Carolina Forest Vac & Sew

Bob Fenimore

GREAT SERVICE, VERY HELPFUL AND PROMPT!!

Administrator 1

How a business treats its customers and honors its word is important. I ordered an expensive vacuum online for delivery. Paid by credit card. Free shipping 5-7 days. After 10 days I called to check on the status as the delivery was late. Was instead told that the delivery hadn't shipped yet and that I'd need to pay extra to ship it. This was an order that they had accepted and were paid in full and was already late. Instead of apologizing and honoring their free shipping, they blamed the website and wouldn't budge on me paying extra. They were happy to do nothing for 10 days while they kept my money and never contacted me. In Response to the Owner: Carolina Forest found it more important to respond to a negative review than they did to do right by a customer in the first place. I didn't do anything special to place the order. I could have ordered on Amazon and gotten free shipping as well, but I prefer to give business elsewhere if possible. Carolina Forest held my money for 10 days without shipping the vacuum or contacting me. When I did call, after 10 days, the manager wasn't interested in honoring the sale as it stood. He didn't care that the order was already late. Those were "my" problems and he told me he didn't need to hear about them. Instead, he told me that I shouldn't have been able to make the order online, even though obviously I did. He told me that shipping costs money (duh). So, as a businessman, he wasn't at all concerned about his customer's problems, but instead wanted me to be concerned about his problems. I run a business too. When our error inconveniences our customers, we eat the cost to keep the customer happy. Instead of cutting into their profit margin to keep a customer happy and honor the company's reputation, Carolina Forest chose to void the order and refund me. I've now ordered the same item from Amazon. Free shipping. No hassles, and, surprisingly, better customer service. Now in Response to the Owner's 2nd Response: This response is an absolute lie and is a few months late on top of it. First of all, Carolina Forest never tried to contact me. I would have responded to any call or email as I needed the vacuum. It was me who contacted them, days after the vacuum was due to be delivered. Second, while I do live in Hawaii, I did absolutely nothing to hide my IP address. I filled in everything online honestly, like my shipping address in Hawaii. If there was an error, it was Carolina's site that made it. The point stands that, after Carolina took my money and didn't contact me and didn't ship the vacuum, their customer service in dealing with me was horrible. They didn't apologize. They immediately tried to put the blame on me. They couldn't care less that I needed the vacuum and had paid them in good faith. They didn't care about keeping their companies commitment or keeping a customer happy. All they cared about was not having to pay the the extra shipping cost. They did refund my money but that was only so they didn't have to ship the vacuum to me and hurt their profit margin. Finally, I never threatened them. This is, however, the first time I have ever left a negative review for a business. It is a testament to how poorly they treated me and and how disappointing their customer service was.

Jessica Byrne

I placed an online order on April 23 for a $890 Brother SE1900 sewing/embroidery machine that was listed as being in stock plus $55 Priority Mail shipping . Four days later I received a call from Ron letting me know the machine was on backorder and he wasn’t sure when it would be in stock due to high demand. He gave me an option for another, more expensive machine and said they were expecting a shipment within the next day or two. I agreed and paid the additional $400. I sent several emails the following week which went unanswered. I also sent two emails requesting an updated invoice showing the new item description and full purchase price. Barb finally sent an “invoice” which was nothing more than a typed Word document. On May 4th I finally got an email stating my order was shipping along with a UPS ground tracking number. I specifically requested and paid for the more expensive USPS priority mail option due to issues with UPS not delivering packages to my business. Lo and behold, UPS held onto the package for over a week despite the order status showing “out for delivery” and “package undeliverable” every day. Finally I went to the UPS location a to pick up my package and it contains THE WRONG MACHINE. This was a full 3 weeks after ordering. I spoke to Barb who was very apologetic and assured me they’re “expecting another shipment any day”. She sent me a return shipping label and I returned the machine the same day. I was still trying to give them the benefit of the doubt. As a business owner I know we all make mistakes, and I refuse to be rude because someone goofed up. She did refund the $55 shipping fee at that time. A full week went by with no communication, no responses to my emails requesting a status update and nobody picking up the phone when I called the store. Finally on May 19 we called from my business phone and they picked up on the first ring. Asked for a refund and to cancel the order because the shipment still hadn’t come in, and Barb asked if we could give her until Friday before we cancelled. She agreed to process a refund and sent me an email stating the refund had been processed. That email contained the original invoice for the first machine I ordered. Checked my Amex account... no refund. Sent another two unanswered emails and finally there’s a refund... for $889. This was a $1289 purchase. I sent two more unanswered emails requesting the remaining $399.99 refund. I didn’t want to dispute the charge with American Express and had hoped to avoid the seller being charged reversal fees. However when there’s ZERO communication and a seller is now holding onto $400 indefinitely, I had no choice but to file a dispute. So here are my suggestions for improvement: 1. If an item is out of stock, reflect the correct inventory on your website. That machine is STILL showing as in stock. Nowhere in the process of ordering was it indicated that this was on backorder. 2. Communication and responsiveness: If you expect to earn a customer’s business and loyalty, and when collecting money in exchange for a product, it’s the seller’s responsibility to be upfront and responsive. When I make a mistake in my business, I go out of my way to make it right and to ensure the customer wants to come back in the future. It’s been a full month since ordering and I still had no idea when to expect the product. Far from the promise of “the next day or two”. 3. Invoicing: this was a business purchase and as such, an invoice reflecting complete and correct purchasing information is imperative. Keeping accurate records is important to ME. 4. Accuracy: every single aspect of this could’ve been avoided by keeping proper records and double checking for accuracy. From the shipping fee, the incorrect delivery carrier, the wrong item, the partial refund. Looking at other reviews, this seems like a recurring issue. Edit to add: owner responded 2 years later claiming shipping delays caused by Covid, but failed to acknowledge or offer an apology for sending wrong item, incorrect refund amount, and complete lack of communication.

Lin Ladrigan

Very informative extremely nice.