I have purchased a few computers from internet retailers, so when my daughter Reilly (who lives with her mother in Stone Mountain) told me she needed a laptop, I began forwarding those pesky advertisements I receive from places like Newegg.com and TigerDirect.com to her. After some time, she decided on a nice little Asus notebook from Newegg.com. I placed the order on Valentine's Day, 2010, which was a Sunday. They promised three day shipping, but given that I ordered on a Sunday, I figured the computer would ship out on Monday, and arrive at my daughter's door by Thursday. To verify my timeline, see the email I received from Newegg.com, confirming my order.

 

 

 

 

                                               

 

They are, of course, on Pacific time, and I am on Eastern time. Notice that I have billed the purchase to my credit card, which has a Madison address and telephone number (both whited out for privacy), and have shipped to my daughter at a different address and telephone number, again, both whited out. I do this quite frequently, with Amazon.com, with ProFlowers.com, and TigerDirect.com, to name three that spring to mind. I've never had a problem doing that. One assumes that is why the retailer offers two forms to fill in, one the billing address, one the shipping address.

 

But that was a problem for Newegg.com, as you can see from the attached email that I received on Wednesday, the day before I expected the computer to be delivered.

 

 

 

                               

 

 

To save you eye strain, I summarize. The shipping address is not the same as the billing address, and since my shipping address and telephone number are not on file with my credit card company, they will not ship the order. I am to do two things: first, contact the credit card company and have the shipping address and telephone number added to my credit card file; second, after contacting the credit card company, I am to click on a link in the email to initiate the shipping process.

 

Well, I have a couple of problems with this. No, I actually have several problems with this, but I will discuss only two. First, my daughter lives with my ex, and I will not add her address or telephone number to my credit card information. Not even after hell freezes over. Second, Newegg.com waited three days to let me know there was a problem. I was expecting the computer to be delivered the next day, and it hadn't even left the warehouse, and no one at Newegg.com had bothered to let me know for three whole days.

 

So I called the customer service number, and was connected to a young fellow who repeated what was in the email, assured me that putting the ex's address and telephone number in the credit card file wouldn't cause any trouble whatsoever, and generally seemed not to understand why I was way more than a little upset.

 

So I cancelled the order.

 

 

 

                             

 

By the next Sunday (one week after I placed the order with Newegg.com) my daughter had picked another computer out, this time from TigerDirect.com. It was a nice little Acer Aspire, comparable in almost every way to the Asus. There was one difference. Well, two differences. The Acer had a lower quality video card, and as a result, was $50 cheaper. I ordered the laptop using Google Checkout, which TigerDirect.com offered on their check-out page.

 

 

 

                                      

 

I placed the order on a Sunday (the 21st) and to my surprise it was picked up on the 21st, and delivered on Wednesday the 24th. So, just a few hours short of one week after learning that Newegg.com wanted me to meddle with my credit card file, my daughter was enjoying her new laptop.

 

It seems to me that the leadership at Newegg.com should try to figure out what they want to do with the company. If they want to turn the company into a computer and electronics sales outlet, then they have a long way to go. After all, I had assumed that was their mission in life, and tried to buy something from them. But they made it impossible for me to do business with them.

 

Maybe they think that they are a credit card security agency, but again, they have a long way to go to match my credit card company in that regard. My credit card company, Citi, contacts me within hours (and sometimes within minutes) when something unusual appears to be happening. They have never, ever waited three days to let me know that there was a problem. And they approved my purchase from Newegg.com on Sunday the 14th, three days before I discovered that Newegg.com had a problem with different billing and shipping addresses.

 

I can recommend TigerDirect.com as an internet retailer of computers and electronics. I can recommend Citi as a credit card company. I cannot recommend Newegg.com as either.