Half.com and Ebay - You call this customer service?

About two weeks ago I purchased some text books from Half.com (Which is now owned by E-Bay). Neither seller offered "Expedited" shipping as an option, only the very slow "Media Mail" choice. I found from looking over the half.com website that the sellers are restricted as to what they can charge for that service, and the allowance that Half.com provides is not sufficient to cover USPS shipping costs for textbooks. Half.com classifies them as "paperbacks".

I thought that, perhaps, half.com might be interested in a bit of customer feedback and a suggestion, after all, you can leave feedback for their sellers. In fact, after a sale E-Bay continually reminds you in various ways when you have not left feedback after a transaction. Most reputable businesses appreciate constructive customer interaction since, in the long run, it helps them continually improve their business. I thought that leaving feedback for the half.com might also be appropriate - A suggestion like "perhaps you should have another category that is more appropriate for the bigger, heavier textbooks". Unfortunately, I could not find any way to communicate with half.com, no feedback page, no feedback link, no e-mail address, no physical address, no "contact us" web page.

One of my hard and fast rules in dealing with on-line sellers (which I sometimes forget) is to Never, Never, Never do business with an entity if you cannot (a) communicate with them and (b) cannot verify a physical address (PO Boxes do not cut it).

Sorry Half.com - you failed on both counts. I won't make that mistake again.