Frances B.

(Update to update: Ended up canceling my order because HD kept dropping the ball. In the end, it seemed that all the "Resolutions" Department did was hand the matter back to Reddaway Trucking. And since the incompetence of the trucking company was the crux of the problem, nothing was done to resolve this. I waited a couple more weeks, made a few more calls to HD, and... nothing. I got a phone call today that was identified, by my Caller ID, as coming from the trucking company. But when I answered, the caller said nothing. Just breathed into the line. I phoned HD and asked for Resolutions. Was asked too many questions by the rude customer service rep before he would transfer me, even though I had a case number. And then he transferred me to a STORE, instead of Resolutions. I decided that I had truly entered one of the circles of Hell when I ordered from Home Depot, and that I might be drawn further toward the center if I continued with this. So I phone again and canceled the order. NEVER AGAIN! How in the wold does this company stay in business?)

(Update two days later: HD has not gotten back to me, and they PROMISED, and I am on endless hold waiting to speak to the Resolutions department. Unbelievable.)

Quel surprise: no one at Home Depot followed up on the promised "rescue" of my shipment from the evil trucking company that has it and refuses to deliver it. So I had to waste more time phoning HD Resolutions Department. The short story is that no one knows for sure where my shipment is. I might still be with Reddaway. Probably. HD assumes that it is. But I won't find out until tomorrow. And then I'll have to wait for what, another week? Until another trucking company can go and pick it up from Reddaway and then bring it to me. Eventually. Maybe. I hope.

Adding insult to injury, when the the HD employee phoned me back, after phoning Reddaway, he told me the call was being recorded. He over explained everything, during the call, and was OTT nice, so the recording was obviously for their legal protection. Bunch of scoundrels! They are well aware of their company's poor performance on residential deliveries. Yet they act like this mess is an exception. Look at all the one-star the reviews, HD!

Do not sign up for this website! I wish I had not fallen for it. To begin with, they require that you share excessive personal information to get on there, which raised a red flag for me, but I signed on anyway for the crime alerts in my neighborhood. What I did not realize when I signed up is that they display your home on a map on your profile page (you can hide your actual address, but are required to use your real name, so you are easy to locate either way). They preset most of the settings for who can see your information (another red flag). No privacy choice there.

I was warned ahead of time that there were a lot of petty people nattering away on Nextdoor (that is true), but what I found on the site was far worse than pettiness. There are people on there who are just bat-shyte crazy. And they can find you. I made the mistake of getting involved in a couple discussions about local issues. I had to mute a couple people who kept trolling me, and I flagged several posts that contained abusive or profane language (some posts aimed at me, some at others). I don't know whether someone I reported flagged me back in retaliation, but out of the blue my account was suspended. When I went to the website a banner came up saying I was suspended and could sign in after 15 days. Suspended for what? There is no contact information provided. No one to ask. Just a link to a page of rules for the site, and something about being "kind." Huh? Who was not kind? I reported the bad behaviors of others. And I am being slapped on the wrist for that?

The 15-day thing is weird, too. It's like some weird kind of training program. Like an electric shock collar for dogs. Come back in 15 days and try again and see whether you can avoid getting shocked again? No thanks. Why would I want to?

And it gets even worse! Because of the suspension, I cannot sign in to delete my account. So it will sit there for 15 more days. Fully visible to all the crazies.

Now I am stuck wondering what Nextdoor sociopath has my address. I am genuinely freaked about it. I wish to God I had never signed on to this horrific website. They take zero responsibility for the safety of their users. They just want your information, like all social media. But they disguise their data mining operation behind thos fake neighborhood watch and block party facade. Don't buy it. It is a lie.

DO NOT GIVE THESE PEOPLE YOUR INFORMATION! They will placed you in danger. I cannot emphasize that enough. THEY WILL PLACE YOU IN HARM'S WAY. I have purchased security cameras for my property because of this website. Huge mistake joining up.

