posted 03-08-2000 06:40 PM               

My VISA statement shows that X-10 did not credit the voucher values on either order even though they had sent me confirmation emails to that effect. I was overcharged $29.96 and would never had been aware if I hadn't closely reviewed my credit card statement.

When I called the Order Desk today, they assured me that the problem would be immediately corrected. When I solicited an extra voucher to compensate me for their mistake I was advised that they couldn't authorize one, since the same thing has happened to everyone who used those vouchers.

This means that anyone who ordered from X-10 at least from the President's Day Sale has been overcharged on their credit cards, notwithstanding whatever info they have received on their confirmation orders!

Interesting how the company that mastered mass email mechandising hasn't notified their customers of this significant error.

If anyone has ordered from X-10 during the past month, I strongly recommend you check your actual credit card statements carefully.

posted 03-08-2000 07:00 PM            

This is one of the reasons I set up the Bargains and Deals Forum to alert people of these kind of things!

posted 03-09-2000 08:55 PM            

But what I just received from X10 in an
e-mail dated 3-9-2000 is really troubling,
it says:

---------------------------------------------
Dear Valued X10.com Customer,

We have discovered a potential problem with the credit voucher, Dear Subscriber,
that was to be applied to your order referenced above. It may be that you were
charged the full amount of the order instead of having your invoice amount reduced
by the voucher amount. As we investigate this matter more fully, if we confirm that
you were charged incorrectly we will issue the appropriate credit to your credit
card. This matter is expected to be resolved in a few days.

A follow-up e-mail will be sent to you indicating what action was taken on your order. If a credit is issued we will tell you the date of its issuance. Please allow a few days for the credit to appear on your account.

We apologize if there was an error on your account. The good news is that we have
identified and fixed the problem that was responsible for this potential error.

Thank you for your patience and understanding. Please e-mail orders@x10.com if you have any questions regarding this matter.

Regards,

Dave Mayer
Corporate Operations Manager
---------------------------------------------

This however only addresses only ONE of my orders, I was told when I called X10 that my card would be credited for BOTH orders! Based on that info. I opened and installed the equipment I received.

If X10 was unprepared to handle or had problems with their Gift/Voucher arrangement then they never should have accepted orders using them. Their Voucher processing server was down more than it was up, X10 even sent an e-mail telling me about the problem and assured me any gift voucher I had would be valid and extended because of this. I decided I did not want to wait for that, instead I decided to place my orders by phone! I gave the sales rep. all the gift/voucher numbers, when he took my order. These numbers even showed on my order confirmation e-mail, and package invoice! I am totally disappointed with how this has/is being handled. But in fairness I will give X10 the opportunity to fix the problem and credit my account as they said they would! They did on a previous order, and I hope they do the same on both of these orders.

I'll post to let you know what happens.

In the mean time, my advice is this, If you use the voucher system to buy from X10 CHECK your, order conformation, invoice, & credit card statements! As another safety precaution, cut and paste your gift voucher number into the comments field of your online order form, as has been suggested by someone, elsewhere in this forum.

Good luck!

posted 03-13-2000 06:44 PM            

It seems X10 has put up a fire wall! They will not/ can not, let the customer know what the staus of their account is! They should not have implemented a voucher system if they were unprepared to deal with it!!!

I will wait until mid week and if I don't get some sort of correspondence from X10 telling me my account has been straightened out, I am going to contact my state's Attorney General's office. I've already lodged a formal complaint against X10 through my credit card company, who by the way was very interesed.

This is not the first time within the last few months that I've had problems with X10's billing, and I afraid to say it's probably not the last time since I ordered again
(too trusting) after X10 told me almost a month ago that they would correct and credit my account. So I guess I'll be going through this again, soon.

I have kept good records and printed everything I could for each order placed. I feel like a bookkeeping firm, There are at least 4 pieces of paper I printed for each order, plus the shiping invoices, with copious notes about phone contacts I had with X10, claiming they would take care of the problem. I would suggest to all of you that intends to order using X10's voucher setup to do the same until they get their act together.

What is going on within X10? I never have had this kind of problems with them until the last few months.

