Good Product, Awful Delivery Experience
The turf itself is excellent. It came in good condition and we are pleased with the product. We ordered >1200 square feet of pet friendly turf and our dog seems to like it as much as we do. Unfortunately, we had a very terrible experience with the delivery of our turf, and this is the reason for only giving two stars. We do live in a rural area, and we are accustomed to waiting longer for things to be delivered to us here than we would have to if we lived closer to a big city. I waited >10 business days (the length the TFD website states is typically required to deliver products to "rural areas and islands") before inquiring about the status of our turf. I ended up having to call three different shipping carriers just to try and locate it [it was shipped from Georgia via a large carrier, then passed off to a smaller carrier for the second leg of the delivery (to our home), then passed to a third carrier when the second realized how far away we lived, and then passed back to the second carrier when the third carrier realized the same thing]. Ultimately this ended with me being told "sorry, nothing we can do" by the shipping carrier. This led to at least 30 email exchanges and >10 phone calls between myself, my husband, the main shipping carrier, and a representative from TFD to try and get things sorted out over many weeks. At one point we got so frustrated and tired of waiting that we offered to rent a trailer and drive 3 hours round trip to go pick it up at a location that was more favorable for the shipping carrier. This ended up not working for them because "we didn't have a delivery address there" (obviously, because we don't live there. Our delivery address is our home, where they had refused to deliver the turf for many weeks at that point). Ultimately, it took 5 weeks from the date we ordered the turf until the day it arrived. Meanwhile, our dog couldn't be in our backyard because we had the entire yard prepped for the turf installation with weed barrier, etc. The whole process ended up being extremely frustrating and time consuming. TFD should not have sold us the turf if they weren't confident they could deliver it. Beyond that, we shouldn't have been the ones responsible for trying to figure out how to get it delivered successfully once the issues arose. It should also be noted that TFD was relatively responsive via email and phone while the issue was ongoing and at one point offered us a small refund in order to try and compensate us for the negative experience we were having. When the turf finally was delivered, however, and we tried to reach out to them to obtain said refund, it was extremely difficulty to get a hold of anyone for over a week. In summary, we are happy with the product, but cannot recommend TFD based on our negative delivery experience.
By KKM
Response from Turf Factory Direct· Aug 7, 2020
Hi, Thank you for your feedback. We are thrilled to hear you love the product; however, disappointed we were not able to provide an all-around positive experience. We completely understand your frustration with the delivering company, as we were all frustrated as well. Without making excuses for the delivery company, they were dealing with a bit of quarantine/COVID restrictions, however, still inexcusable. We were unaware the Reservation your home is located on had such strict restrictions. We should have looked into your address further ahead of time. That is something we are currently working on. We understand the headache and frustration this caused. We appreciate your willingness/ patience to work with us, as we worked through various logistical issues, due to COVID/quarantine issues. Thank you for your valuable feedback. We are constantly working to improve our delivery. We appreciate your business. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance. -Chandra