I had bough 21 90w LED ufos from www.thegreenleaf.biz. At the time they had an ebay store and that is where I bough most of the lights but the ebay store has since closed. Anyways I recently tested 6 of the LEDs against a 600w HPS and the HPS blew the LEDS away so I contacted the green leaf and let them know that their LEDs were broke. When I bought the LEDs I was told each 90w LED would be a replacement for a 250-400w HID light which they wernt. So anyways I email them over 8 weeks ago that my lights arnt working and we work out a deal where I will send the lights back and if they are found to be faulty they will give me store credit for the lights and also reimburse me the shipping costs to send the lights back to them however when I went to verify all this info with the store they stopped responding to my emails. A weeks later I finally get everything verified and I get an email outlining the terms of our agreement before I finally send the lights to back to them. It costs me $330 to ship 21 lights back to them with $3000 worth of insurance on the package. I didnt want the package to arrive damaged and have the store tell me im SOL so I made sure to add extra insurance. They get the lights on a Tuesday and tell me that they will be done inspecting all of the lights by that Friday at which time they will tell me how much store credit I will receive for the lights. On Friday I call the store and no one answers the phone. I call a few more times through out the day and even leave a message but no one calls back or answers the phone. I finally get an email from them saying we got your lights and we will be done inspecting them on Monday. When I send an email back asking why I was told the inspection would be finished Friday and then now Monday I got no response from the store.
Monday Rolls around and I call the store and speak with one of the owners Dwayne him and his wife Jessica own the store or thats what ive been able to gather in talking with them and looking at their website. Dwayne says he will give me $1600 credit for the lights even though I paid over $2400 for them apparently this was a pro rated refund based on how long I had the light although the lights were likely broke when I first got them. I didnt feel like arguing with the guy so I said fine but I also want my shipping refunded so the refund was to be around $1900. I said I would just take the $1900 in store credit and I place and order with the store that same day (this was on a Monday) That Friday I call to ask for a tracking number for my order but what do ya know no one answers the phone. So i send them some emails and I get a response saying your order wont ship until the following Monday when I ask why they simply dont respond again. The following Monday I email the store asking for a tracking number and I get a response saying I will get it by the end of the day but guess what no one emails me a tracking number. I call and call and call sending emails as well for the rest of the week until I get an email from the store on Friday (this would be last Friday) Saying that they are out of the office but some stuff has been sent my way and they are waiting to receive some things from their supplier. So this week I call to get my tracking number and no one answers the phone again so I call a few times in a row and someone ends up hanging up on my calls so I know they are in the store. I send them emails but I get no replies. Finally I send them an email saying they either refund my money for the items they havnt sent and give me my tracking number for the items they have sent or ill begin filing the necessary papers for a small claims case against them. That is when I get an email back from them finally. The email says that they have a negative balance in their bank account due to a charge back and can not pay for the items I requested. They said that they could send the times that they have in stock but the rest would have to wait until the LED manufacturer refunds them for the LEDs. But they assured me they would send what they did have in stock and even send it 2 day shipping so I would have some stuff by the 3rd of this month. Then I had an idea. I figured maybe they dont have the exact brand of ballast/reflectors I am asking for in stock so ill call them and just substitute some items that I had wanted for ones they have in stock. When I call this time someone answers I think it was Jessica. I ask what items they had in stock from my order and what items they didnt have well it turns out they dont have anything I asked for so when they told me they would ship some items today that was another lie they cant send me stuff they dont have. So I ask them what 600w Ballasts they have in stock and it turns out they dont have any 600w ballasts in stock it really seems like this "Hydro store" is a phony. They list tons of items on their website and even boast that they have a larger warehouse and more items in stock when really it sounds like they are running this operation out of their house. They never sent any of the "Items" they said they had in stock and thats when I contacted the BBB. After the BBB contacted the store I got an email fromt he store with some sob story about how the LED manufacturer is screwing them over and not honoring their returns and that the hydro store dosnt have the money to cover my refund but at this point im not buying a word that they say. They have lied to me so many times in the past few months its ridiculous.
The BBB is trying to help me resolve this issue but there really isnt anything the BBB can do besides give this business a poor rating on their website. I also called the Sabattus police department to file a report but all I got out of that phone call was the number to their local court house. From my understanding small claims court wont actually do anything for me if the store still refuses to pay. Does anyone know of any other option I might try to get my money back?
Monday Rolls around and I call the store and speak with one of the owners Dwayne him and his wife Jessica own the store or thats what ive been able to gather in talking with them and looking at their website. Dwayne says he will give me $1600 credit for the lights even though I paid over $2400 for them apparently this was a pro rated refund based on how long I had the light although the lights were likely broke when I first got them. I didnt feel like arguing with the guy so I said fine but I also want my shipping refunded so the refund was to be around $1900. I said I would just take the $1900 in store credit and I place and order with the store that same day (this was on a Monday) That Friday I call to ask for a tracking number for my order but what do ya know no one answers the phone. So i send them some emails and I get a response saying your order wont ship until the following Monday when I ask why they simply dont respond again. The following Monday I email the store asking for a tracking number and I get a response saying I will get it by the end of the day but guess what no one emails me a tracking number. I call and call and call sending emails as well for the rest of the week until I get an email from the store on Friday (this would be last Friday) Saying that they are out of the office but some stuff has been sent my way and they are waiting to receive some things from their supplier. So this week I call to get my tracking number and no one answers the phone again so I call a few times in a row and someone ends up hanging up on my calls so I know they are in the store. I send them emails but I get no replies. Finally I send them an email saying they either refund my money for the items they havnt sent and give me my tracking number for the items they have sent or ill begin filing the necessary papers for a small claims case against them. That is when I get an email back from them finally. The email says that they have a negative balance in their bank account due to a charge back and can not pay for the items I requested. They said that they could send the times that they have in stock but the rest would have to wait until the LED manufacturer refunds them for the LEDs. But they assured me they would send what they did have in stock and even send it 2 day shipping so I would have some stuff by the 3rd of this month. Then I had an idea. I figured maybe they dont have the exact brand of ballast/reflectors I am asking for in stock so ill call them and just substitute some items that I had wanted for ones they have in stock. When I call this time someone answers I think it was Jessica. I ask what items they had in stock from my order and what items they didnt have well it turns out they dont have anything I asked for so when they told me they would ship some items today that was another lie they cant send me stuff they dont have. So I ask them what 600w Ballasts they have in stock and it turns out they dont have any 600w ballasts in stock it really seems like this "Hydro store" is a phony. They list tons of items on their website and even boast that they have a larger warehouse and more items in stock when really it sounds like they are running this operation out of their house. They never sent any of the "Items" they said they had in stock and thats when I contacted the BBB. After the BBB contacted the store I got an email fromt he store with some sob story about how the LED manufacturer is screwing them over and not honoring their returns and that the hydro store dosnt have the money to cover my refund but at this point im not buying a word that they say. They have lied to me so many times in the past few months its ridiculous.
The BBB is trying to help me resolve this issue but there really isnt anything the BBB can do besides give this business a poor rating on their website. I also called the Sabattus police department to file a report but all I got out of that phone call was the number to their local court house. From my understanding small claims court wont actually do anything for me if the store still refuses to pay. Does anyone know of any other option I might try to get my money back?
