Folks, I don't usually post these kind of things, but when a vendor really goes out of their way to make you happy then I think a little recognition is deserved.

David Hills at hometheatersupplies.net and his shipping person Shannon did a fantastic job taking care of a minor manufacturers defect in one of the recliners I ordered. Let's just say it was resolved to my complete satisfaction.

Great service and a great price - and he gives a discount to AVS members.

I'm not affiliated in any way... just a happy customer trying to spread the word.

I too want to give some dap and praise to David at hometheatersupplies.net. I just ordered today the Coaster Matinee Microfiber home theater seating row of 3 chairs and David was a delight to talk to. He was busy upon first call with a customer in store and he called me right back very promptly, he honored a discrepancy in shipping price and gave me a great deal, and after completing my order he took the time to further discuss my theater room with me to help me with finding a projector and receiver. This is great customer service that you just don't see anymore. All in all we talked for around 30 minutes about my situation and needs. Thanks again David, can't wait to get my new seats and try them out! To the OP, maybe you should change the thread title and put hometheatersupplies.net in the actual title??!!! Maybe we could make this their official feedback thread?:cool:

Wow, it's great to hear folks brag on good service from an honorable reseller. Usually on forums you read lots whinning & moaning about the bad experiences people have. This is great to hear members here praising the good work of sales & shipping people doing a quailty job.

Thanks for posting some good news.

John :D

I ordered a Coaster Promenade sectional from David today. The price was definitely right, and he arranged white glove delivery for me.

While I don't have any "official" theater seating, I have been patronizing several online shops for about 5 years for my theater supplies and accessories and decor items and other stuff.

I have purchased and received satisfactory service from the following online vendors:

www.ht-express.com
www.ht-accessories.com
www.stargatecinema.com
www.concession-supply.com
www.htmarket.com
www.manufacturedfun.com

Now, disclaimer time. I have ordered and received satisfactory service and satisfactory product from all listed vendors. Never had a complaint with any of them. This does not guarantee that you will receive the same. All were about the same in shipping timeframes. :)

Well, my experience with hometheatersupplies.net has not been good thus far. Pricing was good, and customer service was good... in the beginning. Phone was always answered on first or second ring. I was given a 7-10 day delivery window for 3 Coaster Pavillions.

10 days goes by, nothing, get the "will be in middle of next week" line. Another week, nothing.

Am told that there may be a slight shipping delay because of the 4th of July. OK, maybe. Am told they'll be in mid-week. Again, nothing.

Call back again, says delivery is scheduled for July 13th. Shipper will call day before.

12th comes, nothing. Leave multiple messages. 13th comes, nothing. Nobody will answer the phone, get directed to multiple voicemail boxes. Leave multiple messages, nothing. Call again today (14th). Again, no one will answer the phone, get the "all our salespeople are busy" message, and am directed to voicemail yet again.

Today was one month on a 7-10 day order, and unfortunately, I have had to file a dispute with the credit card company, since I was billed the day I placed the order. If the chairs show up, I'll gladly pay for them, but there was no excuse for the bogus delivery times and ignoring of/unreturned phone calls. I really hope that this ends up being the fault of the carrier and not the supplier, but I'm not keeping my hopes up.

I have the same problem as Supermatch. I worked with David Hills. Service seemed ok to begin with. Price was really good. I was told 2-3 weeks for delivery.

3 weeks went by. I called and was told 1 more week. Nothing. Called several times again today, no response.

I am also filing a dispute with my credit card company today. I will pay them if I ever get the chairs. But i also do not think I'll ever receive them.

Do not use hometheatersupplies.net or their affiliated company customer first furniture www.customerfirstfurniture.com

They appear to be located in Virginia beach... I see 2 phone numbers

1-800-506-8347 and 1-800-506-8347 ... the 1-800-506-8347 number used to be in the mix but is apparently owned by someone who used to work with hometheatersupplies.net.

I'll also be filing several complaints with various other consumer advocacy groups so hopefully nobody else has to go through this.

