Lance
Stratford,#2Consumer Comment
Wed, March 30, 2005
Jim (and other victims) - Joining forces on this site is limited. I see comments many times like "contact me" or "please email", but the editors/owners of this site are trying to limit their legal liability and will remove such contact information from the emails. It's their site and it's their right. I like the site in that it offers a little more assurance and peace of mind than contacting Consumer Protection agencies since those agencies will only tell you how many complaints have been filed against a company. This site will tell you specifics of the 'ripoffs'. Other than that, the power of this site to get your money back is limited. However, as a former victim of the AHF business practices, I have thought about ways of making it difficult for AHF to do business. During my ordeal, I had even put together a spread sheet of their order system and gathered information on a weekly basis on what they were actually delivering (which wasn't the 100's of orders a month which they stated in their rebuttals). I had typed in random order numbers to get status which helped me cope with the fact that they were ripping me off since it showed that many others were in the same boat. Anyway, they have since 'encoded' their order status with the first letters of the customers last name and order number. Since I had stressed so much over this (like many others), I still have the scars and still feel some pain - there's nothing I can do about that. But maybe I can make some suggestions here that will help since this site is a collector of many people who've been slighted by this company. 1) People tend to run into the 'brick wall' of being bounced from the shipping chat, no return emails or phone calls. Well - there is always a live person on the sales line and I believe there always will be. No one will hand over thousands of $ unless they talk to a real person. I suggest that folks call the sales lines and insist on getting status. Pester the heck out of the sales force - they are part of the scam too. Do not give up. It does get trying at times. Pose as a new customer. Call from your cell phone, pay phone, whatever - so that they do not know if you are an existing customer or a new customer (i.e. caller ID). The sales lines will become consumed with many angry customers and they will lose sales. This is a legitimate tactic - it is not illegal. They cannot do anything about it. 2) Hit the endorsers of their business. NWFA and others should pull their endorsement of such a business. If they do not after so many dissatisfied customers, then their organization is suspect as well. Again, call call call...do not use email. 3) Letters to Consumer Protection, Attorney General, etc is always necessary. It doesn't seem to get the wood delivered any faster, but you need to keep your opponent reeling after they've taken you. These things aren't much, but doing them in unison adds up and it will get noticed. One final word on my ordeal - I had contacted a few attorney's and they generally wanted $3000 or more up front to take any action. That was a significant portion of my $5000 purchase so I wasn't about to throw good money after bad. The reason is that even if a court judgement is in your favor, you still have to collect and there is no enforcement of collection (i.e. no one from AHF will go to jail as a result).
Lance
Stratford,#3Consumer Comment
Wed, March 30, 2005
Jim (and other victims) - Joining forces on this site is limited. I see comments many times like "contact me" or "please email", but the editors/owners of this site are trying to limit their legal liability and will remove such contact information from the emails. It's their site and it's their right. I like the site in that it offers a little more assurance and peace of mind than contacting Consumer Protection agencies since those agencies will only tell you how many complaints have been filed against a company. This site will tell you specifics of the 'ripoffs'. Other than that, the power of this site to get your money back is limited. However, as a former victim of the AHF business practices, I have thought about ways of making it difficult for AHF to do business. During my ordeal, I had even put together a spread sheet of their order system and gathered information on a weekly basis on what they were actually delivering (which wasn't the 100's of orders a month which they stated in their rebuttals). I had typed in random order numbers to get status which helped me cope with the fact that they were ripping me off since it showed that many others were in the same boat. Anyway, they have since 'encoded' their order status with the first letters of the customers last name and order number. Since I had stressed so much over this (like many others), I still have the scars and still feel some pain - there's nothing I can do about that. But maybe I can make some suggestions here that will help since this site is a collector of many people who've been slighted by this company. 1) People tend to run into the 'brick wall' of being bounced from the shipping chat, no return emails or phone calls. Well - there is always a live person on the sales line and I believe there always will be. No one will hand over thousands of $ unless they talk to a real person. I suggest that folks call the sales lines and insist on getting status. Pester the heck out of the sales force - they are part of the scam too. Do not give up. It does get trying at times. Pose as a new customer. Call from your cell phone, pay phone, whatever - so that they do not know if you are an existing customer or a new customer (i.e. caller ID). The sales lines will become consumed with many angry customers and they will lose sales. This is a legitimate tactic - it is not illegal. They cannot do anything about it. 2) Hit the endorsers of their business. NWFA and others should pull their endorsement of such a business. If they do not after so many dissatisfied customers, then their organization is suspect as well. Again, call call call...do not use email. 3) Letters to Consumer Protection, Attorney General, etc is always necessary. It doesn't seem to get the wood delivered any faster, but you need to keep your opponent reeling after they've taken you. These things aren't much, but doing them in unison adds up and it will get noticed. One final word on my ordeal - I had contacted a few attorney's and they generally wanted $3000 or more up front to take any action. That was a significant portion of my $5000 purchase so I wasn't about to throw good money after bad. The reason is that even if a court judgement is in your favor, you still have to collect and there is no enforcement of collection (i.e. no one from AHF will go to jail as a result).
