Nothing but lies!
Written: Nov 25 '08
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I have a lot to say about this company! From reading the other negative reviews on this site, I can see that my bad experience was not a singular one.
I purchased a Samsung Black Pearl Refrigerator from this company 10/23/08. Prior to the sale, I had been in contact with the seller regarding shipping arrangements, etc. I was told I could purchase "white glove treatment" for $65, which means the delivery men would bring the appliance into our house ("Whatever it takes"). We agreed upon a price of $1,450 over the phone and a $75 rebate from the manufacturer which would be sent to me via email. The representative, Craig, asked me to call him and discuss price matching another eBay seller because he did not want to deal with the mater over email. During our phone conversation, he told me this price was to include the "white glove treatment". I went over this point with him specifically several times to be sure that this request was indeed what I was getting for the price.
According to the seller's info on the listing and from talking to them, the item should have arrived in 3 business days. I ordered it on 10/23 so that the item would arrive at a convenient time in my work schedule. I did not talk to the original man I had discussed the price with, Craig, because he was gone for the week due to having his wisdom teeth pulled. Craig's supervisor, Avi handled my order via phone and verified the price WITH white glove treatment and billed me accordingly. Because eBay would not allow him to change the selling price on their website, Avi quickly sent me a $50 payment on PayPal to compensate.
The three business days passed and I received no shipping information, so I contacted the seller again. I was told how busy they are and they would get back to me when they had time. When I talked to them again later that day, I was told by Craig that the order had not been fully processed due to an oversight made by Avi. At that time, Craig processed the order and explained that my fridge would be shipped soon. I chalked it up to circumstances out of our hands and accepted the fact that it would not be here as planned when I was off from work.
We received a phone call from the shipping company to set up a delivery appointment, which again came and went with NO contact from anyone to let me know why. I had taken work off to be home and arranged a babysitter. Once again, no refrigerator! My husband called the shipping company and was told that the sellers had stopped the delivery and requested it to go back to their Ohio warehouse. When I dug deeper, I found out that the delivery company (Milan) did not have a lift on a truck large enough to hold this appliance. The seller had not notified them of the package's weight and size. The woman at Milan told me this has happened before and it usually is because the seller is trying to sneak by and get a cheaper shipping rate for themselves.
Contacting the seller resulted in them finding a different shipping company, Estes. We once again set up an appointment to have the refrigerator delivered. I called the seller back to make sure with all this shuffling and confusion I would still be getting the "white glove treatment" and not be forgotten in the mix. They got back to me and told me I would need to pay them another $250 to have the delivery men bring it into the house, rather than dropping this huge item off literally on the curb! I told them this was unacceptable, as I had agreed upon this condition with Craig and paid for it in my initial purchase price.
When contacting Estes, I was told that once again the seller had "conveniently" left out the important information on how large this item is. The secretary there said that this company has done this before in order to get a cheaper shipping rate. Once again, no fridge.
After a period of several days playing phone tag, I finally ended up talking to Avirather than Tia, the secretary. He told me that when I made the order I didn't mention the white glove treatment. I am positive that I did, and more than once. Secondly, the order had not even been processed completely by Ahmi in the first place, so when Craig finalized the order he was fully aware of what we had discussed and should have made any necessary corrections at that time.
Avi said that because I supposedly neglected to inform him of this white glove treatment request, I was not charged the proper amount to include it; therefore, the item was not sent via the proper delivery service. I reiterated to them that I had, in fact, paid for this, and the item had been relayed to a second shipping company because of their mistake and neglect in reporting the shipping weight. He then referred to the white glove treatment as a $75 fee. When I corrected him Ahmi blew off my question as "$65, $75 whatever," but then later in the conversation raised this obviously arbitrary fee to $100. As noted before, I was told by the secretary told to pay an extra $250, which is why I made this call to question it in the first place. Ahmi was very rude, raising his voice, talking over me and basically calling me a liar, which I pointed out and he did not deny. I was not even able to explain my side of the story because every time I tried to talk I was quickly overpowered. He implied that I left out information purposely in order to cheat or deceive, which I most certainly did not and would never do. I felt humiliated and disrespected. Through the entire process, I have been very calm and understanding, even when inconvenienced and stressed.
Avi put me on hold and said he would ask Craig what the terms were we had agreed upon, but would not allow me to talk directly to him. When he came back he told me a price much higher than what the auction was even listed at! He said Craig gave me a price of $1,600 plus $75 for "white glove". This is a false claim because the auction price was listed $1,499.95 in the first place! As I stated before, Craig quoted me $1,450 plus a $75 rebate from the manufacturer that I would print out and mail in later (which, by the way, I asked for twice and never received, even in my spam folder).
After this discussion, I told the seller I would prefer to get my money back and not purchase the refrigerator from them. I had been given the run around, lost many days from work, and wasted enough time. I STILL didn't have a refrigerator and it had been nearly a month since purchase. The seller told me to get a refund I need to pay the freight charges to have the item shipped back to their warehouse, a sum of several hundred dollars according to the shipping company.
