Heartland America
reviews and complaints

In the Heartland America spring catalog on page 33 is a listing for a sweepstakes. Just find the 5 (five) gold tickets in the catalog and you can enter to win $50, 000. Lo and behold there are only 4 in the catalog. It's a scam to get you to look at every ad and maybe be enticed. The same thing happened in their last catalog. I had my wife go through it as well. We marked each incident of the "tickets" and never found more than 4. Of course their disclaimer says the odds of winning are based on the number of entries which in this case would be 0.

I would never recommend buying any products from heartland america.

A telephone call early this a. M. Alerted me that something was up with a company called "heartland". The female was rapidly reading off all the benefits I could receive. I confirmed with my 89 yr old father that he'd ordered merchandise from heartland. I asked to see the invoice and then checked his amex and sure enough I found hidden charges (Over weight shipping, valued member fee and expedited order fees). I spent a half hours speaking with one agent who tried her best to dodge answering my questions. I finally asked if she gets sick of speaking all this convoluted, crapola lingo. I was told a $30 "rebate" check will be mailed to dad. Not holding my breath waiting to receive it.

I tried to place my 1st order and receive my $10 "invite a friend" offer and tried to pay via Paypal which Heartland America lists as an approved payment method (I've had bad experiences with cc orders in the past).

Lo and behold, they would NOT let me use Paypal. Could it be because Paypal had so many complaints in the past about unauthorized/added charges for memberships and rebate fraud?

Needless to say, I will order the exact same item from somewhere else where I can feel secure about the charges. Many thanks to this forum!

I have ordered from them before, the product worked okay, but the product is now defective. But when I was shopping somewhere else, I found out that the company took money out without my permission for membership renewal. They did not even send me an email telling me that my membership was due please renew or cancel, no, they took it out and overdrew my bank account. I had to wait about 4 days to put it back in and cancel the membership, which I don't even need anymore since they did not leave my bank account alone. I would of trusted them, but they do things that I do not agree with such as sending things that wear out easily and go into your bank account without your permission. So buyer or newbie beware of this company if you are planning on saving money by getting their membership. Plus the membership is only recommended for frequent shoppers, once you sign up for it and the year has passed be prepared for them to withdraw $40.00 from your bank or credit card without an email
saying they were going to take money out even when you do not have money in there in the first place. If you order once, don't get the membership!

First I ordered online and entered the code given on the catalog for $10 off. When the $10 off did not show up on my checkout price I immediately called customer service and was told it had already gone through and they couldn't do anything about it. However, I would be sent a coupon for $10 off my next order. I figured it was better than nothing. Then when my coupon arrives, it's two $5 coupons that can only be used one order at a time. Not quite the same as one $10 coupon, is it? Certainly not the same as getting what was advertised right? When I tried to order online again I entered the code for $10 off from the catalog, and then realized there was no place to enter my "make up" coupon. So I called customer service before placing the order and was told to go ahead and place the order, then call back to take off the coupon! Why couldn't my $10 have been taken off as advertised the first time I ordered!? What if the $10 code didn't work again? Well congratulations; you made as sale without delivering on the advertised price. When I was offered a remedy I was deceptively told I was getting a $10 coupon; I got two $5 coupons that could only be used one order at a time. Stay away from this rip-off company!

I purchased a pressure washer made by Tornado Tools from them. Either a part was missing or the product had a defect. The directions were unintelligible and incomplete. Nowhere on the product or in the manual was ther a manufacturer contact. So, I called Heartland to get one. They couldn't tell me fast enough my one-month refund window had passed. I explained that I didn't want to return the item, just get instructions or the missing part. I was place on hold for over 20 minutes, again told sorry the return window had passed, they have no parts and can't help me. I waited again for a supervisor who said there only contact for this manufacturer was Double D Trading company in Hong Kong and unfortunately, my refund window has expired. I didn't expect to return the item but getting some help from the retailer in a case like this is certainly expected.

