- Report: #1214494
Complaint Review: Palm Fan Store - Greensboro North Carolina
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Author Not Confirmed
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Palm Fan Store
3119 Battleground Ave Greensboro, 27408 North Carolina, USA
Phone:
888-446-9331
Web:
palmfanstore.com
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Palm Fan Store Bait and Switch Greensboro North Carolina
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I ordered a tropical ceiling fan for our Sunroom that we recently remodeled. I ordered a two-toned fan from Palmfanstore.com Specifically becuase the picture showed a light colored center blade with a dark edge. This would compliment our bamboo in the room. We have both light colored bamboo and dark.
Unfortunately when I received the fan, the blades were a SOLID tan. They were NOT two-toned. There was a very slight hue change within the tan, but there was absolutely no defined Two Tone colors. I immediately called the store and talked to Bradley, he instructed me to mail them back, gave me the address and the next day I went to the UPS store to ship them.
When I got the ths UPS store, they told me it was going to be $57 to ship them back, I immediately called Bradley and asked for an RA label, and explained that I shouldn't have to be responsible for paying for shipping when I didn't get the color that was promised me in the internet photo. He said, no problem. Take a picture of the blade, email it to him, and when he received it, he would send that picture to the MFG and they would credit him the cost of my shipping since the blade didn't match the picture of the MFG picture. I emaild all of this so I would have a written communication and reluctantly paid with the hopes that they would honor their word and reimburse me when they received it.
The NEXT day I received an email from a JEff. He apologized for "jumping into the middle of our conversation" and admitted to not having any knowledge of our conversation, but that I should just mail back the blades. I apologized and said I'd already mailed the whole fan back. He then told me I wouldn't get any refund because they only refund for defects. I explained that there was no question about defect......It was about IT WAS NOT THE COLOR THAT WAS IN THE PICTURE. Why should I have to pay to send back a fan that was clearly not the fan I ordered?? No matter how many times I explained this, he argued this with me. I even pasted a picture (that I emailed off the UPS store computer to my phone and attached it with the picture I took with my phone of the blade in their parking lot) Jeff continued to argue with me and said that if I'd installed the fan into my ceiling that it would have magically changed to the color I wanted??????? REALLY???? Now why would I have done this? Their website clearly states if I install it, I get NO Refund. So, I'm thinking this is what they were after.
Two weeks went by, nothing. No refund. I tracked the package with UPS and it showed Bradley signed for it. I checked my bank, no signs of a refund. I emailed Jeff, he had another excuse about a snow storm and that I'd get my refund. I checked again and finally I saw one. However, conveniently, it was now LESS the "FREE SHIPPING" that it originally came to me by???? So, now they charged me $32.92 for me to send it back to them?????? How does that work????????? Didn't I sent it to them??????????? And didn't I pay $57.81 to do that????????????????????? So now I'm paying them almost $100 for a fan that was the wrong color that wasn't any way near the one that was in the picture on their website and me, the paying customer has to be penalized for that??? This is clearly not a company that wants to be successful, nor are they successful nor will they EVER be successful! Which is why I'm filing a BBB complaint, and a small claims lawsuit. And have already written complaints on Twitter, Facebook, Yelp, LinkedIn, Google+ and anywhere Else I can find. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE PEOPLE. THey are scammers. Each time I email them, I get answers back from them that sound like they are on drugs. Jeff is now saying Bradley answers back emails for him and doesn't put his name on them, making me think they're from Jeff. When on my end they've come from jeff's Iphone. These people are scammers. They're store front is fake. Do not shop there.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Customer Service
Greensboro,North Carolina,
USA
No Bait and Switch - This Customer Is Just Upset Over Her Mistake
#2UPDATE Employee ..inside information
Tue, March 10, 2015
I and another person that works here has been dealing with the customer that filed this complaint for a few weeks now. At first she called Bradley complaining that she ordered a fan with natural palm leaf blades, yet what she received was plastic. Bradley told her that he was sorry and that she could either exchange or return the fan, but because it does clearly state on our website that the blades are made of plastic, that if I refund is requested our refund policy posted online is that we refund the price of the fan, less any shipping cost. We do work with our customers to help them with shipping on exchanges, but in the case of a refund we always deduct shipping as stated on our website's refund policy, unless a fan is defective, in which case we will even refund shipping.
This customer's fan was not defective, so she then tried to come up with an idea to make it defective. She then claimed she ordered white blades that faded to brown on the edges, and what she received was Tan blades that faded to a brown shade along the edges. NOW, if you read her ripoff report you'll see she is saying the blades are not two toned at all, when her photo of the blade she received close up clearly shows it darker along the edges. What we told her was to send the blades back, let us put it up to a blade on our display fan, which looks just like the photo, and if they don't look the same we would refund her and not deduct the shipping cost. The problem is when her blades came back, they were the same as the blades in our photo.
Usually, we feel the customer is always right. However, this customer has spun a web of lies, including much of the things she has said in this bad report about our company. She was never told we would send a photo to the manufacturer, and just from a photo they would credit us shipping. She was simply told to send the fan back and if the blades were as she said they were, she would get a refund that would include the shipping cost. Problem is the blades are not as she stated and her cell phone photo inaccurately is making the blade look darker in the middle than what the blades actually are. Bad lighting, or the anlge she took it, maybe a Photoshop edit, I don't know, but they do look different in her photo than what we saw when we got them back.
For the record, I've tried explaining to the customer that the difference she is seeing in the blade is the lighting and different angle she is viewing it from. If anyone is reading this and is questioning the legitemcy this complaint, see the fan photo we have online for yourself and please be sure to enlarge it. It is clearly called tan as you'll see below the photo when it is enlarged, and was never advertised as white and brown. I think everyone would agree that the tan blade is not white. I don't know if I'm allowed to post a link to our site here on Ripoff Report, so to be safe if anyone wants to see the photos we have online, go to our website and search for Coastal Bay. The fan is the 50" Coastal Bay.
At the end of the day, I am sorry we could not satisfy this customer. We have refunded shipping cost before, when a product is defective, and sometimes even when a product isn't. But to be honest, we do it when a customer is completely honest with us which inclines us to work with them, always. However, in cases where a web of lies begins to be spun by a customer, that is when we will adhere strickly to our refund policy with no bending of the rules.
Lastly, about emails coming from my (Jeff) iPhone to her, that one is a mystery to me. In an attempt to offer great customer service, serveral of us here can view emails from our smartphones, but none of us will usually reply from one. Maybe I did once to her during the snow that closed our store for a few days, I don't remember, but to read this customer's complaint we do business without a store location, without our 52,000 square foot corporate warehouse, and so on, and we just use our iPhones and rip customers off. If this customer would stop and think, if we really wanted to rip her off, she wouldn't have received a refund for the price of the fan. And yes, her refund was delayed by a few days due to us being closed during two back to back winter storms, she is correct about that, and for that we greatly apologize.
Jeff
Shop With Fanimation, way better
#3Author of original report
Tue, March 10, 2015
FANIMATION.COM is way better. shop there