Sometimes you just get a sense something is wrong about a company, and that is what happened with Signals. I placed a large order (between $700 and $800) for several garden items. The next day I got a phone message from Signals saying that they were "having trouble processing processing" my credit card. Checked with my credit card bank, and saw that they had placed a hold in my card for possible fraudulent use. They often do that for an international purchase, but it is extremely unusual for a domestic transaction. So I did a quick check online for complaints about Signals and their group of companies (Acorn, Bas Bleu, etc.). I found nothing substantial, and I confirmed that it is a privately held company in the USA. So I cleared the hold on my card and phoned Signals to tell them to run the card again. The agent, who did not listen to me, asked me to run through my full identification info, and then asked me for a credit card. What? I had instructed her to run the one I submitted. Why would they not have that on record? Something told me to cancel the order, so I did. I cannot out my finger on what felt wrong about this, but I went with my gut. So, fair warning on Signals.

Amazon used to be great for refunding or replacing damaged shipments, no questions asked. That is no longer true. I received a box of glass canning jars shipped by Amazon that was partially shattered because there was no padding in the shipping carton. None. Reported that online (Amazon now has a Bot doing its customer service Chat, not a human) and was told that because it was from a third party seller, I have to send back the shipment and wait for a refund. Absolutely no way I am going to send back broken glass, and I am not going to wait for a refund. So I requested a phone call from customer service. Agent initially did the "third party seller" thing, but I called her on it. Almost everything is from a "third party seller" now, at Amazon, so that is a BS excuse. Even when it appears in the listing that an item is from Amazon, it is usually from a TPS. Also, the items broke because Amazon did such a shyte job at packaging them for shipping. So I suggested that she refund me only for those broken pieces. She agreed, but after checking to see whether she could do that she said all she could offer was a "promotional credit" toward Amazon merchandise. Once again, I called her on this, and demanded a true refund for all or part of the damaged shipment (I had provided a photo of the broken jars, btw.) I pointed out that this issue had nothing to do with the TPS because Amazon packaged the items for shipment. I said that she could just send an entire new shipment, since I did not get what I ordered, and I have consumer protection on my credit card account. Once again, she disappeared to check on this. She came back and said she could refund my credit card just for the broken jars.

Hardly worth my time arguing, given the low cost of the items, but I hate being jacked around by businesses when they are so clearly in the wrong. If you run up against this kind of thing with Amazon, stick to your guns and make them do the right thing for you. The TPS excuse is not thing but a way for them to dodge responsibility. If it is an item "fulfilled by Amazon," and it is damaged in shipping, Amazon is responsible for that, and Amazon should refund you for your loss.

YOU CAN ALWAYS REQUEST A PHONE CALL from Customer Service. Just go through the Chat screen procedure and click on the prompt that indicates you need more help. Then click "request a phone call."

I received two (non furniture) items that we're damaged (worst packaging I have ever seen). I live nowhere near an Ikea, so tried to deal with the matter by phone. Get a phone menu, offering options 1 to 3. Three is what I need, but system won't accept it. Try option 2 (order tracking) and am told I will be transferred to the right department. I get automated message about high call volume and they "cannot answer right now." Click. So I try the email contact form online. Options under "about my order" are "business customer" or "order cancellation." Nothing else. Another dead end. What the heck is a customer supposed to do? Phoned again and tried option 1 (new orders) and the agent is now trying to get through to the right department. I am listening to screeching "music" and repeating recorded messages. My life is passing before my eyes. Never ordering from Ikea again.

I used to buy household goods from WS and WSHome fairly often, and I thought they were a reliable company. But a couple weeks ago I ordered a small appliance for Christmas delivery, and it didn't show up in time. Not a huge deal, but I just tracked the order and found out that the projected delivery date is eight weeks from the order date! And no one at WS informed me of the delay. When I made the purchase it was listed as I stock and available to ship. That is not the way to treat customers if you want them to come back again, WS!

(Just found out that item was still on backorder, and the delivery date was pushed back even further than the projected delivery window mentioned above, so I phoned WS and canceled the order. The galling thing is that I found this out only by checking tracking on my order. Williams Sonoma did not notify me of the change, again. Terrible way to do business! The current predicted delivery window not guaranteed, mind you was approaching 12 weeks from date of order.)

Is this even a legit company? I ordered garden bulbs from them, and received an emailed order confirmation. When many weeks passed and no bulbs arrived, I went to their website to track my order. It was still listed as "new order." The website lists no phone number and has no chat option, so I filled out the contact form, asking them when my bulbs would ship. I got not reply. I tried emailing them directly, but still did not get a reply. I opened a dispute on PayPal, waited another week or so, and then escalated it to a claim. In all those weeks I heard nothing from Edens Blooms. PayPal just closed the case and refunded my money because Edens Blooms did not respond to their enquiries, either. Very strange. Their website is still active. Is this a scam?

