I sometimes shop at Chapters Indigo. But only when I have too … like when I get a gift certificate from IDC Canada for participating in one of their research studies.
I hate shopping there, because the site is always, without exception, slow. I have never had it respond quickly. Double plus annoying. Plus, the selection is never what you get at Amazon. And you can never find as much information about what you’re buying as at Amazon.
But 25 bucks is 25 bucks, so every month or so after dutifully filling out my survey, I head on over to Chapters to find something to blow it on.
And here are two things I particularly hate:
- the never-changing email address requirement
See that – you can’t change your email address. And yup, that’s the one I had three years ago. Yay. - the buy-more-or-we’ll-gouge-you-on-shipping shipping charges
Yes, that’s $8 in shipping for a DVD and a CD. In other words, almost 50% shipping. You can get free shipping, but only if you spend $40 or more … which I usually end up doing, thereby encouraging the perpetuation of the system I am now whining about. Hmmm.
Please, please, IDC: move to Amazon gift certificates.
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You know, I guess if you actually count all the reasons above, there’s actually 5 reasons why Chapters Indigo sucks. What can I say – bonus day at Sparkplug 9.
I was glad to see your comment about Indigo. I am visiting your blog and leaving this comment while waiting for Indigo’s pathetically lame Gift Card processing form to do something. Like you, I never shop at Indigo unless I have a Gift Card to use. I’ll have to put the word out to friends… “Please, if you give me a Gift Card, make it for Amazon.ca”.
These guys are the indigo.com who believe it or not are actually in Canada.
They make the book people look a bit lame since their Canadian pricing is still at par with the US.
Chapters/Indigo is the stupidest company on this earth. As someone who used to work there, I now never use their stores anymore and refuse to give them my business. I decided this for several reasons.
1. They stock a book which OBVIOUSLY qualifies as hate literature under the criminal code of Canada entitled Anglaid by Michel Brule. I have complained to them about it before and they sent me back a generic reply email.
2. Their charity the “Love of Reading Foundation” is a crock of shit. DO NOT contribute money to this charity! The money is raised through donations from customers and although the company states that they match the amount raised in the stores, the schools who receive the funding use it to buy their books at Chapters/Indigo!!!! They are not actually giving money to charity, it all gets pumped back into Chapters/Indigo.
Here I was thinking that I was the only one who couldn’t seem to change their email address on the new Chapters/Indigo site! I came across your blog after Googling search results for that very problem and I cannot tell you how your article makes me feel so much better. I have retweeted it. Thank you for calling it like it is…Cheers!
I can’t begin to list the reasons why I despise this criminal company. They bully their vendors, demand prices that leave zero room for a decent profit, they retail the goods for double the cost of the vendor’s regular price (even though they bought it for far less), they send their vendors a guide that is so large, it rivals the bible. This guide explains how the vendor will pay outrageous fees if shipments aren’t packaged to their standards, or if products aren’t labelled their way, how if they find so much as a paper clip in a box, they will bill the vendor $5000, and how the vendor will conduct business in an ethical manner (when chapters indigo is one of the most crooked companies on this planet), they demand a ton of free samples that other retailers would have to pay for, and when you’re done paying hundreds of dollars sending free products (plus paying for shipping) to the bitches that masquerade as real buyers (Ellen Wong, Emily Sorensen, Kathleen hoolian – and the rest of your criminal bitch colleagues), be prepared to have them ignore your calls when you want their feedback on the items you worked hard to send to them. We unfortunately had to fall for this crap several times in 3 years. The total orders we did receive from them in 3 years (2 orders) were far less than the amount of business we received from a single small business in one year. We never had to send that small business samples, we never had to complete endless paperwork for them, we never had to lower prices to the point of hardly making a profit, we were never asked to label to their standards….and so on and so on. In a nutshell, chapters indigo is a piece of shit, run by a team of disgusting criminals. Take your business elsewhere. If you knew how bad this company treats their vendors, you’d be shocked. It appears their customers do not fare any better. I feel for the poor vendors that deal with shit from this company just to have their products seen on their shelves…..disgusting