Beware of ShadeFX
Beware of ShadeFX – Hidden Costs, Poor Delivery, and Unprofessional Service I purchased a pergola from ShadeFX about three years ago. Everything seemed great until after I wired in the full payment. Then the tone changed very quickly and dramatically. The salesman I worked with was a guy named Steve On delivery day, instead of bringing the pergola down my driveway as one would reasonably expect, they simply dropped the entire thing — nearly 1,000 pounds of material (a double pergola) — right on the street on front of my house. We had absolutly no notice or discussion that they were leaving it on the street. This blocked my driveway and garbage pickup and even caused me to get a summons from the city. When I called the company Steve to address this, they wasn’t just dismissive — he became belligerent. Steve mocked me and told me to “just hire five guys” to carry the pergola down my driveway. i wonder why he didn’t mention anything about delivery being dropped in the street before i agreed to purchase the first I heard of was when the city police n knocked on my door and gave me a summons. I ended up paying about $600 to hire people to move it myself. When my son called back, Steve doubled down and saidbasicalky said this is their “standard practice., tough ” And it’s what they do with all their deliveries. And hung up. No one ever told us this would be how delivery worked. We paid Several thousands of dollars for delivery for delivery and reasonably expected it to be delivered to our house, not dumped on the street. Especially since it weighed close to a thousand pounds. Fast forward three years — I received a call from the IRS informing me that I owed thousands of dollars in sales tax on the pergola because it was manufactured in Canada. I was never told this company was Canadian. Their website doesn’t mention it, their receipt doesn’t mention it, they use a U.S. phone number, and the company is registered as an LLC (not a Canadian LTD). I specifically asked before purchasing if all taxes and delivery charges were included, and I was told “yes.” My invoice even says “taxes: $0” and “delivery: $0.” When I called ShadeFX again to discuss this tax issue, I spoke to Steve again. When I asked if he remembered me he said oh yes made a derogatory remark and he became extremely hostile and said he remembered me as “the guy who wanted us to share of the cost to bring the pergola down the driveway.” Then he said, “I don’t deal with people like you whose values are all about money. He said You spent $100,000 on a pergol an and now you want to talk about a few hundred dollars.” At first, I didn’t even realize how offensive this was — until friends pointed out that this is a very well-known bigot driven negative trope implying something ugly about me and people like me . Regardless, it was completely unprofessional and inappropriate. Sadly, my pergola later burned down in the Malibu fires. Many of my neighbors were also lost their homes and are now rebuilding, and when I told them about my experience with ShadeFX, they immediately decided to scratch them off their list. . A few hundred dollars.” for them likely cost them tens of thousands in lost business. Bottom line: my experience with ShadeFX was unprofessional, misleading, and frankly insulting. They failed to disclose key information about taxes, mishandled delivery, and treated me disrespectfully when I tried to resolve the issues. Ism rebuilding and will likely purchase another pergola, but I will never buy from them again, and I strongly encourage anyone considering them to think twice.