My email to Play.com

I am writing to complain about the despicable service I have received from play.com that has left me absolutely livid and really quite upset. I have called the 0845 800 2010 telephone number to try and resolve my problem twice and have, in total, wasted two hours talking to people who were rude, unhelpful and insulting and then proceeded to lie to me, cheat me and insult me.
It is now one in the morning and I am composing this email after finishing on the telephone to a manager who actually has no authority to help me whatsoever. What exactly is the point in his title?
I initially ordered two games from Play.com to be delivered to an address in France. This was clearly stated on my order – Play.com INSISTS that when purchasing items for France that they be paid for in Euros. I gather this is an inexplicable company policy and so, despite the fact that my bank (and billing address) is UK based, I was forced to pay a premium rate in Euros and incur charges from my bank for the ‘currency exchange service’. This naturally makes it much more expensive and so I VERY OBVIOUSLY wouldn’t be wanting to pay any extra than necessary; that would be illogical, but illogical is clearly how play.com runs, because when I received an email stating my FIRST item (New Super Mario Bros, Wii) had been dispatched I was pretty annoyed to see that it was being sent to the WRONG address and I checked my second item (Legend of Zelda, DS) and found that was due to be sent to the Wrong address as well.
What? How can this be? I thought, I very clearly instructed the delivery address to be to France! I’m not going to be in the UK over Christmas, New Year or until February. I ordered these games as Christmas gifts for my family who live in France. Why would I pay the premium rate for items to be sent to the UK. The play.com website was the system that instructed me as I was paying to pay in euros as my delivery address was in France, so quite perturbed |I gave the call centre a ring.
I may as well have set fire to my face. I was put on hold four times during this first conversation. The first reason for this was because “I had not entered a delivery address” so by default the product will get sent to my billing address. Now, I’m not Sherlock Holmes or anything, but WHY WOULD I PAY IN EUROS, ergo paying a premium and then some, for something to be sent to the UK?
This, of course, was tosh, when the call operator then asked me if it was supposed to go to “2 Impasse des Toinons, etc . etc.” Well, clearly I ENTERED that address, for that is the French address I SPECIFIED as the delivery address and I have never had anything delivered to that address before – how would that address be there if I hadn’t entered it??? So, like a pig pulling a cart load of sausages, a draw my own conclusion; I was rudely told it was my fault and made to feel like a liar, when in fact I WAS BEING LIED TO! This is not customer service to be proud of.
The first solution to this predicament was for me to re-order my presents to be sent to France and to wait for the ones being sent to my UK address and then return them by recorded delivery at which point I would receive a refund in Euros.
I pointed out how ludicrous this ‘solution’ was; I would end up paying nearly double for each game as I would incur bank charges for 3 currency transfers and, more to the point, I’M NOT AT MY UK ADDRESS. I CAN NOT RECEIVE THINGS, I CAN NOT RETURN THINGS! Oh, and thirdly, I would have to be paying a second time for the games and this is something I CAN NOT afford, and I have no time to wait for a refund to re-buy the games... Can you see where I was getting at?
Well, I thought I had made myself quite clear. So the next solution sounded fine...
I was told as I was not at the address at the moment that the items would be instantly returned and I would not have to worry about that. I was told that the items have to be signed for now, although this I have a feeling, is a load of ‘frolics in the park’. When I have had items delivered before they have NEVER been signed for and have always been posted through the door and sat on my door mat until I’ve found them. Well I gave the operator the benefit of doubt, possibly because she continued with a solution that I thought was going to resolve my problems – she would simply have my item sent to the correct address and she would change the delivery details on my second item. I was told not to worry and that she would sort it out “because it is Christmas and we understand everyone wants their items on time.”
BINGO, or so I thought....
Ok, so I was still sizzling a bit when I went to check my email and to check my orders status on play.com
An email came through after a while –a RE-ORDER of Mario Bros??? I didn’t want to pay for an item twice! I DID NOT AUTHORISE a second payment! That’s just naughty and plain bad manners. You can’t vaguely tell someone over the telephone not to worry and that the problem is sorted by STEALING money from their bank account and hoping they don’t notice to appease them. I was shocked to say the least! I’m not a girl of great means and I don’t have the sort of money to pay for things twice. I don’t have the convenience of a bank account in the black which can pay for something twice with an uncertain wait for something to be refunded at a point sometime in the future, which judging from your diabolical charade of a call centre would be never.
And how come this item (the re-order of Mario Bros) which WAS ACTUALLY to be delivered to France, can now be paid for in UK pounds? That’s just making the rules up as you go along; worse than my brother at Monopoly.
I thought I best check the status of item 2, the Zelda game for the DS, and low and behold, it was still due to be shipped to the UK. So, despite being told that item 2 would simply have a change of address before it would be dispatched and that it would have a simple destination change; it was all a crock. The delivery details hadn’t been changed and as I sat on hold in my second call to the 0845 call centre, I watched the item status change from getting packed to getting dispatched, all to the wrong address AFTER I had been told it was sorted.
So, nothing to worry about turned to EVERYTHING to worry about. This was supposed to be a hassle-free Christmas present for family members and you’ve turned it into an incredibly stressful circus for me where I’ve sat on the telephone for nearly 2 hours only to be told that no one has any authority to do anything to help me, even after waiting to speak to a so-called manager. It’s bitterly ironic that they can take MY money without authorisation, but nobody in the whole building is authorised to give it back.
I’m finishing this email at 2am and I desperately hope you can help resolve this issue as soon as possible.
I’m at the point where I feel like laughing an insane sort of banging your head against the wall cackle, but don’t get me wrong, I do not think this is funny. I am really very angry indeed and I have endeavoured to be as polite as Britishly possible, but in all honestly the air here is blue, to put it mildly.