Rakuten reviews and complaints 67
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declined order without good reason
i placed an order for some headphones which they flagged as further id checks required. after claiming that they were unable to verify my address (which they use a '3rd part credit rating agency' to perform) they dropped my order & declined my account. they will not provide exact details on what was mismatched and declined my offer to submit proof of address (like a statement or bill).
they provided vague reasons ranging from the fact that the order was large; to the fact that i recently moved and have not built up an order history at my new address.
further complaints to their customercare also got a flat no response and they refused to deal with me further.
i have referred the complain to consumerdirect.gov.uk
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Have been conned out of £254
I sold some items on Play.com in December 2017, in order to fund my daughters college trip due to take place next week. I managed to raise £254 and was really pleased with this. After waiting the 14 days stated on their website (in order for them to run checks on bank accounts) I was able to transfer this amount to my bank account. I was told that this had been a success and would be in my bank account in 7-10 days. This came and no money in bank account. I phoned up their 'customer helpline' supplied on their website Play.com and was told that the transfer had been done successfully and was just delayed due to the Christmas and New Year holidays. The date I was therefore gave came and went and still no money. I phoned again and was told that the money hadn't gone in due to me supplying a pre-paid credit card (which is all I have) however I was told that it was due to someones mistake in their department authorising the card when they shouldn't of (fair enough I thought). I asked them if they could send me a cheque in that case, they said that they couldn't do this as they didn't offer this service. Therefore they said the only way I could get my money without spending it on the site (which I think thats what their after as that way they can profit even more than they habe done already) is if I could find a friend who was willing to transfer the funds to their bank account. I explained that I didn't want to spend the money on the website as I was relying on the money for my daughters college trip. Therefore I managed to find a friend who was willing for me to put the money to their account.
I did this and changed all of the necessary details on the website and emailed the address I had been instructed to do in order for them to transfer the money. Therefore I was then told that the transfer had been a success and would be in my bank account in 7-10 days. The 7-10 days come and the money was still not in the bank account so I phoned them back and spoke to someone called Jonthahon in the PlayTrade department who told me the transfer had gone through successfully and they were just waiting for the bank to authroise the money and to phone back the following day and ask to speak directly to him (he gave me his extension number to do this). So I phoned back and was told that they couldn't put me through to him as they didn't offer this service. They put me through to someone else who was extremly rude and told me that I had no choice but to wait an additional 5-7 working days for my money. I told her that this was unacceptable as this had been dragged out for such a long time and I was still not getting my money and that I had already waited the time supplied on the website and the helpline. She told me that she couldn't do anything and threatened to terminate the call.
I realised I could no longer speak to her as she was of no help whatsoever and was just very very rude. I therefore phoned back and spoke to someone else who told me that the reason the money didn't go in was due to the account number not matching up with the sort code from the banks details. I therefore double checked the details found that they all matched correctly so I phoned back.
Speaking to someone else this time who told me a different excuse apparently now it was bouncing at the banks end. So I called up the bank who informed me that they would have no problem letting the money go through. I phoned back Play.com and informed them of this and was then told that Dave in PlayTrade had managed to sort the whole problem out and the money would be in my bank account in 10-15 minutes. 10-15 minutes came and no money. I realised that there was no point phoning them anymore as they were just giving diferent excuses each time.
I therefore contacted the Office Of Fair Trading (in Jersey where Play.com are based) and the Daily Mirror Investigations. The Daily Mirror contacted Play.com who informed them that they couldn't speak to anyone other than the account holder but how they 'welcomed me' to email them which I did. About four days later I recieved a reply from them informing me that the reason why my money hadn't gone in was because the changing of the bank details had triggered security measures therefore they were putting the money in manually in order for me to get it and that the money would be in my bank account on the 11th of February 2017. This came and still no money. Emailed them back and recieved a reply from someone else who told me I would have to transfer the money again. I replied saying that this was unacceptable as I had already waited long enough. I then recieved an email from someone else saying that they had transfered the money and taken another transfer fee for doing this. They have taken a transfer fee everytime they transfer the money despite it not being my thought as I have supplied a proper credit card and valid bank account therefore there is no excuses as to why the money is not going in. Therefore the value of the money has come down because of this which I think is disgusting as they are obviously doing it in order to get more money (despite taking a huge amount in fees already).
I then recieved a phone call from them saying that the money will be in my bank account at the beginning of this week. I highly doubt that the money will go into my bank account as I do not trust them at all. They have already done this many times before and promised me that the transfer has been a success and that the money will go in, but it never does. They are a disgusting company and I strongly advise not going near them. My experience of them has been terrible the whole process has been dragging on for two months now and I am still not getting my money.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Ordered Sony blu ray player with free Avatar Special edition disc. Player delivered and works great. No disc has been sent. have contacted customer service twice and told the disc would follow.
