"I'm a professional holiday decorator. I found the balsam hill tree ny customer ordered was a huge disappointment. I have decorated more than 5k trees over the years and balsam hill by far is the most difficult tree to fluff and get to set right. Most of the finer trees are stiff on the exterior but have pliable branches which allows you to move branches around to prevent too many holes bit balsam hill does not have that ability. My customer bought one of the higher end trees spent over 3k and every time the tree would shift the lights flickered, so being a concierge service for holiday decorating I contacted balsam hill and basically it can happen. After all these years I always wanted a balsam hill for myself this turned me off. I have over 30 trees in my everyday inventory and never had a tree that flickered when you move it. "

"Grew up with the look and smell of real Christmas trees. Parents switched to artificial trees after I grew up and I vowed never to do that. This year, at the age of 76 , I changed my mind. Spent time online looking for products that did not look artificial. Kept going back to the Balsam Hill website and ordered a 9 foot tall Fraser. It arrived on time and I was able to assemble the tree in about 15 minutes. Spent a bit more time spreading the branches to make it look more natural. Finally I put on strings of lights, clear glass ornaments and strings of gold and silver beads we brought home from Mardi Gras last year. The tree is beautiful and everyone thought it was real. "

"Purchased a lighted snowflake for $129 and it worked once when I plugged in to make sure it worked upon receipt. Out away to wait til December to decorate. Went to hang for Christmas and it didn't work. They were rude, completely unsympathetic and did not care or try to help. No refund as I was 4 days past their 30 day policy. Unbelievable! I have never had such poor customer service. $129 and it worked for 2 minutes."

"Just a warning: I got scammed by the Balsam Hill company. I bought a tree on sale for $1600.00 and less than a year later, most of the lights went out. They gave me a very hard time about replacing it and even suggested that I go to Home Depot and buy more lights to put on there. Finally I got them to replace it but they wanted the original tree back. My poor husband and I had to wrestle a 9 ft tree into 2 refrigerator boxes and return. They then sent me a replacement tree that was $300.00 cheaper because mine was out of stock. The new tree lights lasted 1 year again! That time when I called they said “we don’t warranty replacements.” So in other words, they replaced my defective tree, with another defective tree. Their customer service is horrible.
I would never buy anything from them again. We thought we were investing in a tree to last for many years. Not the case. This year we are going to cut all of the lights off and restring. We have to try to get our moneys worth. For 2 older people, this is very difficult work. Very sad that they do not stand behind their products.#balsamhill"

"In early January 2023 I place an order for a Balsam Fir Narrow tree with shipment to Canada after careful review of international shipping instructions and guidelines on the Balsam Hill (BH) website. An additional fee was paid to facilitate the international shipment. A few days later, I received a telephone call from the BH sales office indicating the tree was in stock but could not be shipped from the BH warehouse to Canada and that my purchase would be refunded to my credit card. I was advised I could pay additional fees to facilitate an alternative shipment method. The order was cancelled because BH could not delivery to Canada and I received a refund to my CC a few days later. I lost $85 in the currency transfer. IF YOU ARE FROM CANADA BEWARE OF DELIVERY ISSUES****
"

"Company does not sell replacement lights for their trees. They also lie. They are telling me that they will send me replacement lights but they are on back order and it’s been three years. When I called to ask they say that it’s coming. For the time being I suggest that I take all the lights off the tree and replace them with lights from Home Depot. This is a pre-lit tree. The entire point of buying a pre-lit tree is so that you don’t have to put lights on every year. This has been a problem since the second year. Entire strands are out. We also have been losing at least 50 individual lights every year. So, the tree is dim. I have tried to buy replacement lights from Home Depot and Amazon. In doing a search for alternative lights, I am finding lots of people who are in the same situation. Avoid the frustration, buy your tree from somewhere else."

"We ordered a tree before black friday to avoid issues with inventory and shipping, when we only received 3 boxes, but 4 were co firmed delivered I started to look into it. It turns out they didn't have the full tree in the warehouse but to collect our money and pretend it was a complete order, they scanned the same box twice thus making that box appear as 2 boxes delivered with the same tracking number. It took a lot of convincing them on the phone that the tree is supposed to be in 4 boxes(why wouthey know that?) And then they said they were shipping out the missing box expedited. So we opened what we had to make sure everything worked and waited for the final box. It never showed up and they never communicated that it was never sent. When I called again they told me it was never sent and was never going to be sent because it was sold out. They told us we had to pack everything back into their original boxes and send them back freight. These are very heavy boxes and anyone with a tree knows it never fits back into its box easily. They also told us they'd process the return after it was shipped out. So a week later, we still have not received a refund which means this company has gladly taken thousands of dollars from us before we ever received our item, then sent an incomplete order with no intention of fulfilling it, lied to us and when I called refused to escalate my call to a supervisor or manager to process my refund. They insist we have to wait for the same warehouse people who scammed us in the first place, to scan in our boxes and ensure they receive them back before we can get our money back. I find this extremely wrong to withhold this much money for a product after everything they have put us through. Any other compound have processed the refund once FedEx confirmed pickup and shipping, many companies refund even before it's officially been shipped. Here we are without a tree, without our money and with the company telling me that if it takes until January for the tree to be scanned, then it will be until January we get our money back. Or whenever. There were no guarantees and no explanations. They had nothing but a script to read from and they did not even have the information for their own return label and the freight pickup they scheduled! "

"I have purchased garlands and wreaths from Balsam Hill. The items are only used indoors to decorate the tops of cabinets and doorways. The items are then stored in their original boxes and kept in the house. This year, several of the garlands had lights out in several sections. I contacted customer service and was told it was probably a bulb or the wiring. Duh. Really? Before discovering this, I purchased a garland, of the same design, to add to the railing. When I discovered the others weren't working I contacted Balsam Hill to ask for an exchange. The new box had not been opened. Well, wouldn't you know it, they can't do anything because it's after thirty days. Ewell, I'm done with the company."

