designersnuggie.com Beware ... Internet, Internet

A "Snuggie" is a blanket with sleeves.  I have no problem with the product; I've bought them before and they are great.  The web merchant "designersnuggie.com" purports to sell Snuggies in a variety of interesting pattersns, such as zebra-striped or leopard-spots, etc.  And perhaps they do, but I may never find out for sure.

It's their web site which is the ripoff.  I should have been forwarned, I suppose, by the lack of readily available contact information.  There is no e-mail address or phone number to by found.  The "customer service" link provides a street address in Wallingford, Connecticut, and an 800 phone number.  The phone number does _not_ connect you with designersnuggie.com, but with an answering service which is, as seen below, less than helpful.

The offer:  The website advertises the product for $19.95 plus $7.95 shipping and handling.
  Currently there is an advertised special which promises "two for one" if you order now.  It's not
  completely clear that there is an /additional/ $7.95 S&H charge for the second Snuggie, but on
   careful reading of the offer, it is in there.

(1) The first problem:  When you go to order a Snuggie you are asked to enter the quantity; since
      the offer is 2-for-1 it might logically be assumed that the correct quantity is "2".    However,
      since I wanted a different pattern on each of the Snuggies, I only selected "1" in each of the
     two patterns.  This was a mistake.

(2) The second problem:  you are asked to input your credit card information /before/ you can see
      the actual contents of your order as recorded by the website.  This should have been a big red
      flag, but I was feeling (a little too) trusting that day.  Also, most websites that take credit card
      offers give you an opportunity to do a final review of the order before committing to the
      purchase, and I expceted that to be the case here.  Not so.  On this site, once you've entered
      your CC info and clicked the "next" button /your purchase has already been made.  Only _then_
      do you see the invoice listing of what you've ordered, too late to make any changes, if
      necessary.

      Imagine my surprise when I discovered that I had not been charged the $27.90
     ($19.95 + $7.95) I expected to pay, but  * $71.70 * -- nearly three times the
     anticipated charges.

      In effect I had been charged for two Snuggies (even though one was supposed to be free),
      and shipping for -four- of them ($31.80 in shipping).

(3) I immediately tried to cancel the order, but there was no way.  There is no "customer service" or
      "sales" e-mail address on the site -- there are no e-mail addresses at all.  So I called the "800"
       number given on the "customer status" link.  The gentleman who finally answered (after 15
       minutes of muzak) told me that he couldn't cancel the order since it takes as much as 4 hours
       for it to show up on his system.  He advised me to call back in 3-4 hours, or when I got a
       confirmatory e-mail with an order number.

       He further told me that if I waited until tomorrow to call back, the order might be shipped
       anyway, and that even if I refused delivery, my credit card would still be charged for $31.80 in
       shipping and handling.

      An hour later an e-mail appeared with an order number, and I called back, only to be told that
      even though I had an order number, the order still wasn't in "the system." and nothing could
      be done.  I aksed if they could flag the order number, so that when it did turn up they would
      know it should be cancelled, and they told me "No".

Basically I have two options:  Either I keep calling back every half-hour or so, all night, until the order finally shows up in their system so I can cancel it; or I wait for my credit card to be charged and then call my CC company to dispute the charge.

In summary:

     * The advertised offers are unclear almost to the point of deception.
     * The site adds unexpected charges to your order.
     * There is no opportunity to review and correct the order before it's been finalized.
     * There is no on-line way to cancel an incorrect order, no matter how fast you act.
     * There is no easy way to contact "customer service" about a problem.
     * "Customer service," such as it is, is less than helpful in resolving problems.

To be fair, I don't know that these problems are due to a deliberate intent to defraud, or simply to
an extremely shoddy business model and a poorly designed website.  But either way, the reault is
the same:  I expedted to make a $28.00 purchase and got soaked for $72.00, and now the burden
is on _me_ to try to get it back.
 
Caveat emptor, indeed.