TheWeb-Shop.com is a FRAUD
Using various price-comparison sites, I found TheWeb-Shop.com to have some incredible prices on audio/video equipment. I placed and order for some Bose speakers and a Sony DVD player, and almost immediately received an email confirmation. TheWeb-Shop.com's company policy is:
"All accounts are billed 3-5 business days before we are ready to ship you. All accounts must be verified for address matches before we ship. There are no exceptions."
Since I am able to access my credit card account online, I noticed that I was billed over $1200 the day after I placed my order.
No problem, I figured, I am getting a great deal. Well, I wanted to amend my order (actually I wanted to increase the quantity of items ordered) and that is where it started to smell fishy. There is no telephone number listed that gets answered by a live person. My emails started getting returned as "blocked". When I checked the "Order Status" page, I see that my order has been shipped. But now I start receiving emails saying parts of my order have been cancelled and other items are back ordered. I send emails to every address I can find associated with this company requesting my order be cancelled (which supposedly it already had been) and that my credit card be refunded. No response.
I contacted my credit card company and initiated a dispute. The merchant billing my credit card is a company called InterPort and a phone number was listed. However, the phone number is to an InterPort that handles phone service and is an ISP in the New York area--they have never heard of TheWeb-Shop.com, nor are they affiliated with them. Their security division was very interested in hearing what I had to say, and have initiated their own investigation.
I then filed a complaint with the New York Better Business Bureau stating that all I want is $1200 refunded to my credit card for merchandise that was never shipped. I suspect TheWeb-Shop.com has never shipped a single item in it entire existence. They probably make money off the interest they earn in the float--the time they have our money, until the time they eventually are forced to refund it. In my case, this has been over 2 months.
I purchase items online over 50 times a year, and this is the first time I have been burned. I caution everyone to beware of seemingly legitimate companies offering great deals. If you've never done business with an online vendor, perform a search on them.