Similar experience here. David seemed like a great guy, very helpful when I called last year. Placed the order last week, got one email with the order info, nothing since. No shipping info, no official invoice. Called several times today and yesterday, left messages, no response.

I wasn't going to do business with them initially as I had seen some negative comments lately (couldn't get shipping info, but chairs were delivered) but they were the only ones that I could find that could deliver the model I was asking for. Hoping I won't have to file a CC dispute myself but given these comments that seems likely.

Sucks that others are experiencing a similar fate. In fact, the reason I went with them was the considerable amount of positive reviews from this site, and the fact that they supported AVS Club members.

Next step is filing with the BBB, not that it's worth a d@mn anymore.

Tried calling again today, again, no answer from the other end.


What really irks me is that I want the chairs more than anything, but am worried now that if I pull the trigger and pay more for them from Stargate or somewhere similar, that the chairs will inevitably show up and they'll try to bill me for shipping, restocking, etc :(

Yea I ordered my chairs on June 22nd. Still no chairs have been received. I called multiple times no pick up this is ridiculous. David Hills seemed very nice and there were alot of postive reviews! So you think its a good idea to dispute the charge?

-RG

This reminds me of a few months ago when James of Jamestown HT was having some health problems, and because its a small business, communications kind of broke down, and people weren't getting their stuff when they expected. He healed up, caught up, and it seems things are back to normal.

Hopefully just a similar small business bump in the road going on here too.

I don't think this is a bump in the road based on talking to someone that used to work for hometheatersupplies.net.

Also I talked to David 2 times after the sale. He assured me of the delivery date so i didn't go into work. No chairs, no call.

I just wish I would have known there were issues before I started this process. This is throwing off my whole build ... sigh.

Sucks that others are experiencing a similar fate. In fact, the reason I went with them was the considerable amount of positive reviews from this site, and the fact that they supported AVS Club members.

Next step is filing with the BBB, not that it's worth a d@mn anymore.

Tried calling again today, again, no answer from the other end.


What really irks me is that I want the chairs more than anything, but am worried now that if I pull the trigger and pay more for them from Stargate or somewhere similar, that the chairs will inevitably show up and they'll try to bill me for shipping, restocking, etc :(

I also trusted the reviews about hometheatersupplies.net especially since they were spread out over some time.

You may want to google around for the chair manufacturer's site and see if they have a dealer locator. Like coasterfurniture.com has one and there were a few dealers in my town I had never heard of... I may give those a try since my faith in online chair purchases is pretty low right now.

Yea I ordered my chairs on June 22nd. Still no chairs have been received. I called multiple times no pick up this is ridiculous. David Hills seemed very nice and there were alot of postive reviews! So you think its a good idea to dispute the charge?

-RG

I filed one through Discover 30 days after purchase, but they won't push it through until 30 days past the original promised delivery date anyways. It just saves you some time after that 30 day grace period. Your CC will contact them though, maybe a sudden influx of calls and letters from the CC companies will get them off their ass?

This reminds me of a few months ago when James of Jamestown HT was having some health problems, and because its a small business, communications kind of broke down, and people weren't getting their stuff when they expected. He healed up, caught up, and it seems things are back to normal.

Hopefully just a similar small business bump in the road going on here too.

James' health is one of the reasons why a reputable company suddenly goes unreliable.

The more common reason is cashflow. The company is not making ends meet and is relying on future orders to pay the suppliers for existing orders. Not bad people, but they get in over their heads and 99% of the time end up going under anyway.

Not saying this is what is happening here, but I would make sure I was paying with a credit card that has a solid dispute policy.

Interesting thread... If this is the case, just because a retailer is having a hard time paying suppliers and/or someone is having health problems is not a reason not to deliver what customers ordered in a timely manner. A seller has his/her responsibilities just like a head of a household to take care of expenses and put food on the table for the family. I am not saying anything of the sort is going on with any retailer in particular. But times are tougher, people are not buying as much as they did previously. Yet if a seller makes a sale, it's the responsability of the seller to make good on it from beginning to end including post sales/service.

