03/02/2006
When Paying Less is Paying More
If the alchemists of yore sought, though unsuccessfully, to transform base metals into gold, Onix Electronics seems to have struck a vein performing somewhat the reverse: it makes e-gold payments from customers disappear altogether. With the e-gold disappear the electronics the customers ordered and all form of customer communication, customer service, and everything else a reputable company would consider sacred to good business relations. Poof!
Located in Los Angeles, Onix sells electronics from their website, www.onixstyle.com. At least two of our seven complainants so far found them by using search engines; we have no knowledge as to whether Onix advertises otherwise.
How ever the complainants discovered the website, though, it seems a safe bet that all seven wish they hadn't, for their complaints are all nearly identical: each ordered an expensive item such as a camcorder, video projector, or other electronic product, each was required to pay by a means called e-gold, not one ever received the product, and each is now out from $1,000 to $2,000.
One of the complainants, Frank Melton, president of a small Arkansas audio and video production company wasn't any greenhorn when he ordered his digital camcorder from Onix. In business some 20 years, he'd not, until now, had any problem in purchase transactions. In this case, he followed the company's normal procedures in searching the companies his company usually does business with, then researched, through "Google," lower priced offers for the camcorder. That search led him to Onix Electronics, where he made his purchase. Before he purchased, though, he says, "I took the time to do what I thought was a thorough check on OnixStyle and e-gold, and could find nothing . . . to deter me from making the transaction."
After Melton paid, he emailed OnixStyle again, asking for a UPS tracking number. At that point, he says, "all communication stopped. None of my emails were returned, none of my phone calls returned." He never received the $1,300 camcorder.
Similarly, a 45-year-old Maryland executive, who prefers to be named only as Scott F., ordered a video projector from Onix at a cost of nearly $2,000. After paying, he received an email saying his order would be shipped via two-day delivery. Like Melton, he says that "they drop you completely. They will not respond to email, their phone is answered by a machine and they will not return your calls." And, like Melton, he has never received his video projector.
The requirement of payment by e-gold has a good deal to do with the losses these two and other Onix customers have suffered. Onix does not accept credit cards or any form of payment other than e-gold. To use e-gold requires your setting up and funding an account with e-gold, then "spending" from it to pay Onix. One complainant compares it to PayPal. Funding seems to be accomplished in most, if not all, cases by Western Union transfers.
An Ohio complainant says that you may pay around 14 percent just to use e-gold and that e-gold offers no recourse if your goods are not delivered. "The process is extremely complex, making it seem as a scam and a way to prevent a consumer from any recourse," he says.
Several who complain about not being able to communicate with the company after paying tell us that they later contacted the company again, ostensibly to order, using different names, and received immediate responses.
Although Onix offers, on its website, a refund or replacement guarantee of satisfaction if the product is returned within 30 days of the shipping date, the company requires a Return Merchandise Authorization (RMA) number. You must, of course, obtain this from them, and they will not accept any return without it. Yet complainants cannot return anything within those 30 days of shipping if nothing was never shipped. And even if they could, a company that has slammed the door on communication once the customer has paid is not likely to communicate with them to issue an RMA number.
Individual losses to this company are high, and so far the company has not responded to even one complaint. Inquiries from consumers are rising, though, with 356 in 2005 and 40 in January 2006 alone. With a grade of "F" from us, if people continue to request reports on the company, Onix Electronics should be able to go a step further and make its customers disappear.
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