I purchased a pair of shoes during their "once a year" sale. No notices came up during the checkout process about the shoes not being available, either when I placed the item in my basket or when I finalized the purchase. Two months later, I realized that I had not received my shoes, so I searched my emails for notices about a delay. Nothing there except confirmation of my order, two months ago. So I went to their website and did a "chat" with customer service. I was told that the shoes were a "preorder" and that a message about this would have popped up when I was checking out. The agent even said something about understanding that I might have missed it. Bull$#*!. There was no message. And why would the company never send updates? I think they are covering up their own inventory and fulfillment problems with that blatant lie. I won't be ordering from this company again. I even had to ask for expedited shipping when my item finally comes back in stock. This little upgrade (a very obvious, small apology) was not offered. The agent granted it, but I should not have had to ask. If I do get my order when she says I will, that will be almost 12 weeks fulfillment time. Not acceptable.

UPDATE: I am gobsmacked by the dishonesty and incompetence of this company. A couple days after I went through the nonsense noted above, I got an email from Margauxny.com telling me that it would be ANOTHER 10-12 weeks before they can send the shoes that I PAID FOR UP FRONT! So that would be six months to fulfill an order. I have demanded a refund, since they have been holding my money for almost 12 weeks already. This company is a scam. Avoid it at all costs. Here is the email, sent 12/08:

"I hope this email finds you well! I am reaching out, because our team just realized we had a slight inventory miscount and are unfortunately backordered in the Black Pointe you selected in your October order. I am so terribly sorry for this inconvenience, and that we weren't able to communicate it sooner! If you don't mind waiting on this item, we can have it made at our factory specifically to fill your order in about 10-12 weeks' time...".

Lots of fake-friendly language and apologies there, but the plain fact of the thing is that they are talking about holding my money for six months. Utterly ridiculous. Thieves!

Purchased a five gallon tree and several perennials. Tree was okay quality but was not the selection I ordered, and the perennials were some of the worst collection of plant stock that I have ever received. I reported the poorest specimens (one was blackened, soft and rotting) to customer service, and was reimbursed. But that is not enough to make up for the fact that they sent out plants that should never have left the growing grounds. The plants even come complete with wood lice! Their prices are on the high side, too. Furthermore, they have no information on their website on plant culture, placement, water needs, etc. The only reason I ordered from them is that I needed that tree and could not find it locally. And then they sent the wrong tree! Wasted my money on the perennials, and I have a mature tree I never wanted. Do not recommend.

(Warning, if you do have an account at Etsy: Do not allow people to "follow" you. Block them when you get the notification. I have seen the following function used to harass.)

In the end, I got my refund as a chargeback executed by Etsy, but it was a ridiculous fight to get there. Unethical seller still has his shop on this platform!

(I discovered, in corresponding with customer service, that these jeans shipped much later than I thought. I order a lot of jeans from Madewell, hence my confusion. So this order was backordered for six months! Awful!)

I recently contacted customer service about a defective pair of jeans that I received in the spring. Because the jeans had been on a long backorder (really common with Madewell), they arrived at the beginning of the hot season, and I had not worn them all summer. I first wore my new jeans in the cool fall weather. It was only then that I noticed that they were deformed in the way they were sewn, which was something that was not evident on initial try on. So I contacted Madewell with a complaint. I stated in the email that I knew the item fell outside of return guidelines, but they need to know about this quality control problem. They emailed me back saying that yes, the return requirements dictate that the item be unworn and no more than 30 days in hand, but that they might have "other options" to explore. They asked for more information. I provided it, and then got a reply saying that the jeans fell outside of their return window, so there was nothing they "could" (would) do. This was something that I had acknowledged up front. So why bother saying there might be some remedy? Awful customer service. I'm over Madewell.

Update: I had a good laugh at the company's snotty reply, below. What a great way to win over customers! Glad I stopped shopping the site. They suck. I've figured out what the rush of rave reviews is about. HerRoom is forcing customers via a pop-up window to post a review here in order to complete their transactions and get an order number. Awful company.

