Let the buyer beware! Don't make the same mistake I did and do business with this company!
Virtual Realities, Inc.
6702 Stewart Road
Suite A
Galveston, Texas 77551
I called this company and asked about their warrantee. The person who answered had a very distinct voice and was a bit gruff, but said that they happily fix anything that is damaged as long as it was not damaged by the consumer. I asked him about a refund policy to which he replied, "You will thoroughly enjoy it." I also asked him if if there would be any after Christmas specials. He replied, No, everything goes back to normal pricing (I recently looked at the website and found that the Christmas specials are now New Years specials).
I ordered the i-vision Hi-Res glasses that were advertised online as a Christmas special. They were "$100 off" and came with a free DVD player. The glasses had a speck of something inside on the right eyepiece.
Two days after I received the shipment, the DVD player quit working. I pretty much shrugged that off since it was an off brand I figured they couldn't sell otherwise. But when the left eyepiece started shorting out, I e-mailed them. This e-mail was sent to them on the 21st of December.
After my e-mail was ignored, I called them on the 29th of December. The same voice I talked with before answered and I told him what happened and he said he had never heard of that happening before. There was then a pause as if he expected me to apologize for having a brand new problem. I asked him what I need to do to get this fixed, He asked me what my order number was, as if to catch me unprepared. Unfortunately for him, I had it written down and rattled it off to him. There was another pause and he told me that the staff was gone and to call back Monday (today, the 31st).
This company has a phone menu (press 1 for sales department, 0 for operator, etc.) I called back and pressed 1 - that resulted in my hearing a recording that they were busy, to leave a recording and they would return my call, and then they hung up on me. After them not returning my e-mail, I was suspicious of this. So I called back and this time pressed 0 to speak to the operator. Again, that same voice that I had spoken with twice before, answered and in response to my needing to exchange, he told me that I need to e-mail the company and I will be issued whatever I need to send them back the merchandise so that they "can test it."
I asked him what his refund policy is (again) and this time he said they don't have one. I asked him why didn't he tell me about needing to e-mail the company when I talked with him on Saturday instead of just having me call back today. He then started saying I don't need to argue and saying I was being irate and interrupting me to say it. I told him I was tired of getting the runaround by this company. He then insulted me. I responded by telling him that I would tell everyone I knew to never do business with this company.
He then responded by using the F word and calling me a g*d*mn pr*ck. I called back in an attempt to speak with someone else about what just happened (although at this point, I am really beginning to think that this company is in fact only one person. He answered the phone and said, "You again?! Here, talk to my manager - his name is Bob." And then he hit some buttons to make the computer cuss me out. I tried calling back three more times and each time I got the computer sound cussing me out. I then tried to call the BBB via information. He then called me back (!) and started harassing me.
All he did was say I did this and that - things I did not do and talk over me when i tried to talk. I hung up. A few minutes later he called back - more harassment. I told him that businesses do not cuss out the customers, do not interrupt the customers and that his days of Internet fraud are over and I hung up. He called back again but I let it ring. He filled my voice mail with about 30 seconds of dead air. This all happened right before I went to work at 1 PM. When I went home at 9 PM, I found the following e-mail, and I am convinced it was sent by the same person in an attempt to "cover his tracks":
12/31/07
Dear mr. H (redacted),
First and foremost as we told you three times when you called today, we will be happy to exchange the product you bought from us for another if you would like or even refund you for your purchase. We are sorry if you are having problems with your product and customer service is our #1 priority.
We do however ask is that you act in a professional manner. We will not tolerate you cursing at our employees and threatening them as you did today on the phone when in fact they were only trying to help facilitate your needs. Again, this will not be tolerated.
Let us know if you would like to exchange or refund and we will send you the appropriate information ASAP. If however, you decide to continue the verbal abuse and threats, we will be of no further help in this matter.
Best Regards,
Armand - VR
Absolutely nothing stated in this letter happened in the phone calls. Period.
I would like the defective product fixed. Unfortunately, I don't feel that is going to happen and I certainly don't want to send this product back to these people if there is a ghost of a chance that someone else would cheerfully attempt to fix them. I feel that if I sent them back to have them "test them", I would either get nothing back or I would get the same exact product back with a note attached saying, "there's nothing wrong with these." Nobody deserves this costly grief!
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