Complaint Review: Thebiglot & Autohopper - Longwood Industries Inc. - Roanoke Virginia

As Director of Longwood Industries, Inc., I would like to take this opportunity to correct some inflammatory inaccurate statements made about our company. In the first comments above, it is implied that our company is somehow connected to the Nigerian Fraud Ring. Nothing could be further from the truth. We have done everything in our power to provide as much information as possible to the authorities in an effort to capture these crooks who prey on innocent online consumers. It turns out we are by no means the only company that they target. To counter their efforts, we specifically warn every customer who receives an inquiry about their vehicle about this very scam by appending the following to every email: IMPORTANT ADVICE FROM THE BIG LOT! - We're sending this alert to you to ensure that you have all the necessary information to make your experience with The Big Lot! a positive one. It was pure coincidence that the customer's 90-Day guarantee date and the mailing of that certified check overlapped. We are glad, especially considering the customer's circumstances, that he/she was able to get a refund in the end. With respect to our refund policy, we are in no way attempting to disguise our terms under the heading Buyer's Right to Cancel. That heading is required by law on the front of our receipts on the back, the Notice of Cancellation spells out the detailed refund terms. In effect, an ad is being cancelled when requesting a refund because we will run the ad until the car sells if no refund request is submitted. We apologize if there was any miscommunication between the customer and the sales representative, but it is mandatory for every sales representative to go over the terms of Longwood's 90-Day Guarantee at the time of every sale. In response to Ken in Florida, we apologize if you were mistreated in any way by a customer service representative. If you provide us with information about who you spoke with, we will investigate and they will be deal with accordingly. We invite you to test our Ask a Seller service again as it has been greatly improved the only explanation is that we were having technical difficulties on the day you tried it. We appreciate this opportunity to respond, and stand by our commitment to provide an excellent service to all parties selling used vehicles online. Sincerely, LONGWOOD INDUSTRIES, INC Renee Fisher, Director

I finally was able to resolve my issue w/ Longwood Industries/Autohopper.com/thebiglot.com They finally issued me a refund after a couple of months. If anyone else needs a contact person, you can try: [email protected] He is the one who authorized C.S to issue my refund. He didn't reply to my first couple of messages. In fact, he only contacted me after I sent an e-mail to: [email protected], who forwarded my message to him. After C Coleman advised me that I would receive a refund within a week, he advised me to contact him if I didn't. I didn't receive it after a couple of weeks. I, again sent him a couple of messages to him without a reply. I followed up w/ the BBB in Bedford VA. I sent them 2 additional messages, which they never replied to. About 3 & a half weeks later I finally received a message from thebiglot.com C.S. stating that my refund had been processed. I have confirmed w/ my bank statement that the refund was issued.

I listed my '85 Caddie for sale in the local newspaper. I recieved the same phone call as was reported here by a coupla other people (twice and Philip left messages on my answering machine). The short version of the messages were that Longwood understood my car and could guarantee it's sale. Note, this Caddie is in great shape, but the tranny blew. The people I mentioned above were very unhappy with the Longwood Industries "Service?". Thanks to this website, and the detailed reports by the others, I won't waste any time following up on this telephone solicitation.

I listed my '85 Caddie for sale in the local newspaper. I recieved the same phone call as was reported here by a coupla other people (twice and Philip left messages on my answering machine). The short version of the messages were that Longwood understood my car and could guarantee it's sale. Note, this Caddie is in great shape, but the tranny blew. The people I mentioned above were very unhappy with the Longwood Industries "Service?". Thanks to this website, and the detailed reports by the others, I won't waste any time following up on this telephone solicitation.

I listed my '85 Caddie for sale in the local newspaper. I recieved the same phone call as was reported here by a coupla other people (twice and Philip left messages on my answering machine). The short version of the messages were that Longwood understood my car and could guarantee it's sale. Note, this Caddie is in great shape, but the tranny blew. The people I mentioned above were very unhappy with the Longwood Industries "Service?". Thanks to this website, and the detailed reports by the others, I won't waste any time following up on this telephone solicitation.

S, I reported this very same thing several weeks ago. I too received the same type of email a few days after I posted the vehicle on biglot.com I knew the email was a scam and I replied to the email refusing his terms and demanded the amount I was asking for and not a penny more in a certified bank check in U.S. funds. I never received a reply back. This is the only email I received since it was posted 5 weeks ago. I decided to try the "Ask seller a question" and a box came up that allowed me to fill in name, email address and a text box to ask question but when I hit the submit button I got an error stating the message could not be sent. I had several friends try the same thing on thier computers and they all got the same error. How are interested buyers supposed to get in touch with me or others who list on the site? I brought this up to the customer service but they told me nothing is wrong with their system. I asked them to go to my ad page and send a message to me and they told me they could not do it as they had a lot of people on hold and did not have the time. I told the customer rep that I am very unhappy with their sevice and demanded a refund. I was put on hold then disconnected. I called back and was disconnected 3 times after I told them who I was. I am suprised not to see more responses from this. I hope our reports will reach others who have used the biglot service and post their experience here as well and to keep others from making the same mistake.