1/5

posted Dec-24-2012

Abe's of Maine was only price competitive with several other websites because they were offering a "restaurant gift card" they valued at $100. The card turned out to be virtually worthless, and in fact, I now will not even bother to redeem it or try to sell it on eBay (their $100 cards will usually bring between $3 and $6 on eBay, and you have to pay the eBay listing fees and Paypal payment processing fees out of that, and then risk receiving negative feedback once the buyer realizes you sold them a virtually worthless item).

I also feel scammed on their "white glove" delivery service. I ordered by phone and was told the TV would be individually strapped to it's own pallet, thus being handled more gently, etc. It was delivered loose inside a large delivery truck, only protected by the manufacturer's packaging, same as standard delivery. Also "white glove" to Abe's includes no set up (they will only bring it just inside the front door, and won't even attach the stand to the TV). I've had numerous standard "curbside" deliveries in the past, they have always been willing to bring items to my choice of the front door or garage door, so I basically flushed $80 down the toilet for "white glove" service.

Delivery was also a bit slow. I was told it would arrive in 7-10 days, but it was about 2 weeks. Also while filing a BBB complaint, I saw a notice on the BBB website that Abe's of Maine has filed for reorganization protection in Bankruptcy court.

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1/5

posted Dec-04-2012

I started to run when I saw multiple reviews stating problems and how East Coast TVs was aggressive in trying to get the bad reviews revised or removed (essentially EC TVs artificially inflates their rating by paying off people that post bad reviews to change them), but I decided to give them a chance since they had such good reviews. What a huge mistake, and I wish I had followed by initial gut feeling.

I ordered a TV during the Black Friday weekend. The price was good, but no better than I could've gotten at a few other places. The listing stated ships in 1 to 2 days. Over a week went by and my order status was still "processing", and there had been absolutely no contact from EC TVs, so I emailed. I was told in a very brief email reply to call in (why not just address the issue by email? Afraid of written evidence? Hard to convey a shady, fast, high pressure sales pitch by email?).

I did call as they instructed in their email reply and was told they don't ship to my area. No where on the product listing or anywhere during the checkout process was there any notice of a limited service area, a map, etc. They accepted my order but no one called or emailed to alert me of any problem in over a week, and I was told only after I initiated the contact.

They did say they could not configure their software to reject orders based on location, which is true. They use Volusion, a very limited software, which was another reason my first gut instinct was to run away. This is still no excuse for not putting notices on the product listings or the checkout pages, and not notifying customers of problems within more than a week.

Once I commented on the phone that I would move on and post a review accordingly, all of the sudden they offered to "try" the next day to get a different shipper and wanting to "work with me" to prevent a bad review, but when pressed they wouldn't say they "would" get a different shipper nor guarantee it wouldn't cost more. I was done, and in spite of asking them to leave me alone, they kept calling me back repeatedly, to the point I had to block their number.

So now after more than a week, I'm back to square one shopping for the same TV, but the Black Friday sales are over. East Coast TV's price on the same TV is now over $150 more than their price at the time of my order, and all other retailers have gone back up too. It will cost me about $90 more than the amount on my order to now buy it elsewhere.

Note to EC TVs: Please don't try to contact me any more. I believe my review is spot on, I'm not for sale, and will not change or remove the review.

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1/5

posted Jun-19-2012

This company sends spam emails after you purchase. There is no unsubscribe link on the emails and no opt out option even on your customer account profile on their website. Wish I had never ordered from here, and never will again.

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1/5

posted Apr-30-2012

Avoid this place at all costs. I placed an online order and received my order confirmation. I emailed them 3 weeks later after not receiving my order nor hearing anything further from them during this 3 week period. I received no response to this email, so after another week I tried to call during regular business hours. After spending several minutes in their auto phone answering Hades, my call was dumped to voice mail with no option to wait on a live person. I did finally get my money back (I paid through Paypal).

Edit to add for seller response: I absolutely did not "bybass 3 separate warnings". If they are there now, they were added later on. And even if a customer did, no legitimate business would let the order linger with no notice, refuse to respond to emails, not take calls, etc. Nor would a legit company violate my right to privacy in retaliation for a bad review. Thank you for confirming my review suggesting your business is one to be avoided was spot on.

I have no problem with you not shipping and you are simply trying to create a diversion. I do rightfully have a problem with no notice, no refund, no response to my contacts for approx a MONTH. A MONTH!! Your own policy states "Any Orders that otherwise cannot be fulfilled due to transportation restrictions will be cancelled, refunded immediately and the customer will be notified of such action with the requested contact method provided." Refunding in a month, and then only after I forced the issue, is "immediately"? Posting my real name is a violation of your and ResellerRatings privacy policy. All legit companies do not share personal info, and a real name is about as personal as it gets.

