problems with Peak and LoneStar

[EricofAZ]

I need to restock some small amounts of wax. Last Tuesday I ordered from GenWax and received the order on Thursday.

Thursday night I ordered from Lonestar. The order did not complete and no matter what I did, it failed to complete so I abandoned the order. Friday two billings showed for the exact dollar amount with two credits. Today two more billings with no credits. I rather suspect lonestar is working very hard to double ship to me after the order was canceled.

Saturday night (tonight) I ordered from Peak to get my harmony wax thinking that Lonestar is all messed up. Peak had a MAY2011 promo for FO so I ordered some FO's on that. No matter what I did, or what box I put the promo in, it did not take. I left special instructions not to bill my card unless the promo was honored. Well, I just checked and my card was billed and no promo.

Beware.

Edited May 22, 2011 by EricofAZ

[islandgirl]

Lonestar..... Check with Vertiaclly Enchanced.. She just had some major issues with them!!!!

[Georgia]

I would be more disposed to "beware" of you. Contact Peak. If you ordered after midnight and the sale was valid, they will make it right.

[bugtussle]

Peaks sale is on FOs only! bug

[wildwings]

I use both of these supplies on a regular basis. I just ordered wax from Lonestar and had it within 2 days.

It sounds like your computer may be having some issues....

Did you try calling Lonestar or Peak? I am certain that had they been notified of the issue they would have been more than happy to assist you.

[jackbenimble]

I use both of these supplies on a regular basis. I just ordered wax from Lonestar and had it within 2 days.

It sounds like your computer may be having some issues....

Did you try calling Lonestar or Peak? I am certain that had they been notified of the issue they would have been more than happy to assist you.

I second that! I just called LS the other day to say I was missing 2 jars out of my order and Veronica shipped them out the same day.

[MoonshadowLane]

I've never dealt with Lonestar, but Peak has always given me great customer service. I'd give them a call.

[SliverOfWax]

I would be more disposed to "beware" of you. Contact Peak. If you ordered after midnight and the sale was valid, they will make it right.

You took the words straight off my keyboard. I've been ordering from Lone Star for years and years. Neither Lone Star nor Peak are out to get anybody. They are long time suppliers with good reputations.

[Scented]

Both places have always made their orders right when there have been mistakes or damages or items missing and neither should be on a "beware" list of any kind except maybe a beware you may spend too much. Seems logical to call to try to solve the problem before initiating a high alert.

Edited May 23, 2011 by Scented

[snb7485]

I have had an issue with lonestar before... I placed an order and it said that my credit card information was not valid.I did it again and I got the same message. I went in and re did it and it went through. The next day I checked my account and it had billed me three times! I called and they corrected it, but boy was it an inconvenience. I wouldn't say "beware" of them, but if you have an issues with placing an order, don't resend it! Just call and have customer service assist you. That's what I do now and I don't have any isues

Edited May 23, 2011 by snb7485

[Georgia]

So, you've had a couple of days to call or email...did your issues get resolved?

[EricofAZ]

Update: Peak picked up on my note about the FO and wrote back to me that they are correcting the problem and applying the discount. They will credit the existing bill and rebill at the new amount. That's fine. Good communication. They did their job.

As of tonight, Lonestar still has a double charge, and email for a single shipment, and no response to my email to them about the problem.

Those of you that attacked me, do you prefer that we not report glitches and situations with our suppliers? All rosy and peachy stuff only?

I am simply unable to spend the day calling and dealing with phone automated systems and dialing 1 for English and messing with this BECAUSE, I have to concentrate on a business deal at the office that is on a tight timeline. I'm working 14 hour days, eating lunch at the keyboard, and just can't run the risk of a mistake because I was distracted.

Some of us have day jobs and some of those dayjobs require attention to detail without distractions. I get things right at the office. Always, all the time, every time. I am employed because others screw up. If people didn't screw up, I'd be looking for a new line of work. So from my perspective, I can really appreciate companies like Peak that pick up on problems and rectify them and I appreciate others who let me know about problems they have so that I can make informed decisions as to whether or not I want to do business.

There is a certain amount of stress that I get paid for. $134 dollar deals with flame wars are not on the list. I'm going to enjoy dinner, Einstein, some candles that are ready to come out of the mould, and some supplies that I have on hand for a few new projects.

[Ravens]

Have you heard from Lonestar? They should have answered your concern by now. If not, get Einstein on that phone; and he'll straighten them out, lol

[EricofAZ]

Ok, so, Peak shipped and I received. The correct price was the final billing, the wrong billing dropped off. As I mentioned, Peak figured out the problem all by themselves with my comment on the shipping page (don't ship unless you get the discount applied). I had great communication with Peak. Intelligent folks there who are on the ball and paying attention. They take their CO-Q-10.

