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2018-12-05
1/5
Shipped Damaged Product - Stole My Money
"I ordered new glasses for Thanksgiving this year. Before ordering, I spoke at length with a sales associate and specifically asked how they package glasses, since shipping companies are notoriously harsh on handling shipments. He assured me that not only are they packaged really well, but if anything goes wrong they will make it right.
Well, exactly what I feared would happen, happened. The glasses weren't packaged well, and they arrived broken into a million pieces, and upon opening the box, glass started spilling all over my floor (not too good with kids and dogs around). We immediately took photos, called the company, and that's where all the problems with this company began.
I spoke with Destanie, the supervisor of the entire "customer service" department and beyond being incredibly rude to us, told us that we would have to wait for UPS to come and inspect the packages before they would ship replacements. I explained that there was no way I was keeping a box full of broken glass in my home with kids and dogs around and she finally told me to take extensive photos (which I already had) and e-mail them to her. At that point, she instructed us to to dispose of the glasses. She still refused to ship any replacements, stating that she had to "abide by company policy", but would get on filing a claim with the shipper first thing in the morning and once that had been filed, she would issue our refund so we could go elsewhere.
I tried following up with Destanie via phone but she would never answer, and no one at the company could ever find her. I did send her a few e-mails and she finally responded when I threatened to file a chargeback with my credit card company. Unfortunately, her response was a warning to me about how my credit card would be closed if I filed a chargeback (completely untrue). After reading that, I called my card company, filed a dispute, and of course I am still waiting for that to be resolved.
It is now Dec 4th, and I just received an e-mail from someone named Amanda, who told us that UPS had tried "multiple times" to schedule an inspection with us but we did not respond. Let's be very clear. At no time did UPS ever try to schedule an inspection with us, and anytime there was any communication, we responded immediately. UPS did show up out of the blue one day with a call tag to pickup the shipment, but we explained that we were instructed to dispose of the broken glass and had submitted photos to the seller. They said no problem and left. That was our only communication with UPS.
To date, no refund, and only an e-mail stating that "our claim had been closed" due to our lack of response. I am out $172 and have nothing but wasted time and a bunch of broken glass I had to clean up to show for it.
On another note, we just looked up reviews on this company and it turns out we're not the only ones this has happened to. I can't understand how this company is still in business, or who is purchasing from them. RUN FAR AWAY FROM THESE PEOPLE. THEY ARE CROOKS AND LIARS."
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Merchant Member
2016-04-17
3/5
Bait & Switch and VERY RUDE!!! (Update at the bottom)
"My mother has been putting money away for a new television for almost a year now. She is finally ready to purchase and asked me for some assistance. I found her the LG 55EF9500 and searched Google shopping for the best price. Abe's of Maine came up (Google yourself and see) with a price of $2329 with no tax and free shipping. This television sells for $2999 in most all big box retailers and she just couldn't afford that much. She was however willing to stretch her budget a little to accommodate the $2329 price.
Having dealt with them many years ago I advised my Mom that this is a good company and to go ahead and make the purchase. She did. Boy was that a mistake.
The next day she received a call, first asking her to purchase extended warranty plans, and when she declined, telling her that she would have to pay $289 for the shipping. She questioned this and was then told that it's to cover the insurance on the shipment. She texted me what was going on and I told her not to pay them anything more than she already had. Their website specifically stated free shipping in not one but two places (once on the product page itself and another when you are checking out). The man who called her (Jeff Stevens x272) was rude to her and she got off the phone and asked me to step in.
I called Jeff and asked what was going on. He fed me the same line about paying for the insurance of the shipment. I responded by saying you cannot state free shipping in multiple places on your website and then call and basically say "Ha Ha, just kidding, pay us another $289 or you don't get the product". He started yelling at me (bear in mind I did not speak to him in an agitated voice in any way) saying I shouldn't bother ever calling them again until I "learned how to speak to people".
I told him to cancel the order and hung up.
Classic bait and switch operation. Run away!
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I wanted to write this update because after posting reviews on Yelp, Reseller Ratings, and the BBB, I received a call from Abe's of Maine's customer service manager who was very nice and very helpful. He apologized numerous times for everything that transpired and agreed to sell the TV to my mother for exactly what is listed on the website (read: no additional charges). The TV was delivered today (white glove) and everything looks good."
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2015-09-16
3/5
"UPDATE:
Initially, I gave this company 1 star and titled my review "stay away from this company". Today I received an e-mail from the vice president of BuildDirect who stepped in, had already reviewed the entire situation so that I didn't have to start from scratch, listened, and took the time to really understand everything that had happened. He was so distressed by this situation that he not only offered to make the customer whole by providing a full refund for the door, but also to cover all of the additional costs we incurred.
Beyond that, and after he finishes taking care of everything for his customer, he promised to dive into the sales and management personnel involved in causing the situation to escalate to the point it did and implement immediate changes to ensure this doesn't happen to any other customer.
Though I wish it never went as far as it did, having a VP step in and do what he did, as well as show so much compassion for the customer, truly says that this company deserves a second chance. It's not very often that you find a company willing to go above and beyond for a customer and BuildDirect proved that to me today. Therefore I have changed my 1 star rating to 3 stars.
Based on only today's experience with the VP, BuildDirect would receive 5 stars without question, but I think it's important to understand that as of this moment, it took weeks of back and forth, as well as a lengthy online review posted across multiple websites, to rectify the issues. I truly hope that this never happens to anyone else and I do encourage others to give BuildDirect a try.
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INITIAL REVIEW (edited due to character limitations):
We purchased an iron door from BuildDirect in Aug of 2015. When the door showed up via freight we were very impressed with how it was packaged and protected. Everything looked great. Even though my wife and I own a company that renovates homes, we hired a company that specialized in iron door installations to install this new door and remove our existing front door. Once the install company took a look at the door when they were going to install it that's when the issues came to bear.
The door was one complete piece with the threshold welded onto the frame so there was no way to adjust the threshold to make it level with the ground. The mortising that was supposed to fit any standard hardware wasn't manufactured correctly so neither the latch nor the deadbolt pieces were able to sit flush. This caused the door to not be able to close (i.e. they were too shallow and the door hardware stuck out the sides). The strike side of the both the latch and deadbolt were in the wrong place causing the door not to close and seal properly. The deadbolt strike plate mortise had a piece of iron overlapping causing no strike plate to be able to be installed. The door also slightly touched the frame when closing and the top of the door, on the hinge side, had small piece of iron that wasn't even with the rest of the door, causing it to scrape the top of the frame every time it was opened and closed.
I was asked to take as many photos of the issues as possible. I took 11 detailed photos and notated each one with a detailed description. That wasn't good enough and they asked me to take additional photos, suggesting the door wasn't level. I proved that both the frame and the door were perfectly level and installed correctly and that wasn't good enough. They asked for even more photos and I once again complied, this time taking a 6ft level and proving without a doubt that everything was perfectly installed.
On Sept 10th BD sent out a handyman to confirm the various issues. He saw them all and informed us that BuildDirect is "very concerned about their online reputation". He also made sure to tell us before he left that "If it were me, I would expect them to provide a brand new door and pay for not only the installation but all of the finishing work required to make everything perfect". He even went as far as to point out that we would probably need a whole new door frame since the bolts to install this door had to be drilled into the frame.
The amount of time and stress involved in this process far outweighs any money we may have saved by ordering from BuildDirect. Most of what BuildDirect tells you isn't true because they aren't familiar with the products they sell, and if something arrives with bad manufacturing, they'll try to put the blame on you. Their prices might be amazing, but as we all eventually learn, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Stay far away from BuildDirect."
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