s3 ordered w/next day - won't ship for 7-10 days and "we can't cancel your order"?!?

[The TiVo Dude]

Tuesday we order s3 from tivo.com and decide to pay the extra $40 to have it here *for sure* by the weekend.

Thursday night I call Tivo and CSR says 1) "Tivo does not expect shipment for 7-10 days" and 2) "We do not have the ability to cancel an order once it is placed. You must refuse shipment."

Huh???

So Tivo would rather pay UPS or FedEx to attempt delivery?? Not to mention it being out of stock and traveling around the country for no reason?? When someone else would be otherwise buying it?

...sorry if this is an *old* topic.

[Gregor]

Old topic. Yes, it looks like Tivo is stuck paying shipping both ways.

[Aiken]

I dunno what the website said on Tuesday, but it does say 7-10 days today.

And yes, the inability to cancel orders is stupid. By law, they're supposed to let you cancel at no cost to you if the order doesn't ship in the advertised time. The hack of refusing shipping is a little iffy, if you ask me, and I just did it myself, so I'm familiar with it, but the net result should at least be the same.

[Dan203]

I hate to say it but this has to be the one of the stupidist policies I've ever seen. The product wont actually ship for 7-10 days but you can't cancel the order? :confused: I could understand if it had already been sent to the wearhouse and was packaged and ready to ship, but it seems like 7-10 days would be plenty of lead time to cancle an order.

Dan

[ChuckyBox]

I dunno what the website said on Tuesday, but it does say 7-10 days today.
It's been that way for a few days.


And yes, the inability to cancel orders is stupid.
Stupid and bizarre. I can understand that they had problems when the CSR didn't have "visibility" of the order status, but they claim to have fixed that. But they can't cancel a transaction that hasn't actually happened? Isn't that part of any basic ordering and fulfillment software? Is cancelling really harder than processing a package that got bounced back by the shipper?

It makes no sense, it costs money, and it pisses people off. I just don't understand why this can't be handled -- even if it is done manually by writing the order number down and having someone run around and make sure the package doesn't ship and the credit card isn't charged.

[mlinehan]

Odd...

Possibly the CSR does not know the correct order status?

I broke down and purchased an S3 Saturday 9-23 with 3 years prepaid, and UPS ground shipping.

I recieved an e-mail Monday 9-25 saying it had been shipped.

Running a trace confirms that my S3 did infact hit the road the evening of Monday 9-25, shipping from Fort Worth TX and arriving in Ohio Wed 9-27. It should arrive here in Columbus in the next day or so.

I'm guessing the "7 to 10 days" thing is CYA.

[pmiranda]

FYI, despite the website saying my S3 wouldn't ship for 7 days, I got a tracking number for my shipment today after ordering yesterday.

[ac3dd]

Does the tracking say it actually shipped?

Many vendors have pre-made UPS or Fedex labels, so they can give you a tracking number before they even have the thing in stock.

[pmiranda]

Does the tracking say it actually shipped?

Many vendors have pre-made UPS or Fedex labels, so they can give you a tracking number before they even have the thing in stock.

Nah, the tracking number hasn't hit UPS yet, but I've had shipments that didn't hit the tracking system until they were already on the truck in my town for delivery.
If it's in the system in the morning I'll believe it.

[The TiVo Dude]

I hate to say it but this has to be the one of the stupidist policies I've ever seen. The product wont actually ship for 7-10 days but you can't cancel the order? :confused: I could understand if it had already been sent to the warehouse and was packaged and ready to ship, but it seems like 7-10 days would be plenty of lead time to cancel an order.

Dan


My comment to the CSR - exactly. If it was 1-2 days and it's in process...I could understand. But it won't ship for a minimum of 7 days (she said they are now backordered) and then I'm supposed to "refuse shipment." Seems pointless and a waste of energy, time and money - for me, but especially for Tivo.

[ac3dd]

Sometimes these business processes are run by computer systems, and if they didn't program the computer to handle a certain scenario, the company can't or won't do it.

The computer can handle refuse shipments, so they force you to choose that option.

[Aiken]

Sometimes these business processes are run by computer systems, and if they didn't program the computer to handle a certain scenario, the company can't or won't do it.

The computer can handle refuse shipments, so they force you to choose that option.
Frankly, I don't believe their system cannot do order cancellations. That's a basic feature of any order processing system written in the last 10 years.

I think this is due to a policy similar to the one that governs rebates. They hope some people will change their mind while they wait and not return the unit after all. On average, enough people may change their minds to make up for the lost delivery money.

(Even if it's not that way, it looks that way, and that's bad PR. They really ought to change it.)

[razor237]

Tivo's ordering system suck ..... Ive been going through the same thing, my tivo i had orderd from there website just got back to them yestarday..... let see how long it takes to get my money back. I do have to say i was tempted to keep the S3 so i could have two but my empty wallet won the argument :D


-Mike

[boblip11]

I ordered Sunday the 24th at 3 PM EST with standard shipping. My unit shipped on Monday the 25th. I recieved the shipping email Monday night. UPS says it is on time to be delivered on Friday.

I took this to mean that Tivo had fixed their shipping problems....but it sounds like I was lucky. I have to agree I would be miffed if I paid for expedited shipping and then got the 7-10 day story when other people were getting their units ahead of me.

[ldc3000]

Its not just Tivo who does this. I work in the shipping business and have a lot of customers calling me wanting to cancel an order. I look up their information and most of the time we(the carrier) haven't even received the package from the shipper. When I refer them back to the shipper, they say the shipper told them that it can't be cancelled on their end and refer them to us.

[pmiranda]

If you're not in Texas you're going to hate this...
Ordered tuesday, shipped wednesday, on the truck here in town for delivery thursday.
Maybe I really am a VIP, or I'm just lucky that mine is shipping out of Ft. Worth. Or maybe it's one of the units that people refused shipment on when they got impatient and went to BB or CC instead :o