"All these reviews about nightmares are dead on correct.

My advice is do not order from HomeCenter.com unless the prices are 1/2 of what others sell for AND you have 2+ months to spare before you need anything. And even then you probably just shouldn't bother anyway.

For those that care for the details...here's a summary of what I went through:

I placed my order on 1/17/2010, and the system improperly calculated the 7.5% discount (came up with some random 5.32% or so number). I contacted them about this immediately following my order, and that was actually taken care of by the time they charged my credit card a couple of days later.

My order contained about 20 items totalling over $1000. I was informed by the order status page that about 5 of the items were in stock and would ship on 1/19/2010, and the rest were on backorder and estimated 2/19/2010 as the ship date. This was okay as the only items needed early on were rough in valves, and they were in the 1/19/2010 group.

I expected to receive that first batch of items at least by the end of January, so I used the web form on 2/1/2010 to inquire about them, but got nothing more than an automated message with a ticket #.

I also called in on 2/2/2010 about this and after waiting on hold for over 30 minutes, the person on the phone informed me that there was some problem in the warehouse, but could not get a clear answer why the items didn't ship. I was also told that because it was the warehouse's mistake, they were going to ship those items next-day at their expense, and that I would also receive a tracking number via email.

Over a week goes by and on 2/10/2010 I finally receive a reply to my online inquiry from 2/1/2010 with a template style response. I specifically asked about the portion of my order that was supposed to have shipped weeks prior, and the person, Lawrence Griffith clearly didn't read that and even decided to close the ticket without any resolution.

I promptly responded asking my question again, and asking for an actual human response as to what is going on. The next day, 2/11/2010, Stacey Perry posted an *automated* message which once again did not answer my original question. I received no email notification of this response, and just happend to log back in and check up on it a few days later.

I then called on 2/16/2010 about all this, and waited on hold for another 27 minutes before anyone answered. I explained that I understood part of my order was on backorder, and that I only wanted to know about the portion of my order that was to have shipped almost a month prior. After another 10 minutes on hold I was told that all of the rest of my items (originally scheduled to ship on 2/19/2010) were now in stock and would be shipping out the next day. As for the original items, they never did ship them overnight as promised and they were supposedly going to arrive with the rest of the order.

I asked to speak with a supervisor about this, and was transferred to the voicemail of Brian (no last name). I left a detailed message, but still never received any correspondence from him.

On 2/22/2010 two ground shipped packages arrived out of nowhere. One contained a portion of the items that were supposed to ship on 1/19/2010 (that were also supposed to be shipped overnight). The other contained a portion of the items that were supposed to ship on 2/19/2010. But I was still missing some items from each batch!

I replied once again to my online ticket stating all of the above, asked once again where the rest of the stuff is. No reponse.

Called on 2/24/2010 and left another voicemail for Brian the supervisor, but I did not really expect any response from that. So I called once again on 2/24/2010 and waited on hold for 50 minutes before someone answered. I gave my order # and this ticket # and was immediately put on hold for another 10 minutes.

Despite the fact that "half of the systems were down" according to the rep, I finally got tracking numbers for my 3 packages, 2 of which were already delivered 2 days prior. The other should be arriving today according to UPS.

So all in all, the poor communications of this company has cost quite a bit of time on both sides. Considering all the delays, the several hours total that I've spent waiting on hold, and what I get paid per hour, it hardly makes their low prices worth the trouble. For this reason, I will NOT be ordering again from this company."

"FRAUDULENT OPERATION: NEEDS TO BE INVESTIGATED

Homecenter.com lied to me about the item I ordered being in stock. After ordering, I got their standard email response informing me that there was a 2-3 week lead time. When I called their order line (posing as a new customer), they again told me the item was in stock. When I then informed them that I had already ordered the item and asked when it would be shipped, they passed me on to customer service. I listened to music for an hour before being disconnected.

Homecenter refused to cancel the order without a 25% restocking fee, so I waited patiently for shipment. After 3 weeks with no shipment, and with Homecenter ignoring all requests for an update on shipment status, I checked with the product manufacturer Danze and discovered that the item had been discontinued.

I was finally able to get the owner, CEO Brian O., to cancel the order, but only after charging me a 40% fee (25% for restocking + 15% for return authorization). When I explained that there was no restocking or returning involved, he explained that Homecenter does not make money on fees, they were just passing on the fee that Danze charged them.