Lonestar rotated my credit card for a while and dropped off. No shipment. No billing. No response to my emails. They take their slumber pills.

I had two credit card alerts (the only two in the last 5 years or more). One was my private account. Someone tried to see if a long expired (7 year old card) was valid. They called in and punched in the numbers on the phone and received a message that the card was expired. That triggered an alert. Idiots. The expiration date was 2007. After further investigation, it was clear that this card alert had nothing to do with the recent trend of CC fraud for those of you who are buying. I'm pretty sure it was an old card from a stolen wallet that was canceled and someone has no clue what year it is now.

I had a business card declined today. Turns out someone in Brooklyn NY tried to charge it at Target. It is a current card. I have the actual card in my hands right now. Unknown how they did this but I will be investigating. Chase says it will not turn over info to me. I need to get a local cop to investigate. Yeah, right, like our police will fly to NY and do a Rambo on Target for $154.30. I'm going to look into FOIA and contract breach and likely will go after Chase for the info to see if I can figure out who did this. The hassle is that tonight is payroll and the account was frozen so I went ape $Hi* on Chase for locking up my business account.

The business card is for my day job. I never used it to buy candle stuff (well, maybe once 6 months ago).

Neither fraud problems IMHO were related to candle purchase, despite the coincidences.

Peak - Keep on doing what your are doing. Thanks for being alert. We all love you and will do business again.

Lonestar, enjoy your slumber. I'll order when you are the last folks possible to get my stuff from. Sleep on, dudes.

I'm sure Einstein would fix this with Lonestar, but at some level, I think she wants a break from my presto pot.

Edited May 28, 2011 by EricofAZ

[SliverOfWax]

You don't seem to understand how some websites are set up. They ping your account to make sure the money is there. If you were reading your online statement correctly, you would see a HOLD area. That's where those pings show up. If the order goes through, the charge moves from the HOLD area to your actual account. Some credit cards/banks show the ping as an actual debit, others just keep it in the HOLD area.

Again, you weren't charged, so why on earth are you mad at Lone Star? Your little snit is misplaced. Lone Star probably doesn't even know you were fooling around trying to order. Reminds me of people who don't understand EBay and/or Paypal.

ETA: There's a little box at the bottom of Lone Star's order page that you have to check to confirm you've read their terms of service. Did you check the little box?

Edited May 31, 2011 by SliverOfWax

[EricofAZ]

Sliver, I'm not sure I agree with how the website works. It billed my account 6 times. Fortunately, I had money in the account or I'd be eating peanut butter sandwiches until the billing dropped off and the funds were freed up. There is zero need to do this when goods are on their shelf. Yes, gas stations need to reserve funds so that you can real time pump the gas and close out after taking delivery, but buying products from a supplier is a different thing. If Lonestar doesn't like my money, all they have to do is not ship.

I did not get an error about TOS. I have no idea what the error was.

I was charged, 6 times, and the funds locked up for the weekend. It would be incorrect to say that my card was not charged. It would be more correct to say that the charges dropped off and the funds were release after 3 days.

I emailed lonestar. They didn't even respond to that.

Oh, and given the amount of fraud on Ebay, there are a lot of folks who don't know how to use it because they are scared of using it, and rightly so. I've lost money to ebay fraudsters.

So far, paypal has not been too much of a problem. I did learn that when money is refunded, Paypal will not put it back in my bank account unless I spend a half hour on the phone with them demanding to have the money back. Paypal likes to keep it in their system and leave it as a 'credit' to be used in the future. I don't want money in paypal's possession.

Edited May 31, 2011 by EricofAZ

[SliverOfWax]

It's not a TOS error. It's a little box you have to click acknowledging you've read the TOS. If you don't click it, Lone Star doesn't know you're trying to order, but their merchant account knows. They probably didn't answer your email because they didn't have the vaguest idea what you were talking about.

Paypal also has a little button to click to transfer funds back into your bank account. Easy as pie. If you didn't ask them to transfer the money back into your bank account and they did it anyway, you'd probably be complaining about it.

[Beezy]

IMO Lone Star has the WORST customer service. I will no longer be ordering my wax from them. I will only order a small number of oils from them.

[Ravens]

I have no complaints about their customer service. I realize I'm only a 4hr drive from them, but I usually get my supplies within one day of ordering.

Unfortunately, there are very, very few LoneStar's FOs that throw well for me, so I use LS for waxes, clamshells and wicks.

[EricofAZ]

So one of our members told Lonestar to call me. They did. They got me between meetings and I talked too long. There is a reason why I want things to work well and don't want to have to deal with hobby during the business day.

Anyway, we learned two things.

