Balsam Hill Reviews

Name: Balsam Hill
Rating: 1.25

1.3 Rating 502 Reviews

4 %

of reviewers recommend Balsam Hill

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Metrics

1.3

Based on 502 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Courier
Average Delivery Time	Within 5 Days
On-time Delivery	Greater than 66%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	Greater than 52%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Under An Hour
Returns & Refunds
Returns Process	Could Be Better

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Balsam Hill 1 star review on 1st January 2025

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Rated 1 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“We are no longer a customer of Balsam Hill. This year, our 2016 X-mas tree which was used in 2017, 2018, and 2020, had at least a 50% of the incandescent lights fail. It is no longer under warranty. What customers do not realize is the incandescent lights had a limited life. And, once so many no longer work, replacing strands on a 7 ½ foot tree, consumes large amounts of time and patience. This would have been after calling customer service three times, spending, at least, ten hours, checking bulbs, fuses, and master bulbs, and attempting to replace every bulb on several strings of lights. Ultimately, this tree has been disposed and a replacement of a non-lit tree from an alternative retailer was found. The Balsam Hill website does not include the hours current LED pre-lit x-mas trees will function without replacing the whole strand of lights. It does not include the amount of time it might take to replace each strand and the number of strands on each tree. Investing in an expensive pre-lit artificial X-mas tree from Balsam Hill has been a great disappointment for us!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“This is the biggest fraud I ever experienced in my whole life. I ordered the 10.11. a christmas tree, it was stopped at the border controll for three weeks, I had to call the so called customer service to get it through the border controll. Finally the 6th of december they paid the taxes and sent the tree to the sender instead to me. Unbelievable. And the customer service is far from a service, even farer from competence and a shear catastrophy. They weren't able to find the error and return the tree to me. They just tell me the one I ordered is sold out and I can try to find another one. Never again!! Don't order here, it's a big disappointment and a pure catastrophy. They ruined our Christmas.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Worst customer service on the planet. Have three interactions on the same subject and get three totally different answers. All three ended up wrong. Barely an apology.”

