In January we attended the Home and Landscape Expo.in Sacramento. Imperial Outdoor Living had a good size booth there with several barbeque models and told us they are a major supplier to many patio outlets including California Backyard. If we bought from them direct at the show, we would save over 50% of what we would have to pay a patio store for a similar product. So we signed a contract for a barbeque, putting the required 1/3rd deposit down.in June we put the second installment and provided them with our choice for exact color and tile. They called us in late September and gave us an early October delivery date for our barbeque. The last installment would be paid at delivery. A couple of days before delivery was due, they called us and said that they were merging with Paradise Barbeque Islands and our delivery would be delayed due to the merger. A few days later, someone called representing themselves to be from Paradise Barbeque Islands and said that as a result of the inconvenience, we were either welcome to take $200 off the price of our order or get some free upgrades - what would we like. We chose the mark-down. We tried to get a date of delivery and they said they didn't know because this merger was new and things were up in the air but they would be gettng back to us on that. We tried to call them in late December and they had a recording saying they would be gone for the holidays and would be back in the office on January 8. On January 8th, 9th, and 10th we called. It was still a recording and when we tried to leave a message, it said the mailbox was full. Then... We decided to look on the Better Business Bureau site. This company is rated an "F", with 92 complaints at the time we checked, and they recommended not to do business with this company. We have about $2700 cash down on this barbeque.
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