GetPartsOnline

Full review
My experience with Getpartsonline is a proof that sometimes the pursue of the cheapest deal can turn up to be an expensive headache.

I live in UK and wanted to buy a Sony HDR-FX7 Camcorder. Given the prices in US being far cheaper than in UK, and associated to the fact I had a trip scheduled to Houston, TX, I decided to buy it over the internet and have it shipped to a friend’s house in Houston. I searched the internet and Getpartsonline was the merchant offering the lowest price: $2759.29.

I placed the order and as the site offers the option to pay via Paypal I paid via Paypal. On the next day, I checked the order status in their website and it was shown as ‘On Hold’. I called them and they told me that, for items above $2000 they wouldn’t take payment via Paypal. Strangely, they did accept the payment from Paypal, which meant that the money had effectively been transferred from my account to theirs. They initially denied that this was done. Only after some insistence from my side they recognized that that was indeed done, and they then processed the refund over Paypal.

After this first signal of problems I unwisely decided to go ahead with the 'good deal'. Getpartsonline said they would only accept a wire transfer as payment. Initially I hesitated as I didn't want to risk having the money sent and then be informed that the article was out of stock. It would be problematic if I had to wait for a backorder since, as said, my trip to US was on a certain date and I couldn’t risk not having the camera shipped before that. Because of this I asked them for an explicit confirmation that they had the camera in stock and reserved for me, before I proceeded with the wire transfer. They then sent me an email saying that they had the item in stock and that it was reserved for me.

Based on this I proceeded with the wire transfer from my UK bank account to theirs, which cost me $38 as bank charge. To my surprise and perplexity, after 5 days, I received an email from them where, contradicting their previous commitment, they simply said they didn’t have the item in stock (left alone reserved for me), without any further justification for their previous deceiving statement. They also said that they had sent a check “to me”. Despite the fact that I had told them that I lived in UK and the shipping address was of a friend, sending a check to him was extremely inconvenient to me. If they at least had the courtesy to speak to me before acting, we could have agreed an alternative way of refunding. The check sent was of $2727.29, thus $32.00 less than the
original payment.

Finally I had to convert the check back to UK pounds and, due to the exchange rate difference, I incurred in an additional loss of $230. The total loss incurred then was $300.

I wrote back to them explaining all the above and asking how they would compensate me for this loss. After 3 days I had no answer at all. I then sent the same email again copying the whole management team whose email addresses are publicised in their website, including their president, Jeffrey Carlins. Do you want to know what happened? NOTHING, total silence.

Because of this I don't consider Getpartsonline a reliable merchant. If you don't want to make business with someone who deliberately make false statements, steal your money (I'm referring to the $32 short refund only) and don't bother to give explanations or to respond to a customer complain, then please don't make business with Getpartsonline.