Balsam Hill

Full review
My experience with Balsam Hill has not been a good one. This year we decided to buy a tree from Balsam Hill after having conducted an online research of the quality of their products and their company policy. We choose this company, because it appeared to carry exceptional quality products with high grade material.

We bought the Palisade Pine Tree 7.5 Full 67” with Color & Clear lights which was listed for $499.00 and described as a “GREAT VALUE”. Upon receipt we opened the two oversized boxes and began putting up the tree. This particular tree has a metal pole which serves as the tree trunk and which mounts in 5 separate sections. The first thing we noticed was the poor quality of the branches. They looked unnatural and felt like hard brushes. When fully mounted it looked very cheap and worst of all it was unstable since each section did not fit tightly into the metal pole. In addition, the metal pole could be seen through the branches giving it a very cheap appearance.

The lights used in the tree are made in China and contain lead. Bear in mind that the USA manufactures lead free lights and are required to have better and safer quality products.

After much disappointment, we called the company to inquire as to other options and the company policy on these matters. The Customer Representative who was poorly trained as she only said “I am sorry” gave us an RMA # and told us to send the trees back in the boxes and return them to the company. I asked for their FedEx Account so that they would cover the return shipping charges but she again said “ I am sorry” and indicated that I needed to pay for that..

We boxed everything up, took the two oversized boxes to our local postal office ( each box weighted between 37 to 40 pounds). We were told that the cheapest shipping charges were approx. $120.00 per box or $$240.00 to send since the boxes themselves were oversized by a couple of inches (in spite of the fact that there was plenty of unused space in each box.). After a couple of hours resizing the boxes and we sent the tree to Balsam Hill and still had to pay $80.00. As of today we are still waiting to be refunded in spite of the fact they received the items over three weeks ago.

Now, my impression is that Balsam Hill is less than forthcoming in describing their products and their shipping policy is simply inadequate.

Don't go by their online marketing ads. It is deceiving. Better buy a tree that you can see. It costs too much to return it.