Complaint Review: Generators Direct A.k.a. Hurrican Protection Technologies

In early November 2007, our company placed an order on-line for 2 generators and 3 automatic transfer switches for a total of over $21,000. We chose this company because their website claimed that the items were "in stock" and we needed the items right away. We were asked to prepay with a check, which we sent via Express Mail. The company did not cash the check, but instead debited our account electronically on Nov. 8th (how they did this without our permission is still a mystery). The order confirmation e-mail stated that they will hold our order pending receipt of payment for up to 5 days, and we were told they estimated delivery before Nov. 26th.

On Nov. 15th I received an e-mail stating "the lead time for this order is 6-8 weeks the unit needs to be built up", to which I replied "which units had a 6-8 lead time?? On your website, both units state In Stock YES". E-mail correspondence went back & forth for 2 weeks but the only response I received of any substance was that the units were coming from China (and NOT in stock as advertised on their website) and therefore there is a 6-8 week lead time.

On Dec. 5th, I received an e-mail asking for my fax# so the salesperson could fax over final documents for the order coming from China, to which I replied promptly with our fax#, and the company stated they could not get through on our fax#, although we receive numerous faxes every day. Finally, on December 12th, I asked them to scan & e-mail the documents instead of faxing them. What was e-mailed to me was a Sales Contract and Security Agreement, which they stated was required before they could place our order with China!! This is now 5 weeks after they received pre-payment for the order, and the first time there was ever any mention of a contract - we had already received an order confirmation from them. By this time, we were supposed to be at least close to receiving our order, and we found out the order had not even been placed.

We were so fed up dealing with this company, I told the owner to just cancel our order and refund our money. He stated there would be a 25% re-stocking fee! but the items were not even in stock! We cannot afford to lose 25% of $21,000 = over $5,000, so we decided to go ahead & sign the contract and hopefully get our order expedited seeing as we had been through so much.

At that time (Dec. 13th), we were expecting a 6-8 week lead time, which would make delivery around end of January. I called the owner February 4th inquiring as to the status of shipment of our order. He stated that the order had not yet shipped, it was Chinese New Year and the order would not be shipped until at least the end of February. Appalled, I asked how long it takes to get from China to FL and he said another 21-29 days, making delivery end of March at best. If we ever get delivery at all. Because this company has not lived up to a single word yet, so what reason do I have to believe that they will ever deliver our generators??

I looked them up at the Better Business Bureau of Southeast FL (http://www.bbbsoutheastflorida.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Utils/CompanySearchForm.aspx?RedirectCode=7111&CompanyName=Generators+Direct&sm=), where they received a rating of F (yes Flunked, just like school) and there are 3 unanswered complaints with the BBB. They also go by another name Hurricane Protection Technologies, who also received a rating of F (http://www.bbbsoutheastflorida.org/BBBWeb/Forms/Business/CompanyReportPage_Expository.aspx?CompanyID=11008588)

Buyer Beware!! DO NOT do business with this company!

Tower Top Investments
St. Thomas, VI
Virgin Islands (U.S.)