Have now written to the marketing director twice but not had a reply.
I have used the company for many years and was completely satisfied with the goods and the service until now.
From the reviews of this product quite a few others have not recieved the freebie.
Will now be going to Trading Stadards.
I have had TWO Blu-ray films go missing.. and the first one it took 6 weeks to get a replacement.. the second one I returned the complaint form they sent to Ireland (1st class post) and they said they never received it ... two emails sent from the site and the second one gave me another form to prInt and sign and an email address to sent it to. I got NO reply after a week. So I phoned, and spoke to 2 people (one was supposed to be a supervisor) who said they had no record of either the letter or the emails that I had sent (how convenient !) ... but if I resent it straight away (same email address) it would be done immediately.. I even sent a second email the next day asking them to confirm they had received the first one .. guess what ! ... 7 days later and still nothing !
AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS .. ORDER FROM HMV OR AMAZON INSTEAD !
This is the WORST firm I have evenr darlt with bar none .. and as an ex-Csutomer Service Manager for a large international firm I speak with some authority !
I would SACK all the customer service staff they are totally useless and just laugh at you basically !
Placed an order for my nephews Christmas present, it was a ps3 game and they sent me an Xbox one instead, I phoned up and the only thing they can do is for me to ship it back to them and wait 2 weeks for them to process it then they will send a new one out, so had to fork out on another present for him and wait untill after Christmas for his game, plus I paid extra for quick delivery and it still was 5 days late... Cheers play.com that sucks. :(
On the 28th July I ordered an SD card from Play.com. They took the money on the 4th August. After 2 emails and 2 automated replies, 2 phone call and 2 conversation, I stil don't have my SD card.
Finaly on the 17th August I rang play and asked them to cancel my order and return my money. The man I spoke to told me it was in packing but he was going to cancel the order. Two days later still waiting for my money. On saturday 20th August I rang play again. I was told the order was in packing and because of this the order couldn't be canceled. The order had been in packing for at least 2 weeks prior to this conversation. She assured me the item would "hopefully" be in my house by the wed or maybe the friday after. 4 weeks after I had made the order. We shall see...
"You will accept the wrong item wether you want it or not"
I have used play.com several times over the last few years and apart from slow delivery i have had no problems. This time however they have turned a simple transaction into a nightmare. I viewed and ordered a standard version of a gaming mouse. when I received dispatch notice they were sending me a left handed version. I logged on to their site and my order history showed a left hand version also. I then checked my browser history and my computer was never on the left hand page there was a link for the standard version only. I followed their returns link and there was no option to discuss this apart from comment section on the wrong item ordered. 75 characters only so kept comment simple "i need a number to discuss this" I later found a number on site and called. Everything I said was totally ignored. I eventually resigned myself to the fact that I would pay return costs. I asked for the standard version to be sent out once they had received the return only to be told that i would have to wait until return and refund had been completed, then start fresh order. I ordered elsewhere due to the delay involved. When the returned item arrived they then sent me an E-mail stating replacement was going to be dispatched within 24 hours. I called them to say I no longer required item and seeing as they said this wouldnt be happening why has it. Their response after an hour on phone was tough oh and by the way you're getting the left handed version again and you will have to pay yet again to return this (£7 with tracking. thats £14 so far for an item I didnt order!) No they couldnt possibly stop this wrong item being dispatched. Their system doesnt allow it. It didnt get dispatched until the following day . I have bought products online for over 10 years now and I have never come across such utterly poor customer service. I have a strong suspicion that I am never going to get my refund of them. Do not touch with a barge pole it really is a lottery but if you do get a problem forget any chance of reasoning with this company
Ordered a large EXPENSIVE item with PLAY.COM- they sent small CHEAP wrong item in a jiffy bag (Total incompetence).Many submissions to them informing them of the error- they totally ignored me.Had to send back wrong item by Royal mail special delivery due to their lack of reponse with a detailed letter including photos of packaging etc..Even the jiffy bag had the correct price for the large item which would never fit into a small jiffy bag. After a great deal of time the money appeared in my bank account-No reimbursement for the royal mail costs.No appology-No communication from them whatssoever. They are based offshore- DO NOT TOUCH-its just not worth the hassle. Use a UK mainland company only as the rules are better.
