A Cautionary Tale Updated
My experience with greentoe is still ongoing. I first accepted a counter offer on Dec. 22 which was noted in my account and an agent separately sent an email saying they had “accepted my acceptance” and would “get things going.” Two days later I received a notice saying my offer had expired, they could find no retailers for me and I should change my offer! Confused, I immediately sent emails to customer service to clarify the conflicting messages, but never received a response. I then checked their website and accepted the price greentoe was saying the TV could be purchased for without going thru a bidding process - essentially a price at which their retailer had already agreed to honor and sell the TV. Because of this, once again greentoe quickly accepted my agreement to buy at their price. That was on Dec 24. They tell you once a price is accepted, it means the retailer has agreed to sell it to you, and its status is changed to “Being Processed” and the retailer will reveal themselves to you within 5 to 24 hours, and advise when shipping will occur. It is now Jan 5 and I have heard nothing from greentoe, nor the retailer. I have sent email replies, as well as messages submitted thru their website, but again received no response or acknowledgement. Are there Holiday delays? I could understand that. Are they overwhelmed with orders snd short-staffed? That would be nice to know. I just want to know if and when they will ship the TV they said they would sell me. If not, I will buy it somewhere else. I’ve been waiting two weeks since I agreed to pay the price they gave me twice (!) and despite it being a whole lot longer than they promised, I’ve heard nothing from the retailer (which?) nor greentoe to explain the delay or reassure me, or tell me for the second time a deal they offered and I accepted was off the table. I forgot to tell you that if I knew shipping was going to be delayed considerably, I would cancel the order before it was shipped - which greentree says you can do. But greentree also says you cannot cancel after a deal is accepted and pending - only after you know who the retailer is and before they’ve shipped. So I’m stuck in the middle and cant do anything about it, but wait to hear from them and who knows when that will be. Bottom line I’d like to get my TV from greentree, but I’d like to know now how long that’s going to be, so I can decide if that’s still acceptable. UPDATE One day after I wrote the review above, I checked the website and saw greentoe had changed my status from Accepted/Processing to Expired. So, 14 days after they told me I had purchased a TV at a price which would ensure retailer acceptance, greentoe was telling me they couldn't find a retailer to honor that price! Then I got an email giving me a different story: somehow it was my fault! Greentoe said it didn’t have my credit card info. How could that be? They asked for it on the front end as a requirement before they would accept my agreement to buy at their price and begin processing the order. And I could see the last four numbers of my credit card on greentoe’s website deal-page & in their confirmation emails. If there was any issue getting it processed, greentoe had 14 days to let me know to fix whatever problem they were having. But they did not, even though I had sent them multiple inquiries asking what was causing the delay. Look, I’m glad some people are having good experiences with this company, but if you go thru the reviews, quite a few are having big problems that take a long time to blowup or get resolved. What is so upsetting is all the lies/false promises: 1) They tell you your offer has been accepted by a retailer when it really hasn’t, creating a false sense of satisfaction which makes what happens next all the more frustrating. 2) They claim if you accept a price THEY give you, their retailers have already approved it and you can avoid the bidding process and get your order more quickly. I believed them but it wasn’t true. 3) They say once a price is accepted, you will hear with 5 to 24 hrs from a retailer who will tell you when it can be shipped. I never heard a peep for 14 days. 4) They tell you the order can be cancelled or returned. That may be technically true, but you cannot cancel an order after it has been accepted and is being processed. I sensed I was getting the runaround early on because greentoe customer service was not responding to my status inquiries over the 14 days I waited while they “processed” the order. But I could not cancel the order even though I told them that’s what I wanted to do if they couldn't deliver as promised. Greentoe is either incompetent, doesn’t care, or won’t own up suffering from the growing pains of a startup. Roll the dice because you either win big or lose big.