Complaint Review: Esca Designs - Internet Internet

As a business owner myself, I'm always a bit hesitant as to who the original poster is on these "consumer reports" so first a quick bit of exposition on me. I am a business owner on (offices in NYC, LA and SF) who makes 90% of his purchases online (most of that furniture and basic office supplies) and has been doing so for over 15 years now.  Let me also preface this by saying that in those 15 years, I have never had a worse (or seemingly "non-existent") customer service experience than I have had with Esca Designs.  The first thing that you need to know about Esca Designs is that the "organization" is made up of one individual who (poorly) runs the entire (online) show.  As many online stores do, it gives off the perception of being a large company, well-established operation with a giant showroom and many employees running around.  It's not.  It's literally one guy, who operates his customer services through a virtual secretary/office system, a tactic that anyone can implement for $5-10/month.  Don't believe me? ...call any of the numbers on the site and you will get that generic, pre-recorded.  And this is a problem.  One I should have known to check into before I ever purchased anything through them. 

In a numeric, timeline fashion, let me tell you how my particular experience went down: 1) I saw what I considered to be a great deal on Woot Sellout here - http://deals.woot.com/deals/details/419c1c75-e603-4dc0-a1ee-23e4f2f09a63/palm-mesh-office-chair#0 2) I ordered 8 chairs in a particular color 3) A week and a half later, I received a VM from a guy named Sean at Esca who left me a very unprofessional toned message - "Ok, yeah...we got that in stock.  We'll send em."  Odd.  One, that he would confirm with me that they have the chairs in stock and two, that he was, in fact, going to send them to me (you know, instead of just, uh, sending them). 4) My order arrived a month later (again email me if you want specific dates, etc) - 8 chairs, but only 6 in the color I had ordered.  Not the end of the world, but a pain considering what I needed them for.  I needed this to be solved quickly. 5) I called 4-5 times ( 866 681-4885 - # on the website, please see "virtual office" comments above) and emailed 4-5 times ([email protected] - this is the auto-reply email that comes from them - very professional - on FB says its listed to a "Sean Sanders" but have no clue to-date what this is) and was met with no return.  Zero customer service.  No answers, no solutions.  I have followed up several times since to give this company the benefit of the doubt...again, nothing. 6) I had placed another order while this was all going on to try and resolve quickly (I couldn't find this model/design of chair anywhere else online) and have heard nothing again, as well.  Now, yes, this was a questionable move on my part, but my hope was to solve the problem of getting these chairs in-house and get refunded later.  I gambled, and so far, I've lost.

To-date, this has cost me between $400-500 and hours of time.  I am seeking legal council and have filed with the BBB and any other online consumer support/activist programs I can locate.  Again, I have never filed anything like this before, but felt very motivated now since its become a horrible, expensive, time-consuming experience that I hope to save another consumer from having to deal with. If you've had a similar experience through Esca Designs, please share.  Meanwhile I will continue to look into what rights I have as a consumer stuck in this situation and try and get my order fulfilled, or a refund returned.  The saddest part about all of this?   All it would have taken was one responded email, or one returned phone call from this guy with a status update and I would have been fine.  I understand the challenges that go along with operating a small business, but have zero tolerance for people who don't see the value in positive customer service and blatantly try to rip off fair people.

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