I count 22 HerRoom full-star reviews in a row, all arriving together on the same day (today), all from reviewers with just one review on file. Shame on you, HerRoom. Yours is a business that I used to support. I've placed at least a dozen orders with you, over the years (the last one in 2018), and perhaps more. Now you have lost me. I hate it when businesses have their employees flood review sites with fake reviews. (Since you need an order number to review for HerRoom, how did those fakes get in, hmm?)

My ordering experience with HerRoom was always unpredictable. They would draw me in with a sale item that they did have in stock (emails announcing that brand X is on sale), but most of the time anything else I added to the order would be backordered. Sometimes the backorders were for many weeks. I'd often cancel items that kept getting delayed. I kept returning to the site because they carried so many brands and had good sales, but overall I would say that order fulfillment was terrible. Finally, I started buying my lingerie elsewhere.

As proof of their backorder habit, here is an excerpt from a 12/2018 HerRoom email:

"We have not forgotten you! The items you selected which were on back order have arrived and we are prepared to ship them to you immediately. In order to complete the shipping process, we will need to update your payment options. Orders paid for with PayPal cannot be resubmitted after a 30-day lapse, but you have several options..."

Update: Right after I requested that my order be canceled because the predicted fulfillment date was too far out, I received an email saying that Gilt is so sorry but they cannot fill my order as the item is no longer available. Right. So did they see this review and decide to bail on the order? I think so. It's sort of funny, but the fact is they wasted my time and held my money for too long (or at least the preauthorization for the charge), without ever having the merchandise I purchased on hand! The way they pitch their flash sales is that they have limited inventory, and that there are "only two left!", and so on. But they don't have the stuff in stock, apparently, based on the delay in fulfillment. Very misleading. Very dodgy.

Original review: So I bit of one of their dangled flash sale baits. Purchased some Tom Ford eyeglass frames. Found out only when I have completed the purchase that they won't ship for a month! Totally dishonest sales practices there. Now I see reviews here saying that the site sells fakes, so I am so wondering what I will receive. And when. The delay in shipping is a red flag for this not being a sale of genuine overstock, but knockoffs made to order. I just now went to the Gilt website and looked up my order to see whether I could cancel it. Answer is unclear. So I clicked on return information for my order and it said that "none of the items in your order are eligible for return." The flash sale listing pages had noted all items as eligible for return! Again, totally dishonest business practices.

Submitted a request for contact on this matter, got back a "What can we help you with?'. Replied with explanation of problem with evaluation and "repair" of my shoes. (Not only. Are they still too stretched out, they just don't fit anywhere since the adjustment. I think the repair crew lessened the width of the forefoot, so now the shoes are really loose in back and pinching my feet in the front.) Customer service has, so far, ignored my reply. Do not recommend this company for anything! Reviews on the website are meaningless because they will not publish anything critical of their products.

Dermstore was once a reliable business, but it has now been sold (by Target) to the same UK company that owns Skinstore. That is bad news, indeed. Skinstore is one of the most unethical companies I have ever dealt with! What made me research whether something had happened to Dermstore is the message "Thank you for your enquiry" came up after I messaged Customer Service. "Enquiry." That is British usage. So, I scrolled down to the bottom of the web page and saw that The Hut Group is listed as the parent company. Uh oh, that's Skinstore's parent company! They once stole $600 from me. I don't have high hopes for resolving my issue with Dermstore now.

What happened is I received a defective cosmetic product from Dermstore. Customer Service brushed it off instead of offering to send a replacement product or requesting that the bad one be returned ("I will report this to the Team and they will get back to you," said the person in Chat). This is precisely the tactic Skinstore used. They would take the information and never get back to you. They always had some excuse (I need to consult the team!), but would just bin your request. Stay away from Dermstore if you value your money and time.

Even if you file a dispute through your payment service, the company will find a way around your payment service's customer guarantee. That is part of their business practice. With that other online cosmetics company they own, when I got deep into a dispute with them over an undelivered shipment, they required that I sign some dodgy "legal forms" before they would proceed. The Hut Group is a UK company, based in Manchester (headquartered at the airport!). Keep in mind that even if it appears you are ordering from a once-reliable US company that has been around for decades (Dermstore), you are actually dealing with an overseas business that is nothing more than an e-platform. Your items with ship from the UK.

Stay away from this business!

