hg-hydroponics, scam or possibly even scamola!?

yes, it seems a definate scam now please check out my thread on scamwarners.com, if you type in hg-hydrogrow it comes up.... they have found addresses and dissolved businesses all in relation to this one operation..
I would ask anyone who has a bit of time to place as many orders as possible on this site and click on bank transfer.. this may go some way to messing with this guys head and hopefully bog him, make him think all his xmasses have come at once.. it will only take you a few minutes but may help in eventually getting this site killed.. something i am set on doing.... scamwarners have been very good and hopefully anyone who comes accross this site will also come accros the posts... his links have also now been removed from the howard marks thread... i would also ask those members of you tube to view his videos and comment as many people may be duped into going into this site through the you tube videos.... even if you havent had dealing with this rip off merchant he gives all hydro shops a bad name, and puts people off online shopping.. so please all take a few minutes and help out, people are being scammed right now as we speak and any little you can do to help will hopefully stop this guy living off being a theiving bstard... peace all xxx

KittyBitty said:

Well I am in same boat here. I placed order with hg hydro on 13th of feb. And I never recieved a confirmation of shipping or processing.
I paid with pay pal and I made a dispute in resolution center of which I will advance to a claim.
I am really hoping tht this is not a scam. But the posts here are not looking good.

Click to expand...

learner2156 said:

anyone any experience with them?.ordered stuff 10 days ago and cant get any replies to emails, no answer from phone no.s and cant make any contact at all.starting to worry obviously.

Click to expand...

im in same situation ordered something on 1st april took me 5 email attemps to get a reply saying it has been sent and should be with me by tues if not e-mail them and they'll sort it, its now thurs and still not heard anything try e-mailing chrisaleman@hg-hydroponics.co.uk i got the first reply from that e-mail let me know if you hear owt and i will u

You can add me to the list of someone that has been ripped off by this seriously suspect company.

I actually got my product, which seems unique seeing all the negative comments in various forums, but the product was wrong - completely!

I have been e-mailing to try and resolve this but have been met with automated replies, have even tried the chrisaleman route but no luck. Tried to recover my money through PayPal resolution centre but was turned down as they don't apparently deal with wrong items that are received.

Next step is to try and recover my money through my credit card, but as it's less than £100 I'm unsure if they will pay out.

Why oh why did I not look-up this company before ordering, well, I've certainly learnt my lesson...

To anyone thinking of doing business with HG Hydroponics, don't... You WILL regret ever dealing with them...

DEAR ALL

I am writing to you on behalf of HG, the company has now been taken under new owners 1/7/2009 and would like any one with ANY outstanding issues to get in touch with us asap so we can help rectify any outstanding problems.

by either mail@hg-hydroponics.co.uk
Live chat on the site 10-6pm daily
or on 0845 643 5523 ( standard rate )

We have just injected over £80,000 in to the business. We have a new premises. New Staff. Active phone lines. completely new website. completely revamped grow rooms and systems

We no offer a price match guarantee - 7 day money back guarantee - and NEXT DAY delivery on all items, which you can track as of now.


Our new premises will also be open to the public within the next 4-6 weeks so any and all are welcome to visit. we have one in lincoln, one in hemswell and a premises in peterborough.

i have managed to look in to and contact 95% of the customers on this forum to resolve any issues useing details i can find. And i notice every one i have spoken to has stated there was a problem, but not a single person has stated that anything has, was or is rectified and that everything got sorted out.

I understand everyone “tasha” included received there items or a full refund as i have extensively tried to go through this with the previous owners.

I can assure you neither us...or the previous owners are in the business of ripping people off.

The problem with the previous owners has become an apparent lack of business experience and a classic case of " to big to quick" and was unable to handle the business. we do currently ship to over 200 customers a week, and our new premises, hotline and next day delivery has ensured that we have put a solid stop to any issues and problems that previously occurred.



i do realize the posts on this forum arent recent but on coming across this posts it is opf some obvious concern to me, The whole whole business is being redesigned and worked from the bottom upwards and i would like any one who is owed money, equipment or has any un fixed issues to contact us so we can help fix the damage caused by the previous unsatisfactory service.

i am not asking for forgivness, acceptance, or sympathy just the opportunity to help fix outstanding problems associated with and cause by the old business

Thank you all for your time.

