Just a quick synopsis of what happened.

I was on the buy.com website and was looking for a hard drive. I found what I wanted and started to checkout. I was presented with an offer to receive $10 off my order if I signed up for and used Google Checkout. Hey, more than paid for shipping so why not..sign me up.

Well, it went downhill from there. I did not get the $10 off my order. I talked to buy.com customer service and they said it wasn't their problem, go talk to Google. I then talked to Google who said, got talk to buy.com. Yep, stuck in the middle.

I went back to buy.com, they triued to tell me it was my fault and I didn't read the fine print. Tehy said if I already had ANY Google account, the discount was not available. I pointed out to them their fine print was very CLEAR and it without a doubt said GOOGLE CHECKOUT account. See here. Even after I pointed this out, they where still telling me it was my fault. Talk to google. I talked to Google, again, and tehy said I had not signed up on the buy.com website, so no $10. I said I did, and then asked them, ok tell me where I did sign up for Google Checkout and when. Well, they then admitted, yep, I was right, I did follow the rules and they would credit my account.

Finally I was getting somewhere. Now, it gets worse. The system is a kludge and pain the ass. You can't look up your order info on buy.com, you have to go to Google Checkout. You can't get an up to date status on Google Checkout. I sent another email to google, and they have to send a request to buy.com, who then might send a reply back to google, who will then send me the answer...starting to get the picture?

So. I order this hard drive 4 days ago and it still says 'In Process' on the google site. I have bought from buy.com before and it's always been a breeze. I see the order, I see an up to date status, I get email notifications, etc. I can even get tracking info. All I get on the Google Checkout site is 'In Process'. So, the hard drive I ordered was in stock, when I ordered. Now on the buy.com site it say backordered (not in my order status, mind you, but if you search for it and try to put it in your cart).  So, even though my order is 'In Process' and has not been shippd, no way for me to cancel the order. I also still can't get an update on when or if it will ship.

Bottom line, this is a very poor implementation of a good idea. From what I can see on other sites, this is a pretty common occurrence. My advice, don't get suckered into Google Checkout. You will lose far more time and patience than the $10 are worth. In my view, it's like checking your baggage at the airport...it's not a matter of if your luggage will not make it...it's just a matter of when....because it will happen to you!