Best Buy Pool Supply LLC Bait and Switch Rancho Cordova, California
Their online site advertises trademarked name brand merchandise. Then they do a bait-and-switch by shipping a generic item of low quality. I ordered a Blue Wave Arctic Armor Pool Cover, but that isn't the brand that I received from them.
Their defense is that it doesn't matter, since they consider it the same quality. But then, that would mean the trademark holder has no legal rights, and the consumer is duped.
Even after being confronted with their false advertising, their website continues to advertise under the trademark with no intention of selling the name brand. Their e-mail claims they have changed suppliers, but that is no excuse for continuing to falsely use the trademark of a product they don't sell.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
BestBuyPoolSupplyCustomerService
Rancho Cordova,California,
United States of America
No Bait and Switch here
#2UPDATE Employee
Tue, October 04, 2011
As our policies state "Product substitutions may be necessary at times due to out of stock conditions. The substitutions would be of equal or greater value to the item ordered and of equal quality and functionality." This is not a practice of bait and switch; instead, we do this to ensure we are able to fulfill orders in a timely manner. Blue Wave is merely a distribution center that acts as one of our drop-shippers, not the manufacturer of Arctic Armor covers. The trademarked name Arctic Armor comes from a manufacturer located in China. Blue Wave orders a limited supply per season and when this inventory sells out, it is deemed out of stock for the season. The Arctic Armor cover that the customer had ordered had a backorder period of over 60 days. The cover that was shipped to the consumer was manufactured by Hinsperger's Poly Industries (HPI) located in Medina, NY. This domestic cover is of higher quality than the Arctic Armor and is considered a better value.
The consumer initially emailed our customer service department stating that he had received a different cover than what he had ordered. I responded to the consumer explaining the above details to him and did not hear back so it was assumed the consumer was satisfied with the explanation. The consumer then filed a Better Business Bureau dispute and Ripoff report. In response to the consumer's complaint, Best Buy Pool Supply paid for return shipping and issued a full credit to customer.
The following is a link of HPI's website describing the domestic winter cover that the customer received in place of the Arctic Armor brand - http://yardguardpoolproducts.com/products_covers_poly.cfm