HEADS UP on this company: I was surprised to receive a Guideboat catalog in the mail, in 11/2019, since this company officially folded in 2918. The company J. Peterman was handling the liquidation of Guideboat Co. Inventory for some months. But now Guideboat Co. Seems to be up and running again, with no evident relationship to J. Peterman. When I tried to research company ownership, I got nothing. When you call the Guideboat phone number, the call is now answered with the company name rather than J. Peterman. So who owns this company? Is it J. Peterman under another name? It's very strange for that to be so opaque. I'd steer clear.

Original post: Phoned them on a Thursday to ask why I had not been credited for my return by the previous Friday, as I was promised. The customer service rep said she was looking at my file and saw that my return was processed and that I had indeed been credited a week prior. I asked her for a transaction code because I knew that this was not true. She said she could request that a transaction record be sent to my email. I have received that transaction record. Date of transaction? Today! The day after my last phone call asking why I had not been credited. They just can't stop lying! It's almost funny... but, not.

Update 03/2020: BEWARE! I noticed an unauthorized credit card charge from RH, for $109 and change. Turns out they had renewed my annual membership WITHOUT ASKING! They had retained my credit card information and set up the membership as a recurring charge. When I phoned RH to report this, the agent said I would be refunded. No apology or explanation offered. HORRIBLE company.

I ordered more than $1k worth of merchandise, including a multi-item set of sheets. Although all items showed as in-stock when I placed the order, five items in the sheet set were noted as backordered ("will be delivered on or before X date") by about a month in my shipping notice. Given that this was a set of sheets (not useful if the entire set is not available), I called to confirm that they would indeed be restocked. I was assured that they would be. The day before the stated "on or before" delivery date for the backorder, I still had not received any shipping notice. So I phoned RH and got a remarkably dim service rep. I stated (clearly) what I was calling (backordered items, delivery "on or before" due date tomorrow, no notice of shipping, etc.), and she pulls up my account, hems and haws, puts me on a long hold, comes back and continues to say "hmm, huh," as if it's the biggest puzzle in the world. Really? I ask her, point blank, why she is so puzzled. She says, "Because you ordered multiple items and some of them were not delivered." Oh... my... god. I ask for a supervisor, wait on more seemingly endless hold, only to be told that "the items are being pulled from the shelves right now." Right, so RH dropped my backorder, obviously. She says the items will ship within 24 hours. She goes out of her way to avoid admitting that RH screwed up. Even though they should have sent me a notification that the backorder was delayed (of course, the real reason they did not notify me is that they dropped my order, but she does not admit this). I push her on the matter annoyed at further delays and she says that it takes 24 hours for the items to ship and then 7-10 business days to arrive. Excuse me? I am supposed to wait another two weeks? I suggest that she might expedite the shipping. She say she will look into that but probably can't do it because the items have already been entered into the shipping process. Really? She already told me the "items were being pulled from the shelves right now." It's all a bunch of BS to cover up the fact that they lost my backorder and I will have been sitting on a partial order for more than two months before I receive the rest of my items. How do these folks stay in business? I certainly wouldn't order furniture from them.

After waiting weeks for the missing parts needed to assemble my expensive purchase, I received a shipment that was again missing parts! I should have been sent twenty pieces and received 15. So I have a pile of useless parts siting here and am out of pocket for more than $425. Idiots! I do not recommend this company for anything.

I don't know what to think of a company that floods this site with fake five-star reviews every day. The reviews post in groups of a dozen or more, all with strange phrasing and too-specific details. It's a huge red flag. (I see that since I posted this FashionNova has now started loading up obviously fake FOUR-star reviews. Amazing.)

I had to cancel most of one order (seven plants canceled) because the shipping date was delayed so long that it was too late to plant bare root specimens here. The bare root roses I did receive were shipped with no moist material around the roots (packing the roots with moist newspaper, moss or something similar is standard practice for growers), and they were slipped into in a loose, unsealed plastic bag, inside a shipping carton with no padding. The plants had advanced sprouting that was blanched from lack of sunlight, so they must have been held in a warehouse for some time prior to shipping. One plant had several roughly broken major roots that were clearly old wounds not from shipping. One of the broken roots was rotting. That plant never should have shipped out.

BTW, the only reason to not pack the roots with something to keep them moist is to save on shipping cost. Water adds weight. So the company would rather risk shipping compromised plant stock than pay a bit more to pack it properly.

Not happy. Not buying plants from this company again.