I will never ever purchase from Heartland America again. Upon purchasing anything, it was continuously offered to me that if I paid $39.95 in addition to order, I would get 10% off and $20 in rebates. You are told even if you change your mind no questions asked. Wrong. That is a lie. Also, another offer of $39.95, reduced shipping/free shipping. Again, promised if not happy a refund, another lie. All together I have lost over $150.00 in cash with Heartland. 1. Never got rebates, 2. Refused to take back faulty product. 3. Both plans have a fine print that actually does not allow a refund. I never saw this but the $80 was kept and I had to throw away the defective products. 4. If sent a faulty product and it doesn't work, even if you pay for the extended warranty, the money spent on warranty, kept by company, product is not replaced, given a partial refund on credit card, product cost $168. received $128. on card. In addition to the two (2) $39.98 plans I signed up, those were also refused back even though the customer service said no matter what your complaint. I don't have any of their products and spent several hundred dollars. I purchased mostly electronics. Also, if you do call and explain you are unhappy with product, you will many times be placed on hold trasnfered around and eventually hung up on. I am disabled and money is tight. I am so hurt that this company is allowed to sell bad products and then make up excuses for not receiving your rebates, and other services which you paid and were lied to by the Customer service team.

I placed an order last night after a window popped up stating that the item I was looking at, if purchased right now today 6-25-09 qualified for free shipping. A very small discalimer under the item said some items would incure an oversize shipping charge. After purchasing I was hit with a order processing charge of 2.99 plus shipping charges of 12.95. Today when going back to their sight the oversized shipping charge is listed at 4.95.

When I called to ask for my free shipping as advertised, I was told that the item I purchased is oversize as the the charges will not be adjusted, I said that I should only have to pay the oversize charge that my purchase
Said free shipping today only... After getting disconected 4 times asking for a superviser the supeviser girl said there was nothing she was going to do, that the shipping and handling charges would remain. But she did admit that the pop up ad "purchase now window for free shipping" was a problem. She just could not do anything about it and if I wanted to complain I could write a mr. Richard winters. Very shady, no regard for the customer, deceiving practices, poor customer service, false and misleading ads... I will never purchase from them again! Ever!

Worst customer service experience in years!
I ordered an item then learned a family member had purchased a similar one as a gift. So before the Heartland order arrived, I called Customer Service to explain and asked how to return without incurring shipping. Was told to refuse at the door or take it to a UPS center if I missed the driver. Sure enough, I missed the driver. Next day, took the unopened package to a UPS center (Staples). Got a return tracking slip. Three days later, the same package arrived at my door, again while I was not home. Called Heartland. A person identifying themselves as a supervisor had no patience for the story. Attitude, attitude, attitude! Although a Heartland customer for over 17 years, no offer to help with the postage or simply to understand that I simply did what a Heartland rep. told me to do; and which should have been logged on my order screen. Bottom line: besides the aggravating interaction with a so-called supervisor whose impudence is trumped only by a company that has apparently lost 'heart' for its customers, it's costing me $8 dollars for shipping. And BTW: I learned and confirmed, that Buy.com has exactly the same item (refurb. GPS) at $45 dollars less. I urge you to be very careful with what the 'real' cost of dealing with Heartland America is. Other dissatisfied customer reviews are worth paying attention to. No wonder Heartland does not subscribe to customer review services like this one.

they willtake your cridet card info and automaticaly charge you for a membership without your consent! cost me an overdraft fee!

Below is a copy of an email I sent them after talking with one of their their rude c. s. reps. they really should refer to them as customer obstruction and frustration reps. another example of no service after the sale. (the item was defective right out of the box)

Email to company:

I received some merchandise from you on friday which turned out to be defective. I called your "customer service" saturday to get more information on returning the product. because the product was sent defective to me I should not have to pay additional costs to return it. that is common sense. one of your representatives who called herself angie was very rude and offered absolutely no help. she was argumentative and had no alternative solutions such as me shipping the item and you would have another out in the mail immediately. that is good customer service. now, i'm not interested in dealing with your company any further, and be assured I will tell anyone who will listen how you deal with customers after the sale. obviously any company can sell products but when there is a problem only the best companies will bring the issue to a fair compromising resolution.
I am returning this package and apparently will have to pay to have it shipped back. thanks for a perfectly sucky experience!

Heartland America
www.heartlandamerica.com

Heartland America (www.heartlandamerica.com) advertises on its website that some products come with a rebate. When you get the rebate form, you find out that it's not a cash refund (which is the most common type of rebate), but is actually a discount coupon on your next purchase from Heartland America. PLUS, this so-called rebate is only good for about a month. To us, the advertising of this sort of rebate was false advertising. BEWARE!