HG

and in regards to tasha..... either the lies stop, i have seen the paperwork to say you got your items, the delay with your initial items was you paid by bank transfer didnt you? and then forgot to actually tell any one at the company the money came from you... as soon as this was realised, the items were immediatly sent, so please stop pretending that the previous owners ripped you off. we ship over 300 parcels a week and offer paypal if you wish to use it, you should know that people that offer paypal dont get very far if there intention is to scam.

its funny, i lost some stuff to this company a few yrs back, i emailed and im STILL ignored, new managment huh? lmao please

Im in the same boat, i placed a big order with HG and yes i have recieved some of the order but not all, now i cant seem to get in contact with them by email phone or the live chat,
to say i'm not happy is an understatment i was looking for an address so i could find them as i just want it sorted out.

has anyone had any luck yet and got there order sorted?

Was in the same position ordered a PC grow box 17 days ago and have heard nothing. Today on the way home from work got a text from them saying that my order should be delivered tomorrow! I'll keep you posted as to how I get on.

Has anyone noticed that of 29 total posts and 16 posters, that only TWO have more than 5 posts? Either this is a weird convergence, or there's some sock puppetry afoot......

Abnjm said:

Has anyone noticed that of 29 total posts and 16 posters, that only TWO have more than 5 posts? Either this is a weird convergence, or there's some sock puppetry afoot......

Click to expand...

I'm not sure about sock puppetry...but what it does sound like to me is that some newbies to growing (like me) placed an order with a company and got sub par service, so began invesigating this company to find if other's had similar experiences.

Anyway the good news (for me at least) is that my order arrived today. I will open the two boxes and make sure that everything is there that should be.

RDWeed said:

I'm not sure about sock puppetry...but what it does sound like to me is that some newbies to growing (like me) placed an order with a company and got sub par service, so began invesigating this company to find if other's had similar experiences.

Anyway the good news (for me at least) is that my order arrived today. I will open the two boxes and make sure that everything is there that should be.

Click to expand...

But how did all the newbies know to come to RIU?

Abnjm said:

But how did all the newbies know to come to RIU?

Click to expand...

Well for me I googled 'hg hydroponics" and the word "scam" auto popoulated as a suffix to my search! so of course I clicked on it and this site is at the top of the list in the results page. (try it for your self) I imagine most on this thread did the same.

Man you seem a bit paranoid maybe you need to give the smoke a rest for a while! lol

anyway I'm glad to report everything arrived safely.

hi i used them got my stuff but short of pieces for flood table and pump i feel i got off lightly now spent 3 weeks chasing them i not sure scam maybe they all too stoned to do the job correctly lol

I found this thread whilst searching for HG Hydroponics on Google and registered just so I could post a reply! I email them around Christmas '09 and didn't get a response back so decided to give it a while before contacting them again. I mentioned this to Chris when I phoned and was told that their business was growing faster than they could cope with which unfortunately caused the knock on affect of misplaced orders and unanswered emails, they have now employed extra members of staff to stop this happening again.

As an avid outdoor Tomato/Strawberry plant grower for many years I was always a little sceptical about a home growroom for many reasons. I spoke to Chris and the "DR", told them exactly what I required and threw a lot of questions/scenarios at them both, all of which were answered to my satisfaction.

I placed my order with them for an undisclosed amount and received in my opinion what was a very healthy discount. Others have mentioned that they are a "little slow", so what?! Would you rather buy from a company that understands what you want or a company that will just take you for a ride, not ask your name and rip you off? They are out there providing a service which I for one really appreciate, if you don't like a more relaxed friendly approach my advice is go else where!

My parcels are on the way to me, I have legitimate tracking numbers and can't wait till Friday I will post back again with an update to let everyone know how it's gone.

Well it's Sunday night and everything I ordered is here, apart from a few little things. I am assuming this is a manufacturers issue as everything was in it's original packaging.....? I'll give HG a ring tomorrow to sort out the missing parts and post back to keep this thread up to date for future readers.

I collected the parcels on Saturday morning from the courier, They were very well packaged and discrete too. I placed my order on Tuesday and expected delivery on Friday but the parcels were a day later than expected which was down to the courier.

Over all it has been a very pleasant & straight forward experience. They have obviously ironed out the kinks/ problems that previous customers have warned about.

