WARNING!! iKitchen.com / HomeBrands.com / MetroMarket.com

[musicom67]

All You Wanted To Know About iKitchen.com:

Numerous complaints have been filed to online complaint message boards, the BBB, and many have also filed complaints to the New York Attorney General, NYC Dept. of Consumer Affairs, Federal Trade Commission, the FBI, and other Consumer Fraud Bureaus, and yet these companies continue to scam, defraud, and mislead consumers.

These following websites (and not a complete list, BTW, derived from the Better Business Bureau) are all one and the same, supposedly run by a David J Balassiano (alias "Dave Balas") of Brooklyn, NY.:

iKitchen.com
EKitchenGadgets.com
KitchenHomeGadgets.com
KitchenKaboodles.com
HomeBrands.com
MetroMarket.com
Red-Tag.com
GiantSavings.com
OfficialRedTagSale.com
dotcomproject.com
Kitchen and Home Concepts
HCG Logistics

The current business address of all of these websites are currently a MAIL DROP located at:
1204 Ave. U #1087
Brooklyn, NY 11229
Tel 718-989-9318 (a useless voicemail)
Fax 718-989-9319

This address is conveniently located just 5 blocks away from Mr. Balassiano's apparent residence on E 7 St, as a simple People Search on the internet will identify.

David's email addresses are:

Company: dbalasNOSPAM@ikitchen.com

Personal: davidb18NOSPAM@aol.com

Metromarket.com alludes that the Avenue U address is their actual storefront location "Please visit us when in the neighborhood!" (it isn't, and they don't have one, and the photograph displayed on their site in "about us" as of 11/12/08 is a photoshopped fake.)

Another related address is identified as:

256 W36 St., Fifth Floor, New York, NY 10018
Tel 212-868-0783 (disconnected)

Additional Phone Numbers:
212-868-5767 (disconnected)
240-414-8889
718-569-1884

Additional Fax Number:
212-868-5765

also:

PO Box 230815
Brooklyn, NY

These websites are professionally produced, and display 'approval seals' (whether legit or not) to gain consumers' trust, however NONE of them have BBB accreditation.

There also seems to be a relationship to these following websites, of which I have no personal experience with, but thanks to a listing of: HomeBrands.com (an iKitchen relative) to an address of:

2439 South 11th St., Niles, MI 49120 (currently a vacant FurnitureFind.com warehouse for sale on LoopNet.com for $795,000).

Phone Number:
616-683-7080

My reviews for iKitchen.com, HomeBrands.com, and MetroMarket.com can be found at ResellerRatings.com, so I won't repeat what my experience was here, however, I encourage you to read them.

After making a purchase online from HomeBrands.com, and after 3 weeks still receiving no delivered product and no notifications from the company, I began to make demands via email.

Finally, I began to get nonpersonal responses after making many email complaints.

These are the responses you can expect to receive from a Susan Heller of iKitchen.com, who answers the emails sent to: adminNOSPAM@homebrands.com

First response:

"Dear Valued Customer,
I will run a tracer to locate the package at this time. I will attempt to expedite delivery if possible. We are sorry for any delay this may have caused. We appreciate your patience while we resolve this problem."

Second response:

"Dear Valued Customer,
I will forward this email to Tiffany our Customer Service Specialist, who
investigate this issue. She will attempt to rectify this issue immediately.
Please allow her up to 72 business hours.
Her Normal business hours are 10am to 5pm EST, Monday Through Friday.
Thank you for your patience in this matter.
Best Regards,
The Support Team
Kitchen and Home"

Third response:

"Dear Valued Customer,
We are sorry we could not provide you with the item you ordered in a timely fashion.
We will attempt to completely cancel your order. There is a small chance that the item might ship. The only reason this may happen is due to logistical reasons. You will not be responsible for it if you simply refuse delivery of the order. You must let us know if this happens.
Otherwise , we have cancelled your order and no charges have been applied.
Please use coupon code "EXNLA" for a 10% discount on your next order.
Regards,
Customer Support"

I am happy to say that after threat of lawsuit and placing a claim to PayPal, 25 days after initial purchase I've received my money back.

I would highly suggest you beware if you plan on dealing at all with any of these aforementioned websites.


