Gripes about Bookpool

I placed my first order for a computer book at www.bookpool.com today. A couple hours after placing the order, I tried to add a second book to the same order. No dice.

The web site has instructions on how to add a book to an already placed but unsent order. However, after following the first few steps of the instructions, there was supposed to be a link to add a book to my existing order. There was no link. Book orders have many different statuses so I guessed that maybe my current order status did not allow books to be added. The customer service section of their web site explains in detail the many order statuses, however, it does not indicate which ones allow you to still add a book to an unshipped order. Likewise, the instructions for adding a book to an unshipped order, do not go into the details of which statuses mean you can add a book and which ones mean you can't.

There was no phone number for customer service. The web site says this is to keep their prices low. Instead, I email them my question about which statuses allow an order to be changed to add an additional book. I gave them my order number and waited. I placed the order on a Friday about noon and emailed my question a couple hours later. Friday night they emailed to say that the order was shipped.

I got an answer to my email question at the same time the book showed up, Tuesday afternoon (September 12, 2000). It said:

Your order was shipped out on Friday morning so it could not be modified. Once an order has been processed for shipment it cannot be cancelled or modified, and options to do so will no longer be shown on the website.

The order was placed around noon on Friday, so it could not have shipped Friday morning. According to UPS, it was shipped out about 6:00 PM Friday evening (not bad, six hours after the order was placed). Just what does it mean to have an order "processed for shipment". Which of the dozen or so statuses does this include? I gave up.

I placed an order today for a book that was in stock. About an hour later I decided to order another book. Like before, I could not add the second book to the outstanding order for the first one. The status for the first order was that the credit card was being checked. The two books arrived on different days and I paid two shipping charges.