- STORE REVIEWS
- PRODUCT REVIEWS
2002-12-31
4/5
"I order a Sound Blaster Live 5.1 card from them Friday. For what it's worth I didn't get an email confirmation. I'm pretty sure I gave them my email adress for that purpose. That's it for the downside.
My credit card was not charged (so I thought) since the order had not shipped, only verified that it was a good number. I gave them a thumbs up for that until I found out it was charged. To give them the benefit of the doubt, originally Visa said it was verified, but today (Jan 10) they said it was actually charged.
I decided to cancel the order because a friend of mine is practically giving me a better card. Customer service told me that it would ship today, but said if I wanted to cancel, there would be no charge. I give them two thumbs up for that. (This may be why I was charged. I cancelled the day it was supposed to be shipped. Who knows.)
Other than not getting a confirmation email, I'm happy with them. I will consider purchasing from them again.
Update:
I just checked my credit card account. They *did* charge me for the sound card even though I cancelled before it shipped. Now to find out if it was an honest mistake.
I called Visa and they said to try up to get it reversed by the company before taking formal action.
I emailed Upgrade Center asking for a refund and 35 minutes later I got a response saying it was refunded. I didn't get an explanation; however, I was very pleased that I got a response that quickly and I am giving them the benefit of the doubt.
I get the impression that they are small and the refund was overlooked. The person I originally spoke to was polite and prompt and I suspect that the person who answered my email was the same person I talked to a week or so ago.
Thanks Khai. Shay shay.
(According to Visa, it will take over the weekend for the refund to post, so if I don't update this again, you will know that everything went through smoothly.)"
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Variety of brands and products offered
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2002-12-30
3/5
"The products they sell sound really goo and many of the things work much of the time. Unfortunately, many of their products have bugs, some of which I don't blame them for, but the technology itself is subject to various types of interference. For instance, I bought hard wired cameras to use in conjunction with a wireless camera. I was told that by purchasing a wireless sender, that I could turn it into a compatible camera for use with the wireless camera. The problem is that the sender is always on (it is not switched off when the camera switches off). This means that there is a "competing" signal with a different camera's signal and you get a very, very poor image.
Another example is their motion sensitive floodlights and lamp modules. If you use particular bulbs (Sylvania saver), when the filament heats up, the resistence is too high for the signal to get passed undistorted. What this means is that you can turns lights on, but you can't turn them off again. Sometimes lights come on by themselves. X10 has explanations for this (noise on electric lines causing false "ons"). However, the cure can be to much to deal with. (Having an electrician couple the phases of your electricity or buying a bunch of filters.)
It can be very frustrating installing and using the products. I made the mistake of getting excited and buying a lot of stuff at the same time (>$500), and the frustrations in getting things installed pushed me over the 30 day trial period. Now I have stuff cameras that won't turn on (X10 doesn't tell you that the motion sensors can be drastically limited in range such that you can't turn on their VCR Commander from outside, only inside. So much for home security. I guess it works fine as a "shower cam".
I hate to sound disgruntled. I think their products "propose" to do some really nifty things at good prices, but the bugs/limitations can eliminate the worthiness of the rest of the time when it works. Something failing to turn off or on as instructed or turn on by themselves even just a few times can disrupt what you are trying to do.
I think certain products shine, once you work out the kinks. The motion sensitive floodlights can be used to trigger macros in Activehome to make it look like someone is home. Activehome itself is a good way to get lights (the right bulbs, not energysavers or fluorescent) to look like you are home.
The Rex10 sounds like a dog in a toilet; not believable :( . The motion sensors do not operate the VCR Commander from more that 30 feet and the wired cameras' wireless senders cause interference with the wireless cameras' signals. Stick to the true wireless, but realize that are very poor at night even with very bright floodlights. If you need the Nightwatch capabilities of the wired camera, get it, but you will have to use it separately.
All in all, customer service was very commendable. They don't blame you if you don't like a product.
Advice, buy from them if something turns you on, but make sure you test it soon enough to send it back in time."
Detailed Ratings
Overall quality of the company
Pricing of products and services
Value the company offers
Is consumer focused
Is easy to do business with
Is trustworthy
Is committed to quality products and services
Likelihood of customers making future purchases
Likelihood of customer recommendations
Overall product shipping and delivery process
Being updated on the exact date the delivery was sent
Delivering products damage free
Delivering products on-time
Ease of checking delivery status
Variety of brands and products offered
Overall quality of ordering process
Ease of checking order status
Ease of ordering online
Ability to determine if a product was in-stock real time
Overall technical support
Resolving problems
Being easy to reach
Making decisions on their own
Being knowledgeable
Being trustworthy
Overall customer service
Customer service making decisions on their own
Customer service being knowledgeable
Customer service being easy to reach
Customer service being trustworthy
Customer service resolving problems
Product Returns/Refunds/Exchanges
Overall web site
Speed of web site
Web site being easy to use
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