Hammacher Schlemmer Arvostelua 

Horrible customer service. I received an item with corroded batteries inside, so it did not work out of the box. They charged me postage to return the product, charged me postage for the replacement item, and told me that I would not get a refund on the return postage. I regret ever ordering from them, but will not make that mistake again. Most companies use their customer service to actually service customers so they remain customers.

Slowest return process EVER - stay away!

This company is horrible on refunds if you return anything! I've been waiting over a month. They say they are running behind! I'm about ready to issue stop payment with my credit card company if the refund isn't forthcoming soon. Look at all the other one star reviews. I'll never order from this rip off company again!

Shipped wrong item which I returned and am still waiting over a month later for a refund for their mistake.

High prices for meh products. Purchased a small artificial Christmas tree with fiber optic lights. It was smaller than expected but probably not the fault of HS, however the bottom quarter of the tree's lights were missing making it look lopsided. A few days later I was in a big box store and saw a very similar tree for $80 less than what I paid. Granted, the quality was not as good, but certainly the HS tree was not worth $80 more so I decided I wanted to return it and get the other one. Their website says I will have to pay return shipping and a "return fee." That's a hard no for me. Lesson learned. I will not be buying from HS again.

Actually should not even have one star! Beware of the fine print, you'll end up being charged monthly for some kind of membership you're not aware and refuse to refund the unauthorized charge because the box was checked. Also, we ordered The Choreographed Light Show Tree; we received one that had already returned because it didn't work! DON'T ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY!!!

If I could do less than one star I would. Chinese junk. Sent it back and still trying to get a refund

I cannot warn anyone enough to stay away from HS. First, you are paying A LOT more for things that you can often get from other companies. You are paying a premium for their "lifetime guarantee", which is not worth the paper it is written on. I have had two, or maybe three, instances now where they screwed me over on their bogus guarantee. They will use any excuse to get out of honoring it, so BE WARNED.

If you doubt me, look at their reviews on Google. 3.8 on Google itself, but 1.5 on sitejabber, and 1.6 on Trustpilot (with 80% being 1-star reviews).

Please don’t do business with this fraud company. The customer service staff are very unprofessional especially Carolee.

BEWARE! THIS IS A RIP OFF OPERATIONS! Use Amazon instead, they refund.
Ordered the World's Best Tabletop Pre-lit Fraser Fir. Item: 56440 WHI for a gift. The retail price was $84.96 on November 6, 2023. That evening, I cancelled the order, spoke to a rep. They shipped it anyway! I complained. No problem they claimed, just refuse the package or take it to UPS to return for a refund. That's what I did. My checking account indicates that they charged me $110 keeping $18.90 for themselves. Now they are refusing to refund the total amount. Not acceptable! I will continue to complain until this is resolved. The package was never opened, although I did reinforce the tape that was coming off the package.
Date of experience: November 06, 2023

We WISH we had read these reviews before giving this company our money!!
We ordered a gift on 12/10/23. It was stated that it would come 7-14 days..not business days..just days. This was “the gift” for our child on Christmas. When we were charged and never given a tracking number we contacted customer service over both emails and phone. We didn’t get any responses until our fourth email.
THIS PLACE IS A SCAM. Our purchase will not get here until the new year…AFTER CHRISTMAS… the ONE gift we got our child will not be here. When I requested to CANCEL this order..I was told someone will contact me 5 days later..this was on 12/20..so they were saying the contact us ON CHRISTMAS.
Long story short, they do not respect their customers. They’ll charge your purchase and then good luck getting it,
TOTAL SCAM.

Placed an order for a Christmas gift for my son 12/6, it was never filled, yet they charged my card and said they were processing the order. Now they are saying they don't have the item (after several emails and calls) 10 days before Christmas and that gift is sold out everywhere. If you like to waste time and money - this is your store. If you'd like to actually receive the item you purchased, shop elsewhere.

They charge 17.95 to shIp, by ground, a piece of light weight clothing from Ohio to PA To arrive in 4 to 8 days ground. They add $1.99 additional for their carrier(USP). That is extremely excessive. I will not order from them again. Corporate greed is out of hand!

Don't try to return anything if you want a refund of your money.

Don't try to return items for refunds if you are in any hurry to be reimbursed.
So far it has been two weeks and counting just since HS received the item I returned and the customer service people say they are slow because of the large volume of returns.... that alone is scary.

I wanted to order 4 small flashlights for Christmas gifts. When I went to pay for them there was a shipping charge of $17.95. I contacted them to check the cost. The customer service person told me that they don't have free shipping. I wasn't asking for free. I wanted fair. I receive a catalog a month from this company. Perhaps, if they cut back on this practice, they wouldn't have to charge so much.

Shipping / Delivery is horrible they don’t ship for days and they use UPS innovations which does not give a delivery date.
You pay for shipping service you do not get.
I wish I never ordered from them.

AWFUL experience. I purchased several items to decorate my house for christmas. Half of the items were missing upon delivery. They never call me to apologize or let me know what had happened with the items I had purchased and paid. I called. The first customer service lady hang up in the middle of the conversation and did not call me back. The second one told me they would send the rest of the items but told me she could not tell me when they would arrive because she had a slow computer. When I requested to talk to her supervisor she told me her supervisor could not talk to me because he was busy. I'm not buying from the company anymore.

Very high prices with "extreme" shipping charges. You will be over-charged.

In April, I ordered an electronically-lighted wreath. It stopped working in September, and I returned in October. Despite their website promising a refund to my form of payment (because it was less than a year after purchase), they sent me a check. For reasons that I only found out about after receiving it, they deducted nearly $15 from the refund. I also had to buy a box to ship the defective item back. All told, I was out nearly $30 simply to return a defective item. To make matters even worse, the envelope with my check contained a check for another person. They are the WORST!

Hammacher Schlemmer is a complete rip off. They say 100% satisfaction guaranteed and life time warranty which is a complete lie. I bought a rechargeable fan so I did not have to use the cord. It stopped working so I contacted them for a replacement and I found a $59 fee on by charge card. I have called customer service 2 times and each time they say there is a fee for postage which is fine and that the rest of the fee is part of the swap. They will not let me talk to a manager and at this point I have paid 50% of the replacement cost for something that should have been free. All I can say is "unbelievable" and this has got to be illegal. For saying 100% satisfaction guarantee and all they have made me is furious!!