Have you ever placed an order on a retailer website, then cancelled it?

[N.M.Nevuhmynd]

I do some volunteer work on a support board for a major website (details NOT forthcoming).

One of the more popular questions involves placing an order, then cancelling it due to things not in the website's control. Common reasons given are 'Decided I didn't want it', 'Found a better price on another site' and similar things.

After seeing so many of these, I began to think back and I honestly cannot remember EVER cancelling an order for any reason, let alone something like that. I can't remember even returning more than 4 or 5 things ever that came by any shipping service. One of those was for size and the new size cost me a few dollars more. One was a pair of shoes that were completely the wrong item (wrong style, color and size) that must have been a UPC labeling problem. Another was a similar UPC error where they sent me an item weighing less than a pound instead of what I ordered that would have weighed closer to fifty pounds.

I just don't understand the bit about cancelling an order 'because I changed my mind'. That baffles me.

 

[jellyv]

Yes, certainly I have, and I think it's very common, probably a known percentage of all orders. There are tons of reasons why this happens. Not sure why you're lumping together cancelling orders and returning things, though--totally separate actions.

 

[La Comtesse]

There are many reasons why someone may need to cancel an order: accidentally ordered the wrong size from the drop-down menu (when ordering quickly), found the same item for less money somewhere else (especially during sales season), etc.

There is one retailer (I won't mention the name) who must have a problem with their system. Twice recently I have had orders that I placed a week later, received before my first order is even "processed." In my experience when this happens, the earlier order is never fulfilled and remains open indefinitely unless I cancel and reorder. So, I've had to do this to resolve the "issue" myself. This has been going on for years with this website. I have spoken to customer service about it, but it is never resolved. The only way I have been able to resolve the order stuck in the system is to cancel and reorder.