I ordered over $400 worth of pond supplies on March 30th from Pond Appeal, LLC and put the charge on my credit card. This company had the lure of free shipping along with an enticing array of products and reasonable prices. I could never have been more wrong.
I noticed within a few days the charge had already hit my credit card which I took to mean that the product was in stock and shipping soon. This was definitely not the case, because after three weeks my order had not shown up. My first step was to contact the company and find out the status of my order. Following the instructions in their order confirmation email, I emailed the company. I received an email response within a day that stated the supplier was behind but rest assured my products will be shipped that day or the following day at the latest.
When I received this email, apparently I proved I was gullible enough to believe what I read. After another week without any merchandise I emailed them again. This time, I did not receive any response. I then proceeded to call them using their 800 number. I had to leave a message and asked that someone get in touch with me. No response. I then e-mailed the company again. Again no response. At this point I have called and left messages 4 times and e-mailed 7 times.
Their web site boasts of the ability to use online help. However, their online help never seems to be online regardless of what time of day I access their web site. I can only guess their hours of operation are between 9:00: 01am GMT and 9:00: 02am GMT. Along with off-line online help, there is an online help contact number that you can call and leave a voice message. This number is surprisingly even less effective because the mailbox is full. I can only guess it is full because of all of the dissatisfied customers such as me.
After eight weeks of having been charged but not receiving any merchandise, I contacted my credit card company and the Better Business Bureau. I don't know if this was the catalyst to finally getting the company to stop ignoring me or not, but I finally received a phone call in response to my phone message from three weeks earlier. I talked to a very agreeable and apologetic person who informed me that the company was going through some issues which they have now resolved. After looking into my order, she informed me that the problem was that my order was never processed. She gave me the alternative to cancel or process the order. Wishing to no longer be associated with this company, I chose the option of canceling my order and receiving a refund. It struck me as peculiar hearing the order was not processed since the charge was processed almost instantaneously upon receipt of my order.
Anyway, I now realize that the voice which I interpreted as apologetic or even remorseful was in fact simply placating. After over a week there is been no change in my order status nor has there been any credit to my charge account.
I thank heaven for my credit card company who not only is looking into the matter for me, but without question applied a credit to my account for the charge from this deceiving and fraudulent company.
Do not purchase anything from this company!
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