Fishpond

Fishpond is officially the WORST place to buy books online from!

I pre-ordered the Mark of Athena from Fishpond on 21st August 2012 for R179 (which I thought was a good price at the time, until I found out differently). I was told that shipping and delivery was completely free. The Mark of Athena was set to be released on October 2nd. I was to get the book "as soon as possible after publication".

However, something went wrong and I received this email:
Thanks for your order of Heroes of Olympus: The Mark of Athena (Heroes of Olympus) with Fishpond.com.

This email is to inform you that there has been a temporary delay in sourcing this item. The stock information we had at the time of your order was out of date so we have had to reorder from another source.

We now expect it to arrive at our warehouse between 27/10/2012 AND 07/11/2012. You will receive an email notification on dispatch.

Well I'd already ordered the book, what more could I do, so I just took it as it came and let it be.

I then receive this email:
Hooray! Your items will be arriving soon:

* Heroes of Olympus

We anticipate delivery between 13/11/12 and 19/11/12.

So I thought FINALLY! I'm finally going to get my book! But I just had to wait. So I've been patiently awaiting my book, thinking that it will be delivered to my home or receive a phone call or email that my book has arrived and needs to be picked up. But today I get a slip of paper in the post saying that it's my "FINAL" notification to pick up my parcel. The "Date notified" states "2012-10-30" - I only received this notification TODAY, 2012-11-15. AND I have to pay R72.96 for delivery!

Over and above this, I was charged a conversion fee on my payment which was converted from rands to dollars (ALSO something that was NOT mentioned).

So I essentially overpaid for this book which is something that really pisses me off! I hate been had and feeling like I've wasted money. And I've wasted a whole lot of money here! Especially seen as the book will be sold for a cheaper price right here at CNA!

NEVER buying from Fishpond again!