full version (with images and video) here:

http://pyrosblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/playcom-now-with-added-rudness.html

http://preview.tinyurl.com/26a3db

I've been Christmas shopping on play.com

I wanted the following:
Seed of Chucky (DVD)
Wayne's World 1&2 (DVD)
The Naked Jape, by Jimmy Carr (Book)

Imagine my Joy when I found that I could get all of those (and "bride of 
chucky" thrown in) for £15!

Now, I grant you, dispite my adding 3 '3 for £15' items to my cart, the 
total at the bottom said £18.47 - but 3 "3 for £15" item must mean that 
they'll sort out the discount before they charge you, right?

Wrong.

Not to worry, a quick call to customer services, I'll get my £3.47 back 
and all will be right with the world, right?

Wrong again.

Apparently, I can't mix books and DVDs.
"but" says I," there are 3 identical '3 for £15 icons'"
"yes" says the Play.com worker "3 DVDs for £15, or 3 Books for £15"
"It doesn't say that" says I.
"Yes it does" says Play.com "on the offer page"
"I didn't go to the offer page" says I "I just searched for the items"
"there's nothing I can do" says the customer dis-service employee
"I'll ask trading standards" says I
"A manager will call you back" says the pleb.
"thank you" says I.

A few minuets later a manager ("Mike") did indeed return my call.
"Oh good" thinks I "an organ grinder"

But, alas, Mike was simply a higher ranking monkey - and a rude one to 
boot!

When I explained that I had added 3 '3 for £15' items to my cart, but 
been charged full price, he again informed me that this was because I 
had ordered 2 DVDs and a Book, and that the offer did not say I could 
mix and match.

I pointed out that the site did not say I couldn't mix and match, and 
Mike informed me that the top of the offer page stated "3 DVDs for £15" 
in very large letters, and that if I couldn't see it I "Needed glasses"

At this point in the conversation (having been insulted by someone who 
was clearly in the wrong) I will admit that from that point on my 
composure faltered, however I continued to attempt to reason with Mike.

I pointed out that I hadn't been to the page with the large notice of 
which he spoke, he continued to insist that it was there, I explained 
that I didn't deny that it was there, but that you could (and I did) 
order those items without ever navigating to that page, and asked if I 
could show Mike how.

When I asked him to search for "jape" hew refused, when asked why, he 
replied "because you're a bigger jape than I am" and threatened to 
terminate the call.

I pointed out that "jape" was the search used to find one of the items, 
but that he was welcome to search for "chucky" as I couldn't turn that 
into an insult if I wanted to.

When he searched for "chucky" Mike immediately, and aggressively 
announced that there were no offer items on the search and started 
reeling off his search results.

It became apparent that Mike had searched under "books", when I asked 
him to please look under "all products" he claimed that he didn't have 
time to keep running searches, and would not.

He again re-iterated that the "3 DVDs for £15" was at the top of the 
offer page, and became rude when asked to run searches that would prove 
that the 3 items could be ordered without ever seeing that page.
-- 
The more I see of my dickhead half brother...
...the more I think Cain was onto somthing!

Will Tingle
Remove YOUR.PANTS to e-mail

Will Tingle  wrote:
> 
> Now, I grant you, dispite my adding 3 '3 for £15' items to my cart, the 
> total at the bottom said £18.47 - but 3 "3 for £15" item must mean that 
> they'll sort out the discount before they charge you, right?
>

Er no. Why would you assume that? I have some sympathy for you -- the
website isn't clear and there's never any excuse for being rude -- but
honestly, if it says £18.47 and you think £18.47 is wrong then don't
continue the checkout process. 

Whatever else should have happened, if you click through when it clearly
states how much it's going to charge you then that's what they'll charge
you.

-- 
Shuggie