Complaint Review: Web Direct Brands

Bought an expensive slide gate and an electric gate opener from this outfit. Well over $2K for the whole setup. The gate was OK but the gate operator (450BD) is not. I lived part time at this location. Setup worked fine for a while, mostly it was unused. Then we had a hail storm and the cover broke exposing the electronics to water.

Circuit board failed. Had to pay for replacements as company states "hail damage not covered". Duh, this is an outdoor product. Circuit board showed up but it was the wrong kind. Cover did not show up until much later. Returned circuit board and had to resort to a dispute through the CC company to get a refund.

Company denied and resisted. Then I bought another circuit board, I found the brown fiber padded envelope laying in my driveway sopping wet. Their shipper (I think it was fedex) just threw it over the locked gate. Returned that unopened. The company denied getting it back. I had to produce the tracking info.

They finally sent me another circuit board (this was now maybe a year into this pantomine) and I installed it. Worked for a while then the transformer died. It's supposed to be "resettable" but it's not. Company was not very helpful.  I bought another transformer. Then a month or so later the circuit board died again.  Contacted company resigned to buy another board at circa $200 a pop and was told they no longer supply that part.

I was told I would have to buy a whole new gate opener. That was maybe 18 months ago now. I have been looking on ebay for a circuit board but this is a 24V AC board and it's proprietary. I refuse to start over with this company. So my fancy gate is a manual gate which is really annoying as you have to get out of your car twice every time you enter or leave. 

I would add that their site uses a company called "TRUST PILOT" to display user reviews, most all of which are glowing of course. I don't "TRUST" any of them. But don't waste your time going through TRUST PILOT. They have 60 excuses for rejecting your review. You have to prove you bought something.

Excuse 1: "It's not a pdf". Duh, you can't create a pdf from a paper invoice. You can scan or photograph it but there is no way I know to get it in pdf format.  The last straw was when they told me that my invoice from "Web Direct Brands" was not going to cut it ... because it did not say "Gatecrafters" on it. I even had some emails from the company from "webdirectbrands.com" signed "Gatecrafters" and Trust Pilot is still trying to wriggle out of putting my review back up. I wonder whether they are so picky in verifying reviews that are positive (even checking whether they are fake?).

Another sneaky thing: you won't find this outfit on Google Maps so you can't leave feedback there. According to Google it does not exist. You can't even find a physical address on their website. 

All in all these people are masters of deception. Caveat emptor.