Complaint / Review
Celebrity Prime Foods
Or Home Acceptance Corporation ripoff Dishonest sales techniques, overpriced applicance, gouging interest rate

In July we received a call asking if we were interested in an at-home food delivery service. We agreed to meet with a sales person and subsequently made an order.

We were told that when subscribing to the food service, we must have a freezer provided by Celebrity Foods, unless we already had our own. The salesman showed us that the freezer was not going to cost us any extra, because each food order would include a "12% discount" which covered the cost of the freezer. We would be required to make separate payments for the food and the freezer, even though he assured us it was really not a separate bill.

We balked at the idea of (what we thought was) renting a freezer, but we believed the salesman's pitch about it not costing us anything. I asked the salesman what would happen if we decided we did not want to subscribe to Celebrity Foods after our initial order, or any other time down the road, and he said, "No problem, we come and pick everything up."

We subscribed to Celebrity Foods for one year (2 6-month orders). We decided we did not want to renew. We then were told that we had "bought" a freezer and now have an empty, unwanted and very expensive appliance in our garage for which we have to make monthly payments.

Even though the freezer was handled on a separate contract, I was strongly led by the salesman to believe that the freezer was TIED TO THE FOOD SERVICE, not a separate "purchase." This impression was confirmed when I talked to manager at the Lynnwood, WA, office— she confirmed that the food service and freezer are a package deal, but would offer no resolution to our complaint.

At the time of purchase, we were never told we were purchasing a major appliance. We were wanting a food service, not a freezer! We since discovered that the president of Celebrity Prime Foods, Mark Gombar, is also president of Home Acceptance Corporation, which FINANCES the applicances at ridiculous rates. This guy is making a killing.

He only satisfaction Celebrity has offer is for us renew an order to "offset the cost of the freezer. Sounds like a cheat?