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Consumers who shopped at Buy.com Inc.'s Internet store have had charges from the company show up on their statements much later than expected. On Monday, a posting on The Consumerist, a consumer-advocacy Web log published by New York-based Gawker Media, reported consumers found charges on their credit card bills from purchases they had made on the Web site more than a year ago. Buy.com delayed the charge because consumers used both a gift card and a credit card to pay for a single purchase. Through a public-relations firm, Jeff Wisot, vice president of marketing for Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Buy.com, says a "minor glitch in our billing system" prevented the company from billing several customers in full when they placed their orders. No customers were overcharged but, at the time of the order, only the gift card portion was billed, according to Wisot. "Buy.com has since improved the billing system to eliminate further discrepancies when handling split-tender transactions," says Wisot, who was unavailable for further comment. Split-tender transactions are purchases made with more than one payment method.