I then checked back with Danze and found that Homecenter had canceled the order and that Danze had charged Homecenter no fees. When I passed that information back to the owner, he said that since the order had entered the shipping process, it was subject to a 25% restocking fee and that he would not discuss it further.

When I informed the owner that he charged me 40%, he offered to reduce it back to 25% if I would agree to the charges. He was just using the additional 15% fee as leverage to get me to agree to the 25% fee, but I didn't agree.

In his email communications, the owner now refers to the 15% portion of the 40% fee as an unauthorized/dispute fee. The renamed fee is for disagreeing with his entitlement to steal.

Note: I subsequently ordered the product from another retailer that actually did stock it and received the item in 3 days.

The owner of Homecenter is a pretty good con artist. He proudly states that “he has been in biz for over 10 years and that he offers the lowest prices on earth and great customer service”. In reality, you’re only a customer until you place your order, then you’re a mark.

After he gets your money, you have three options: 1) Wait an indeterminate amount of time to receive your order and hope he ships the right product, which apparently he often does not based on other reviews, and the return process is really a nightmare, or 2) Pay him a large undisclosed additional drop ship fee for having the product shipped from someone other than the manufacturer in a presumably more reasonable time frame, or 3) canceling your order and paying a cancellation fee of 40% of your order total.

After you click the Buy button, none of your options are good. If you pay with a credit card, you can usually get your money back by disputing the charges, but it’s an unpleasant experience so it’s best to avoid it altogether by simply avoiding Homecenter.com.

If you’ve read this, please tell two people and tell them to tell two people. If word is spread, we can eventually run this scam operation out of business and prevent other unsuspecting people from being victimized.
_________________________________________________
Response to Homecenter CEO Brian O.(02/23/10),

I am not your competitor, I'm mark #54600719. I'm the mark that ordered the discontinued Danze faucets, D232158BN. You charged me $299.38 on 1/12/10 and credited me $179.53 on 2/3/10, keeping $119.85 as profit.

You brush off all complaints as either phony or untypical. I don't suppose you would be a good con artist if you didn't. You have to mistreat people very badly to motivate them enough to take the time to file a complaint. The complaints you see here are merely a drop in the bucket. Most people won't take the time and that's what you depend on. The New York Better Business Bureau rates your company F (their lowest rating) for good reason.
__________________________________________________
Judge for yourself (02/25/10),

If you would like to see what CEO Brian O. considers to be "great customer service", you can view the actual email correspondence that I had with him at http://www.mixsoftware.com/HomeCenterFool.htm. It reveals the true character of this man and the company he runs.

Homecenter.com is rated F (lowest rating) by the New York Better Business Bureau.

http://www.bbb.org/new-york-city/business-reviews/home-centers/homecenter-com-in-new-york-ny-70658/

//////////////////////////////////////////////////
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///////// FILE YOUR COMPLAINT //////////////
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//////////////////////////////////////////////////

I've provided links to the following offices in the Forums section of this site. Click on Forums, then click Search and type Homecenter, click Go. Click on Homecenter.com Scam Alert!

You can file a complaint at each of the following offices. All of these are easy to fill out online forms, with the exception of the New York Office of the Attorney General. The NYOAG form must be printed and mailed.

New York Better Business Bureau:
http://www.newyork.bbb.org/Find-Business-Reviews/
type Homecenter.com for the business name, then click File Complaint to file your complaint.

New York Department of Consumer Affairs:
http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dca/html/contact/contact_form.shtml.

FBI Internet Crimes Form:
http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx

New York Office of the Attorney General:
http://www.ag.ny.gov/resource_center/complaints/pdfs/internet_complaint.pdf

In 2009, the New York attorney general's office clamped down on several New York internet businesses that utilize unethical business practices to steal money from consumers. The Homecenter.com scam is different but equally fraudulent. Do something about it by filing your complaint.



"

"HOMECENTER RATED F BY NY BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU
KITCHEN, BATH, LIGHTING and SPRINKLER SCAM OPERATED BY CEO BRIAN OKIN
------------------------------------------
I can’t believe that I was fooled by these guys. Don’t be fooled by their slickly rendered website. This place is a complete ripoff. Homecenter is a complete scam. I will never buy another product from Homecenter. I ordered a kitchen sink and a faucet. I waited forever for these products that they said they had. I contacted the supplier and they said it was discontinued and never shipped. When I tried to cancel my order and get my money back, the CEO, Brian Okin, wanted to charge me a return fee and a restocking fee that was more than I originally paid for the 2 items. Get that, a restocking fee for products that do not exist and a return fee for products that were never shipped. What a bunch of jerks! Unless you enjoy credit card disputes, under no terms should you buy anything from these Internet gangsters!

