A couple of weeks ago I decided to place an order at ImportCDs.com. As an Amazon seller, they offer a lot of imports at great prices, and I've had excellent luck with them, so I thought I'd give their own website a shot.

After hours of browsing, I ended up with 19 items in my basket, totalling about $340 with shipping. (In case that total isn't sounding so hot, consider that one of the items was a Complete Motown Singles box set.) I filled in my payment and shipping info, then hit the "submit" button. After about a minute of waiting for some sort of confirmation screen to appear, I hit the "back" button on my browser and tried again. Still nothing. After three tries I gave up, then checked my e-mail to see if I had received an order confirmation. Nada. Frustrated that I had wasted all that time, I e-mailed them, explaining the situation and inquiring about whether my order had gone through. No response after several days.

Until...I checked my credit card statement online and found that they had charged my card for the full amount! I had a mixed reaction: glad that they had apparently received my order, but upset that I had received no communication whatsoever. I e-mailed them again. No reply. So, now I had a charge for 340 bucks and nothing to show for it. I scoured their website for a phone number...none is offered. I called information...no listing. About a week having gone by since placing the order, I was about to call my credit card company and dispute the charge, when -- lo and behold -- 11 CDs showed up in my mailbox. Using the order number from the packing slips, I was finally able to log into the "order status" portion of their website. Long story short, it turned out they were inexplicably only able to fill about 2/3 of my order; the remaining items had been cancelled. Several days later, a partial credit appeared on my credit card. Still no communication whatsoever.

And I'm still waiting for my Motown set to materialize.

The moral of this story: ImportCDs.com is an excellent Amazon seller, but stay away from their home site. One of the worst CD-buying experiences I've ever had.

Ven,

My experiences mirror yours almost exactly. Never had a problem when ordering via their listings at Amazon. (In fact I have a couple more CDs in transit as we speak.) Nothing BUT problems when I tried to order directly from their own website.

There's a lot to be said for only ordering through indie dealers' Amazon listings (if they have Amazon accounts) rather than their own sites. It adds a layer of protection and recourse that you wouldn't have otherwise, and Amazon is usually very good about refunding you if it should become necessary.

I'd had a number of great experiences over the course of a couple years with ImportCDs as an Amazon seller; they always filled my orders in a quick fashion (usually a one-week turnaround) and their prices were very reasonable. I had my first bad experience with them over Christmas; a CD intended as a gift shipped on December 4 and still hadn't arrived as of January 4. I emailed them maybe four times, each time getting the same automated reply. When I placed a claim for a refund via Amazon, THEN ImportCDs processed the refund, almost automatically...is a little customer service just too much to ask for?

I discussed this problem from a seller's perspective on a recent thread about ebay & Amazon.

I believe ImportCDs is what's known as a drop shipper. Drop Shippers rarely if ever have ANYTHING in stock. After you pay them, they then place your order with their wholesaler who then ships it to you.

This is an AWFUL business model for the customer, & it makes it tough on customer service oriented internet retailers like myself. I always have product in stock before offering it (except for ebay's "GLITCH" where their system "accidently" relists sold items to generate extra income for ebay), I charge reasonable shipping & handling (& some handling is reasonable, i have to pay for shipping boxes, etc), & I reply to all customer emails. This business model is quite time consuming compared to the drop shippers, but much more satisfying for the customer.

I always suggest avoiding the "drop shippers". I posted more in detail on the same subject here, about 1/2 way down the page (1/24/08, 1:32 PM):
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=24556

I ordered two more CDs from them on Amazon two days ago, and I've already been notified that both have shipped. Odd that they're so much more responsive to their Amazon customers than they are to shoppers on their own website.

Probably because Amazon is quicker to hit them with chargebacks then Visa & MC are.

Before reading this thread, and due to great service I got from them through Amazon, I ordered 3 CDs through their own website...mainly because they accept PayPal and I had some funds in there to burn.

Order placed on 1/28, and 2 of the 3 CDs were shipped on 1/31 according to the Order Status page on their website when I type in my order number. It even listed which 2 of the 3 shipped.

Now, I did not receive ONE e-mail from them confirming the purchase or shipment, but I did print up the receipt at the time of the transaction so I had the order # and details to track it.

I'll post back to let you know how smoothly or not this goes. But so far, I don't have any issues.

Order fulfilled...no issues.

As I'd mentioned above, I received no e-mails from them, but I was able to track the Order Status on their website. According to their website, 2 CDs shipped on 1/31, and 1 shipped on 2/4. Ironically, I got the one that shipped 2/4 on 2/8, but the two that shipped before it on 1/31 did not arrive till 2/12. But they all made it, and were correct. I'd buy again.

I'm glad you had a good experience. I'm sure I wouldn't have been quite so irritated had I been able to access their Order Status page, but I couldn't because of the glitch in transmitting my order. Still, I think their total lack of communication is a big problem.

My first post here! I placed an order for a cd directly form their website and was sent the wrong cd! They never responded to several emails. Never again. I'll stick with my favorite. CD Universe!

Welcome, Jerry! I love CDU as well

Dan O, I remember you from the old Ice forum. I wasn't even aware this place existed until today!

Welcome home, Jerry. Please re-upload your avatar, we're seeing nothing but a red X ...

How come I can see it?

You're seeing the copy stored in your Web browser's cache. Just re-upload the same image to your profile and it should fix everything.

See it?

Yep.

hello this is my very first post. I found this site while doing a google search for some customer reviews on importcds.com. I was just wondering if anyone else had had any experiences with them. they seem to have some great prices on imports that i'm looking for but it sounds like their service sucks when ordering directly from their site.

care to share any other experiences you guys have had with them?

I think the experiences have already been shared here.

I've had trouble with importCD's as well now. I bought a "new" 2CD comp off them where CD2 was scratched . I then returned it with the packing slip and sent them an email. Only after filing a complaint with amazon did I get the refund, and that was only for the CD's and the first postage. They would not refund the return postage unless I sent them a letter confirming the postage amount and all the order details. Bullshit! So I'm supposed to go to the post office to find out the exact postage, go home and convert it to dollars, then write a letter of confirmation and go all the way back to the post office again? I emailed them and told them they could forget about the postage.

Googa was this the first time that you've ordered from them? Since I got the impression from most people on here that they were pretty good when you placed your order through amazon, I went ahead and ordered a cd from them yesterday. I'll just wait and see how it goes.

Where are you from? I'm just wondering since you said you had to convert the postage to dollars. Also, what cd did you get?

Civiclx,
No, I'm a regular customer with them. I live in Europe and importCD's charges only EU postage rate from the UK, which amounts to £1.79 per CD. They could just have refunded me another £1.79 instead of subjecting me to all that red tape. Well, I'll still do business with them, their prices are too low for me to ignore them.