My husband and I had put an ad in our local paper for a vehicle we were selling. A few days later I had a message on my machine from "Allen" with Longwood Industries stating there are several people interested in our vehicle and to give them a call. I had waited a week or so first to see if we would get a response from the ad in the paper, and when we didn't, I called Longwood.
I spoke with a gal by the name of Rachel, who took all the info on the vehicle and said there will be a charge of $150.00 to list the vehicle for 90 days and if we included a photo online and did not sell our vehicle within this time period we could get a refund of $129.00 as the extra would be a fee for listing. I agreed and our bank was immediately charged the same day for this fee. I downloaded some pictures and the ad was up in 15 minutes as promised.
After my husband got home that day, he was doing further research on this company (as he always told me to do, but for some reason I neglected to do so) and found nothing but complaints and ripoffs about Longwood/biglot.com. I called the company the next day and demanded my money back from a rep by the name of Jane. I told her about all the complaints I read, and she said she'd talk to her manager. After I was on hold for 3 or 4 minutes, she said she could cancel my ad and return my $129.00. I told her that I wanted my entire fee returned, but that wasn't possible. So I just let the ad go and decided I would send my receipt in after the 90 days was up and get my money back that way. At least the vehicle would be listed on the internet.
I had taken a chance and looked online at my ad and decided to email myself asking about the vehicle, just to see if I would get my responses. After 5 days of not getting the 4 emails I sent myself, I called Longwood. I was on hold for 25 minutes (I called FIRST THING in the morning when the company opened) and spoke with another rep. She appologized and said she was the only gal there answering phones as the other reps mom was in the hospital. I told her about how I sent myself emails and never received them. She said that they scan all emails for fraud, so there is a delay in any reponses I would get. I told her that was 5 days ago. She again said she was the only one there that day and phones always come first and would get to the emails when she could.
Now it was my understanding that email is the only way buyers would be able to contact you about your listing, so if it's taking these people this long to go thru emails from potential buyers (or supposed potential buyers) how are you ever supposed to get your vehicle sold? 3 more days went by and I got 1 out of the 4 emails I sent myself. Then 5 more days later I got 2 more. Never did receive the 4th email.
I filed a complaint with my local Attorney General's office and received a reply that they would contact Longwood, but they are only a mediator and I may have to take legal action. But Longwood had 14 days to respond.
I then went to look at my ad online and it wasn't there. I immediately called Longwood and spoke with Michele. She told me that when I called to demand my money back (the day after my ad was posted) that I requested the ad to be cancelled. This was totally false as the ad had been online for 35 days already and I told her it was online as of 2 days ago. She appologized and reactivated my ad.
This morning I went to look at my ad again, and it again was not there. But when I went to look at my bank account status I had been refunded the entire fee of $150.00. I still have had no contact from Longwood Industries about this, so will be curious to get a letter from them.
Please do not due business with this company as it is a ripoff! I learned not to do this again, and wanted to warn others as well to really check out any business before agreeing to anything!
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