Homecenter.com (formerly Worldhomecenter.com) has several current AKAs such as Remodelcenter.com, Supplyhouse.com. As Brian Okin freely admits, he has been scamming people for over ten years.

With some elementary Internet sleuthing, it is clear that americanhomeplus.com,
legendquality.com, "South Wind Fan & Light",ceiling-fans.biz, Interknobs.com and Id-renovation.com are other common aliases associated with the Homecenter scam. An obvious question is: Why would any legitimate business have to masquerade behind so many different covert aliases?

The scam is always the same, only the names are changed to protect the guilty. You think you are buying products for your home. What you are really buying is exorbitant fees for no services or products rendered.

Reviewers who have been deceived by Homecenter are encouraged to lodge a formal complaint with Dept of Consumer affairs office in the NY State Attorney General’s Office. The online complaint site is http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/dca/html/contact/contact_form.shtml
Be sure to mention the above aliases as well."

"When tracking the order, I was told the item is non stock item and delivery is about 4 weeks.
Also I was told this order was subject to about $79 shipping charge to Canada despite the shipping price $0.00 was stated at the time of completing the order.
I was not notified about these changes by Home Center, until I contacted the Home Center on my own to track my order.
When tracking the order on the phone, the clerk adviced me to cancel the order at ****@****, which I did. At the same time I asked for confirmation. No reply from the "merchant" yet. Tried to establish a phone contact on numeral ocassions with no success.
I have a feeling I have become a victim of a scam, hopefully my creditcard company will protect me.
I hope my input will help possible future buyers to be saved of frustration I am experiencing.

I appreciate Mr. Okin’s posted reply. Unfortunately there is very little merit to it.
Firstly I realize shipping costs money and I do not have problem to pay reasonable cost for it. But I’d like to know beforehand to figure out what my total costs are going to be.
Secondly as per timeline below, the statement, that my credit account was not charged in advance is false.
And thirdly despite submitting the cancellation request (Feb 9) to this date no transaction has been posted that would indicate the money had been credited to the account.

Feb 3 - order entered
- order confirmation with $0.00 shipping charges received via e-mail

Feb 4 - transaction posted on my credit card account

Feb 9 - learnt about non stock item and extra shipping charges
- cancelled the order and requested order cancellation confirmation at ****@****

Feb 11 – phone call attempt; was recommended to contact ****@****
- re-requested order cancellation confirmation via e-mail

I would really like to write a positive review to this merchant following satisfactory resolution to my case, unfortunately my so far experience is quite negative.


On March 12, 2010 I have received an e-mail note from HomeCentre Cancellation confirming the cancellation of the order. My credit card account was credited with the full refund on the same day.
I can't tell whether HomeCentre cancelled the order and refunded the money on their own, or it was a result of an intervention by my credit card company that I got involved in the situation on Feb 16.
I am glad to recover almost 100% of the money, lost about $13 on the currency rate to CAD $. I consider this as the cost for a an experience to check out a merchant first at plenty of on the net available rating sites, before giving the credit card no. away when placing an order.
Despite recovering the money my experience with this merchant is still very negative. I just feel it is a right thing to do let the interested people know the final outcome of my situation."

"This company is a scam, plain and simple.

I placed an order for a faucet on 1/5 and received a note stating that the faucet would ship on 1/7. It is now 2/1 and I have not received anything. I attempted to contact Homecenter.com multiple times, both by phone and via their preferred method of e-mail. I was ignored every time.

I am embarrassed that I didn't do my homework about this site prior to placing my order. Apparently they do occasionally ship out an order, but most of the time it sounds like their business model is to simply take orders, then charge cancellation and restocking fees (totaling 29%). Imagine making 29% without stocking or shipping the product!

In short, this company is a scam. Avoid it at all costs!!"

"Horrible, horrible experience. I've been online shopping for so long including a lot of home improvement product but this is THE WORST store I've been encounter.

