My story:

After suffering with the debilitating power-on fault caused by my N800 running completely dead while charging (the charger doesn't charge the unit while it's on), my N800 finally turned off and wouldn't come back on at all. I had this problem from day one of owning the unit. I called Nokia and they advised me to return it to the vendor, which I did. This part of my saga is detailed here.

I got an RMA number and mailed it back to Buy.com on January 19th. It arrived at the Buy.com warehouse on January 25th. I saw that "Sarza" signed for it, and expected my replacement unit to ship in a reasonable amount of time. After contacting them for several days, I couldn't get them to ship me a new unit, claiming that it takes 5-8 business days to process returns. I called them every few days, trying to get them to go ahead and mail my replacement, but they said I had to wait longer for reasons they couldn't explain.

Today (February 6th) I called them to harass them about shipping me a working product, and got the usual runaround even though the prescribed amount of waiting had been endured. I was handed around to a few different departments, finally leading to the returns department where I wanted to talk to a supervisor about shipping me a new unit since they said they checked my return into the system on February 4th and were just waiting for nothing. All they had to do is hit a few buttons and get my replacement coming from the Chicago warehouse, but for some reason (which I couldn't get them to explain) they said they couldn't. Of course the customer service agent said the "supervisor" was in a "meeting" that would last for the next half hour. I left my name and number for them to call me back and of course they didn't.

Then, all the sudden at 8:25PM today, I got an e-mail from Buy.com saying that they are suddenly issuing a refund for no reason even though I specified that I wanted a replacement shipped. I called and waited for customer service again to try to figure out what was going on, only for them to tell me that they are sold out of N800's. (probably due to the sale yesterday) So I waited nearly a month for a working N800 from Buy.com when I could have just returned it for a refund in the first place and ordered a new one when they had them in stock.

Instead, I got screwed by Buy.com. They should have held units in stock that they knew they would owe to customers who had RMA's for exchange. In addition to all this waiting I've been through, they say that the refund will take 1-3 additional days to process.

If you have a problem with your N800 (which seems likely) and you purchased it from Buy.com, good luck dealing with their so-called customer service. You have been warned.

Well, Amazon.com is the way for me.

I've had good experiences with Buy.com, but then I've never had to return anything.


I did have a six-month saga with Amazon.com, trying to purchase an obscure movie called Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid; the upshot was that despite repeatedly promising to send it to me, they finally said they couldn't do it. (I think the problem with that particular movie is fixed now.) I was in Moscow at the time, so I couldn't just bop down to a local store to buy it for my Russian friends who wanted it.

The moral: just about all companies have customer service problems. I had even worse problems with other companies, such as Gateway, that I won't go into now.

Yeah... I went ahead and ordered another N800 from Amazon tonight.

I also recently ordered an N800 from Buy.com, haven't had any problems. Have purchased other electronic items there before without issue, but no returns.

Regarding the charger, which I believe is the same as for the 770 (which I also have), I have had to replace two for my 770. I finally gave up, and went with a car charger/ac adapter from WalMart, which hasn't died. Don't know if it's a quality issue, or heavy usage, but these things (AC-4U) don't seem very reliable/durable.

I'll do almost anything (reasonable) to avoid having to return an item purchase over the 'net, but sellers that I have had good luck with (returns) include Newegg, Tiger and Amazon. Hope this helps someone!

Sounds like a string of bad luck. I have 6 chargers (two of which are more than a year old) and they all function perfectly.

i love buy.com, but their customer service is problematic.
outsourced customer service is generally a painful experience....

when i couldn't stand it any longer, i looked up buy.com on yahoo finance,
and called their corporate headquarters phone number... i spoke to
someone who solved my problem, followed up to make sure everything
was alright, and gave me a $10 gift certificate as an apology.

by the way... the n800 does charge while powered up...it sounds like this customer had a bad charger.

sorry, I am one of the people who just got one of there

Zeleftikam

I had the same exact problem with buy.com, but in my case I wanted a refund after Nokia told me it was defective, but buy.com refused. I looked up their corporate office number on the web and spoke with a very nice lady who refunded my money that night (although it took 3 days to appear on my card). I then went with Amazon (who has never let me down), and should have done that from the beginning, but buy.com to cheaper. "MORAL" U GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR - LESSON "Will never buy from Buy.com again"

Zeleftikam

I had the same exact problem with buy.com, but in my case I wanted a refund after Nokia told me it was defective, but buy.com refused. I looked up their corporate office number on the web and spoke with a very nice lady who refunded my money that night (although it took 3 days to appear on my card). I then went with Amazon (who has never let me down), and should have done that from the beginning, but buy.com was cheaper. "MORAL" U GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR - LESSON "Will never buy from Buy.com again"