I purshased through my pc, with play.com, A book and accompanying tape, (French for starters) The book arrived but no accompanying tape. I subsequently sent the book back, as per the companys returns policy. I was credited to my account the cost of the book, but a reduced ammount for the postage, ( the compant advises when returning goods, to record same, ie, proof of postage ) Several days later, i received a copy of the same book i had returned, i sent that back, recorded delivery. To date i have not been reimbursed for this book, having been already billed through my CC for same. The sum off £12. 99 plus postage, for returning the two books have still not been paid to me. I have written several letters of complaint to their customer relatios dept, in jersey, UK, no reply recived from them. Disgraceful way to treat a customer, bordering on fraud or theft.
This is the second time this has happened to me, and has led me to think that Play.com is actually advertising false deals and blatantly scamming people. They had a 2 PS3 games for 25quids deal in December. I jumped on it as the list of titles included MGS4, and at 12.5o pounds it was a great deal. Second game was so-so but bought it just for MGS4. Play.com sent only the second item and cancelled the MGS4 order without even sending an email.
Two weeks ago, the same deal popped up with MGS4 again included. Ordered MGS4 and a lesser known game. Play.com sends only the second title and cancels the MGS4 order again. My belief is that they don't actually have MGS4 but are using its popularity to sell other games. Will never use them again, as they don't even send emails to warn of this and never once gave me the opportunity to have MGS4 replaced with another title.
I heard a lot of good things about Play.com from friends (but this was for cd's/dvd's) and decided to purchase a jacket that was half the price of the high street shops. Received a confirmation email that my order had been posted and it should take 3-5 working days. Well 14 working days have now passed and still no jacket! But what I can't work out is that Play.com say they won't do anything to try and track the parcel until 21 days have passed! Why wait this long?
After reading some of the nightmares customers have had with this site and arranging refunds, it seems like I'm in for a tough time. Will stick with Amazon in future.
I recently tried to order an Blu Ray player from Play.com... me email of complaint:
I just experienced your service and it was absolutely awful.
I have just placed an order on your website and the card details were incorrect so they declined. I went to make another order with different card details and this order went through ok. I then went to check the progress and noticed that the previous order had made had changed from declined to processing.
I called through to the call centre and spoke to someone who advised they couldnt help. I asked to speak to his manager, and was transfered to someone called Neil.
Neil refused to give me his full name for "security reasons". If this is your company policy I find this completely unacceptable. As a customer how am I supposed to have any confidence in what I am being advised if the person giving me the information isnt prepared to give me their full name. I had to confirm my full name when I spoke to him and find it completely unacceptable that the same courtosy isnt shown in return.
At no point did Neil or the person I spoke to first try and help me. They just advised there was nothing they could do. No phone calls were made to the warehouse, no attempt to prevent this second order going through (that wasn't needed or authorised by myself). Neil refused to let me speak to his manager.
The service I have recieved has been unhelpful at best. I intend to send both items back for refund and purchase from Amazon. I will not be using your service again.
Kind Regards,
Tim Overend
Overcharging of DVD
I was charged £13.99 for the DVD "Harry Portter And The Half Blood Prince" pre-ordered under order No [protected]. This DVD is available from other retailers @around £10. I have tried to contact Play.com on [protected] for several days but the line was always busy. Grateful to know if the price had come down since the pre-order and therefore a refund of the difference would be appreciated.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Play.com overcharged me for the purchase of a CD by putting an extra charge on my credit card on top of the correct charge. Trying to get Play.com to resolve the matter is a nightmare ~ customer service is definately not their strong point (overcharging may be a strong point). I will be avoiding this outfit in the future and would advise you do the same.
No refund - this must be illegal
Returned 2 Blu-Ray items, value £17.99, to Play.com on 15 October 2009 using the returns procedure as stated on their website. No refund received so I queried with Play.com and was asked for a Recorded Delivery number which I could not give as the items had been returned via Royal Mail 2nd Class packet. Was told that refund would be made when the items received in the warehouse. However, even though returns authorisation numbers were obtained for each item, I was told that these numbers are NOT USED to trace the items when returned.
I queried why use return authorisation numbers and was told that returns are identified by the recorded delivery number.
No where on the Play.com site does it state that items must be returned via recorded delivery!
So beware when returning items to Play.com. I am out of pocket by £17.99 and this was the first time I have used them. Will not use them again and will continue to use HMV.com who I have had no problems with.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
it is illegal! i ordered a t shirt from them before christmas and they cancelled it on the 14th january and they have not refunded me the money back!