First I placed my order 12/07/2009. Didn't hear anything from them until 12/24 (except the automated email response when you place the order). And the response is the order is scheduled to ship on 12/04/2009. (Note this is before my order date.) I tried calling but waited to long so decided to try their online response system. Nothing, and I mean nothing from them.......

Everytime I tried to call after that, I can't get a live body to talk to. If you choose the option to check order status on phone tree, you pretty much have to wait forever. (I have waited an hour at once.) I tried to submit another online inquiry but still nobody would response.

So my suggestion, if you are doing home improvement project and depend on certain deadline, don't even consider then. Chances are, you won't get anything in time and you can't even figure out what's going on with your oder.

DO NOT RECOMMEND THEM AT ALL!!!"

"Shipping delays, delays, delays. Communication on their part sporatic at best. I even called and got dropped into the automated receptionist's black hole even though I was calling during advertised business hours. Nor do they reliably reply to their stated preferred email inquiries.

In fairness _maybe_ this item is hard to get, I don't know. But when pre-billing a credit card and then repeatedly pushing back (and missing) the stated future shipping date, and no email follow-up after the fact, I'm through waiting (44 days). Their price was the best. But I'm thinking it was too good and their unwilling to fulfill the order without going into the red.

Credit card charges contested after emailing cancellation.

Wish I had reviewed ResellerRatings.com before purchase. "

"Ordered online 10/13/09. Cancelled order on 10/29/09 prior to Homecenter shipping it. Cancellation was conducted in accordance with Homecenter cancellation policy which requires all cancellations be e-mailed. Received e-mail response from Brian Okin (Mr. Okin is listed as CEO by Better Business Bureau) on same day as cancellation. He wanted me to reconsider. I respectfully declined. I followed up twice (11/12/09 and 12/8/09) inquiring status of credit and did not receive a response. Today (1/6/10) I contacted my bank and opened a dispute on the charge.

Folks,
I manage a company that sells online. I am embarrassed that I did not read Homecenter's refund and cancellation policies before I made my purchase. Having read them after the fact, I am not the least bit surprised that Homecenter has difficulty adhering to their own policies. The policies themselves read like a recipe for poor customer service. If Homecenter professionally adhered to their own policies, they could at least claim to be an honest company. Given my own experience and many more I have found here and elsewhere online, it is clear that Homecenter takes their own policies one step further, and is in fact, a dishonest and disreputable company. The fact that I was dealing with the CEO himself casts aside any doubt that there may have been a poorly performing employee. No, my experience and the numerous similar ones I have found elsewhere sum it up very well: Mr. Okin sets the tone for all operations. His behavior (and by default, that of his company) top the list of what can be wrong with online companies.

Response to Homecenter's 1/19 reply:
No, Mr. Okin, I have not received the credit yet.
I did e-mail you, for the 4th time now, the last time being on 1/17, just two days prior to your response here. I sent it to both your direct e-mail address and the "cancel" address.

4/23/10 UPDATE
I still have not received my refund. I recommend anyone who has not received their refund file a formal complaint with the New York State's Attorney's Office as I have done. It is easy to do so online. Follow this link:
www.ag.ny.gov/online_forms/complaint_alert.jsp
Homecenter's address is:
470 7th Avenue, Suite 301
New York, NY 10018
"

"Very impressed with the speed of delivery. Got exactly what I wanted in almost record time. No problems. I will be back."

"We will never buy anything from Homecenter.com again!!!

We specifically asked before ordering four items on the phone whether all were in stock. We were told they were in stock and would ship within a few days. That was on October 23rd and we did not receive the items until December 15 – which is 39 days later!!! It is clear we were lied to at the time we place our order.

In between, we called a number of times and were consistently told that the items would be shipping “in a few days” but we could never get a tracking number out of them.

In early December, we escalated the issue to Brian Okin (the CEO), he sent an email that stated the items had been shipped that very day (December 4) – but they had not been. We’d been lied to again!

During this entire time, we made several calls to them (which was costly, since they don’t have an 800 number and we were often left on hold for long periods). It took five emails over a three day period before we got any response – and that was a very curt reply from Brian with more inaccurate promises.

We suggest you spare yourself the grief of doing business with these people and place any orders you have some where else. (For example, Home Perfect was easy to do business with and very responsive to our needs.)
"

"DO NOT RECOMMEND!!!
I purchased goods to remodel my kitchen. The amount was well over a grand. I needed to return two of the items back in Sept 09 and as of Dec 18,2009 I still have no evidence that credit has been issued back to me.
*After approx 10-12 calls and emails over the past 3 months I finally got a response in writing stating that the credit was processed. Lets assume they are telling the truth and ask the question: What is the reason it takes 3 months to return a customers money which they deserve?

