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I ordered a Fire Magic Control Panel from grillandpatio and it was never delivered. My credit card was charged almost two months ago. Repeated calls are met with an attitude and owner (Lloyd) never calls back. Avoid this site. Also note that Lloyd owns firemagicstore.com too so I'd avoid that site as well. 4-30-14: UPDATE - I WAS NOTIFIED BY MY BANK THAT I WON MY CREDIT CARD DISPUTE. IT GOT AS FAR AS THE PRE-ARBITRATION PHASE.
I would give zero stars if I could. This company doesn't even let you leave negative reviews on their website. That is why ALL "testimony's" are positive. I am more than extremely disappointed in this company and the customer service I would NOT purchase anything here. If you order in error you will be greatly punished by that mistake. Basically no return/cancellation policy. This is a huge scam for all customers if you aren't ordering the exact item you need without a doubt. I order online for nearly everything and I never experienced such ridiculous, rigorous return policy. I wouldn't even call it a return policy. Ordered a grill part that is not compatible with our grill. Read description incorrectly and now out $50 and no part! We paid $66 for the part plus tax and $17.99 shipping. Now trying to return this $66 item and have to pay 20% restocking fee PLUS SHIPPING AGAIN! So going to cost me $19 more dollars to return this part and I have to pay $13 to restock it. Never even used item straight out of the box that this company can just resell and I am out $50 in shipping and restocking and still have to order a new part. Any other company would at least send a return label OR not force restocking of paying for shipping. To be out $50 for nothing due to a simple human error is absolutely ridiculous. I cannot believe this company is in business with policies like this. I couldn't be more disappointed in firemagic store. Please save yourself the heartache and order somewhere with a reasonable return policy and caring/understanding customer support.
I also submitted to BBB and response from owner was rudest thing I have ever heard in my life. I was blamed for everything and made feel like I was malilciously trying to attack this business. I am just out the money and I can't even warn other customers so they don't make the same mistake. Feeling helpless here and hoping to help someone else before they are in the same situation. Good luck and God Bless.
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Just found about this report, so as a responsible company and owner, we felt potential customers should hear what really happened.
Mr. Michael Chianese of Easton, PA did place an order on October 28th, 2013. The order was for two parts, part number 24182-12, a digital thermometer ($296.65), which was shipped via USPS Priority mail on 11-01-13 and part #24188-09, the control panel, ($370.50) which is a "Special Order" part) which was ordered from the manufacturer on 11-01-13. Per our website, this part will take 4-6 weeks for delivery. The manufacturer corrected the ordered part number from 24188-09 to 24189-11. The customer was notified of the change and of the correction delay. Then due to an inventory/shipping error by our warehouse, the customer was shipped a SECOND 24182-12 on 12-06-13. My shipping manager was informed that the second shipment was sent and updated the customer and it was assumed this was the special ordered control panel. This turned out to be the error and when the customer received the second package, he notified us that this was not the control panel, but instead a second thermometer. Clearly our mistake. Customer was informed that the control panel was still on order and would be notified when this part came in. The control panel was finally received on or about Dec. 16 and customer was indeed notified by me personally (I left the voice mail) that the panel was "in hand" and would be shipping out. I instructed my warehouse manger to ship the control panel and that is when I (the owner) found out about the "double shipment" of the $296.65 thermometer. My Operations Manger then instructed the Warehouse Manager to contact customer and forward a PREPAID shipping label to have it returned. Our shipping manager had a phone conversation with the customer and it was agreed that customer would send the second thermometer back and we would then ship the control panel. Since the control panel and thermometer are within about $70.00 of each other, we explained to the customer that we needed the thermometer shipped back to us. Customer has refused and so we issued a partial refund within 24 hours of the cancellation of the order from the customer for the control panel (Including all of the shipping costs for the control panel of $49.95). Customer has conveniently omitted this from his complaint. Customer WAS issued a refund and then he called and told us we issued the wrong amount and we explained this in detail which was INCLUDED in the notification email and he then informed us he would "See us in court and would be notifiying his credit card company".
So our position and resolution was VERY simple: Customer HAS been refunded (although again not mentioned in his complaint) for the difference for TWO thermometers, less the control panel cost, PLUS the shipping cost of $49.95 (See the DETAILED explanation under REFUND, totaling $119.63. Once the second thermometer that was mistakenly sent, instead of the control panel, has been returned to us (shipping cost already pre-paid by us) we WILL issue the remaining balance of refund within 24 hours or receipt. As of today, 01-07-15, customer still has not returned the second thermometer that was mistakenly sent instead of his control panel for almost $300.00 and he disputed the charge and we charged back for the thermometer, less the $119.63 we already refunded. So who Ripped off who?
To further help this customer, since our efforts were going nowhere, we went as far as to get our manufacturers rep, Jennifer O'kelly at JCO Marketing who represents the manufacturer, RH Peterson (Fire Magic), to get involved to help with this simple exchange and the customer then reported them to Ripoff Report as well AND was proud to do so! Here is Mr. Chianese's email response to the help offered to him, in his own words:
From: michael chianese
Sent: Monday, January 06,2014 7:59 PM
To: jennifer
Subject: RE: return label for thermostat
Congratulations. You just earned yourself a nice little write up on ripoffreport.com. Since you are so proudly the President, I'll make sure your name is prominently displayed. Why you guys are doing this to me is mind-boggling.
Best Regards,
Mike
Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
-------- Original message --------
From: Jennifer O'Kelley
Date: 01/06/2014 4:42 PM (GMT-05:00)
To: mchianese
Subject: return label for thermostat
Mr. Chianese,
Thank you for giving me an opportunity to resolve your issue. It is important to us that you have a good feeling about your grill moving forward. It is unfortunate that you had all of these issues. I will tell you that this situation was very unusual. Both Grill and Patio along with the warehouse Rutherford Equipment are both great companies.
I have attached the return label. Please let me know if you are not able to open and print this document. I will send it a different way. I did verify that the control panel is still in stock. Please forward me the tracking information when the thermostat ships. For your inconvenience, we will send you the control panel at no additional charge.
Sincerely,
Jennifer O’Kelley
JCO Marketing
Manufacturer’s Representative for R. H. Peterson Co.