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RSS feedsShe was shocked a week later to receive a rather curt email from Amazon informing her that her credit card had been refused, and telling her that the goods could not be sent until the bill had been settled.
Ms Gould had had problems with her last order from Amazon. Just after she placed it, her credit card was stolen, forcing her to stop the card; but on that occasion a quick call to Amazon had sorted out the problem and the order had gone through. She was therefore surprised that Amazon had not stored her correct details on their system.
When she complained to Amazon, she got the following reply from the company's customer services department: "Since we do not charge your credit card until the order is ready to be dispatched, we were unable to notify you sooner. As soon as the credit card was declined, you were notified."
Amazon went on to explain that they did not know why the card had been refused and suggested she contact her bank. They even suggested that some credit cards could not be used on the internet, something we have not come across before. Ms Gould contacted What PC?'s Watchdog to see if we could explain how this could happen.
The error over the credit card might have been down to the details stored in a cookie on her PC. Many internet traders prefer not to keep customer details permanently on their own servers: instead, customer's credit card details are kept on their own PC and are sent by cookie to the vendor's server each time an order is placed. In other words, the cookie on Ms Gould's PC may have stored the details of the wrong card, not Amazon.
However, this does not explain the long delay in delivery. While we were pleased that Amazon did not charge Ms Gould until her goods were ready for dispatch, we do not understand why Amazon took a week to prepare goods they promised would be dispatched within 24 hours.
This is a complaint very often levelled at internet traders, that goods are apparently ready for dispatch but are then delayed for days, even weeks, without informing the customer. Even the Office of Fair Trading's new guidelines on what the customer can expect from an internet transaction (available at www.oft.gov.uk and well worth a look) do not expect a vendor to stick rigidly to its promises on delivery dates.
It may seem a small point to complain about, but it can make all the difference when it comes to a choice between ordering on the web and walking into a shop to buy your books and CDs. Retailers take note.
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