Rich A.

Got some decent (but not crazy good) deals, and liked that it was pretty easy to book, so I used Expedia.com for years. Then they suddenly started spamming me with 3 or more emails every day. I tried to used the "one a week" option in their subscriptions, but it didn't work, so I tried to unsubscribe, and still no help, so I contacted support via their web-page form and didn't even get a response. So, I've had to blacklist them, and need to advise you to avoid using this company as they care little for their customers.

I had a very basic but important to my business web site and email hosted with Verio for quite a while. Apparently they recently sold the company to another outfit that wanted to force everyone onto a new platform. The problem is that there was very little effort made to smooth that transition. I carefully followed their instructions and, despite my setup being about as simple as it gets, there were major problems and downtime with the first attempt. The support people were not well trained (didn't understand how DNS updates propagate, for instance), and unwilling to get higher levels involved. They announced that users would have until Jan 16 to complete the migration. Then, on Jan 4, without warning or notice, they simply shut off my old server and my site went dark. I had to scramble to get things limping, and there was little help about the differences in setting and usage (eg., not so much as a hint about where to go to login to my "control panel" until I sat through an hour wait to talk to support.)

This was a very poorly managed transition, done with little or no thought to how it would impact their customers. They are losing my business because I can no longer trust them to care for my business assets.

Update: after double charging me, they wanted me to jump through hoops to prove it rather than just checking their own accounts and refunding me. This is the very definition of horrible customer service. I strongly recommend against doing business with Verio.

Here's a quote from Wikipedia: "In late May 2015, Verio, as a business unit of NTT America, Inc., was sold to The Endurance International Group, Inc., a low-confidence provider of web solutions who generally tanks new acquisitions,..."

I've ordered items online or had them delivered from Best Buy several times, and generally with good results. However, I had difficulty recently when I tried to buy a washing machine. I carefully selected one from the same manufacturer as my old one that was listed as compatible with my existing pedestal, and confirmed that Best Buy would install it on the pedestal (it says that clearly in their delivery notes). First I ran into problems because they scheduled me for delivery in the only hour of the day I could not be home and did not call me the day before as they had promised. I know they had the number correct because the driver eventually called me. I found out early in the morning of delivery and called as soon as they were open. The delivery people who mostly said (very politely) that they couldn't do anything. When the driver called, he said he couldn't do another time. Then, while waiting for a call back to reschedule, the driver showed up out of the blue. Yay! They took away the old machine no problem, but then wouldn't put the new one onto my pedestal, claiming that it was "missing" hold-down plates. I know it never had hold down plates, but they wouldn't follow through on installing it unless I bought a new pedestal. So, they left with the new washer and Home Depot got my money instead of Best Buy, just because they refused to set the machine onto the same spot where my old machine had worked just fine for 12 years.

So the bottom line is that Best Buy generally works well as long as there is nothing unusual, but you've got to have a LOT of schedule flexibility, and they have rules they don't tell you about up front.

The web site showed the part I wanted was back-ordered. I emailed to ask "how long" and got a message back saying "3 weeks". I ordered, they took my $200, and I waited. After 2 months, I emailed customer service asking about it. I used their online "order tracking" but it always said only "backordered". I emailed several more times and never got an answer. I emailed the person who had originally told me 3 weeks, and still no answer. I finally telephoned and was told, "those will be available in January" (another 2 months from now).

Basically, if you aren't going to deliver my product for nearly half a year, you need to tell me that up-front, not take my money and give me nothing, not even information. The telephone service was good, and they said they would refund me within one day, so I'm giving them an extra star for that. TKAT seems to be a competitor, so maybe they'll do a better job.

Update: Another promise broken. The very nice lady on the phone had promised me a refund the next day. More than a week later, nothing, so I called back and got the run-around about having to check with the accountant. It begins to look like this company is incapable of keeping any promise, so I can't even give them 2 stars anymore, even though the lady on the phone was very nice. She deserves to work at a better company.

John was very helpful with determining if his product would work well for my driveway, including saying it would probably not work well in one location I was considering. They sent a sample to test the fit, and then shipped promptly. When I went to buy a second one, they were waiting for a shipment of products. They let me know that up front, before I ordered, and then kept me informed about the progress.