Contact trading standards
fraud
On 29th September 2009 I purchased a book through a reseller on play.com, reassured despite not knowing the reseller (bestvaluestore) by play.com's fair trade guarantee that my consumer rights would be protected. My credit card was debited immediately to the tune of 53€. 6 weeks later, despite attempting every possible complaint procedure on play.com several times, I have heard nothing from either the reseller or play.com. Play.com's helpline is permanently offline and there is no email address to write to. You simply have to select your product and write up your complaint directly on the site, but I have received no contact whatsoever. In my view, this has gone beyond incompetence and now constitutes fraud, but I do not know how I can proceed with an online purchase as Play.com is based in Luxembourg and I live in Portugal. Anyone have any ideas?
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
Goods not received
I ordered an item from Play.com two months ago.
The item showed as "in stock, usually dispatched within 24 hours". It still shows the same now, but I haven't received it.
My order shows as "order Placed", not even processing.
They have a help system, but there are only standard questions and no means of contacting them by email. there is a system to report orders not received, but you can only do this 21 days after the order was posted, and of course, they haven't got around to posting it yet, nor to contacting me to advise me of the delay.
The only option open to me is to cancel the order, which can be done online. It appears there is no way of contacting this company to make a query over an issue like this.
Still, there are plenty more online booksellers out there.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
They have not changed! I ordered a monitor in May. After a week I hadn't received it. On the phone they said they did not have it and didn't know when they would. I told them to cancel my order and refund me. They said they had not taken my payment and would cancel the order. I ordered elsewhere. Today (September) I have had an email saying it has been dispatched. I guess they have now taken my payment. They have said I can return it for a refund when it arrives. I am so annoyed with them and think I will report them to trading standards.
This is exactly what has happened to me - ordered a USB device (£60) - says its in stock - lets you order it.
Next thing get a message its not in stock and will take 28 days - this is a massive difference from the expected (and stated) 24 hrs delivery if ordered before 2pm.
Web site still said 24hrs delivery and "in stock" 3 days after I ordered mine.
Now the prices have gone up - cant find a trace of their "reseller" - I suspect they "sell" cheaper goods then stock is unavailable requiring a swap to buy the more expensive version from play.com.
This isn't the first time this has happened and I swore last time that I'd avoid them ever again but guess I need to be bitten twice - shame they don't even offer to fulfil the order from other "resellers" on their books and fix it internally - would be good customer service and an internal charge for failure to fulfil orders would sort out these rogue "resellers" they contract out to.
I will never ever, ever, ever use play.com ever, ever again. I will advise friends, family and colleagues of my concerns and I hope that the impact on their business is significant enough for them to change their market practices.
I placed an order £119.99 for goods - told they were in the post on 25th January - still waiting!
I have the same problem, I placed the order on the 7th Dec and it went to a subsidiary company who said they would let me know when it was been dispatched. I have had no joy emailing Play.com.
I would not have ordered if I had known this!
Account check deduction
This is a small amount to grumble about I know, but how they have done things has really ground my gears.
I got a 3V card to purchase a game from them and credited the account with £20 to make a £19.99 purchase, ( free postage BTW ).
When checking the order status I then found the card had been refused because a £1 test charge had been taken and there were now insufficient funds to cover the purchase. So I then had to ring them up to ask them what they were playing at. Apparently it was a 1st time customer account check. ( with no warning of this on the site! )
First time I called, I was promised it would be resolved and re-credited in 24 hours. It wasn't.
So I called again a day later and was told by a 2nd customer service operative that it could take up to 10 days to re-credit the account with the pound they had taken without my permission anyway. I asked them then, quite reasonably, simply to deduct this amount from the total and despatch the order. They refused, saying it was only a "virtual pound", despite the fact 5 days later the "virtual pound" is still missing. Is this a good way to do business? Checking their site over again, I could see no email or formal complaints address. That fact speaks volumes. I have cancelled the order and certainly will not deal with them again. I still await my pound refund.
I made a purchase at Dell outlet on Nov 27, 2023 through a link on rakuten web site. It was tracked but I never received a cash back. At the time, they posted a 15% cash back for holiday shopping. I filed a request with Rakuten and their replied was cash back not available with Dell outlet. If it isn't available , why you posted it on your web?
I placed order of Lancôme on November 26. My order numbers are [protected], [protected], [protected], the issue is it seems like I didn’t place the order successfully because I didn’t receive an order confirmation, however my credit card still got charged for four times.
i have order a cd fromplay .com and i have payed for it but it has not come
Ordered a ps3 game 3 weeks ago, they stated 10-14 days, it took 21. I can live with that. What I can't live with is the fact I'm expected to pay import duty and post office admin fee totalling nearly £13. I wasn't in when postman arrived, so he left a note with the charges on and told me where to collect item. I doubled checked my order and it came from a US company under play.com's Playtrade scheme. Under the Playtrade delivery policy, the price paid when ordering covers includes delivery charge (which was quoted as free delivery anyway). I have sent politely worded email asking for explanation, but after reading these posts I have little hope. Once again big corporation f**** over the little guy. Will never use play.com again and will discourage everyone I know.