I know this is an old thread but just thought i would share what i think of hg hydroponics. i chose hg coz they were the cheapest and guarantee to beat any price, was just about to order but notice on google scam came up alot and got worried, started reading and found lots of threads just like this one and thought thats it i'm going some where else but the overall price of some where else, i just couldnt afford. anyway i look at the address of hg and saw that its not too far away so rang and arranged to pick all my items up £300 worth. went there and got all my items and the people there were really cool and friendly and helped me with my items ect. they have loads of stock and a big warehouse unit. they dont look like they are out to scam any1 and have loads of signs and posters around where they are located, maybe it was just a case of the original owners getting too big too quick and maybe it did take a while to get back on its feet again but now it def does seem like a legitimate business and next time will order online. just thought i'd share this with every1 ere as they do have some great prices.

I like BeanZyBoo know that this thread is a bit old but I felt compelled to defend HG Hydroponics.

I placed an order on them recently and all my items arrived safely and discretely. I placed the order late one Friday over the phone and Chris said he'd try to catch the courier for that day, unfortunately he didn't and the consignment was waylaid for a day or so. By way of recompense he popped a pot of rooting hormone gel in the shipment, a very nice touch I thought.

To anyone who has researched this across other forums, from conventional shoppers forums to those dealing with more specific topics such as this, all of the posts chiding HG Hydroponics seem to come from a small selection of posters with similar user names etc and much of the content seems to be posted from one site to another, methinks the scam is a scam itself!

It may look l am in the pay of HG Hydroponics (I am not) but I did phone Chris to tell him that the goods had arrived safely and whilst talking mentioned that I had read threads across those various forums and that I would post here to try and set things straight. Take that as you will, but I'm trying to do something nice.

I'd just like to add that I'm hugely grateful to the posters on this site, by and large everybody is very knowledgeable and witty to boot! In time I'd like to acquire the knowledge in order to be in a position to offer my own advice for those members who choose to listen. I hope by way of this - my first post -I have gone some way to spreading a bit of good karma, I'm working towards the useful gardening tips!



Enjoy the spring everyone! Tulips are my favorite!

the funniest thing about these guys is they took me for a few hundred and then when i told them even new managment wouldnt help me,i wouldnt give em a fucking dime

Hi, well it's 2011 July in fact and we just placed an order with you at hg-hydroponics.co.uk on the 10th Sunday ready for the Monday 11th before the 3pm deadline. It's now Wednesday 13th and still NO email to say order has been dispatched, NO email to say out of stock, And now 2 x emails later (sent today) still NO reply from sales or customerservice. Yet if you read your own Delivery F.A.Q.s you claim next day service or 1 - 3 days or if out of stock you will email customers to let them know. We so far have heard NOTHING from you, except A email to say "Thank you for your order" and Money taking from our Account. Unless you can explain this VERY POOR customer service. I would let people who order from you to REALLY THINK TWICE before parting with there hard earned money. And to top it all, We live in the U.K. but still been Let Down by this On-Line shop & Chris Aleman. (for me, maybe not a Scam but Just very poor Customer Relations).

(Here is my update so far)- After emailing chrisaleman@hg-hydroponics.co.uk (himself) he replied:-

I am very sorry to hear about this ***** (name removed by me), please bare with me and ill get back to you on this as soon as i can find out what the delay is

the 2nd email reply read as follows:-

P.s all your emails are going to my junkbox, that could be the reason no one has replied but i wil look in to that for you

thanks for your patience

So maybe thats the reason(s) no one got any replies before (yeah right). :laugh-s:

(Thursday 14th July) Got my order today:- Guess what ? They screwed up my order too, and sent me the
wrong 400w bulb - The HG receipt printout says 400w Sunmaster HPS Dual spectrum and we got a
Sylvania 400w

Clearly they send WRONG Items out aswell, as some Customers have already said in this Forum Area.
what a complate mess up this HG-Hydroponic online shop is & Chris Aleman himself.

Would I use this on-line shop again ? NO as it's Clearly A Total RIP-OFF, SCAM & Breach of there OWN terms & Conditions.

Warning to Others, Be very careful IF you order from HG-Hydroponic.co.uk

I know this is my first post here but I felt the need to warn people about HG Hydroponics

This site is a scam I made an order in set ember and all they have done is give me bullshit excise about delivery couriers. Be warn I lost over 400 Euros to them don’t make the same mistake as me

That’s all I have to say bye all