****update 1/20/22*** after my review I was contacted by a vendor relations person from The House. She apologized and admitted there were many areas during my purchase process where they failed and that they didn't plan and couldn't keep up with the unexpected high volume they had over the holidays. She offered to try to help me still get gear for my son. Unfortunately due to the limited options they had left i had to choose other gear but she offered a discount code to help bring the price closer to my original purchase. She expedited the gear so I had it very quickly after i made my purchase and made a return process seamless when the boots didn't fit. I would say even though I didn't have the gear for Christmas and he was forced to rent a few times until we got the new gear, i felt they went above and beyond to try to make it right and i will definitely give them another chance when buying gear in the future.***
Purchased a complete ski package, skis, bindings, boots and poles on 12/16. Was supposed to get free 2 day shipping with their own promo code. According to their holiday shipping guidelines this would mean I would receive these items by the 24th. After 5 days with no activity on my order I tried numerous times to contact customer service. Called and waited on hold 45 min and no answer. Tried chat several times but over 60 people in the queue and the wait was so long by the time I would get close I would get logged out and it would say click to reconnect. When you did that it restarted everything and you were back at the end of the queue. Sent an email on December 20th and never received a response. Finally on 12/21, I was able to chat with Kyle. Kyle informed me that my order had been packaged and sent on the pallet to the courier but they have been experiencing delays with the couriers sort and scanning the items to ship. I questioned the 2 day shipping and he said that was only after the courier scanned it. I asked if I would receive it by Christmas and he said most likely not. It was supposed to be a gift for my son. As of 12/29, I still had no tracking information and no items, yet they charged my account on 12/20 for the full amount. On the 29th I once again got in the chat queue and after 45 min waiting I chatted with Kenny. After Kenny looked into it he said that it appears they have very limited inventory in the items I purchased, which were all this years non sale merchandise, and that was most likely why it hadn't shipped. This was a big surprise since Kyle told me on 12/21 that all of my items had already shipped and I paid for them a week and a half ago. He said the only thing he could do was to cancel my order and provide me a discount code. I was also told it will take 5-7 business days to receive my almost $800 refund so still no money back. I was very upset understandably and said I wanted a code that worked on all merchandise since most new merchandise is excluded. I went back on their website today and the skis and boots I ordered are still showing in stock, so I attempted to repurchase and use the 20% off code I was given by Kenny. Surprise, surpise, no discount applied. I purchased a snowboard 3 years from the house for my other son and received it with no issues. That is why I chose the house again but I will never buy from them again or recommend them to anyone else!
They used to be a good place to purchase from but it appears based on the many other reviewers within the last few months their service, communication and ability to deliver on what is purchased have become non existent.
Skis, bindings and poles
I normally don't bother to leave reviews unless service is extremely good or bad. I know things happen. I have worked in the service/retail industry for over 20yrs. And I know $h1t happens. But my recent experience has been a nightmare.
Firstly, I ordered the wrong sized bike late night from their site. That was totally my fault. I was flipping between tabs on a few different models, and didn't catch that I hadn't updated the frame size on the one I submitted. I did immediately contact them via the link provided in the confirmation email. Since I had caught it right away, I didn't think shipping the correct size would be an issue. Ive had similar snafus in the past, and never had problems getting it resolved.
The next morning, I awoke to a response saying that the warehouse doesn't receive these emails, and "process" the orders before the people at the customer service centers receive them. This in itself is a problem. The people at the facility that fill the orders should have access to this information, for reasons such as this.
That being said, the CS person told me that once the order has been "processed" there's nothing that can be done. This led me to believe that perhaps the item had actually shipped. So I was told to contact the carrier to have the shipment cancelled at which point it would be returned to the warehouse for a refund... fine. But I had to Google the tracking number to even find out who the carrier *was*! When I spoke with FedEx's CS, they said they hadn't picked up the bike, and couldn't do anything until they had scanned it into their system. So I called TH back and they said I would need to wait till FedEx scanned it in to cancel... so I waited, and waited, updating the FedEx tracking page until it eventually showed up... 6/7hours later. So, the wrong bike was waiting all day in the warehouse. It seemed like there was ample time to pull the box *before* FedEx even took it. But by the time they had it, they told me the seller was the one who needed to cancel the shipment, and now I had to wait until it arrived and refuse it. By this time TH offices were closed. So I emailed them to ask them to cancel the shipment. No reply. The box arrived several days later. And unfortunately my roommate answered the door and signed for it. So I then had to call FedEx and ask them to come take it (refuse it after the fact). Thankfully, that was an option.
Once I had the tracking number for the return, I emailed TH to ask how to proceed. I did really want the bike, in the correct size. So I inquired as to how to proceed, with an attached photo of the FedEx return-tracking number. No response. So, later that night, I decided to go ahead and order a second one of the correct size, assuming I'd be getting a refund soon anyway. The following day, I finally got a response to my last email. The email told me I would be getting a refund once the bike was returned. But that the refund could take up to THREE WEEKS to be processed.
Again, I realize the issue started with a mistake that I made. But these things happen and shouldn't be a huge deal to sort out. I understand if I'd waited until the item had shipped (or even arrived). But I literally caught it immediately and contacted them long before it should have been "too late" to sort out. Either the warehouse needs to be able to have access to the emails that pertain to order correction before its "too late". Or the company needs to figure out a way to rework their warehouse logistics to allow for these types of issues to be resolved internally.
The customer service people I spoke to were polite. And the site has some great deals. But I don't think I'll ever order anything from them again after this experience. Sometimes it's better to spend the extra money and buy locally... if for no other reason than to avoid these types of headaches..