Comments regarding House of Masque

I was saddened - but not very surprised - to learn that so many people have had such a negative experience with the house of masque. I am the owner of The Lavish Collection - an online store specializing in fantasy products. So of course when we discovered Gnome Doors we wanted to carry them on our site. We placed a large order with the house of masque in July of 2006. We were promised a delivery date of 2 weeks. We did receive most of the items we ordered, and they are beautiful, but it took almost 9 months for them to trickle in. And here we are almost a year later and we still haven't received $643 worth of product that we paid for. Our numerous emails & phone calls have gone unanswered. We are now in the process of bringing legal action against the house of masque. We were so impressed with the quality of their product that we used to have a link to their site on The Lavish Collection. (because we only carried a limited number of doors & accessories) But after their blatant lack of service we had no choice but to remove the link from our site. The doors & accessories that appear on our site, http://www.thelavishcollection.com, are in stock & ready to ship - but due to the fact that we never received everything we ordered, supplies are limited. (Have no fear though - Our site is designed so that only product in stock shows up on the site. Once the last item in stock is purchased, it no longer shows on the site - so if you can see it, we have it) It is still our hope that the house of masque can resolve whatever issues they are obviously having - but even if they do, once we run out of the doors & accessories that we have in stock, we at The Lavish Collection can no longer in good conscience continue to carry the product of a company that clearly doesn't care about its customers, or their own reputation.

Unfortunately it sounds like I am only one of many that have been "taken". I placed a $200USD order on Jan 17th/07 and haven't received any product, no response to two emails or any phone calls answered!! BUYER BEWARE!!

I thought I was going crazy until I found this site! In a way, I'm glad I didn't get scammed alone. I'm only 17 buck out of pocket, but I really feel for others who have lost much larger amounts.

Thanks to the others who have passed along information about filing a complaint with State of NY.....I will do so. I paid by Postal Money Order - I'll also find out if there's a complaint section through that route.

3 Orders placed in November. 1 beautiful door received, one order "still processing", one not even listed, but my cks. were cashed. No answer to e mail or phone. BBB alerted and they have gotten no response. On the site at some point it did say delays due to illness but they would be back. That was 2 months ago. Maybe they died. Who knows! The site has not been updated and could have been pd. for a yr. It would be nice if we all got refunds, but i don't think thats happening.
Happy gardening to all

I placed and order (#293) on January 23, 2006 and sent my check. I e-mailed them 3 weeks ago for an update on the status of my order. No response. I also left a phone message today -April 06, 2007. I am willing to give anyone the benefit of the doubt but there has to be communication.

I have also been scammed. I placed an order on December 27, 2006 and I am still waiting on 4/03/07. I have emailed them numerous times and no one has replied.

I have also been scammed by House of Masque! I placed my order on January 19th and spent over $90 online. They have refused to respond to my emails and have failed to contact me in anyway. has anyone recieved their doors this year? It seems as though everyone is still waiting. How do we get our money back?

I have since contacted the Better Business Bureau of Canada and have filed a complaint. I will also be taking legal action should this go on any longer.

I ordered 2 doors in December of 2006 - and have never received items or email. Ebay won't take a claim since they've closed the store and PayPal is being pretty closed lip so far also. Thanks to all who have posted! I agree the website should be shut down!

I placed my order with this company in Dec, My check reached them on 1/10/06 and cleared on 1/17/06. They have not filed my order, not returned my emails and I have left so many messages on the line of Susan Vona. I would like to find someone in there area who could drop in to see if there really is a House of Masque! The address is 100 South Allen Street, Albany, NY 12208.
Can anyone help? Why is the web site still up. More and more victims will fall prey to these People!!!!!
Deconl

Yes, I too have been scammed by these gnome door fakes in Albany, NY. It hurts even more when it's a Christmas gift. The day I see a real gnome is the very day my gnome door shall arrive. I've filed a complaint with BBB and Attorney General of NY, please do the work and stop this scam before next Christmas comes.

I ordered several of their fairy doors on December 3rd and used PayPal to pay. After waiting the posted time for my order to be processed and not receiving my doors I began to send emails to House of Masque. I have never received any email back from the company and I have submitted at least a dozen emails. I've given them several different ways to contact me on the status of my order but still as of March 12 my order still shows as Processing on the House of Masque website.

Please avoid this company. I placed an order (over $84.00) in plenty of time (their website stated) to have it delivered as a Christmas gift. It is now March 2007 and I am still WAITING. I have sent numerous emails and have never received a response. PayPal even gave up trying to help me get my order or my money returened. I have now filed a formal complaint with the State of New York regarding Internet and Consumer Fraud.........Thank you for posting your experiences. I'm sorry we're all in such a sticky mess.

I too had bad experience with this seller on Ebay. Fortunately, I did receive my $$ back after filing dispute with PayPal. I ordered on 12/11/06, in which their listing stated they had 97 available. Paid immediately, never shipped, no responses to emails on Ebay or active website. Waited over 2 months. VERY POOR BUSINESS!! They now have a link to a website http://www.thefaerytouch.com, is this another scam?

BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD EXPERIENCE. Ordered gifts for Xmas on 12/01/06 as this was, according to their website, the last day to order in time for Xmas delivery. They processed my credit card through paypal and stated they shipped (notified USPS) on 12/21. I wrote numerous emails through various means but never received a single response (despite their website stating they care about their customers). The USPS confirmed that they never sent the items HOM claims they sent. The weeks of aggravation have gone by. Well, here is 2/26/07 and still NOTHING! They won't respond to their emails. They have been closed on eBay. Paypal says they are unable to recover my funds but that I did win my complaint. What a learning experience for me. The odd thing is while I ordered these items and waited, others' order were taken, their money taken, and some even got a product. How can someone do this and not be prosecuted? BUYERS BEWARE! DO NOT ORDER ANYTHING FROM THESE PEOPLE.

I made an order, sent them money, they cashed my check, and I never received anything. I made the order December 5, 2006, they cashed my check on December 12, 2006. I also sent 4 emails which were never responded to.

Today I filed a formal fraud complaint and am taking legal action to make sure this ends. I hope others who have been ripped off by this company file formal complaints.

I have NEVER had worse sevice ANYWHERE!
I ordered 2 doors on 1/14/07. It is now 2/21/07. Their website says orders take 10-21 business days to create and they send itmes 2-3 day service through USPS.
38 days later and my account with them still says "processing". I have emailed them 8 times since it has passed the 30 day mark that is still quoted as the MAXIMUM delivery time on their website. I even left them my telephone number to call me as soon as possible but I have yet to receive a single response.
I'm a single teacher on a fixed income. I wish I had read these complaints before I wasted over $50 on gifts my friends and family will never receive.

These people are criminals. I hope they are in dead or in jail. They have ripped off at least 25 people including myself, taking their money, and not sending products. They have been banned from Ebay, and their Ebay store has been closed. I have filed a case with Paypal against them, and made a complaint with the BBB. I hope to file a complaint with the NY State attorney generals office. Their website is still active, and it needs to be shut down, because they are committing fraud.

No problems with ordering, but after that, nothing. No updates to the order, no word saying why or how long the order will be delayed, no response to emails, NOTHING. I ordered over two months ago, and I still haven't gotten my order or a refund. Do yourself a favor and don't order from these guys...

I have been very disappointed in the customer service from this company. It has now been approximately 50 business days since I order from this company and still do not have the two items I ordered, even though they state that it will be finished within 30 days. i understand that they are an artisan shop, but they have not even attempted to contact me in regards to my order being lat. I have tried to contact them on several occasions by e-mail, but they do not respond. I would think twice before doing business with this company.

I ordered a fairy door from a different source for a friend for Christmas. The door did not arrive by Christmas and I received no information from the company regarding the status. So after this bad experience, I was very encouraged to see that the fairy doors on House of Masque looked so much nicer and the price was the same. I ordered a door on January 3, 2007. At the time I noticed that it said to allow 14 days for the item to be handcrafted before it would be shipped. Well, now it is February 12th and I still don't have my order. I have emailed and tried to call, but get no response from the company. I am beginning to think this is just a scam to get money. I wish I had read this site before ordering, I would have saved myself some money and aggravation.

I have been trying to get my Dear Friend's Christmas gift since ordering it on 11/15/06. They posted, Under my acct. on thier website, that my money order was recieved on 11/22. Then they posted my order was deleted on 12/13. After an email to them, they then posted that my order was sent on 12/14, not deleted...but i never received it. I never received an email saying it had been shipped or a USPS number.

They will not respond to me in any way since that time, not even via my acct. on their website.

My friend has a wonderful yard and this was supposed to be such a special unique gift for her. This is very disappointing that they will not even respond in any way.

Here is some info that may help us all eventually. Go to the Attorney General's office of NY at From there i went to the internet division for problems with items ordered via the internet. you can print out the proper form and send it in. Their website says if your complaint does not belong to thier dept. they will forward to the proper authority. It is worth a try.

If they are scamming and this is internet fraud, this should be the right route to take.

It is such a shame. What a neat product they had.

Do not buy anything from them in hopes of getting a unique present...unless you like the look of the Emperor's New Clothes.

I believe this site may simply be a scam trying to get money without providing anything. I ordered a month and a half ago, and in my order confirmation it said allow UP TO 14 DAYS until order is shipped, then you will be notified. I never got anything. I have emailed several times, called several times, left several messages....never got ANY response from this place. I am now in the process of disputing the charges through paypal, since WE DID PAY! I have done some searching on them, and it seems the same two people have written positive reviews about them everywhere...which means it was probably the people behind this whole operation that wrote reviews about themselves to try to make it seem more legitimate. I am reporting the company to the BBB as well!

If this place actually even exists, then they have the WORST customer service in the world!

My order with House of Masque was placed and paid for 9/17/06. According to the company the post office was notified the goods were ready for shipment on 12/20/06. Today is 1/13/07 and I still have not received my order. The items look great on the internet, if only the company would respond to my many inquiries or replace the lost shipment. To date I have not had the courtesy of a reply from my various emails.