Hydrobuilder.com

I made the mistake of ordering some equipment through Hydrobuilder and they double charged me.. it’s been almost 10 days and I still have my money. Their customer service is completely nonexistent. They also charge me $150 for basic UPS ground shipping in the same region of about 35 pounds.

All transactions through Hydrobuilder.com are thoroughly screened and verified before processing and shipmentWe follow an extensive fraud mitigation process to protect cardholders and Hydrobuilder.com from fraudulent activity in an online card-absent environmentUpon request, Hydrobuilder.com provided substantial supporting evidence to the respective issuing banks validating the legitimacy of these transactions in questionAny further questions about the validity of these transactions should be directed to the credit card company/issuing bankHydrobuilder.com will respond to any and all inquiries in a timely fashion

I am rejecting this response because: I have never ordered or received any orders from this companyTherefore I have hired the office of ***s to help meTheir e mail is ***

I received a Rosin Go Press through Hydrobuilder less than 24 hours ago and have made several presses with no positive results. I attempted to return the poor performing product but was told sorry no refund. Disappointing company, I'd go elsewhere to make any purchases and stay away from this Rosin Go Press product.

All transactions through Hydrobuilder.com are thoroughly screened and verified before processing and shipment. We follow an extensive fraud mitigation process to protect cardholders and Hydrobuilder.com from fraudulent activity in an online card-absent environment. Upon request, Hydrobuilder.com ...

provided substantial supporting evidence to the respective issuing banks validating the legitimacy of these transactions in question. Any further questions about the validity of these transactions should be directed to the credit card company/issuing bank. Hydrobuilder.com will respond to any and all inquiries in a timely fashion.

Review: Bait and switch advertising. Advertised free shipping, but check out added $68.51 shipping.

Clicked on sponsored link at bottom of Ebay search. Hydrobuilder advertised product for $28.99 w/ free shipping. At check out $68.51 shipping was added to order. I caught the switch at check out and contacted the company by email. They refused to honor the ad terms and claimed that it was the fault of the "third party" ad company they used not theirs. I can only imagine how many customers do not catch the switch.

I have screen captures of both the advertised free shipping and the check out page as well as their email response denying responsibility and refusing to honor the advertising. Please provide email for me to send evidence to.Desired Settlement: Their advertising is very deceptive and their refusal to honor or even take responsibility for said advertising is dishonest. They are perfectly willing to accept whatever profits such advertising brings them, but then deny any responsibility when such advertising is exposed. I am sure many customers have simply not bothered to lodge a complaint due to the hassle and belief that nothing will come of it.

Since they publicly post their Revdex.com accreditation which says they have no complaints lodged against them, I expect that to change. Furthermore if they continue to use the same "third party" advertising firm and are caught again profiting from such deceptive advertising practices, I think the Revdex.com should take further action against them. At a minimum removing their accreditation.

Business

Response:

Business' Initial Response

On Thursday Jun 27, 2013 at 3:14 PM we received an email from Mr. [redacted] stating his concerns about the eBay text link and free shipping. We responded immediately at 3:19 PM with the following:

"Thanks for the email! We use a third party to manage our product ads for us and I have forwarded this on to them for review and to fix. We have almost 2500 products on our website that ship for free but unfortunately the clay pebbles are not one of them. They are much too large and bulky... I wish we could ship everything for free!

Thanks again for bringing this to our attention. Feel free to give me a call directly to discuss your options or if you need anything or have any further questions!"

We did not receive a phone call, or an email back from Mr. [redacted] to discuss a resolution. The customer is always welcome to call us at XXX-XXX-XXXX or email us at [redacted]@hydrobuilder.com.

With our 4.8/5 rating within Bizrate, our 100% positive eBay feedback, and our two year flawless Revdex.com record (until now) it is obvious that we are not attempting to 'bait and switch' anyone. We are real people working with real customers and we pride ourselves on putting the customer first. Our reviews validate that.

Our third party advertising group has been contacted so that we can fix this issue once and for all.

Consumer's Final Response

(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)

The documented facts are as follows: Hydrobuilder DID advertise on Ebay $28.99 with free shipping for 45L of Hydroton. They then tried to charge me $97.50! When I contacted them about it they told me "We have almost 2500 products on our website that ship for free but unfortunately the clay pebbles are not one of them. They are much too large and bulky..."