1. The companies that verify a card use the billing address to do so. About 5 years ago I changed my billing addy. Several companies still use the old addy. I put in the current addy at Lonestar and the company they use to verify triggered a fraud alert because it wanted the old addy. This is a bank problem and the bank has not given me any satisfactory answer as to why my old addy is still showing as a billing addy for some of the verification companies. Other than changing banks, there is little I can do about this. We agreed that I would keep a journal (like that's going to happen) to know which companies I need to use the correct and current billing address and which companies I need to use the prior billing address.

2. Once the fraud alert is triggered, lonestar's verifier then attempts to access the account to see if the account is real. That is where all the "pending" charges showed up. Each pending charge locked up the account for the $$ amount. I keep the account limited so that I don't get burned too bad when criminals figure it out (happened twice over the same weekend, once in Brooklyn NY, and once in USA through a Columbus OH access number, both unrelated to the current candle supply company purchase).

So Lonestar is going to look into their technology about fraud. Quite frankly, it doesn't make sense to me. If a card is fraudulently used, why check the account? The purchase would be fraud. In this case, it was not fraud, but what if it was? If it was, the proper procedure would be to cancel the order (as the software did) and NOT issue a pending charge.

Anyway, all the pending charges did drop off in a day or two and if I understand correctly, Lonestar is going to adjust their technology so that this "pending" thing doesn't happen again. The funds were locked up during that time. I am glad that I don't keep more than minimal funds in the account.

This hobby has to be low stress.

Lonestar is a good company and they have good stuff to offer. Technology sometimes is a disaster and we all end up having to deal with it. I'll buy again from Lonestar.

Edited June 6, 2011 by EricofAZ

[SliverOfWax]

Eric, as I've said, if you have an AUTHORIZED HOLD area on your banking website, you will see those dings. There are a lot of web sites who use the same technology as Lone Star. A place I buy a lot of fabric from uses the same technology. It's the way their cart operates. Lone Star's is the exact same format. Although the story about your address sounds feasible, it may or may not be the total story. In the scenario I'm talking about, addresses have nothing to do with it. In your case, using a different address complicated the matter. Those dings would have happened every time you tried to place an order even if the address was correct and even if you thought the order didn't go through.

Apparently, people don't know about the hold area on their bank web site. If you think a specific company takes 2 or 3 or 5 days to put your charge through, that's not necessarily the case. The "temporary" (for lack of a better word) charge is already there but hasn't yet been deducted from your balance.

You got caught in a master fluster cuck. Unfortunately, it is up to you to keep your addresses straight.

[EricofAZ]

Sliver,

I have had transactions fail before without the hold. It is not EVERY TIME that the hold or charge goes on. I know one other supplier that we get confused with and its snowdriftfarm. I go in the shop directly since they are in Tucson and if we use the wrong addy, the card is declined. I have NEVER seen a hold charge from them. And yes I do check. Please stop assuming that I am technology ignorant, I find it offensive.

My address is straight. It has to do with a bank buyout. The bank I was with has sold out and the new bank can't get it right. The only option is to change banks and I am looking into that. Unfortunately, it is not as easy as it sounds. Please do not continue to argue with me. I will not discuss my banking affairs on this internet with you.

Sliver, I like you and what you share on this board. I don't really care to engage in any more of this conversation or who you think should take responsibility. If a customer does not hit the COMPLETE TRANSACTION or "PAY NOW" button, then no charge or hold should ever be put on the account. Checking to see if there is money in an account after a fraud alert is triggered is just plain old stupid.

I will never agree with you that it is OK to repeatedly charge an account when a transaction is denied. Lonestar doesn't agree either which is why they are looking into the technology. Since both lonestar and myself are on the same page with this, you might want to go along with our resolution as well.

[EricofAZ]

Oh, there is one additional "story" here. People with billing addresses that are other than their home address may find, as I did, that there is a requirement under the Patriot Act to provide the home address. I believe this is part of the bank's problem.

Please stop blaming me. I am in compliance with State, local and national law and am in the same boat as a lot of other Americans who get their mail at locations other than their homes. It is part of the price we pay for freedom. The technology can take this into account and that is all that I ask.

[CareBear]

Ok, so, Peak shipped and I received. The correct price was the final billing, the wrong billing dropped off. As I mentioned, Peak figured out the problem all by themselves with my comment on the shipping page (don't ship unless you get the discount applied). I had great communication with Peak. Intelligent folks there who are on the ball and paying attention. They take their CO-Q-10.

I don't understand why you didn't communicate with them FIRST, before getting this big "OMG" thread going.

[SliverOfWax]

LMAO. I have a different billing address. Wonder why I never have a problem ordering from Lonestar, which I do at least twice a month. Guess I'd better be on HIGH alert.