Coaster does have a minimum pricing policy however, so all online retailers should be similarly priced. If htsupplies is cheaper than others then they are not honoring the MAP and could get cut off by Coaster. Could be a scenario, not sure. All I know is we use to be #1 for Coaster, Coaster has cut down on their lines and increased prices over the past couple of years. Add to that a retailer or two undercutting others and selling for nothing has caused problems which is why coaster introduced the MAP to begin with. We use to have an issue with htsupplies, not sure what their pricing is like nowadays... Price should not be the determining factor when buying furniture... myself, Roman and Ken have stated this many times on this forum. Yet many do not listen. Getting something cheap is great until you have any sort of problem or issue, big or small. Then the hassles involved are not worth those few dollars worth of savings now and years down the road well after the purchase.

Serge - I agree in that it's the responsibility of the company, regardless of what happens.

As for the pricing, I actually paid a bit MORE with hometheatersupplies.net than some of the others you come across through a Google search, specifically due to their positive reviews from various forums, and the negatives associated with the cheaper places. More money does not always equate to better service, that's for sure.

As for the pricing, I actually paid a bit MORE with hometheatersupplies.net than some of the others you come across through a Google search, specifically due to their positive reviews from various forums, and the negatives associated with the cheaper places.

Same here, though the total was about the lowest considering I'd have to pay tax on the lowest price I got.

More money does not always equate to better service, that's for sure.

Amen bro!

Another day of calling, another day of "all our sales people are busy" voicemails.

Another day of calling, another day of "all our sales people are busy" voicemails.

Same Here If anyone gets through please post/update on the situation of the company.

-RG

Very good supermatch. Strange that a fairly reputable company does a 180, maybe something is up. We have seen DirectFurniture, Carolina and others go under or change ownership and complaints on other companies where it's hit and miss when it comes to service such as 4seating, etc.

OT but with Berkline out of business if a customer needs anything they are out of luck. We dealers can no longer service the chairs, Berkline closed the doors one day about 3 months ago. So from manufacturer to dealer we are seeing issues... disturbing to say the least.

Try this phone number: (757) 739-8626
To me it's strange for a company to be located in VA but have a po box in CA.

This website has:
Home Theater Supplies
425 Schuyler Road
Virginia Beach VA, 23462

Who is info has:
Domain Name.......... hometheatersupplies.net
Creation Date........ 2006-02-14
Registration Date.... 2006-02-14
Expiry Date.......... 2012-02-14
Organisation Name.... David Hills
Organisation Address. PO Box 61359
Organisation Address.
Organisation Address. Sunnyvale
Organisation Address. 94088
Organisation Address. CA
Organisation Address. US
Admin Phone.......... +1.5105952002
Tech Phone........... +1.5105952002

Complaint has now been filed with the Norfolk, VA branch of the Better Business Bureau. I would encourage others here to do the same if they have not done so already.

Try this phone number: (757) 739-8626
To me it's strange for a company to be located in VA but have a po box in CA.


I did a Google search for that domain registration address, and came up with a ton of other results - they all are related to myprivateregistration.com, which I believe is a private domain registration service of Melbourne IT - at least that's the way I read it.

FYI - My CC company wouldn't give me the credit or investigate the dispute initially because it hadn't been 30 days from the estimated delivery time (which was sketchy to begin with).

I told them a bit more and they ended up issuing a "temporary" credit and starting the dispute process.

Hope this may info may help others as they fumble their way through this BS. Next step is the BBB.

Thanks everyone for the information you have been adding here.

I guess there were things I should have done to make sure the company/David were legit. Like:


Check the manufacturers website to see if they are an authorized dealer
Check the BBB in the area where they say they are located
Spy on them with google maps .. to see if they even have a real building
See if there whois info even makes sense, and question them about it

As someone who is in the market for chairs thanks for putting this info out there for everyone to see. I will certainly direct my money elsewhere.

funny this is at the top of his site SPECIAL PRICING FOR AVS CLUB MEMBERS
PLEASE CALL FOR DISCOUNTS

umm... NO!

