DigitalEtailer.com ripoff: overcharged shipping, failed to deliver on time Brooklyn New York

I ordered a 50" Toshiba plasma TV from Digitaletailer.com with two day delivery to have it in time for the holidays. I also bought a recommended cable package (also two day delivery) and service contract.

Several days after the TV was supposed to arrive the delivery company contacted us to say it was for "threshold" delivery but that the service ordered by Digitaletailer did not include going up the front steps (five of them) to our house, so unless we paid extra they would drop the TV on the street in front of our house. We contacted Digitaletailer by phone and they said they would square things with the delivery company. A few days later, the delivery company did indeed drop the TV at the threshold. But this was now about ten days late. The cables arrived in a second package two and a half weeks late.

Digitaletailer said they'd refund the difference (about $250) between the expedited shipping charge we paid and the cost of regular ground shipping (which would have delivered the TV about the time it was delivered), but then they never refunded the shipping charge. We now have to go through the hassle of disputing a credit card charge as Digitaletailer has not made good on their shipping refund and no longer returns our calls. My wife is a lawyer and I think will sue them just on the general principle of the thing.

OK, so the TV *was* actually delivered, but the extra shipping charge is a ripoff. I suspect that Digitaletailer is pulling a "bait and switch" to increase their profit margins by charging for expedited delivery and then using nonexpedited service, since the shipping company stated that there was no two day delivery service used. Also, on Digitaletailer's web site they fraudulently use the Federal Express trademark to say you are paying for FedEx but then they use a ground delivery, non-FedEx service. I hope FedEx crushes these people for ripping off their trademark.

It could be these nitwits are just incompetent and are not crooks, but the bottom line of what they do ends up being a ripoff. Buyer beware!

Dimitri
Palo Alto, California
U.S.A.