On May 12, 2009, I ordered a flat iron (hair straightener) for $114.95 from SalonHive.com. I was a little skeptical when I went to pay because I had to pay through 2co.com, a Pay Pal-like company, and I had never heard of it. I had never had online shopping problems before so I thought everything would be OK.

A few minutes after I hit "Send, " I received an e-mail sales receipt from 2co.com and my credit card was charged. I figured I would receive the flat iron within a few days.

A week went by and I didn't receive the product. I never received any notices that said my order had been shipped either. I went to SalonHive.com and tried calling the customer service line. I got an automated, "We're sorry. The voice mailbox is full" message. I couldn't use the Live Chat feature the site offered, even though it said it was available from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. ET because it was listed as offline. I sent an e-mail to the company asking for a status update. I never got a response.

A few days later, I tried calling/e-mailing the company again. Still, the voice mailbox was full and still, no one replied to my queries. That's when I went on 2co.com and spoke with an online representative. He said he would e-mail the company. I told him that was useless as I had tried contacting the company various times already. He said 2co.com communicated through a control center -- as if SalonHive.com would definitely reply to him. I was told to wait for SalonHive.com to e-mail me and to contact 2co.com again if they didn't within 24 hours.

Of course, they didn't. I was getting extremely frustrated. Two days later, I spoke with another online representative and said I wanted to cancel my order -- the 2co.com site showed it still hadn't even been shipped from SalonHive.com -- and that I wanted a full refund immediately. He said he had to send an e-mail to the company requesting a cancellation. I wanted to throw something at him. Apparently, that was their protocol though and there was nothing I could do about it. I reminded him of all the trouble I had already gone through but he only said, "I understand you're frustrated but we have an agreement with our vendors."

The next day, I contacted 2co.com again. This time I was a little more forceful with the representative. I told him I wanted to cancel/get a refund NOW. He said he needed to e-mail SalonHive.com. I said I already went through all of that multiple times. He said his records showed only one request had been made to cancel.

Only one request should be needed to cancel!

I told him I wanted to speak with a manager. He told me he was a supervisor. I told him I wanted to speak to someone who could actually help me. He said no managers were available until the next day ...

The next morning, May 29, I sent 2co.com an e-mail explaining everything above with dates, times and names of people I had spoken with . I also said that I was going to call again in the afternoon and take legal action, if necessary. I was done dealing with all of this nonsense.

I got an e-mail shortly after saying my account has been credited today.

I will NEVER recommend/use SalonHive.com or 2co.com ever again. I strongly urge you not to either.

Good luck.