The Popcorn Factory — Local services in Libertyville

A NIGHTMARE!!!! If I could give negative stars, I would!

12/09/15 - Placed an order 5 tins of popcorn, with a guaranteed delivery by 12-18-15

12/11/15 - 3 of 5 tins delivered

12/19/15 at 1:00pm - Called CS, spoke with Alexis; she blamed FedEx for not delivering (even though the tracking number had stated that a shipping label had been created, nothing more, which obviously shows that the order had not even left the Popcorn Factory as of yet); she took my number and told me she would call back in 15-20 minutes

12/19/15 at 2:30pm - After waiting 1.5 hours for a call that was never coming, I called CS back; spoke with Renee; was informed that the last 2 tins were back ordered (I had received NO communication on this!) and offered to help me find replacements and even upgrade; I tried to be nice and told her an upgrade was not necessary and ended up picking two tins that were the same as one in my original order (so now, instead of 5 different designs, I had 3 of the same design)

12/19/15 at 5:00pm - Noticed a new charge of $78.00 on my bank card!

12/19/15 at 5:15pm - Called CS again and spoke with Tracy, who transferred me to Melody, a supervisor; Melody assured me that my last two tins would be shipping out that evening, she claimed that she was taking the $78.00 extra charge off of my bank card, and she claimed that she was crediting the original full charge back to my bank card for the troubles I had received; I asked her when this would be done and she assured me I would see it on my account by the end of business on 12/21/15 (neither has happened); I also asked her to send me tracking numbers for the last two packages and she said she would (that did not happen); I also asked her for a direct number to contact her in the event that something went wrong and she said I could call the same CS number I had been calling and ask for her by name, as she was the only Melody there.

12/22/15 at 12:45pm - No money had been credited to my bank account and all mail/package carriers had come through for the day, with NO packages from The Popcorn Factory, so I call the same CS number AGAIN; I could not make out the name of the person who answered, as they sounded like they were from the other side of the world; asked to speak with Melody; I think I was told there was no Melody there; ended up hanging up since I could not understand the person and the connection was shotty.

12/22/15 at 12:50pm - Called CS again; Nobody by the name of Melody there!; could not understand the persons name again, but the connection was better, although very distant sounding; was told a supervisor was on another call and they could call me back; I refused and said I would wait since these people obviously do not call back, as learned by my very first call to them; after waiting 47 minutes, spoke with Julie; was informed that a credit to my bank would take 7-10 business days (so "Melody" blatantly lied about this); was told my shipment went out on 12/21/15, not 12/19/15 (was lied to about this as well); I asked for tracking numbers for the last two packages and was put on hold for another 10 minutes; I finally received the tracking numbers and entered them into the carrier website to track while I was the phone with CS and I am anticipating them to arrive by the end of the day on 12/23/15.

• So now I must wait a couple of weeks to see if the money will indeed be credited back to my account. I am appalled by the lack of respect and the bold face lies told by at least two employees, as well as the lack of professionalism in general by the company. I have researched the company online and I am finding an overall negative view, not only by customers, but also by past employees. So I'm not even really looking forward finding out the quality of their products (since I have read countless negative reviews on the quality) NEVER AGAIN WILL THIS COMPANY GET MY BUSINESS!!!! I will also be reporting them to the BBB and will give negative reviews wherever I can to hopefully deter others from enduring this...

You do NOT want to order from this company until they get their act together. I was hired as a customer service rep for Xmas 2012. Training was a joke. Many of us had technical problems and missed out on many hours of the training. There was NO WAY to get the information we missed. We were told we were NOT allowed to sign into the training on our off-time to learn what we missed or to read information screens or watch the powerpoints. As a result we were completely unprepared to handle customer orders and problems. We were hired at the last possible moment, so there was NO down-time we could use to spend learning the website, etc. The phone rang again the second we hung up with the last customer. We were working from our own homes and used chat to communicate with each other. Our "helpers" were helping 10 other reps at the same time so often it would take 45+ minutes to resolve a problem we didn't know how to handle. We weren't allowed to let someone off the phone and call them back with the resolution to their problem so customers were forced to stay on the phone for close to an hour in order to get resolutions. Once we were off the call with a customer we were NOT supposed to double-check the order since we should be on to the next order. I was reprimanded for checking a problem order later in the day for a customer whose order kept getting put on hold - he had spent hundreds buying gift baskets for his clients and none of the baskets had been received on time. (WHY WERE YOU CHECKING THAT ORDER? THAT CALL WAS HOURS AGO????) In fact - his order was on hold and we were out of popcorn by that time. Like I said, what a joke. It was an embarrassment working for them and not being able to help the customers. The computer system they are using is outdated. We had to wait 30 - 45 minutes after taking an order in order to make any changes to the order so we had to tell customers to call back then. The system we had to wait 45 minutes for the order to go into was a system like they had back in the 90's that was not very user-friendly. AND we were selling popcorn long after we had sold out. The system told us we had the popcorn when we didn't. People were calling the week before Xmas because orders had not been received and we had to tell them it was coming as soon as it was popped, but that it would get there by Xmas. I myself ordered online and my order did not come until the week AFTER Xmas. So, a couple days before Xmas I had to run out and by alternate presents and now I am stuck with all this extra popcorn. So, I'm sure all the people who I assured would get their order by Xmas probably did not. Another note, we were hired for a couple of months MAX - we are temporary employees and you are giving your credit card numbers to us...just saying...not everyone is honest...

The Popcorn Factory is the worst company to do business with. I placed an order on 11/16/18. They charged my card on 11/20/18. They sent a shipping email on 12/13/18 showing that only 4 items out of 64 shipped, and one of them was for me. Calls and emails were ignored and went unanswered. Three people told me five different stories. It shipped 12/13/18, it shipped 12/14/18, it shipped 12/15/18, the label maker is broken, it will ship 12/17/18 for next day delivery on 12/18/18. I had to file a complaint with the BBB of Illinois in order to obtain a list of shipping confirmations even though I had been asking them for a copy. They lied and told the BBB that they had sent me many email shipping confirmations. If that were the case, then why did I have to resort to filing complaints with the BBB and Attorney General of Illinois? Why would I torture myself during the two weeks leading up to Christmas if I had, in fact, received any kind of shipping info. Checking their Facebook page I panicked because people wrote that they are liars, scammers, that they don't honor delivery or shipping dates, that they don't honor online or catalog coupon codes and that their customer service dept couldn't be more inept. Letters and calls to their parent company, 1-800-Flowers in NY have gone unanswered. The receptionist at the executive office was the only person from this whole ordeal to apologize and have compassion for me. She was told, 'it was handled." Oh yeah, well it got worse. Yesterday I went to a client's office and saw the disgraceful gift that was sent to dear people that I love. I ordered a beautiful set of 4 cardboard Christmas decorated townhouses filled with bags of popcorn. What they got was a measly sad looking set of 4 popcorn balls dipped in chocolate on a stick. How on earth was an office supposed to share tiny little cake-pop like balls of popcorn? I went online and added more documentation to my complaints with the BBB and the Attorney General's office and called American Express to add yet another complaint to my dispute of the charges that total $3600. So I implore you check out their Facebook page and take a look at the complaints as there are many. I have the distinct honor of having been blocked from their page, because you know, telling the truth and warning consumers about how they operate is not something they want anyone to do. I also encourage you to contact the BBB of Illinois as they have a triple A rating which is laughable, and tell them of your experience and also read the reviews. They are not nice people to do business with and when you have a problem, they...