 days before the transaction, and once I've paid for it, they now tell me it'll take up to 20 days! It is like a sales rep tell you stock will be in next week to get your sale, and call you the next day saying it'll take much longer than that. Worst thing is they cannot be hold responsible for their "estimated" time of arrival.

    I've just checked the latest status:
    "Your order for the item below has now been picked and packed and is in transit to our local distribution center:
    We estimate your book will arrive at the delivery address by 17/04/2011."

    So now they estimate it'll arrive next month! What a load of BS!!!!!!!!!! 4-7 days is VERY different from 1 month and 10 days by any standard!

    I've chose to give my business to Fishpond over other stores (e.g. Amazon UK or bookdepository) thinking that at least they are (partly) Australia! Even though it's cheaper to get it from overseas!

    RandomNinja: Yes.. Now I have no choice but to pay retail.

    All the online stores that I have dealt with in the past have all sent items largely within their estimated delivery time. I guess I've been lucky enough thus far to avoid dealing with company such as Fishpond.com.au.

    Wish I've had searched through OZB forum about their feedbacks before placing my order.

    • rygle on 21/04/2011 - 23:34

      I ordered a DVD from Fishpond and wasn't in a hurry. It got put back once, twice, three times, four times, then finally they told me they were cancelling the order and refunding my money because they couldn't get the stock. This was about 3 months after the order was placed in about December last year.

      I have been happy with them in years gone by, but that's pretty bad.

  • mrpoppy on 22/04/2011 - 18:27

    Agree with OP. I have order several items from Fishpond that said "order in the next X hours and we'll ship it today" only to find the item status changes to "dispatched to warehouse" and with an expected delivery date of 3 weeks.

    They are really treading a fine line with misleading practices and should be brought to the attention of the ACCC. I think they hide a bit behind their website as there is no way to write/phone them.

    • Trance N Dance on 24/04/2011 - 15:43

      I don't think the ACCC has juristriction over them as they are a NZ based company…
      Hence why GST is not paid on purchases from their site and some people get foreign transaction fees.

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