posted 04-20-2000 01:34 AM               

Have you received your full refund yet? Yesterday, after countless emails, phone calls, and submissions through their website, I finally received an email acknowledging that both the order number and voucher number were forwarded to the billing department for credit, but warned me that they are "behind in credits", and assured me the credit would be applied as soon as possible.

They've had my money since Feb 20, that's sixty days just to tell me that I should be getting my credit sometime in the future. You mentioned that they told you they had over 6,000 credits (@$17.96) which were not applied, but they were too cheap to hire a couple of people for two weeks to process the refunds. Why should they spend a $1000 to correct their own error when the estimated $1000,000 they bilked out of unsuspecting customers was busy servicing their debtload?

I repeat....what a scam!

Paul

quote:

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Originally posted by Carol:
I checked with my credit card company and X10 has issued some credit, but into next months billing period. I called X10 customer service to see if I could speed things along, I was told the prior phone calls I had made, in which I was told they would take care of crediting my card was not on record in their computer! They initiated another request today for the credit but this time I got an e-mail saying they were working on the credit! Hooray!!!

I asked the customer service person what was going on, she said they have had over 6,000 vouchers that were not applied. I said I was having a hard time telling where the credit was being applied from(which order)and said it would make things easier if they would send an e-mail to let me know which order/voucher combo was being sraightened out. She said they would have to hire a full time person just to send e-mail confirmations re: voucher fixes, and they have no plans to do that.

She said to tell everyone thanks for your patience, and if anyone has a problem, to immmediately initiate an inquiry by filling out the form at this site:
http://www.x10.com/support/forms/gift_voucher_form.htm

The moral to my story: If you call to complain it may be ignored like my calls were and you may have to wait much longer for a resolution.

-Carol

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posted 04-20-2000 09:38 AM               

Think they got you where they want you, chasing your own money.

What I do in those situtions is go thru my credit card company. They definitely have to listen to them.

Usually explain it very carefully on the phone to customer service at the credit card company. I have Chase Bank. Then I make a very firm statement that I will not pay the overcharge on the next bill.

I instruct the credit card people not to pay and to retrieve the money. I've never had it fail. Those guys have access the right people, plus they must have an internal bad guy list that is shared within that industry.

The moral is go where the money is.

The people you are probably dealing with are like all folks in their position, they have the power to do nothing except make excuses.

posted 04-20-2000 12:32 PM               

It's either intentional, or foul ups, neither which makes me happy about it. They've gotten better it seems. But again, if this was a local merchant, they wouldn't be able to do things like this... they would have to show the correct pricing on the invoice consistently. At least in my state they would. But for my last couple of orders it showed up. But for the most recent I got an email informing me they overcharged me!

And I wouldn't put bad practices out of mind just because a company is well known. Look at Umax (scanners). The FTC fined them big when discovered they intentionally delayed rebate payments over nine months, or didn't pay at all.

posted 04-20-2000 12:41 PM               

quote:

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Originally posted by Rick LaBanca:
Randy, you don't know that it isn't a scam and Paul doesn't know that it is. Neither of you can be certain. Since x10 has done deceptive advertising in the past, scam does come to mind, although I'd say it's more like seeing how far they can step over the line.

It's either intentional, or foul ups, neither which makes me happy about it. They've gotten better it seems. But again, if this was a local merchant, they wouldn't be able to do things like this... they would have to show the correct pricing on the invoice consistently. At least in my state they would. But for my last couple of orders it showed up. But for the most recent I got an email informing me they overcharged me!

And I wouldn't put bad practices out of mind just because a company is well known. Look at Umax (scanners). The FTC fined them big when discovered they intentionally delayed rebate payments over nine months, or didn't pay at all.

Rick

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posted 04-20-2000 12:57 PM               

The government is totally screwed up and don't care about us. They ain't going to do nothing.

I got the Chase Manhattan Bank Chase Cashbuilder VISA credit card 1-800-577-0636. It has buyer protection built in. Really works for little situations like this. One call does it all.

At the most one day and the money was back in your little sock. Plus no annual fee, they pay a cash back bonus on every purchase. Couple %, last year I got a check for about $250. There is a $200 a month minimum but I buy everything, food, etc on it so get there quite easy.

Talk about dispute resolution, they definitely know how to do it. Maybe have hungry pitbulls or unemployed Maffia hitmen in the basement but they sure know how to get results.

Maybe the up shot of all this is get a 500 pound gorilla on your side, teenie-weenie bank probably don't cut it.