Posted: 2008-12-02 by Fleur. "When checking the order status I then found the card had been refused because a £1 test charge had been taken and there were now insufficient funds to cover the purchase. So I then had to ring them up to ask them what they were playing at. Apparently it was a 1st time customer account check."
Well I have had a similiar problem for about the past 7 months. I tried to order some of my now husband's Christmas presents online and I received a similiar e-mail saying my card was declined yet they took out alleged $1 phantom charge. For some reason that $1 charge keeps coming out of my account each month, and twice this month. I have tried emailing them several times yet I keep getting the same automated response. I got no response at all when I attached the proof of the charges to my email. It is harder for me to resolve this as I live in America. I know it's not a lot of money but the point is that it's MY money, I work hard for it and Play.com is stealing it.
I am finished with Play.com. I ordered 2 laptrays in 2008. 1 laptray arrived fine but instead of the 2nd laptray they sent me an Action Man Toy. It took a month to get the correct item and refunded the cost of shipping the Toy back to them and they failed to even apologise.
I told myself that I would never use play.com again. Then in November 2010 I was searching for good deals on the 8th & final series of 24 on DVD. Play.com's playtrade had a seller selling the DVD for £23.99. I thought I would give Play.com another chance. I was so wrong.
The DVD was avertised as Region 2. When the DVD arrived it was a cheap Region 1 version China with some very bad English on the boxset. It was also a month before Region 1 was due to release their DVD. I returned the boxset 4 weeks ago and I'm still trying to get a refund for the DVD and postage.
Beware that Play.com is now involved in the sales of illegal and fraudulent items.
SAVE YOURSELF TIME AND MONEY BY NOT SHOPPING ON PLAY.COM
Michael Shannon
I used play.com for the first time today. I tried to purchase an alubm from Play.com costing about 6 pounds by card, however I had misread my balance and didn't actually have sufficient funds on the card in question. The order was declined, and I was sent an email saying the order was declined, I had not been charged, but if I was to re enter valid card details I could proceed.
I tried to 'top up' the card online, but I couldnt because the card was 'in use'. I decided to cancel the pending orders. Yet the funds on my card had gone down by a pound. My card is linked to my phone, so I get texts after transactions summarising what I've spent, where I've spent it and how much I have left. I recieved a text saying I had spent a pound at play.com. I looked at the website at 'order history' and play.com says I have made no purchases, which is true because I cancelled the ones I tried to make.
Is this the 'virutal pound' or the 'test charge' mentioned in the original complaint? Maybe..I have called them and they have said that the money will be returned...I hope so...
if you take money from somebody, without their authorisation/permission that is theft! then when this happens, and they finally agree to refund these 'phantom' payments and re-order the item on the express agreement that they will refund the difference - cos the price always goes up in between orders!- only to renege on that promise the moment the order has been taken...that is dishonesty.
so, they lie, they cheat, they steal... i thought Eddie Guerrero (sp) was dead!
My son purchased two books for his brother to arrive for Christmas. One of the books had two pages in the middle ripped in half with the other half missing, and the other book had 46 pages missing at the end of the book. as well as this he has ordered two other items that should have arrived for Christmas so he ordered them a couple of weeks before but as of yet they still havent arrived. I will never use this company again as it is not the first time we have had trouble with them. In previous purchases money was taken from my account before an email verifying the dispatch of the item was sent to me, and one of the items i ordered has never arrived.
i am now concidering approaching the office of fair traiding as judging by the complaints above this company needs to be brought into line.
This past week I ordered a Nintendo Wii for Christmas, as both my wife and I work the item was delivered but not left as delivery is only to the card holders address only, so no-one in and a card posted through the door with an identity number to quote for re-arranged delivery, did that for next day and low and behold no delivery, rang the courier and it had been sent back to play.com, rang PDC and got a woman that spoke so fast that I could not understand her, this was after hanging on the phone for 45min, eventually we broke through the babble and confirmed 3 times that we wanted a refund, the e-mail for the refund was supposedly sent within 24hrs (you can send snail mail quicker with a 1st class stamp) but this didn't arrive, tonight we rang, another 45 min wait when we got Glenn he said he would send the e-mail twice, it didn't arrive, rang again with another 45 min wait, seems to be a system running there, some other person came on and said the e-mail is sent via another system...maam, sarcasticly, so we wait, and wait and wait and run up your phone bill and wait and wait...!
PLAY.COM USE AT YOUR PERIL
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