Patio Products USA

Bought and paid for a grill I'd been watching for a while. The website said it was in stock and there was a 10% off discount.

The website would not apply the 10% discount but I wanted the grill so I ordered it. Within a couple of days I received an email from them saying it was going to be delayed due to Civid-19 and manufacturer delays. Originally it was like a two week delay so I was fine. As soon as the date came around for it to be shipped according to their update, I received another email saying it was going t be delayed longer.

All in all, I got six different notifications of the delivery being delayed inside 2 months. I was however receiving tons of emails for promotions from them. I did call early on in the process and waited about 40 minutes before I decided to just get a call back from them. I took about 5 hours before they got back to me.

I was then informed by the person I spoke with that not all of their grills qualify for the 10% off even though there was no obvious disclaimer on their website when I ordered. She did get the 10% discount applied but that was the best it even got. After the sixth email saying things were delayed I called and asked to speak to a supervisor. The first supervisor I spoke with couldn't do anything for me and kept putting the blame on the manufacturer for the delays.

I bet their manufacturers would be glad to know that the blame is placed solely on them and not on Patio Products USA not being able to keep their web site updated accordingly. I was informed that they only update their website about out of stock products every 24 hours or so. Great, so I ordered when it said in stock and apparently I should have been ordering when it said out of stock or something... Anyways, I asked to speak to her boss who of course wasn't available at the time.

I have worked in sales and customer service most of my life so I do understand that. He was supposed to call me back in about two hours which ended up closer to four hours. Fine, I was simply looking for an actual shipping date and maybe a little bit of understanding from a customer's perspective on how frustrating this has been. I originally ordered this grill as a birthday present for myself a full month before my birthday.

The way it was going, I would probably not have seen it arrive before the beginning of the new year even though they had my money up front. I finally get a call back from J.R. who is supposed to be the manager of the customer service department. J.R.

could not give me any kind of actual delivery time and again blamed it on the manufacturer. When I asked if he could look into possibly upgrading me to the next level of the grill or offer me a discount for my troubles I was told flat out that they were already taking a loss at the price they were selling the grill for. Are you kidding me! No way you are taking a loss!

Every other website that has this grill on their site offers it at the same cost. J.R. then decided to try putting the blame on Covid-19 as the reason for some of these issues saying that they have been so overwhelmed by everyone wanting to update their backyards as well as some other non-sense about hotels updating things etc... which again he ultimately brought back to the manufacturers not being able to keep up and deliver on time.

Sorry J.R. but I am not buying that either. I have purchased other outdoor items this summer and have never had an issue with delayed delivery etc... Time for your company, Patio Products USA / Bellamie Commerce to stop hiding behind Covid-19 and the manufacturers.

In addition, when I mentioned I might decide to file complaints with the BBB and my credit card company, J.R. was quick to speak up and state - "Then you want to cancel you order." I did not say that as I informed him, I said I was going to file complaints and he reiterated about canceling my order. Needless to say, J.R., who wouldn't provide his last name or email address nor his bosses name and email address so I could take this further up the chain of command, simply said he would pass my information along to his boss and surprise surprise, I have heard nothing back for almost a week. J.R.

was not willing to help in any way and actually was more so encouraging me to cancel my order so I would go away. Well, he did get art of his wish, I did choose to cancel the order for the grill I had wanted so much but, I can not in good conscience purchase from a company that has the following bit on their website but does not follow through.

Our Culture

We're real humans.

Our management team has built a customer first culture and instilled it into each of our team members. We promise to take care of you! So, if a problem ever arises with your order, we will do everything in our power to make it right and have you leave with a smile.

Guess what J.R., I am not smiling.

I hope the top level of your business sees this post and the other postings I will be making and decides that maybe you are not the right person for the job but, based off other postings I have read from people who sound like they spoke to you directly, I suspect that they won't. Your culture motto seems nothing more than words to make yourselves feel good. Oh, and I found it absolutely great that if I wanted to speak to a sales person, I could get through almost immediately but, if I wanted to speak to customer service, good luck, hope your phone is fully charged... Your website also leaves a lot to be desired with no real way to contact customer service without going through a bunch of crap that gets you the answer you already had.

And, the email address I was sent by your company when I received the delay notifications, that was a gem. It got kicked back to me stating that email address was no longer being monitored... which again leaves a person with one choice of waiting on hold for a very long time while your company appears to hope that the person gives up and hangs up the phone.

Kudos for living up to your motto! ZERO STARS AND YOU DESERVE EVEN FEWER!