My husband and I discussed the problem and decided once again to make things work to avoid additional drama. I contacted the Estes delivery company again and explained our dilemma. The secretary, Becky, asked me where I got the $250 figure from, because their fee for inside delivery (their form of "white glove") is $50! She was shocked when I told her A M Royal had relayed the false information to me and she also felt that I was being scammed. After talking to Becky several times I decided not to let anyone at A M Royal know that I had uncovered another of their lies because at this point I just wanted to get my refrigerator and end the not-so-sweet relationship that had now been established. I was afraid if I mentioned the information they might throw yet another monkey wrench into the works to prevent the appliance getting to us. Becky said I could set up another delivery appointment, and I agreed that I would pay the Estes delivery company the extra $50 required in order to have the fridge brought into my house. She said I would just need to provide the delivery men tools, if needed, and my check, and entered the alotted time into their schedule. Everything was settled with Estes, who had been doing their best the whole time they had the package to smooth things over and make it work.
I contacted A M Royal again and asked Tia to please send me, in writing, their company's return policy in case some defect or damage was found with the refrigerator. I had to request this twice. When I finally received the email, I was satisfied with what I read and felt safer. I believe that me adamantly asking for this extra information spooked the seller and prompted the turn of events that occured next...
I got a message on my answering machine from Becky at Estes the night before scheduled delivery, but she was gone when I got home from work so I called as soon as their office opened the next morning. She told me the seller had stopped delivery once again and was having it shipped back to their warehouse (again!). A M Royal never called to inform me of this new change in plans, and I would have never known had Becky not called me herself. She said that the seller had called and told her superiors that this was an "industrial size" refrigerator such as seen in a professional kitchen and that it was so gigantically large that there was no way the delivery men would be able to get it in my house. This was a pretty amazing statement to make, considering firstly this is a normal, residental side-by-side refrigerator available at Lowe's, and secondly, I can assure you the seller has never been invited over for a dinner party to see the size of my house! My husband and I had measured all doorways accurately in addition to the same physical refrigerator at a local store and knew that this particular model was the same size as our old appliance. Both would need the doors removed to fit through (which is not at all uncommon when moving a refrigerator of any size), of which Estes was aware of and approved.
I once again called Tia and was told she would look into this new problem. I had to call her back from work, as she did not return my call within the time frame given to me when I told her I would be home. Tia said that they had not turned the shipment around again, and explained that there was another party involved (an important piece of information which had been kept from me until now). The "distributor," Alamo, was supposedly the culprit who made the false claims and had now prevented my refrigerator from reaching my home once again, according to A M Royal! Tia told me that in the time she had worked there she had seen another situation very similar to ours, but was unsure of the final outcome. (From the multiple bad reviews here on ePinions, I can see that I am not just one of the few, but one of the many)
We decided to give one last chance to the company to make things right. I gave them an ultimatum. Either next-day delivery (in which I myself pay the $50 inside delivery fee to Estes -- I already gave up on trying to recover that "white glove delivery included" sham), or a full refund of my money. We needed it the next day because we were leaving for vacation the following day and could not arrange someone to be here for delivery. Tia said she would do what she could and would let me know in a most timely manner so I could make plans accordingly. I gave her my husband's cell phone number to call because we were going to be out purchasing supplies for our trip, and let her know we wouldn't be at home to answer our land line number. She said she already had the cell phone number from a previous call, but wrote it down again anyways. The phone call never came. When we got home that evening, there was a message on the answering machine which was garbled, incomplete and could not be understood. I had to call the next morning as soon as the office opened and was told that no delivery could be arranged and "unfortunately," I was to not only pay freight charges for the unit to be taken back to the warehouse, but that now there would be an additional 25% "restocking" fee! Tia's excuse for why I wasn't called on the cell phone as I asked was that she must have wrote the number down wrong (twice?!).
I don't like the way this company is handling the mistakes they made. I did not "forget" information or leave things out. I understand that a phone conversation is impossible to document, and I wish I had been able to discuss any price negotiation via email, in writing, but Craig insisted otherwise. The seller had hundreds of positive feedbacks on their eBay store, and at that time, not even one negative. I felt this showed they were trustworthy, but obviously I was wrong, and now I just feel taken advantage of.
The one negative in the past months read,
"Over 2 wks, no communication, no status, requesting refund for large $$ amt." - arbonne4others
I don't believe this situation was taken care of properly and I feel that charging me to return it to them when the item never even arrived at my house due to A M Royal's multiple errors is bad business and deceptive. Even though I paid for this item in full, I have never seen the refrigerator, touched this refrigerator, nor do I even know it is the correct item or in undamaged condition! I cannot imagine what a nightmare this could turn into if the product turned out to be damaged or defective after we installed it.
After threatening to file a claim with PayPal several times and eventually just doing it, we received a refund for most of the purchase price, minus $80 for 2 "delivery refusals"!
The first delivery scheduled through Milan was turned around by A & M Royal with no notification or information relayed to me or my husband, before or even after the fact. The company did not provide the delivery company with accurate information - we are not responsible for this.
The second delivery scheduled with Milan was also thwarted by A M Royal or a division of the company ("distributor" Alamo), again without notifying my husband or I at any point. We are not responsible for this cancellation, either.
We are currently in the process of recovering the $80 A M Royal kept, as well. I am so grateful that our purchase was made through PayPal and thus protected. I feel so badly for those who were not so fortunate and had to count it as a loss.
Stay away from this company, you are playing Roulette with your money! Maybe you will have a "great experience," but maybe it will turn out like mine. Can you afford to risk it?
Recommended:
No
What product did you purchase or try to purchase? Samsung French Door Refrigerator - Black Pearl
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About the Author
Member: Emily Ellsworth
Location: Salem, Ohio
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me: I'm a married 23 year old mom of a toddler.
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