Spy on them with google maps .. to see if they even have a real building


In todays world of growing Internet commerce there are many companies with a strong Internet presence operated out of someones home office. Orders are taken and shipped directly from the manufacturers. I would only be concerned if they represented themselves as actually having an inventory.

Another theater example is the Guilford of Maine (GOM) fabrics often used in theaters. All orders come directly from the mill's own distribution center. Anyone you might order from does not carry an inventory.

Everyone is also getting overexcited about the site domain ownership. In my experience, the domain can be owned by the isp, the website developer, the domain registrar (i.e. godaddy) or anyone who actually paid the bill.

We are also forgetting that until recently this company was reputable, with many positive testomonials from this site. Yes, there is an issue and potential buyers should be cautious. However, IMHO it is a bit early to be breaking out the torches and pitchforks.

Go over to the screen forum and look at the Jamestown thread. The poor guy got wheeled into the emergency room and spent two weeks in the hospital, and the AVS crowd nearly took down the company over it.

And if that turns out to be the case with Home Theater Supplies Company, I'll be one of the first to close out the dispute/BBB complaint and make note that all was made well on these boards. Until then, business is business.

I agree with supermatch. I'll gladly pay and close my BBB complaint if there was/is a misunderstanding but 3 different dates (initial+2 changes) and 6 weeks later I'm not getting any response... I hope it is a misunderstanding and the matter can be resolved properly.

Just so the situation is clearly represented I was told 2 different dates after both dates elapsed i called and talked to someone who said they'd have someone call me back.

David was the one who called me back both times, and the date moved both times.

If there were extenuating circumstances regarding why the date had changed 2 times then i think that would be the time for him or a rep from his company to inform me. There was no disclosure and now nobody is answering the phone at all.

This reminds me of the thread about the ht dvd intros that a lot of people ordered from Richard Far???

6 weeks is way too long for Coaster. To be completely fair 1-2 weeks for delivery is all it should take assuming the chair is in stock. Anything beyond that is just too long.

Haven't tried calling in a few days since I filed both BBB and credit card disputes. Any updates from anyone else?

http://www. theaterseat. com/600130-coaster-home-theater-seating/11/231
The coaster seats I'm considering ordering. They're perfect, and this site is way cheaper than anyone else. Does anyone know anything about them?

http://www. theaterseat. com/600130-coaster-home-theater-seating/11/231
The coaster seats I'm considering ordering. They're perfect, and this site is way cheaper than anyone else. Does anyone know anything about them?

Dealer cost is well over $900 for a row of 3 + shipping to vendor then out to customer. At this price he/she is selling for free. Shipping will be $150 give or take on average...Reported to my rep... Plus way below MAP, even at $1299 where a dealer can actually make $150 or $200...That's why Coaster has a MAP, so that everyone has a level playing field and to keep some dealers from selling for nothing and in some cases taking customers money and disappearing. That's what this thread is about... So if someone happens to be way cheaper than anyone else it should ring a bell.

We dealers have to eat too. At those prices it is not possible to actually make a few bucks and provide the service a customer needs even a year down the road should he/she need it. Hate to report anyone but have to do it.

Dealer cost is well over $900 for a row of 3 + shipping to vendor then out to customer. At this price he/she is selling for free. Shipping will be $150 give or take on average...Reported to my rep... Plus way below MAP, even at $1299 where a dealer can actually make $150 or $200...That's why Coaster has a MAP, so that everyone has a level playing field and to keep some dealers from selling for nothing and in some cases taking customers money and disappearing. That's what this thread is about... So if someone happens to be way cheaper than anyone else it should ring a bell.

We dealers have to eat too. At those prices it is not possible to actually make a few bucks and provide the service a customer needs even a year down the road should he/she need it. Hate to report anyone but have to do it.

I've since found 3 other websites with very similar pricing.