Lance
Stratford,#4Consumer Comment
Wed, March 30, 2005
Jim (and other victims) - Joining forces on this site is limited. I see comments many times like "contact me" or "please email", but the editors/owners of this site are trying to limit their legal liability and will remove such contact information from the emails. It's their site and it's their right. I like the site in that it offers a little more assurance and peace of mind than contacting Consumer Protection agencies since those agencies will only tell you how many complaints have been filed against a company. This site will tell you specifics of the 'ripoffs'. Other than that, the power of this site to get your money back is limited. However, as a former victim of the AHF business practices, I have thought about ways of making it difficult for AHF to do business. During my ordeal, I had even put together a spread sheet of their order system and gathered information on a weekly basis on what they were actually delivering (which wasn't the 100's of orders a month which they stated in their rebuttals). I had typed in random order numbers to get status which helped me cope with the fact that they were ripping me off since it showed that many others were in the same boat. Anyway, they have since 'encoded' their order status with the first letters of the customers last name and order number. Since I had stressed so much over this (like many others), I still have the scars and still feel some pain - there's nothing I can do about that. But maybe I can make some suggestions here that will help since this site is a collector of many people who've been slighted by this company. 1) People tend to run into the 'brick wall' of being bounced from the shipping chat, no return emails or phone calls. Well - there is always a live person on the sales line and I believe there always will be. No one will hand over thousands of $ unless they talk to a real person. I suggest that folks call the sales lines and insist on getting status. Pester the heck out of the sales force - they are part of the scam too. Do not give up. It does get trying at times. Pose as a new customer. Call from your cell phone, pay phone, whatever - so that they do not know if you are an existing customer or a new customer (i.e. caller ID). The sales lines will become consumed with many angry customers and they will lose sales. This is a legitimate tactic - it is not illegal. They cannot do anything about it. 2) Hit the endorsers of their business. NWFA and others should pull their endorsement of such a business. If they do not after so many dissatisfied customers, then their organization is suspect as well. Again, call call call...do not use email. 3) Letters to Consumer Protection, Attorney General, etc is always necessary. It doesn't seem to get the wood delivered any faster, but you need to keep your opponent reeling after they've taken you. These things aren't much, but doing them in unison adds up and it will get noticed. One final word on my ordeal - I had contacted a few attorney's and they generally wanted $3000 or more up front to take any action. That was a significant portion of my $5000 purchase so I wasn't about to throw good money after bad. The reason is that even if a court judgement is in your favor, you still have to collect and there is no enforcement of collection (i.e. no one from AHF will go to jail as a result).
Lance
Stratford,#5Consumer Comment
Wed, March 30, 2005
Jim (and other victims) - Joining forces on this site is limited. I see comments many times like "contact me" or "please email", but the editors/owners of this site are trying to limit their legal liability and will remove such contact information from the emails. It's their site and it's their right. I like the site in that it offers a little more assurance and peace of mind than contacting Consumer Protection agencies since those agencies will only tell you how many complaints have been filed against a company. This site will tell you specifics of the 'ripoffs'. Other than that, the power of this site to get your money back is limited. However, as a former victim of the AHF business practices, I have thought about ways of making it difficult for AHF to do business. During my ordeal, I had even put together a spread sheet of their order system and gathered information on a weekly basis on what they were actually delivering (which wasn't the 100's of orders a month which they stated in their rebuttals). I had typed in random order numbers to get status which helped me cope with the fact that they were ripping me off since it showed that many others were in the same boat. Anyway, they have since 'encoded' their order status with the first letters of the customers last name and order number. Since I had stressed so much over this (like many others), I still have the scars and still feel some pain - there's nothing I can do about that. But maybe I can make some suggestions here that will help since this site is a collector of many people who've been slighted by this company. 1) People tend to run into the 'brick wall' of being bounced from the shipping chat, no return emails or phone calls. Well - there is always a live person on the sales line and I believe there always will be. No one will hand over thousands of $ unless they talk to a real person. I suggest that folks call the sales lines and insist on getting status. Pester the heck out of the sales force - they are part of the scam too. Do not give up. It does get trying at times. Pose as a new customer. Call from your cell phone, pay phone, whatever - so that they do not know if you are an existing customer or a new customer (i.e. caller ID). The sales lines will become consumed with many angry customers and they will lose sales. This is a legitimate tactic - it is not illegal. They cannot do anything about it. 2) Hit the endorsers of their business. NWFA and others should pull their endorsement of such a business. If they do not after so many dissatisfied customers, then their organization is suspect as well. Again, call call call...do not use email. 3) Letters to Consumer Protection, Attorney General, etc is always necessary. It doesn't seem to get the wood delivered any faster, but you need to keep your opponent reeling after they've taken you. These things aren't much, but doing them in unison adds up and it will get noticed. One final word on my ordeal - I had contacted a few attorney's and they generally wanted $3000 or more up front to take any action. That was a significant portion of my $5000 purchase so I wasn't about to throw good money after bad. The reason is that even if a court judgement is in your favor, you still have to collect and there is no enforcement of collection (i.e. no one from AHF will go to jail as a result).