Complaint Review: Hickory Ridge Farms - Columbia Station Ohio

If you are one of those people who doesn't want all the details than just make sure you read these first two sentences. Under no circumstances should you do business with Hickory Ridge Farms.

Here are the details,.. 10 years ago I hired this company to install a petsafe brand radio fence which was considerably less expensive than the comparable invisible fence Brand. Today "radio fence" owns both companies so there's virtually no difference. It was expensive but effective. The system worked and if I had a problem I could pay Hickory Ridge Farms to come out and repair the fence. Because the lifetime warranty on these fences are only worth the stability of the company who sold it to you, your stuck dealing with that franchise. It's important to know that the warranty is not guaranteed by the other franchises so if the company you do business with goes out of business you're out of luck. In my case I sold my house and took the fence controller with me so that I could keep the warranty. I called Hickory Ridge Farms and they gave me a $360 quote to install the fence at my new house. I worked around their schedule and met with their technician at the new property. We walked off the property twice, I showed him exactly where I wanted the fence and we even discussed the estimate. Everything seemed to be in order and he understood where I wanted the fence installed so I left him to do his job. 

When I came back to the property couple of days later I was very disappointed. They didn't bother to bury about 60% of the black wire and instead left it lying on top of flowerbeds and simply draped around the house. It looked terrible. The work was performed by permission from the previous owners because we had not closed on the home yet and we knew it would be a big production if I was trying to get settled in and had to deal with that as well. A few days went by and I never received any sort of invoice from Hickory Ridge Farms. Approximately one week later I was paying my credit card bill and I see a charge from Hickory Ridge Farms for $782.00!!! First of all, I never gave them my credit card information, we did not agree on more than twice the price, I was never given an invoice, or even an opportunity to cancel if it was going to be that much more. I called Hickory Ridge Farms 3X and never received a response. Finally, I sent them a letter disputing the charges and denied the charge on my credit card. This prompted a response from Barbara who claim to have had a death in the family and was simply too busy to address my issue at the moment. I did my best to sympathize with their loss and told them to contact me when things settle down. 

I never heard back from them so I took it up with my credit card company and this is what we discovered... About a year ago I had to replace the collar and gave them my credit card information over the phone. Without my consent they kept my information and charged me whatever they felt like after they installed fence. If it was going to cost ANY more than the quoted amount they had a legal obligation to let me know and give me the opportunity to refuse the service. Instead, they stole my money from my credit card and now I have to fight with the credit card company to prove that they did not have my permission to charge that. These people are terrible, they operate under the ruse of a religious organization including those infuriating voicemails that bless you and wish you a blessed day. A word to the wise... If you ever hear that... Run! If you have to flaunt your religious convictions to try and prove to people that you're honest... You're not. No "Christian" would steal my money, hide like a coward behind the Internet, and commit credit card fraud.

I'm filing complaints with the Ohio Atty. Gen.'s office, the Better Business Bureau, radio fence ( the master franchisee) and if they don't refund my money I'm going to file a police report because they had no legal right to retain previous credit card information and then charge your card without your consent. Whenever you buy anything on Amazon they retain your credit card information for your convenience however you still have to APPROVE each purchase. That's the way it's done any other way is fraud. This company is proving to be a gigantic pain, just call invisible fence or do it yourself. An untrained goat could install one of these fences... All you have to do is buy the unit at any pet store put one wire in terminal A and the other wire in terminal B. That's what they charged me $800 for.

Dan, Aurora Ohio