I'm sure they must be in violation of some law, and this kind of e-commerce is why some people are still afraid to buy on the web. That's really ashame because their are many web vendors out there that do a fantastic job.

I guess when your the only one making/ distributing a product you're kinda stuck.

posted 03-17-2000 04:37 PM            

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

posted 03-18-2000 10:20 PM               

It happened to me also and when I finally did get through to customer service, they were quite pleasant and apologetic and promised to issue the credit right away.

Surely an otherwise reputable company such as X10 would not suddenly (or knowingly) try to cheat or scam their customers out of their money.

posted 03-18-2000 11:15 PM               

I ALWAYS put the voucher reminder in the comments section. Also, I have started putting the statement "I am only authorizing X-10 to charge my credit card $x.xx, any additional charges different from this amount will not be accepted". All the info you put in the comments section is printed not only your reciept, but your invoice that you will recieve with your order!

If you do have a problem, call both X-10 and your credit card company and remind them of the $ amount that you approved X-10 to charge. You have the proof on your invoice!

I really don't think that X-10 would debate their own invoice.

The only problem I have ever had was a double shipment of some wall switches, I needed the additional ones, so I kept them.

Use the system that X-10 created, to YOUR advantage!

Hope this helps someone,

posted 03-18-2000 11:17 PM               

There is no question that I, and many others, were mislead by 'an in your
face advertising campaign' that specifically trolled for customers using the
vouchers as bait; then subsequently mislead by a website and personal
confirmation receipt that the credits had been applied. But you know what? I
also accept that this was an unfortunate error by X10.

The 'scam' reference is to X10's failure to remedy the error immediately
upon becoming aware of same. I am owed $17.96 since Feb 20, and a further
$12.00 since March 1, on both occasions of my orders, my credit card was
IMMEDIATELY debited for the entire purchase price. When I called X10 on
March 8, I was told that they were already aware of the problem and would
credit me right away. It's now ten days later and I have received no credit
notification on my card, but I did get an email on March 9, acknowledging an
error may have occurred on my most recent purchase (nothing on the $17.96
owed since Feb 22), and following an appropriate investigation, MY money
will be returned to me. The matter should be resolved within a few days,
then I can look forward to another email, with MY money returned to me
within a few days after that. As for the missing $17.96, I guess I should
cross my fingers and hope to that money returned by.....I dunno.....Easter?

Maybe it was just a coincidence that the day after I posted publicly here
and at the comp.home.automation news site, questioning their failure to advise
customers of the mistake when they were already aware of the problem prior
to my call, that X10 finally got an email out. It is completely unacceptable
that a company with sophisticated order tracking and the capacity to
immediately debit my credit card now needs days,weeks (?), to reimburse that
same account, particularly when the customer calls them up and points them
at the specific order numbers.

They have had my money since February 22, and are acknowledging at least 6000 orders similarly affected, but won't hire someone to reimburse duped customers, nor will they allow their telephone sales reps to issue the credit notes even though these same reps who can charge to credit card accounts, can readily call up on their computers the specific orders and see the actual overcharge.

I have completed their website problem form and I have called Dave Mayor, their Operations Manager and left voice mail on two occasions....still nothing.

posted 03-18-2000 11:26 PM               

My beef is that they kept using it. Last order was fine, looks like all is well now, we'll see. Now your total with voucher is reflected on screen and in paperwork (mine was anyway!)

The odd thing is that they posted a policy of how your order _won't_ show the amount etc. Now I can't see anyone designing a site not showing totals. So I would speculate that they knew it was sub-par, and thought posting this policy would keep users aware enough so they could go all out with vouchers.

They were wrong. Most users expect what the majority of e-commerce sites do, live totals, and actual discounts.

But when I first saw this system, whereby totals didn't show, it smelled of rebates, where the companies count on many users not doing the work, or forgetting that they mailed it etc.

This is tempered with the fact that x10 had unarguable deciptive practices in the past with phony deal expiration dates on the site.

With all that said, yep I still use them, nobody is cheaper and most orders get here very fast! Let's hope this is just a bump in the road, and the vouchers keep-a-comin!