Play.com: 3-5 days delivery. Unless it's longer. A lot longer.

Being a pretty regular customer at play.com, with around 60 orders placed over the last couple of years, I never really had to deal with their customer support. Once, quite some time ago, I had an order that didn't arrive. I sent them an e-mail, and they sent another copy. Very nice.

So a while ago a friend and I decided it was time that we go and tackle Resident Evil 5 together. We both ordered it (of course at play!) and agreed to set apart a bit of time to play the coop mode, since the single-player version isn't that great, if the demo was anything to go by.

Being in the Netherlands, we're used to orders taking up to a few weeks sometimes, I guess it's something to do with customs over here. So when the order didn't arrive, I waited until more than a month had passed before i reported the item as missing.

Full of hope I went back to the site to find the e-mail address I used last time to report a missing order. Turns out you now have to apply for a form, which is then sent to you, you have to print, sign and send back over snail-mail.

But sure, I can see that they don't want everyone to report fake missing items, and that there should be a bit of a hurdle to get your order resent, so I just printed and signed it, and sent it back.

And sure enough, after about a week I got an e-mail:

We are sorry to hear that you have not yet received your order. A
replacement has been ordered and will be dispatched as soon as possible.

Should you receive the missing order in the future please contact our
Customer Service Team on 0845 800 1020 (UK only) or +44 (0)1534 877 595
(outside UK) between the hours of 9.00am to 8.00pm Monday to Friday, and
9.00am to 5.00pm weekends.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you
and thank you for your patience and valued custom.

Kind Regards,

Play

"Cool", I thought, "We're gonna be playing this somewhere next week."

That is now exactly 58 days ago.

Turns out, by the time my missing item form got processed, the original one was out of stock. And apparently having outstanding (missing item) orders isn't really a reason to be quick with restocking.

After a few weeks I sent them an e-mail (yes, contrary to what the site seems to say, you can actually e-mail them), but of course I got a standard reply'

Please be advised that your outstanding order is currently in the process
of re-stocking.

Whilst we cannot provide you with a restock date at this time your order
will be charged and dispatched as soon as it becomes available.

Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused you
and thank you for your patience and valued custom.

Kind Regards,

Play

Never mind that they had another version of the same game for the same price, still in stock (just checked it, by now that one is also sold out).

All this time, every few days my friend, who already has the game and wants to start playing, asks me whether it's in yet. How nice of him to wait for me :)

Of course I could just ask for a refund, but by now I'm actually wondering how long this is going to take.

Bets may be placed.

Since the original order, we're now at exactly one hundred days, and counting.