Ordering furniture over the Internet

On March 8, 2013 I ordered an office chair through Amazon, from a company called Sam's Online. I received an email on March 11, 2013, 1:50 PM, stating that the chair was shipped . By March 22, 2013, 2:17 PM, the afternoon of the very last day of the "estimated shipping period." I received an email that the order was cancelled. The explanation was "Your order was processed and Stopped within the shipping group before delivery."

What the Hell? I went to Amazon.com and after clicking around for a while discovered that there is a message board set up between Amazon merchants and customers, buried under oder history. Apparently they sent an email on March 14, 2013,

Response needed from Sams Online

Order # ********

Hello ******

I wanted to update you on your order for Boss B991-CP Heavy Duty Double Plush Caressoftplus Chair, 350-Pound , it is still unavailable.

Usually what happens is we get an estimated delivery date for out of stock items. Unfortunately, we were informed it will be several weeks at the earliest, In order not to waste any of your time, we will expedite your order within 24 hours and with your permission, we can substitute with  Boss B990-cp Big Person Chair 350lbs Limit a similar item

To see details of other options available, Copy & Paste the following: www.amazon.com/shops/SamsOnline

Tip: For better search results, type more detail of what you prefer into search bar ( upper left next to Search Sams Online)

If we do not hear from you within one week, we will cancel your order.

Looking forward to hearing from you so we may process your order.


Thanks
Bob
Sams Online

I thoroughly check my emails and my spam box daily, I get so many sales related emails from Amazon that it's possible I deleted this email thinking it was just another advertisement. I just now noticed that they also sent an email March 13, 2013 stating the package was not in stock, so I actually never saw these emails from March 13 and March 14. but I did see the email dated March 22, 2013. The record still shows to this day that the package shipped.

Since I did not respond immediately, they assumed I gave them permission to leave the order active:


March 13, 2013

***-***********
 
 
Hello ************.       
 
Thank you for your order ********* from Sams Online on Amazon.com. We appreciate your business.
 
I wanted to give you an update: Boss B991-CP Heavy Duty Double Plush Caressoftplus Chair, 350-Pound  is usually an in-stock item, but is now temporarily out of stock. We will rush it as soon as it is available from manufacturer. You will receive one more email with shipping confirmation and tracking info.
 
With your permission, your order will remain on backorder, with expedited status. If you prefer, we can substitute with an item of similar qualities.
 
To see details of your options available, Copy & Paste the following:  www.amazon.com/shops/SamsOnline  Tip: For better search results, type more detail of what you prefer into search bar ( upper left next to: Search Sams Online)
 
On Behalf of the entire staff of Sams Online, let me apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you.
 
Looking forward to hearing from you so we may process your order.
 
 
 
Thanks
***Sams Online

Emails of this nature for a transaction of this amount must be followed up with a phone call. There is an amount of money over which a crime is a considered a felony, and to me this is considered a charge of Felony Criminal Conversion. To falsely claim that a non-existing product was shipped with fictitious USPS tracking numbers.

I was so angry I tried to leave a product review. but Amazon rejected it.

Thanks for submitting a customer review on Amazon. Your review could not be posted to the website in its current form. While we appreciate your time and comments, reviews must adhere to the following guidelines: 

http://www.amazon.com/review-guidelinesWe encourage you to revise your review and submit it again. A few common issues to keep in mind: 

Written reviews must be at least 20 words long. The ideal length is 75 to 500 words.Your review should focus on specific features of the product and your experience with it. Feedback on the seller or your shipment experience should be provided at www.amazon.com/feedback. 

We do not allow profane or obscene content. This applies to adult products too.Advertisements, promotional material or repeated posts that make the same point excessively are considered spam. 

Please do not include URLs external to Amazon or personally identifiable content in your review. 

We welcome your honest opinion about products - positive or negative. We do not remove reviews because they are critical. We believe all helpful information can inform our customers’ buying decisions. If you have questions about the product or opinions that do not fit the review format, please feel free to use the Customer Discussions feature on the product page. 

Here is the review I submitted. Note the date. I submitted this review only after my second attempt to order this product from another store that was recommended by Amazon.

  It apparently does not exist., April 9, 2013

By ******Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)This review is from: Boss B991-CP Heavy Duty Double Plush Caressoftplus Chair, 350-Pound (Misc.)

I tried twice to order this chair, both times from sources recommended by Amazon. The first time I tried to order it from Sam's Online and they said it shipped, but in the late afternoon of the very last day that I was told it would arrive, I received an email stating that it was back-ordered for several weeks and "the shipping was stopped." It had been three weeks since I ordered it.The second time was from Bellacor which had a link at Amazon. I ordered the chair from them, and noticed in the shipping instructions that I would have to pull the order from the truck myself. There was also no information about what company was doing the shipping either. I went online to check my order status and it was not there. I called customer service and they told me the chair was "back-ordered for several weeks" so I cancelled the order.

Find more products to review at:http://www.amazon.com/review/review-your-purchases

That sums up Bellacor. Don't need to cover that. What happened next was OfficeMax.com, actually 3 days prior to my attempted review at Amazon.

On April 6, 2013 I ordered a chair from Office Max. On their website, the chair was listed as shipping within 1 to 3 days. There was also no tracking information because neither UPS, FedEx, or USPS was the carrier. April 6, 2013 was a Saturday, I received an email from OfficeMax.com on Monday April 8, 2013 that my order shipped, so I was expecting it to arrive at least before the end of the week.

Three days go by. On Thursday, April 11, 2013, I called Office Max and they said my order was on the truck and should have been delivered, so I was expecting it at least by the following day.

Friday, April 12, 2013 at 11:02 AM. I visited OfficeMax.com and submitted a trace request to determine the location of my package because again, there was no tracking information. The chair never arrived.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013. There was a knock on my door. My chair finally arrived via Postal Express (800)-287-0613. The delivery man said "There were some stairs back there I wasn't aware of."

I said nothing, signed the receipt, thanked him and closed the door.