letsbuyit.com

Ever since the bubble began to burst for the many internet companies with good ideas, but little capital - LETSBUYIT.COM struggled.

What seemed to be a great germ of an idea - a massive facility to 'co-buy' products at great prices - has foundered through lack of direction, lack of captital and poor customer service.

Remember those crazy TV Ads with all the ants busily loading all kinds of products on their tiny backs, ready to deliver them to your door? Yes, a bit annoying - but they served the purpose of bringing the company's name to our notice.

My first dealing with letsbuyit was when they had an offer designed to create more members. A pair of Cinema tickets for just £2. I went onto the site - which was easy enough to navigate - and applied for the tickets.

A week or so later, just before the closing date, I got an email telling me that the price was fixed at £2 and they would debit my credit card accordingly.

Great, - then a week later I got a voucher telling me that I had to send it to some other company to get another voucher to take to the cinema to exchange for tickets.

Eh? It seemed very odd. They did not mention this beforehand, but never mind it was still £2 for a pair of tickets. But, just before I was going to send it off, I got another email telling me the vouchers were sent in error, "Don't do anything we'll send the proper vouchers that you just have to take to the cinema for your tickets. That will be in FIVE days time"

However, 10 DAYS further on and I'd received nothing - so, I emailed them.

No reply.

I emailed them again three weeks after getting the original email.

I did finally get the vouchers/tickets, but it took almost a month after that confusion.

It should have been straightforward, but certainly made me wonder "What if I was making a MAJOR purchase for the first time - would I use the site again?"

The idea behind the site is that you can see what is on offer and add your name to the amount of other 'co-buyers' - "We get things cheaper when we shop together". Goods are offered for sale at a price which gets lower the more co-buyers there are. Seems like a good idea.

But despite the financial pounding the sector as a whole has taken - and LETSBUYIT in particular, it is still soldiering on.

I checked the site out today, out of interest, and see that they have co-buys for DVD Players, Widescreen TVs, Vacuum cleaners and a host of other household and electrical products. They have different sites for members throughout Europe - just click on the country flag and it gets you through to your 'local' website.

It may be worth a second look, but I just wonder how much money was wasted in the Advertising campaign that could have been better spent on making sure the Customer got the service that you'd expect?

Many people may have crossed this company off their list. But, I'm just off to have a browse.