Mwave.com: issue resolved
Posted by Reeve on January 6, 2010
I have had an awful time with Mwave.com when an order was held up due to a discrepancy with my “billing telephone number”. After sending a dilithium-crystal-powered poison pen letter to the general manager, the customer service supervisor, Maricela, was authorized to resolve the situation and we did.
It seems they have a lot of stupid processes and it seems that their systems are very bad. The hangup was confirming my billing credit card number on the order (which was intentionally bogus) matched the telephone number on my credit card. I don’t believe states allow that (privacy considerations), and considering my bill-to, ship-to, and credit card addresses were the same, the extra step seems stupid. The explanation is that bad guys will hover and scoop up the package from the delivery guy “every now and then.”
One open issue is how Mwave.com was able to verify the billing telephone number. I have to figure out if this is an American Express or Bank of America problem. In either case, I believe privacy laws prohibit this information from being required to complete an on-line transaction.
So, let’s think about this. How does my credit card having the same telephone number as what’s on the ”bogus” order prevent the bad guy from grabbing the goods? Unless Mwave.com calls me to confirm it’s a valid order, which they have not mentioned doing, the answer is, not a damn thing. Mwave.com, being faced with an occasional problem of this sort, is using a shotgun to hammer in a thumbtack: they’re using the wrong size of the wrong tool.
Instead, Mwave.com should require the carriers to confirm the recipient’s with picture ID when delivering a high-value shipment. UPS (their current carrier), would throw your box of disk drives out of a moving truck if they thought they could hit your doorstep (if the box landed in the rain, they’d be okay, as long as it was on your doorstep). OTOH, FedEx Home Delivery used to deliver wine to me, and their driver would actually ring the doorbell and confirm I was old enough to sign for the package. Or, if you live in an area where porch pirates are virtually unknown, Mwave.com should include a provision allowing leaving the package (which would clear the carrier of any liability).
When my order got stuck in the unapproved queue, I didn’t receive any notice that it was pending. And I’m still deeply concerned that my credit card was charged before they shipped the order–yes, that’s right. My AmEx shows a charge on Sunday, 12/27 for the full amount. And they’re a 9-to-5 operation, too–definitely out of touch with reality.
Let’s see what UPS does to the shipment–I can’t wait.
