Vintage glider company seems to be composed of scam artists and downright liars. I ordered a totally restored glider and received a rusted-out, horribly painted mess. Am considering filing a complaint with Va. Dept. of Consumer Affairs and also a civil suit in Richmond.

I would like to share my experience with Vintage Gliders of Danville, VA., for the benefit of others.

I purchased a restored old metal glider from them recently. I live in New Orleans, so I had to have the glider shipped to me, without seeing it first. The risk was even greater because of the company's policy of no credit cards; you have to send them a certified check beforehand. Well, they're just about the only ones around offerring this product, so I took a chance.

On the plus side, they did ship me a glider in a reasonable amount of time and it was the size and style that I ordered. They promise that there will be no rust through and that it will glide properly, which was true. They also promise that it will be free of dents, which was not quite true. Okay, there were no really big dents, but it certainly wasn't free of dents.

The big problem was the color. I chose the glider I did because of a beautiful, professional paint job displayed on their website. The six basket weave areas of the glider were painted in six, alternating concentric squares, yellow-white-yellow-white-yellow-white. The glider that arrived was painted with plain white basket weave areas. And they weren't even painted that well (an underlying darker color could be seen showing throught). The unique, more complicated paint job pictured was a primary reason for selecting this glider and for paying the not inexpensive price. They unilaterally decided to substitute a less complicated, less expensive color scheme.

Well, prior to the arrival of my glider, I was able to contact this company easily, which I did several times to clarify one thing or another. They screen all calls through an answering machine / service. However, I was always connected promptly to someone who identified herself as Tamara Winstead. After my glider arrived however, that changed completely. I was no longer connected, ever. Every attempt to speak with someone either resulted in a message that no one was available or a prompt to leave a message and someone would return my call. Many messages were left. No calls were ever returned. Curiously, the day after my glider arrived and I first called them, the picture of the glider I ordered mysteriously disappeared from their website (although I did save the webpage before they did that).

So anyone considering buying a glider from these people would be strongly encouraged to pick it up in person. If you are planning to have it shipped out of state as I did, beware that you might not get what you paid for.

Once our check was received, and cashed, we have no chair for which we paid $338. No response from multiple messages left by phone or e-mail. I cannot tell if this company is in Pelham, North Carolina or Danville VA. I have addresses for both. I am submitting complaints to FTC, BBB and have made calls to the local police department. This "company" gives a bad name to all those wonderful Internet companies out there who care about customer service.