The inability to cancel orders at Play is my only gripe with them. It is not a new thing, it has always been that way - all that has changed is the names of the various statuses (statii?
).
They have a status before "packing", which is to do with your credit card details being processed (I forget what it's called). You cannot cancel during this stage either.
Basically, you can only really cancel items that are not in stock or which you pre-order.
If you have ever used Amazon, you will find that they also have a final packing stage, during which you can't cancel your order. The difference between Amazon and Play however, is that Amazon don't go into the packing stage within 10 secs of placing your order!
However, looking at the global picture, many sites don't even offer you an on-line cancel facility (e.g. CD-WOW, EzyDVD, AtlanticDVD, FutureEnt) - you have to email them to cancel. To be fair, they always cancel promptly. I recently emailed CD-WOW 2 mins after placing an order to cancel one item in the order and they cancelled it
and sent me a personal (not auto-generated) email acknowledging this within 5 mins of me emailing them
However, I'm sure we would all appreciate just being able to click "cancel" next to the order. Of course, you wouldn't want to cancel with FutureEnt anyway since they keep 2% of your dosh if you do
Anyway, back to Play - what I do when I place an order with them is to keep the page open that comes up right after you place the order. I tend to keep it open for about 30 minutes or so, just in case I decide to change my mind. Why? Well, because if you keep the page open and don't refresh it, then you can click the cancel link