posted on July 20, 2001 06:01:08 PM
I recently started posting items at Half.com. Every query to their help desk, whether it be a problem or a request to add an item, has went unanswered. I am really ticked by the fact that they keep 35% of the shipping charge when they have absolutely nothing to do with shipping.
posted on July 20, 2001 06:13:02 PM
You can expect a half answer from Half.com in about twice the time it should as a seller. This is no more or less than one gets from eBay. Customer service just isn't one trait to look forward I am afraid.
As to their practices, they do pay a small amount for credit charges so they do not really keep all of it. They also routinely have to refund part of the shipping when they post a book as hardcover and it is not--much more often than you might expect.
posted on July 20, 2001 06:22:15 PM
Never ask more than one question at a time. they will answer only one and always the easy one. Even when they do, sometimes there respones has nothing to do with the question. They have a lot of canned responses and they just pick one. As far as there shipping cut goes, I believe it has gone up. When I started selling they gave the buyers a break when they bought more than one book from the same dealer. Recently I went through there shippig rates & it just gives a flat rate per book. The dealer though gets less for each additional book. Do not get me wrong, I do not want a bigger cut. I want to encourage more buying.
posted on July 21, 2001 06:06:28 PM
>>Never ask more than one question at a time. they will answer only one and always the easy one. Even when they do, sometimes there respones has nothing to do with the question. They have a lot of canned responses and they just pick one...>>
This sounds like a computer response to me. Hello Half.com--any live bodies in your customer service dept??
It also irks me when I get a response that is obviously not thought out.
posted on July 21, 2001 06:57:45 PM
About a month ago there was a glitch in the half.com system. I was sending messages that they weren't getting. Once you submit a message, you should get the screen that says, 'You're message has been sent.' If you don't get that then your message didn't go through. It would take about 4 trys to finally get a message sent. They may have it fixed by now, I don't know.
posted on July 24, 2001 10:13:07 AM
Thought you guys might like to know that half finally answered my question, and the answer makes me gag. In its entirety --
Hi Randall,
I am sorry for any inconvenience or confusion caused by our shipping
reimbursement. Half.com uses the overhead from shipping and handling
fees to cover administrative expenses related to our Buyer Protection
Policy. We appreciate your patience and understanding regarding this
matter.
Rachel F. - The Half.com Customer Service Team
What kind of reason is that? They have overhead in other parts of their company so they rob their customers of 35% of charges for which they are entitled? Wow, what a way to run a business!!
