Creative Outdoor Distributor

Our company is very disappointed in the level of service and lack of professionalism exhibited by Brian and Creative Outdoor Distributor. Do not do business with this company. My wife and I own a smooth jazz radio station in Florida and produce an annual smooth jazz festival. We purchased 1800 custom bag chairs for the 2017 Seabreeze Jazz Festival in Panama City Beach, FL through Creative Outdoor and have regretted it every moment since. These were custom printed and oversized chairs rated at 320 pounds. Fans who pay for a VIP or Gold Reserve ticket sit in these chairs at our event then take them home as a souvenir. Little did we know we were sold a poorly designed and manufactured product that was essentially defective! While our VIP and Gold Reserve patrons enjoyed four days of top smooth jazz entertainment two weeks ago--their experience was scarred by the sudden breaking and collapsing of their chairs. An apparent design flaw in the chair cause the c-shaped clamp to pop (pins and rivets included) when the patron used the armrest to push in standing up. This was a huge embarrassment to not just our event but to each individual who had this happen to them. It was NOT an issue with an overweight person breaking a chair! One man was 185 pounds and he broke 3 chairs before one successfully held up. Some chairs had loose rivets and screws in the bags fall out when the chair boxes were originally unpacked. Not a good sign. I found out quickly that my job as event promoter was now going to be focused on replacing chairs during the 20 performances over four days. But thanks to another mess up from Brian and Creative Outdoor Distributors-- the BACK UP order of 1900 additional chairs did not arrive in time for us to pull additional chairs from stock. Payment for this second shipment was made in full in August 2016 with stipulation that the order be shipped and held here on site at a warehouse in Panama City Beach, FL as a backup in case we had any issues with these chairs. The sad part is Brian at Creative Outdoor took our payment in full...then misled us about the actual manufacturing and shipment of the product. Starting before Christmas...when I checked on the status of the chairs, I was told they would be here on time in April. The fact is the event was held April 20-23rd and the chairs didn't show up--almost 8 months after Brian was paid in full. So fast forward to the festival. We had dozens and dozens of chairs breaking--and no extras to hand out since Creative Outdoor failed to produce and ship the BACK UP CHAIRS in time for the show --something they were clearly paid to do. Fans whose chairs broke had to sit in a folding plastic chair from our catering tent for the remainder of the show---then leave empty-handed with no souvenir chair since we ended up being short on stock thanks to no BACK UP CHAIRS arriving on time. It was a total fiasco--all due to the shotty design and manufacturing from Creative Outdoor. Several patrons have asked for a refund all over the issues with these poorly designed and ill-manufactured chairs! And to top off an already horrible experience---Brian and his team has refused to call me or my wife back regarding this problem nor will he return my email requests. It's ZERO customer service and ZERO concern for his paying customers. We haven't even gotten an apology. Nobody deserves to be in business who treats their customers this way. Since our shipment of BACK UP CHAIRS failed to arrive to the event--- we have asked Brian for a full refund. He has refused to respond to us. Our sales rep approached him Tuesday at the Las Vegas trade show he has a display booth at to discuss the problem with our order, and she was told to leave or he will call security and have her physically removed. Seems like he has no time for problems with his defective products when he is busy trying to sell to new unsuspecting customers. What a poor excuse for customer service! Do not do business with Creative Outdoor Distributors. They cannot deliver on goods promised. They will not call you back. And they will leave you (or in this case --your customers) ...flat on their asses. Mark Carter President--Carter Broadcasting Seabreeze Jazz Festival Panama City Beach, FL