"For this type of premium price you get a poor quality lighting system with no support.
Each year progressively more sections of lights stop working. Support has no solution. Have traced and replaced every single light and fuse with no success.
Only a few years in and right now 60% of my pre lit tree is dark. "

"I purchased a pre lit tree after the 2021 holiday season , when I put it up this year-2022 I find out the lights do not flash. I called customer service and was told they do not have anything taller than 9’ that flashes, my tree is a 10’. When I emailed them i was told there is only a 30 return window!!!! I paid $1200. for a tree that the lights do not flash. I was not told they don’t flash when I purchased it. Not happy at all with Balsam Hill customer service!!"

"Contacted Balsam Hill about a cracked electrical connection. They stated that they didn’t sell the part. However they replaced the complete section of tree. I asked how much that would cost, then they proceeded to tell me they would only replace under warranty and not sell it to me. So if your tree is no longer under warranty, they try to force you to buy a new tree rather than sell you a part. Will never buy another tree or product from them again."

"We have ordered 2 trees, 2 tree toppers, 1 tree skirt, 2 tree collars, garland, wreaths and Christmas stockings. I am sure I am missing a few items. Every order received has been nothing short of exceeding expectations. From the quality to the realistic and tasteful design; we are extremely pleased with the products as well as the quick and helpful customer service. "

"After years of many different Christmas trees, I had enough and thought I would treat myself to a great 9 foot Christmas tree. WOW ---! After assembly the alpine tree and decorating - everyone thought it was real. This tree was an investment, and will be around for a long time. It was simple to assemble, the lights all worked. My only wish was the top of the tree was fuller with more branches. I had to add a stick to the tree topper star to support otherwise it was strong enough. My family and I love the tree, its full of branches, lights and beautiful. You really have to inspect to realize it a artificial tree. Thanks Balsam Hill, I love the tree. "

"I just threw out my 3 year old tree - Customer Serice was rude and so happy to tell me I was 3 months out of warranty. NEVER AGAIN!!!"

"I purchased the Vermont White Spruce…
I purchased the Vermont White Spruce Narrow for over $5,000 including tax. You would think they could afford to pay shipping for a truck that includes a lift gate - they didn't - and the driver refused to unload from his truck showing me proof they didn't pay for lift gate. I strained my back unloading from such a height (this tree is super heavy) - I couldn't assemble the tree as I was in too much pain for nearly a week.

Assembly was tricky, but I'm very mechanically inclined so I just took my time and made sure everything was all correct. Two things I noticed upon completion of assembly:

1. They didn't send enough bolts and nuts to secure the wheels I needed 6 more of each. Good thing I keep a supply.

2. The tree has tall vertical metal braces which secure to base to stabilize tree (This is good) however they depend on a bolt treaded through pipe to "press up against" another pipe to secure the brace (this is bad). To further complicate matters, they didn't properly thread pipe so while I had tightened the bolts (there is only one for each of the 4 supports) up to what I considered maximum torc, it turns out one of them didn't even make it to the pipe to stabilize that support. You might be asking yourself, how does he know it didn't make it to the pipe? You're not going to believe this.. 

So picture a large central staircase that has an 18' palm tree that's been living there for 60 of our 100 year home's existence. It's gorgeous. It also happens to be where our tree was going... so I moved things around and now the palm tree shared the space with our new fancy Christmas tree..

The tree was fully assembled and decorated and plugged in. Time to SLOWLY center the tree now by GENTLY pushing on two of the metal supports to center tree in opening. This is allowed as well, the base is actually on wheels.. 

Only after approximately a foot, the wheel on the opposite side from where I was pushing spun sideways (because the support bolt wasn't sufficiently pushing against the base -- more on this later) and this allows the wheel to "flip" sideways .. so now the tree is balancing on 3 corners of a square, where the 4th corner isn't offering any support.. 

Slowly, inescapably, with no support on that fourth wheel, the tree begins to fall .. directly towards the palm tree and our homes central banister. CRASH - it snaps the top quarter of the palm tree off and smashes against our wood railing. 

Folks this tree is over 400 lbs assembled and decorated, you can't stop it once it starts to tip, no mater how slowly.. Luckily nobody was hurt, unless you count our ancient palm tree and 100 year old home.. they were not happy.

It took a few more hours to figure out how the wheel could have slipped out from under the tree like that, but it was obvious when it could slip, and as I removed the support, I noticed the bolt while refusing to go further, was not sufficiently touching base.. So I got my socket wrench out and tried to tighten it without being attached to base so I could be sure it was going far enough.. and the bolt simple broke off, threaded piece inside. Which is proof they didn't tape it right.. had they tested it, it would have made it through and none of this would have happened! 

Ultimately I retapped the hole, and upon reflection, realized it was a stupid design they had done, under no circumstances should the wheel be dependent upon a single bolt's friction .. so I drilled holes in the base tubes so as you tighten the bolt on the support, it goes INTO (not against) the base pipe.. so it's impossible to slip.

My new design passed the second year without issue, however we miss our palm tree and our banister is still damaged. Tough to love a product that kills things and destroys your home.."