See original add here: http://postimg.org/image/yz0c74r5h/

and there check out Hydrobuilder's check out charges here: http://postimg.org/image/g427mme8l/

I eventually bought the exact same product for $49.44 delivered. BIG difference from Hydrobuilder's $97.50. Here is a competing hydroponics company also in California selling the same product delivered for only $64.95 that Hydrobuilder wanted to charge me $97.50 for after advertising it for $28.99!!!! Both companies from the same State no less. [redacted]

When I confronted Hydrobuilder by email, this is what they sent me:

Hi [redacted],

Thanks for the email! We use a third party to manage our product ads for us and I have forwarded this on to them for review and to fix. We have almost 2500 products on our website that ship for free but unfortunately the clay pebbles are not one of them. They are much too large and bulky... I wish we could ship everything for free!

Thanks again for bringing this to our attention. Feel free to give me a call directly if you need anything or have any other questions!

NOW they try to claim that I did not call them back?! They only called me twice before they claimed that I would not respond. They called twice in one day barely 30 minutes apart! At 10:58AM (my time) on July 3rd and again at 11:31AM on the same day. I was at work (where I am not allowed a personal cell phone in the office due to company policy). They try here to make it sound like they tried "everything" to reach me and I did not respond, which is even more deceitful!!! I did respond!I responded by email during my lunch break on Wed, Jul 3, 2013 at 12:25 PM less than an hour later. Yet they makes no mention of that. My opinion of that business is even lower now that they are trying to misrepresent the truth. After I responded to them, Hydrobuilder then responded to me by email @ 12:32 PM and again at 12:34 PM where they finally said: "One more thing [redacted]. Your assumptions about us not honoring the price for you was incorrect, my statement about the item being bulky was in reference to that item shipping for free to the general public. We are very easy to get along with, all you have to do is call :)" Total backtracking. Read their own original response to this complaint quoted above where they told me "We have almost 2500 products on our website that ship for free but unfortunately the clay pebbles are not one of them. They are much too large and bulky... I wish we could ship everything for free!" Does that sound to you like a company that wanted to honor their advertising or instead a company trying to do damage control after getting caught?

Bottom line. I want Hydrobuilder to cease and desist on their deceptive business practices and distortions of the truth (I have provided documentation of the facts of this complaint for YOU to see and judge). I would further ask that if any of you out there have been deceived by this company or are deceived in the future by their practices, to please file a complaint with the Revdex.com. The only way to stop such companies from taking advantage of the less wary, is to call them on their behavior. With their prices so out of line with the competition (as the photo link shows), I can only assume that they stay in business by taking advantage of unwary folks. Caveat emptor! PLEASE, if you see other such adds as the one I came across, please report it.

Business' Final Response

(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

Hopefully others will report them if they do this (or similar) in the future.

Review: while I was out of the country I received an e mail from Hydrobilder saying thank for your oder of about $22000. I immediatly responded that I did not make such order and that it must be fraud. I even called the company and talked to a [redacted] called [redacted] and that was on about 10/29/2015 and I told her that I will report them to the credit card company. Her answer mad me moor suspesious so I called all the cards that I had on me at that time and to my surprise I found that the same was done on 4 moor of my cards and my wife called me and told that they did that ot her card for about $28000 with a totall of $101,000. I reported the fraud all my credits and called all the agencies to put fraud allert. I never mad these orders and I have no knowlage of this company. I was out of the country from 913/2015 until 11/30/2015 and the house was listed for sale under a lock box and my wife was living with daughter. No one was home to make or recieve such a hug order of (what I was told by [redacted]Desired Settlement: Return all the charges to the credit card company emmediatly

Business

Response:

All transactions through Hydrobuilder.com are thoroughly screened and verified before processing and shipment. We follow an extensive fraud mitigation process to protect cardholders and Hydrobuilder.com from fraudulent activity in an online card-absent environment. Upon request, Hydrobuilder.com provided substantial supporting evidence to the respective issuing banks validating the legitimacy of these transactions in question. Any further questions about the validity of these transactions should be directed to the credit card company/issuing bank. Hydrobuilder.com will respond to any and all inquiries in a timely fashion.

Consumer

Response:

I am rejecting this response because: I have never ordered or received any orders from this company. Therefore I have hired the office of [redacted]s to help me. Their e mail is [redacted]