So there I was sitting with my laptop during Easter 2011. Ready to be tricked by the Pixmania boobytrapped order process. I found the digital camera I wanted to buy on Pixmania.nl, the Dutch Pixmania webstore. I selected the camera and then things started going downhill from there!

First two expensive insurance and warranty products were automatically added to my basket after selecting my camera. This added roughly 12% to my order valua an I couldn't remove it from my basket. I figured I must have done something wrong. So I hit the back button to start over. Then I ended up with 2 cameras and 2 "additional services" in my basket. Luckily I found the barely visible 'remove' option in pale light grey. I managed to delete the expensive and unwanted upsell services and continued the 5 step ordering process.

Next came the payment. I selected bank transfer and was expecting an IDEAL wire transfer. I was told to make a manual bank transfer instead. The landing page showed the order number and payment number. So I fired up my banking application and wired over the money. I returned to Pixmania.nl to review my order only to find out that no orders were registered on my account! So I transfered over €495 based on an order confirmation number that didn't exist. I felt scammed.

The next day their customer service lady told me I hadn't fully completed the order process and forgot to confirm my order. Her reaction: "You've problably forgot to confirm your order after the payment like most people do that call with these issues". So, it's a known design flaw in their order funnel and Pixmania doesn't seem to care to improve this. In stead they tell you you're stupid and don't know how to work their site. In the mean time she made the rather vague promiss that once the monay is received they would confirm the order themselves and ship the camera. I was told I would get e-mail notifications of every step in the process. This was yesterday but I haven't heard anything back. I did see the money being debited from my account but it's unclear who received it and when (if) my camera will be delivered.

I'm a confident online shopper and have purchased loads of products online throughout the past years. The pixmania webstore and operations are definitely the worst online shopping experience I've ever had. Fingers crossed I will ever receive my camera or a refund...