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Posted 4 years ago

“Used their light up wreath 2 weeks Only Thé next season comes the lights are working Customer service / manager Said must be the wires .. Sorry only guarantee 30 days .. Have a good day . Terrible company Products bad bad”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“My original order was wrong. So the credited me $100. Bottom branches were broken after 1st year. Tried to get a replacement, just for the bottom. Out of stock. They were going to replace the tree, out of stock. They offered the upside down tree. They forgot to place the order and I'm at fault. Today, I spoke with several people. They wanted me to return the tree before they replaced it. I offered my credit card and said if it's not returned to charge me again. They refused to take my credit card and hung up on me! Four case numbers... what kind of place do you purchase a tree for this much money and end up with FOUR case num bers?!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Bought the tree3 yrs ago and now half the lights don’t work. Had to string lights on top section and bottom section. This tree cost 700.00. Would never buy another tree from this company. Very disappointed. When you charge that much for a tree it should work for longer then 3 years! Please do not waste your money on one of these trees.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Unbelievable amount of time wasted trying to figure out why our VERY expensive tree is only partially lit & flickering! Wish we had not believed the advertisements & read the horrible reviews first. Ready to yank off all the lights & string new ones. DO NOT BUY A BALSAM HILL TREE!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“2nd year setting up top of tree would not light. After trying everything in manual, check/replacing fuses and checking plugs I called customer service all they did is read back instructions from manual. Finally added my own string to top. This year only one string of white on bottom section will light. Out goes the tree. Second Balsam Hill tree I have thrown out after just 2 years use. Should have learned the first time. DO NOT waste your money with this company.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“This is one of the most unprofessional companies I've ever bought stuff from! I have ordered door decorations (3 garlands and 1 wreath), and tracking info for the garlands said it will arrive in 2 days. Then on the day of the alleged delivery the delivery date changed 3 days. Then to 4 days, etc, until the delivery date became completely unacceptable and pointless, because I needed the decorations to arrive earlier. Contacted customer service, talked to the person signed as Anarlyn H, she was trying to get rid of me in 625 different ways and kept circling me back to the "solutions" which I didn't accept in the first place. They charge ridiculously high prices for decorations and one would expect to get at least somewhat professional service for the money paid, but instead all you get is blatant unprofessionalism and incompetence, lying to you as a customer and attempts to get rid of you to cover their incompetence... DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS COMPANY!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I bought the Noble Fir Christmas Tree after debating several years. I'm so disappointed. It cost a fortune compared to the others on the market but I thought that you get what you pay for. Not true with Balsm Hill. The branches are so smashed together it takes forever to separate. The branch material is not the same. On the lower branches, the inner 1/3 is so fake it looks worse than the fake silver trees from 1960's. The top part of the tree has about 1/2 of the material ugly fake.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“The same shipping issue that you see being posted recently happened to me. I had to fight to get my refund as they continued to try claiming the tree had shipped even though there was never a received scan for a week. I had to file a Paypal claim to get my $ back to try again. I figured they over-sold the tree and didn't want to admit it or refund my money for their error. The review below regarding the email stating the tree was out of stock after waiting confirms it. I am a US customer ordering from the US. That excuse of "shipping over borders" will not fly. They were literally holding people's money and Christmas hostage. LOL. Unbelievable. Its all very strange because I have ordered from them before - twice I got my trees without problem and the third I recieved a crooked tree. The refund process was smooth then. If they were honest and told customers the delay and actual issue many probably would have waited. Instead they drive customers away with this avoidance and refusal of a refund. Something terrible has happened to them and they need to revisit their approach to business and customers. I had wondered if this was just my luck, but I see its happened to many people.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“So my wife and I purchased a beautiful balsam tree about 3 years ago and we spent a pretty penny on it. We bought it because of the warranty and how realistic the tree looked. This year the bulbs did not light up on the base unit. I called the customer service and they told me that the warranty is only 3 years and they can't help me out. I said I thought there was a 10-year warranty and they said the tenure warranties only on the treat itself it's not on anything with the lights. That's very discouraging I will never ever purchase anything from them again!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Purchased our tree in 2016. Last year the top third color lights did not work unless the"all lights" button was on. Customer service was trying to be helpful, but we never got it to work properly. After awhile they just ignored us. This year, 2021, the middle third is not working properly. We have tested the fuses and the lights to no avail. They offered to send a strand of lights this year, have still not received them. I had posted a complaint on Instagram. We have not spoken to anyone this year. $800.00 is an outrageous amount to pay for a tree that only lasts three years. I would never buy another tree from them. "You get what you pay for," does not apply to Balsam!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Appalling customer service. I have been told different things from every single person I have spoken to. Very disappointing considering the price. Will never order anything again.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Absolute garbage! Never worked properly. Supposed to stay lit if a bulb is out bs ! Have one strand on entire tree that works and I paid like 800.00 for this junk ! Stay away ! Useless customer service sent me a strand of lights and a few bulbs told me figure it out assholes !”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Purchased a Balsam Hill tree in 2017 ($1,000+ for 9 ft. Frasier "flip" Tree). It worked beautifully for 3 years. On the fourth year, several strands didn't work once the tree was set up. The tree is just past their warranty. They don't offer matching lights. None of their 'troubleshooting' tips addressed the issue. Their final suggestion: cut off all the existing lights and completely rewire the tree. What an incredible waste of money, but (more importantly) time. Never again. Will discourage anyone from purchasing from this company.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“The trees are very life-like but the lights suck. This is my 2nd balsam hill tree - purchased 2 years ago. An entire strand of clear lights are out. We replaced ALL of the master bulbs and fuses but no luck. We found that the unlit strand has 2 master bulbs. Tons of bulbs out in other sections. After 5 hours and 6 phone calls getting conflicting info I’m told we are getting a new tree. Waiting for a phone call from their warranty area - I’m skeptical. Not sure I would buy another balsam hill tree but if I do I’m not wasting my $$ on a prelit tree. I’ll string the lights myself. I also bought some cute hanging jack-o-lanterns with solar powered fairy lights a year ago - the seal around the solar pack is faulty and every time it rained water got into the battery area - unknown to us until this year when the lights didn’t work. Removed the cover to the battery area and the connections are all rusted. Nothing works. Obviously a design flaw but BH won’t do anything about it. Lesson learned. - stay away from their lights. The only reason why I gave 2 stars for customer service is because the last agent we spoke to was very helpful.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“The tree’s aesthetics are great. Unfortunately, the electrical is pathetic. Light sections started failing year one when one strand failed. I wasn’t concerned about it until the next year when a forth of the tree was out. I was sent several strands of lights. By year 4 , one month out of warranty all but one strand was out and when trying to replace the master bulbs the bulb would flash and burn out indicating a short. Customer service was no help. It seems to me that when you have numerous people stating the same problem you might want to correct it. We had a frontgate tree for at least 15 years and never lost a light, I wish we had kept it.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Horrible customer service. Only received half of the tree I ordered and they cannot find the other box. They won’t replace the tree with the same one since it’s sold out. One supervisor said they would replace with a similar tree and another said they would not replace (actually she flat out told me they were busy and didn’t have anymore trees). All they could offer was to pay for the shipping of the tree back to the company. Never mind, the box is super heavy and I have a bad back from working as a nurse. The supervisor, named Amy, said I had to figure out how to ship it back and they would only offer the labels. This is not the first time Balsam Hill has dropped the ball before Christmas. Two years ago, after decorating a different brand new balsam tree, the lights stopped working. Again, they would not replace it or offer a similar replacement. Customer service just said they were sorry and made no attempts to replace with a similar tree.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“We ordered a tree for the kids Christmas and got an email on Nov 23rd confirming the tree was shipped. Check the status on Nov 30th at 5pm after my husband became concerned. Called Balsam Hill, the agent could explain why the shipment was not showing any movements since the label was created. He asked me to call Fedex, I did and was told the label was created but the package was never shipped. Called Balsam Hill a second time to speak with someone regarding finding, and expediting my shipment because I paid almost $100CA for delivery. And the kids really want to decorate their tree. Order #H019009884 Spoke to the nastiest agent, He was very rude and dismissive about our concerns. Asking why am I calling the USA? You are from Canada. Why are you calling us? That was his very first question. As if I was lost! I informed him I paid for the shipment in USD and the tracking number confirmed what Fedex told me the shipment 514409910728642 was in Indianapolis, IN US and was never sent out. I asked to speak with someone else who could help me save Christmas for the kids. The agent refused and started telling me how shipping across the border works and he is not in the shipping industry. I will be going online and reviewing your company. The level of nonprofessional and lack of empathy is alarming. You are to be sending Christmas cheers and making the lives of people brighter, not becoming grinch and taking away the joy of Christmas especially for my very sick twin babies.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Balsam Hill is rated 1.3 based on 502 reviews