[Please do not include email addresses without a NOSPAM tag of some sort, thanks. Added. - ResellerRatings Moderator]

[zthomp55]

I placed an order with homebrands.com and it took over a month and the intervention of Paypal to get my money refunded.

[frostbitetwice]

Excellent and very thorough post!!

I use a very simple criteria when dealing with any NYC based business..If they have no glowing reputation, I do not order from them.

My experience hear at RR, tells me that there are too many con artist in that city...

What has happen with you, is either it was on their website in order to make them appear like a complete etailer or they hoped it is a shop and forget order.

[lxsdiam1]

I was about to delete my file I was keeping on an attempted purchase thru MetroMarket.com (finally resolved) when I came across this site - I felt compelled to tell my story so others would be warned.
I went to purchase a humidifier (HEALTH product....pretty necessary....needed asap!) I found MetroMarket.com online and they seemed to offer the best price for what I was looking for....

The original online purchase was dated: Feb 6, 2009
Their confirmation email does state :
"Due to the volatility of and constant changes in the marketplace, there is a small chance that the item(s) you ordered will be out of stock or discontinued when your order is processed. If this should be the case,
you will be notified within one or two business day that we will not be able to ship the item(s). To make up for any inconvenience this may cause you, we might offer you a discount on your next order. "

I NEVER RECEIVED ANY NOTIFICATION THAT MY ITEM WAS OUT OF STOCK!!!

I inquired about the product a few weeks later and received the following canned response:
"Dear Valued Customer,
Your item is still backordered from the manufacturer until approximately 1-2
weeks or so.Your order will remain on "Hold or Rejected" status until the order is shipped. We are sorry for the delay, however as stated in your order confirmation due to the volatility of the items we sell, some items do fall on backorder.We will do everything in our power to rush the order to you as soon as theitem(s) become available."

On March 24, 2009 (so about a month and a half later) I inquired again and received the following canned response:
"Dear Valued Customer:
We regret to inform you that the item you ordered is currently still
unavailable. We are so sorry for this extended unexpected delay. If you
decide to cancel just let me know and I will get you an immediate refund.
However, we promise to do everything in our power to get your order to you
as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding!

On April 13th 2009 I emailed again with status inquiry and received back the same response.

On April 17th I send the following email:
Please cancel order: 70317 - This is no way to do business....I was never informed initially that the item was not in stock. I should charge you folks interest on my money!!!! Please cancel asap and refund immediately!!!
----
It has been over 3 months since I purchased this item....I find this absolutely unacceptable. Please see the below e-mails. I have been in correspondence with you folks for months with no outcome"

Can u believe that on April 21, 2009 I received an e-mail from them stating:
Dear Valued Customer:
We regret to inform you that the item you ordered is currently on backorder
with no expected date of arrival. We thought we were able to get this item to you immediately; however we were not able to. We do plan on rushing the order to you once it is available. We are sorry for the delay and will continue to do everything in our power to rush the order to you as soon as the item(s) become available.

I emailed them back that same day with reiterating my wish for the order to be cancelled -I did not hear back....so I e-mailed them again on April 24th 2009
"Angela, Can you please tell me the status of this cancellation and when I should see my refund? I have not heard back from anyone else at your establishment regarding this cancellation. Or, is there a phone number to call anyone? I checked online and can't find one for this store.
Please advise asap. I'm going to have to get my credit card company involved if this doesn't get resolved asap."


On that VERY same day I received the following e-mail:
Your item is still backordered from the manufacturer for approximately 1-2
weeks or so. Your order will remain on "Hold or Rejected" status until the order is shipped. We are sorry for the delay, however as stated in your order confirmation due to the volatility of the items we sell, some items do fall on backorder. We will do everything in our power to rush the order to you as soon as the item(s) become available. Feel free to follow up at any time. We appreciate your patience.

On April 24th 2009 - I called my credit card company to dispute the charges... Lo and Behold on May 29th 2009 I received a refund!!!!!

I will NEVER do business with this company again!

[netguru2000]

Yes, iKitchen.com is a scam, I got bit by them as well. They take your money and then you can never get a hold of customer service except for an automated email. I disputed it with my credit card, they said they were refunding my money.

[netguru2000]

Very thorough report, thank you for initiating this. I wish I saw this before I placed my order.

[iamzod]

WARNING THEY ARE ALSO IGadgetNow.com Accessories For Less BEWARE STAY AWAY