Update: The seller post in violation of privacy policy was removed by ResellerRatings. Actually I am not a bitter person, just one that expects good customer service. I've bought thousands of items online over the years, doing a lot of repeat business with many online businesses, and you point to only 6 negative reviews that are all spot on? And claim they are all the same story when only one was similar? How is complaining about spam, false promotions, paying for overnight shipping but not getting items for several days, etc in other cases even remotely similar to our complaint of Swim N Save USA? Would you like me to post our Paypal records and past sent emails backing up my claims for your reference.

I did however note a pattern of your claiming numerous bad reviews all similar to mine were all from competitors, but offering no proof that they were from competitors, I'd guess simply because the customers didn't bother to take the time to look up and enter an invoice number, which is an optional field on the review submission form.

This review was modified by wadew59 on February 13 2013 11:45:58 AM

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1/5

posted Oct-30-2009

I purchased a laptop AC adapter from the screenaid.com eBay store (same as people as Yall, and Paypal payment for the item actually was in the name of Yall). I needed the item overnight, and paid $16.99 extra on shipping for USPS Express overnight delivery (They offered 3 shipping choices: Reg mail for free, Priority Mail (2-3 day) for $4.99, or Express Mail (next day) for $16.99). Their listing promised they would ship on the same day if payment was received by 3pm. I received a payment receipt confirmation email from them almost an hour ahead of the deadline they set for same day service.

They dropped the ball and did not ship the item until the next day. In trying to be fair, I only asked for a $12.00 refund as compensation for their mistake, that being the difference between Express & Priority shipping. Honestly, I would have never used Priority, and the free shipping option would have been just as good for me if I couldn't get it overnight. Actually I wouldn't have bought it at all if I had known delivery was going to be late. I could have filed a Paypal claim and forced them to either refund the full $16.99 shipping or accept a return of the item for a full refund including the $16.99 shipping. So my offer to settle for $12 was more than fair.

They agreed to the $12 partial refund by email. The next day they sent a back pedalling email saying they could refund "some", but not the full $12. They tried to blame USPS for the delay, but tracking clearly showed they were late getting it to USPS. And I advised them that Express Mail is money back guaranteed, so if they were right and the tracking was wrong, they could take their USPS receipt in for a full shipping refund that would more than cover what I asked. They continued to claim USPS was the cause of the delay. They will obviously deny any mistakes they make and I'm practically certain I would have never gotten a dime back if I hadn't had buyer protection through Paypal and good documentation.

After I told them firmly that I would not accept anything less than $12, gave them a deadline to pay it, and threatened a Paypal claim, they finally came through with the refund.

I then left an honest negative feedback on eBay and they left a response under it that I was a liar and immoral. They then offered me an additional $4.99 refund if I would revise my negative feedback and I refused. These people obviously are of low character.

I will provide copies of all emails and USPS tracking to anyone that wants to see for themselves... wadew59@hotmail.com

The adapter was a very cheaply made China product, but that's what I was expecting, and that was never an issue.

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1/5

posted Oct-30-2009

I purchased a laptop AC adapter from the screenaid.com eBay store (same as people as Yall, and Paypal payment for the item actually was in the name of Yall). I needed the item overnight, and paid $16.99 extra on shipping for USPS Express overnight delivery (They offered 3 shipping choices: Reg mail for free, Priority Mail (2-3 day) for $4.99, or Express Mail (next day) for $16.99). Their listing promised they would ship on the same day if payment was received by 3pm. I received a payment receipt confirmation email from them almost an hour ahead of the deadline they set for same day service.

They dropped the ball and did not ship the item until the next day. In trying to be fair, I only asked for a $12.00 refund as compensation for their mistake, that being the difference between Express & Priority shipping. Honestly, I would have never used Priority, and the free shipping option would have been just as good for me if I couldn't get it overnight. Actually I wouldn't have bought it at all if I had known delivery was going to be late. I could have filed a Paypal claim and forced them to either refund the full $16.99 shipping or accept a return of the item for a full refund including the $16.99 shipping. So my offer to settle for $12 was more than fair.

They agreed to the $12 partial refund by email. The next day they sent a back pedalling email saying they could refund "some", but not the full $12. They tried to blame USPS for the delay, but tracking clearly showed they were late getting it to USPS. And I advised them that Express Mail is money back guaranteed, so if they were right and the tracking was wrong, they could take their USPS receipt in for a full shipping refund that would more than cover what I asked. They continued to claim USPS was the cause of the delay. They will obviously deny any mistakes they make and I'm practically certain I would have never gotten a dime back if I hadn't had buyer protection through Paypal and good documentation.

After I told them firmly that I would not accept anything less than $12, gave them a deadline to pay it, and threatened a Paypal claim, they finally came through with the refund.

I then left an honest negative feedback on eBay and they left a response under it that I was a liar and immoral. They then offered me an additional $4.99 refund if I would revise my negative feedback and I refused. These people obviously are of low character.

I will provide copies of all emails and USPS tracking to anyone that wants to see for themselves... wadew59@hotmail.com

The adapter was a very cheaply made China product, but that's what I was expecting, and that was never an issue.

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