QVC — misleading/dlatantly false shipping estimates

http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/contact.shtm <<<this is the site to complain to. It is the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) complaint site.

If you have anything like the problem I did take time to go to ftc.gov and create a complaint.I ordered a kitchen appliance from QVC this year on December, Monday 14th, 2009. I was told the extimated delivery date was 12/22. I called a customer representative before I finalized my order and asked if the 22nd was an earliest date and she said no, the average. I asked how she got that information and she sort of vague. I didn't think too much of it because it is not necessarily something a representative would know. I asked when it would ship and she said it sould be out on Wednesday the 16th at the latest. It shipped the 17th and UPS advised me it has an estimated arrival date of the 24th (had it actulaay been picked up by UPS, which it wasn't), if it had shipped on the 16th. Which it didn't. The only tracking information I have on an order shipped late, is that it was picked up Noon yesterday, and rather than an estimated delivery date of 22nd I have a delivery date of the 24th - the same day I needed to be able to present it as present.

I should stop here and explain why this is something to consider as a solid complaint. They KNEW at the time I placed my order that anything that could possibly ship on the 16th was very improbable to arrive on the 22nd via UPS ground. This is logistics - not opinion. The message you get in UPS that says "picked up by agent" on your tracking info means a big LTL truck has shown up - not a trained UPS agent - and scanned your packages and drove away to pick up however many stops they can get in and drop off at the UPS facility that evening. UPS handles it as a customer drop off - it will ship very late that night or early AM. Then it will be forwarded on pre-set delivery routes. They know very accurately how long it takes to get to you. Knowing all of that, they then lie about the delivery time.

Now - resolution. None so far. I have a UPS package that has not been scanned since the agent put it on a truck early yesterday. It may/may not be ok, may/may not be in transit. It will definately not be here on the 22nd, andmost probably not on the 24th. So I requested the representative send out another order based on an accurate ship & recieve schedule which for today if it shipped over the weekend or Monday AM would be UPS next day air, I would even settle for UPS Blue which is two day air, and wait to charge for the second one until they can confirm I recieved both - I will then gladly return one. This is not an option for them. Further more, they said even without tracking information (should it fail to scan further at all) they will not begin to research the order until the 30th.

I am not trying to post opinion. These are the facts as they happned. I think QVC may be trying to pull the same thing that got Fingerhut got in trouble about a decade ago. They cannot fill the orders placed as fast as customer expectation and need is, so they, well - lie. They purposefully told reps to lie about delivery dates. It is either verbal or in the system and either way it is incorrect. If you have an order that needs to go, remember neither QVC's ship date or how long it takes is correct. You can always wait to process the order and call UPS and ask how long it will take. I strongly recommend you do.


My tracking number