Complaint Review: Fantasy Island - Murietta California

Fantasy Island - Please just look at dates if you don't want to read it all

7/1/07 Signed an agreement to purchase a barbeque grill and island after seeing a display at a Home and Garden show hosted at the Anaheim convention center. A deposit was placed at that time in the amount of 1000.00.

7/4/07 I contacted the salesman to confirm the model of the barbeque grill and refrigerator, inquired about BBB information, and searched for any other complaint logs, as there was a 3 day right to rescind. I contacted the factory to confirm the order was a go and was told to call back on 7/6 since it would take a while for the information from the home show to make it into the production system.

7/6/07 I contacted the factory to initiate the order, per instructions and approved an additional credit card transaction for 936.80 because they said had to be paid before the build would begin. The total cost was 3873.61.

Week of July 16th I received a call from Bianca stating that my delivery is scheduled for Aug 1st. At that time she gave instructions regarding the clearance required for the delivery to be made at no additional charge

Week of July 22nd I received a call from Bianca saying the delivery schedule in the system had to be reconstructed due to some lost data and she wanted to confirm what date I had. Playing coy (because I was really excited to receive the island) I asked what date she had, hoping that it would be sooner. She said Aug 2nd and I said no it was Aug 1st. I definitely didnt want a later date. She said ok and reconfirmed that I was on the schedule for that day and that I someone needed to be home. She couldnt give me a window of time because the deliveries involve other areas and there is no way to predict.

8/1/07 At 4:00 pm I contacted the factory and received a message that they were closed. I then called the salesman at the showroom and told him that I was calling to check on a delivery. He asked me to hold on and kept the line open while he talked to someone at the factory. They were supposed to give me a call within 20 minutes. I received no phone call.

8/2/07 I called the factory number and got voice mail. I left a message and waited for a return call. None came. Later same day I called again and phone was answered by Bianca. She apologized and said she had received no messages but she would get a delivery scheduled right away, how about 8/10/07 what else could I do.

8/10/07 Delivery day. They arrived with the island on a truck and approached me with receipts from my over the phone credit card transactions. I had to sign the CC authorization or make final payment via another means before they could tae the island off the truck. I asked if I could hop up onto the truck to see the island first and they said insurance prevented that. If there was anything wrong, they have a follow-up work order that I can fill out. I signed the paper and the island was brought into my backyard. When they finished installing the grill, I came out to see it and there was no door to bottom cabinet, the dimmer switch was dangling from the unit and some pieces of the slate tile were damaged. They had me sign another piece of paper that they had delivered and a work order saying that there were items that needed follow-up work. Driver stated that someone would contact me regarding a date to complete the work.

8/19 A friend came over to hook up the grill because I didnt understand how to attach the propane gas regulator based on the instructions. Turns out the grill was ready for natural gas sat up.

8/20 Called Fantasy Island to inform them that I ordered a LP grill and received a NG instead. They said they could have someone out on the 24th. I then asked about the other items and they said they never received the work order from the delivery person. They would have to look into it.

8/22 Call from Fantasy Island asking if someone would be home on the 24th for the grill swap. I said yes, my adult son would be home. Comment was oh good. Would he mind helping the woman they were sending to deliver the grill, by lifting the grill from the truck and exchanging it with the one that is in the island. I asked them if they were hiring him and covering his medical costs if something happens to him and they said no, we cant do that. They said they wanted to get the grill to me as soon as possible and this was the way to do it. I told them they had to send someone who could do the work. They scheduled me for 8/29.

8/29 Grill was exchanged and the missing door was installed. The delivery person looked at tile and said they were sending someone else to handle that. I contacted Fantasy Island and they say someone will replace the bad slate tiles on Sept 20th.

I have contacted the BBB and posted comments on ripoffs.com. I also posted a review on the BBB site but it and another were removed. When I called to check on it they said that since I posted a complaint, I could not write a review for a year. Had I known that I would have written the review first since the public has a chance to read the full story with the review, but not with the complaint. There were 3 complaints before mine and the other was removed and they all had the same issues. Service after the purchase was horrible and generally FI had to be called to return to fix things more than once and it took a number of weeks. It seemed normal that the purchase to final completion was a 2-3 month ordeal. All 3 reviews cited the service people Bianca named specifically by all, as rude and unprofessional.

Customerfirst

Burbank, California

U.S.A.