I am sure there are others... not my job or desire to police. MAP pricing is around $1400 on this set. MAP means minimum advertise price. Dealers signed an agreement to abide within Coaster policies or risk being penaltized or termination.

Other dealers know what they are doing, let them make their own bed and sleep in it. Good luck with your purchase. Nothing bad to say about anyone or any company. But any dealer selling 3 chairs to possibly make $50, well I am at a loss for words...the 3% credit card fee alone is almost as much as the profit margin. To each their own...

I am sure there are others... not my job or desire to police. MAP pricing is around $1400 on this set. MAP means minimum advertise price. Dealers signed an agreement to abide within Coaster policies or risk being penalties or termination.

Other dealers know what they are doing, let them make their own bed and sleep in it. Good luck with your purchase. Nothing bad to say about anyone or any company. But any dealer selling 3 chairs to possibly make $50, well I am at a loss for words...the 3% credit card fee alone is almost as much as the profit margin. To each their own...

While I understand your frustration. Please understand mine as well. I've been quoted a price from $1413 all the way to $2589 for a set of four of these seats. I'm trying to get the best deal I can, we all have to eat. They may only make $15 on the sale, but it's $15 more than the person who didn't sell it. In this economy, there's probably not a big audience for HT sales. So, people are making what they can. I'm sorry to hear your business is struggling. Ethics are great, especially in healthcare (my line of work), but sometimes they'll close you up. I'd consider buying from you if you could get close to the price, but you're about $200 more expensive than everyone else (the more reputable sites). I can't afford $200 extra, when you're talking about closing shop. What happens then if I have a problem? Sounds like same situation I'd get with the cheaper companies.

I think same thing happened to another company that was struggling, and went under (supported by this site). Walmart will always be around, the mom and pop shop might not. If you have a receipt, walmart will help you... (sad but true). I may just say forget it all together. Trying to find decent seats at a decent price shouldn't be so frustrating :)

It's all good... not asking anyone to buy from us. Please understand that is not my intention here.

Closing up shop is way too strong of a statement. We run a home business that can be run part time without the overhead. So worst case is a part time business, not going anywhere.

Supermatch - I want people filing BBB complaints to reference the same info so the BBB can see there is a pattern. What name/info did you submit?

This is what came up against their phone number:

Your complaint has been applied to the following business:
Home Theater Supplies Company
1372 Baycliff Dr
Virginia Beach, VA 23454-1434

Just a brief update, today was the first response deadline from the vendor per my BBB dispute, and Home Theater Supplies did not respond to their inquiry (big surprise there).

I recently posted an issue with my subwoofer (EPISODE C5 12a 300W) after 22 months (fuse blew out but problem deeper than simply replacing with new fuse). I'm happy to state that David from hometheatersupplies.net replaced it for free with a brand new Episode C5 300w subwoofer. Now that's great service from his company as well as from Episode which provided a full 2 year warranty on subwoofer.
Thanks!

I purchased all my theater equipment in October 2009 from David at hometheatersupplies.net. I bought 6 theather seats, 100in projection screen, projector and all related stereo equipment. Spent over $6K and loved it all. But now my subwoofer (EPISODE C5 12a 300W) has blown out and I cannot get hometheatersupplies.net to respond to my calls or emails for past week. The subwoofer is fully under warranty still so all i need is for them to help me with the replacement. I spoke to rep at EPISODE who told me it's still under warranty but I need to deal with my dealer. One way or another, one of these companies needs to address this.
ANY ADVICE??

I would point the rep to this very thread to show that the dealer is temporarily unresponsive and simply tell him/her straight up that you need service from the manufacturer in this case. This thread should say it all, you are not the only one with issues getting through for warranty/service/new purchases.

After BBB's second attempt to contact, they got a response from HTS:

"Buyer put in dispute with Paypal which takes the money from us. We do not deliver product without the money. It is between Paypal and customer at this point. Sorry it did not work out. "


My order was never placed through PayPal, and it is Discover card that temporary withdrew funds during the investigation. That didn't happen until well over 1 MONTH after the promised delivery date of 10 days!

