Choosedirect.com Steve Barbarich Choosefireplacesandstoves.com Fireplace inserts horrible company careful before you buy hot tubs spas stove fireplace blower rip off scam artists San Francisco, California

I HAVE JUST HAD THE MOST HORRIBLE EXPERIENCE WITH CHOOSEDIRECT.COM and BEFORE YOU BUY, you should read this.  This company does not ship the item you buy.  They hold your MONEY for a month while giving you the run around about why your item has not shipped yet and promise you it is going to and then after a month long batch of daily phone calls (NONE FROM THEM, ALWAYS ME CALLING THEM TO CHECK ON MY ITEM AND THEY WILL NOT RETURN CALLS) they will offer the exact same product to you that you already purchased for $2,000 more money.  If you don't pay the extra money, they offer to cancel the order and refund your initial investment but THEY WON'T SHIP what you already bought and paid for a month earlier!!!

Oh, let me at least give them props for offering a $100 price break off of the EXTRA $2,000 they wanted me to pay.  They did offer to sell me the item for $100 off the new and improved higher price.  My original purchase price was $853.00.  If I still wanted the item after a month of keeping my money, it would be $2,853.  ALthough, since I had spent at least 8-9 hours on the phone getting the run around from their sales reps like Daunte (daunte@choosedirect.com), Sameer (sameer@choosedirect.com) and Lisa (customer Service manager, lisa@choosedirect.com), they would like to offer me a $100 discount for my heartache... LOL

Let me begin my story...  I bought a Lennox fireplace insert on November 13th, 2009 for $853.  This was the price on their online websight choosefireplacesandstoves.com.  On the 17th of November, I received a confirmation email with my invoice attached.  It was paid for and would ship within 2-4 weeks.  Usually you are done and you wait for your item.  So, I waited for about 2 weeks in my VERY COLD house with our kids all saying PLEASE find out when we are getting our fireplace insert because the temperatures had dropped to around -15 with wind chill factors...  When I called a couple of weeks later, Daunte the sales rep told me the order had been cancelled.  I asked what was going on and he did not know what the deal was so he was going to check and get back to me within an hour.  This was Monday the 7th of December.  On Thursday, the 10th of December, of course I had not even heard back from Daunte so I called him back.  He told me he was sorry that he forgot to get back with me and offered to check into it while I was on hold.  So I waited for over 45 minutes and Daunte explains that the insert has been ordered and would be rushed at no extra charge to me.  I would have the fireplace insert on the 21st of December.  He already spoke to Lennox and they verified it would be in our home by the 21st of December.  I thanked him for the great customer service and asked him to send me a follow up email confirmation explaining what he had told me.  He said I would have it by the end of that day and apologized repeatedly for his mishap of not following up with me like he said on Monday...  

So, I am feeling pretty good about the company and Daunte at this time right?  I was ready to recommend them to a friend...  Guess who never emailed my confirmation???  Yep you are right, DAUNTE.  So I wait over the weekend giving him the benefit of the doubt and low and behold, NOTHING.  Once again, he doesn't do what he said he would so I called the company back.  After an hour long call speaking to Daunte and Lisa (Customer Service Director) I was told there was an error in the pricing and we could only get our fireplace insert if we were willing to pay another $2000 for it...  Keep in mind the original price was only $853.  So, I asked to speak with the owner but of course he wasn't available nor could I expect a call back from him at least for 3 days or longer because he is a busy man.  After a quick google search, I found out why Mr. Steve Barbarich is so busy he can't call a customer back...  There are a lot of other poor people that have been scammed by this guy and his choosedirect.com companies as well... We had waited over a MONTH to be told our fireplace insert was underpriced on their websight and they would not honor their mistake in pricing...  That wouldn't have been so bad if they would have let us know a month earlier but meanwhile, we are still freezing in our house because of a bunch of MORONS that are full of crap...  They keep your money for over a month before deciding to even let you know they srewed up and the customer is going to pay for their error.  

I WOULD RECOMMEND HIGHLY for you to pay a little more even to buy from a more reputable company instead of these scammers.  We have been told we would get a refund from LISA (Customer Service Director) and that she will call me with a confirmation number for the refund to my Discover card.  I don't know if it will happen or not but we will see.  If not, I will dispute the charge through Discover and hope for a positive outcome for me and my family.  As for choosedirect.com or whatever name they scam people under, I hope and pray that nobody ever gets scammed again from these crooks!!!  Good luck and God Bless!!!