Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  08/10/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  We enrolled in Smith Farms 10 week *** program. We chose the pick your own large box totaling $430 paid up front. The program only has a certain number of available memberships because of garden size. The opening date for picking was 6/30 and only Thursday and Saturdays were provided as options for picking. We opted Thursdays 4-7. The day after opening the *** box season, Smith Farms announced they were expanding their business to a second produce stand location W-Sat which caused concern for what would be available to *** members. They are picking from the same garden they use for the *** customers. We tried the program for 2 weeks and were unsatisfied with what was ripe and available for picking and were frustrated that as customers paying for the most expensive membership our availability to pick came after the produce had been harvested for the new business venture (second location) and immediately after the less expensive pre-picked *** boxes were harvested. After the second week, we received an email stating we would now be receiving a paper each week telling us what we could pick and what quantities. This directly contradicted what we paid for. We chose a box size to fill each week and the more expensive pick your own option so we could select the variety we wanted. After this email, we decided to cut our losses and I left a review on their ******** page. The owner did not like the review, sent an email "invalidating" concerns and chastising me for leaving a review. The owner requested a phone call. In the call, ******, the owner, led the conversation telling me she did not have time for my emails and told me I was the one with the problem. At the end of the call she did offer us an 8 week refund (minus fees) of $331 and verified our address. 3 weeks later I followed up via email because no refund was received. ****** would not directly address our call, would not verify the amount via email, and refused to meet me in person to exchange the box and check.

  Business response

  09/12/2022

  Hello,

  Smith Farms is a small family owned and operated farm that has been in business for 35 years.   We are diligent about how we operate our farm, and the specialty crops we grow each season.    **************** is and has always been a top priority in our business.  We continue to be thankful to the community and all of our customers for allowing us to continue to offer the highest quality produce we have available.      
  

  Our CSA program (weekly produce boxes) continues to grow each season.  We have many customers that purchase a box each year and we open a limited number of memberships each year for new customers.  We just completed our 5th CSA season, and we have customers on our list for the next season.   We have about 10 acres of fruits and vegetables on our farm, and the abundance of produce is at times overwhelming.    This season we opened an additional location to help market our produce and we made many donations to our local food pantries to stock their shelves and to help us keep our fields producing.    Thankfully, we never have a shortage of produce.     

  To address the customer in question:   We offered her the exact same options as every member in the program, we also offered to meet with her at the farm to help her find the produce she was looking for, the csa program was available for 10 weeks and this customer decided she did not want to be a member.  As a farm/small business/family we feel we completely offered this customer what she purchased, and we had all the boundaries set in place for her to continue with her purchase.    We do have set dates/times for this program and the customers are aware of this at the start of the season.   Thankfully, we have never been put in this position (in 35 years) of issuing a refund to an unhappy customer.   

  Again, we are thankful to our many customers that value who we are and what we do.   It's a very difficult business and becomes very satisfying to know that our customers and community enjoy our farm/produce/family 

  Please do not hesitate to contact us with any other information you may need. 
  

  Sincerely,
  

  ****** Smith 
  

  smithfarmsindiana.com 

   

  Customer response

  09/14/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined the response would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. 
  
  ****** continues to repeat that customer service is a top priority. However, nothing about this experience has been customer friendly. She outright lied to me not once but twice about sending us a refund in addition to her unprofessional phone call. I do not know her motivations for offering us a refund, but once she did it was expected she follow through. Please see attachments for the second time she verified she was sending us a refund. 
  
  Regards,
  
  *********************************

  Business response

  09/26/2022

  As business owners and farmers we understand how to handle difficult situations and unfortunately at times  difficult people.   As we strive to keep everyone happy , we realize sometimes that is not possible.   Thankfully, this customer is 1 out of every 1500 .   We did what we could to rectify the situation .  We have a no refund policy and we did consider a partial refund in this case , as it would have been easier than dealing with this constant harassment/slander & defamation of character .  We have not. will not and can not participate in this type of behavior.     We have no further comment in this matter .   Under the advice of our attorney , we are under no obligation to refund this customer funds as there was never a time when services or products  were denied. 

  We also will consider filing a restraining  order and a no contact order ,  as a safety measure.      In the meantime we will continue to work hard and feed the community. 

  Customer response

  09/26/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined the response would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. 
  
  I am not sure why ****** is threatening a restraining order. The last contact I had with ****** was an email on 8/4 informing her that the requested box (that she was now requiring before sending the refund) had been returned. Beyond that, I have filed this BBB complaint since, as a previous customer, I had lost all faith in her holding true to her word from her continued dishonesty. I am not deluding myself into believing ****** will fulfill the 8 week partial refund that she freely offered (with clearly no intention of sending). However, I do want  a formal record of her behavior. To be clear, all I did here was write an honest review of our experience with Smith Farms. ****** called me twice and then sent an email reaching out to me, so all that ensued was in response to her repeated attempts to reach out. I was simply expecting her to follow through on what she offered and verified, and I cannot believe how exaggerated this has become.
  
  Regards,
  
  *********************************
  

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