Even then, "we do not deliver product without the money." Umm, shouldn't it have already been delivered? Haven't these chairs been "on the truck" for two months now? Perhaps if they had responded to the credit card company's dispute notices, they would have refunded the money and authorized delivery?

I sent a BBB rebuttal in stating that the seller has still made no attempt to contact by phone, respond to e-mails, or offer any justification for the delays, and requested that they contact my credit card company to officially cancel the order. Fat chance of that happening.

It would appear to me that Mr. Hills and company are alive and well, were trying to use incoming orders to pay for their backlog, and have now gone under. Best of luck to those of you that need to contact them regarding warranty claims, etc.

Read this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1354192

I will make this quick because I have a business to run on low margins. We are complying with our manufactures policies which HT Authorities left out important detail on map policy which we won't get into. This is not the economy for large profits.

SUWOOFER WAS REPLACED FREE OF CHARGE

CUSTOMER DID A CHARGE BACK AND HAS LOCKED THE MONEY UP WITH THEIR CREDIT CARD COMPANY

Chargebacks these days are great for consumers. About 95% of the time customers get their money back deserved or not. We have a customer with a theater sectional in their house that got the money back from their card company about 4 months ago. Once a chargeback is put in we will deliver product or comunicate with customer again. All Needed communication goes through card company only. We appreciate everyones business.

Home Theater Supplies

All needed communication goes through the credit card company only? So, once you have the customer's money, it's perfectly acceptable to blow off the customer, not deliver the product, falsify shipping information, and resort to credit card disputes as a single line of communication?


Interesting business practices.


Also note, that HTS has STILL not contacted my credit card company. If they had clarified the situation with them, Discover would have put the money back in their account and followed up with the normal dispute resolution process. Apparently, this does not fall under the seller's idea of what "needed communication" is. Personally, I'd be thrilled if they did contact my CC company to close the dispute so that I may take my business elsewhere.

Just as an FYI, here is how the dispute situation takes place, verbatim from the credit card company's website:

"After gathering information and any documentation you may have, we issue a credit to your account while we investigate the transaction. We notify the merchant of your dispute. If the merchant responds, we evaluate the information they provide and then either a credit is issued from the merchant's account or the credit we issued during investigation is reversed. If the merchant doesn't respond, a credit is issued from their account."

The seller only has himself to blame for the chargeback on this one, folks.



Wish some of the other posters would chime in with their order statuses.

I ordered seats from them in 09. All was well with that order. I was looking to replace a seat and they got back to me initially stating they had one and could send it.

I tried for days to get ahold of them and we finally caught up and the only way we could order them was to send a personal check or bank deposit. There is no way I was doing business with a company that couldn't accept a credit card.

After seeing this thread and reading about some issues I would suggest that anyone be careful when placing an order.

Good luck to those that still have outstanding issues.

Well, some resolution, finally!

Credit card had closed my dispute, in my favor.

I then placed an order for my seats with Ken at Stargate Cinema (caught a sale to boot, so it only cost me another $8 over my previous order!)

Stargate was absolutely FANTASTIC. Within minutes of placing my order, I received an e-mail from Ken to discuss. He gave me an approximate time frame, continuously updated me on the order status throughout the week, e.g. when it was placed, when Coaster acknowledged, carrier tracking numbers, what warehouse it was being shipped from, you name it.

Due to some personal obligations, I asked Ken if they could make sure that it wouldn't be delivered until today (order was placed last Sunday) since nobody would be around to sign for it, and he obliged. Seats showed up today right on time with great communication from R&L freight, no muss, no fuss, 10 days after I ordered them, even taking into account the holiday!

For those of you who had previous issues with Home Theater Supplies, I highly recommend dealing with Stargate. That is how a transaction SHOULD take place, and they did an absolutely fantastic job of taking care of me. Well worth the few extra dollars you may pay, and still cheaper than several of the others.