There’s Super-fast e-commerce and then there’s Nvidia

Perhaps we are all a bit spoilt — we live in a society with Amazon prime delivery where items can be ordered online and delivered next day, or even within an hour or so. Even if a website does not offer such rapid delivery, they do manage to keep you informed throughout the process — emailing you when your order is received (usually within a few minutes of placing the order) and when it is despatched. If there is a delay before despatch, you usually get informed.

What I’m trying to say is none of the above applies when dealing with ordering from Nvidia’s website, none of it.

Perhaps this is all my fault — after all, I was wanting to buy 2 Nvidia Shield tablets and naturally, I got directed to the Nvidia site when I searched on Google and after reading through the specifications on the glossy site, decided to buy.

I could have gone to Amazon, or eBuyer or any other online retailer I have ordered from before and been satisfied, but I was there on the Nvidia site and there was a “buy” button, and it said the items where in stock, so I pressed it.

This is where the problems began.

I pressed the buy button on the afternoon of Sunday 7th Feb. Forgive me, again maybe I’m spoiled by Amazon, but I did rather expect an order confirmation email from them later that day, or maybe waiting for me when I got up on Monday.

I got the order confirmation email on the 9th February — two days later. Naturally, this seemed odd to me from previous experience. The email contained a broken image link which made it seem all very amateurish, but the details of the order where there so all seemed ok. The text on the order saying I would receive a further email when the items shipped was a bit unusual maybe.

Anyway, a further two days passed, taking us to the 11th February. No email had been received indicating shipment. If you click the order status link in the email, you get no information at all about status, so well done on that one. I decided to call the customer support number.

I was told there was no further information on my order and that a ticket would be raised to find out. Err, what? So what sort of systems do they operate there if they have to raise tickets to find out order statuses?

I waited another day until the 12th February and rang the customer support number again. I was getting agitated now, I admit it. I asked what the status of my order was, was it shipped? When would it be shipped?

They didn’t know. They couldn’t tell me anything other than my order was still “pending”. What does that even mean after five working days? They couldn’t answer.

I said I wanted to cancel the order immediately so I could stand a chance of ordering the tablets from a supplier who actually knew how to take orders and deliver products (yes, you Amazon).

I was told that a “request” to cancel my order had been raised and sent to the warehouse. I asked what this meant — was my order cancelled or not? I was told that a request had been sent but that it was possible it could still be sent out to me and my credit card charged.

I nearly fell off my chair.

So now, I am in this deadzone of not knowing where my order is, if it will be delivered when I’ve cancelled it or what. I cannot re-order from Amazon now, if I did I could suddenly have 4 Nvidia Shield tablets being delivered at twice the original cost.

I am literally dumbfounded at this. But there is nothing I can do, nothing.

Calling, emailing, tweeting or posting on the UK Facebook page of Nvidia gets me nowhere.

My advice to you is this: never ever buy anything from the Nvidia website. It’s a travesty of an experience which will leave you pulling your hair out and fuming. It’s not the e-commerce experience you are used to in 2016, it’s some sort of throw-back to the mid-2000’s when companies where all just finding their feet on the internet.

Beware!