Also....read the fine print before you dare do biz with homecenter.com as they refuse to budge on claiming 25% of my money for a resocking fee. This is how they treat good customers and then ask for more biz in the future.
My only regret is that i didn't read reviews before doing biz with them. Ugh!!"

"Horrible, horrible customer service, and a CEO who is totally unwilling to compromise in the face of their poor, predatory business practices. I've never experienced anything like it. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY.

My order was delayed twice. After the second time my repeated requests for an updated shipping date were IGNORED for 1-1/2 weeks. I spent a total of 25 minutes on hold before I was told they had no idea when I would get it, but would update the online system as soon as they knew. Today is Nov 24th, and my online order status still says they intend to ship my product Nov 11th.

Without any communication from them, I had no choice but to purchase from somewhere else, and sent in a cancellation notice as required. ONLY THEN was I IMMEDIATELY contacted (on a Sunday) and told "it was too late and I'd have to pay 25% restocking". I requested a 100% refund and was denied multiple times, being offered only repeated hollow apologies for delays and lack of communication.

They've now had my money for nearly 7 weeks and I still don't have my product. I'm not sure it will ever arrive, and if it does, I don't need it anymore, but I am not going to be strong-armed into paying a restock fee that was created by Homecenter's total lack of customer service or communication.

Further, the entire time I was delayed I was harassed with automatic responses that included offers to ship the product immediately (for an outlandish fee) with their "Quick Ship" program. I'm convinced after reading other reviews and from my own experience that the delay and poor communication is a tactic to get customers to yield to unreasonable fees.

It's just plain criminal, and after trying to settle this with the "CEO" and getting nowhere, I am currently filing a complaint of fraud with the NY Attorney General's office. I will also be contacting the BBB.

The only "good" news, is that I did receive my sink after only two shipping delays, but only after I called them and found that it was sitting in the warehouse awaiting the faucet. Had I not taken that initiative, I'm quite certain that I would have neither product at this time.

Readers should note that as o this writing, Homecenter's rating on this site is a dismal 1.53 out of a possible 10. The average company rating is in the range of 8. Of course, we're all wrong, and Mr. Orkin has an excuse!

Brian: I will update this site if you actually ever send me my faucet by Nov 27 as you have promised.

"

"Update: I received a credit to my credit card account on December 17 for the entire amount charged (although no explanation at any time of why this took 7 months).

I found this site while looking for further information that I might use to contact returns staff at HomeCenter. I'm kind of at my wit's end because we have an outstanding return from May 2009 and I haven't been given any reason they can't process it, but they haven't done so. We returned a sink that was damaged directly to Elkay(from whom we also received it) and they credited HC immediately - and that's all acknowledged by Elkay and HC. But, like others, we placed another order with the assurance that we'd be credited promptly for the first one because we needed to put the sink in our kitchen. We didn't hear anything for months, despite repeated emails. We finally had correspondence with Brian, but had unfortunately transposed the RGA number and he got very frustrated with us before we realized our mistake. Since then, although I thought we were finally getting somewhere, it has been a month with no response to several emails. I am posting here with the hope that whomever monitors the site for Homecenter.com will look into this and finally credit us. I think 6 months is too long to wait for a credit and I'm totally confused about why that should be the case."

"Very surprised at how quickly my order arrived. Thank you. Good job."

"Incomprehensible..! Shop Locally! After trying to cancel an order for weeks, no calls back, line busy, computers down, being put on hold, I was drop shipped a ceiling fan ( Monte Carlo) shown with blades but that comes with no blades.Then I got stressed trying to contact them again,,was told I had to pay 25% restocking fee, and had to pay shipping, and guess what else? If I had a problem, write the CEO! Hahaha,,
The CEO, Brian, wrote this when I said I was turning it over to my CC company;
"If you do that chargeback with the card company, you will further be charged an added $50 fee upon the return credit, if you choose to return the item. You ordered an item, and we shipped it to you. Now you are complaining about it. That's not my strategy. Is it yours?"

Businesses need to have customer service, because they need customers.. duh..This is NOT customer service! This is bullying!"