The Maine Potato Lady

I ordered 5# of Yukon Gold and 5# of Red Pontiac potatoes. 14 out of 20 Yukon gold potatoes have scab on them. 2 out of 14 Red Pontiac potatoes have scab on them, one is fully covered. I called the customer service and they told me to send email with pictures. I did. No response from them. Will never buy there again.

I ordered from them last year and like others have said, the communication was minimal. But the potatoes arrived and were in great shape. I placed another order in November and everything seemed fine until I received an email in March stating they'd received a letter from the state of Alaska informing them of the state's requirements for seed potatoes. They stated it was going to be a very lengthy and time consuming process and would lead to higher charges for Alaskan residents in the future. The email made it clear they were irritated by the requirements. I can understand that, but I didn't make the regulations so taking it out on the customer won't help anything. There was no other communication from Maine Potato Lady. A couple days ago I gave up waiting and sent an email requesting they cancel my $125 order. No one replied, but a few hours later they processed a refund of $52. I emailed them the next day and asked why the refund was for only $52 and they stated: "I had just processed part of it and was going to ship some. I will refund the remainder shortly. A." I have yet to receive the full refund. I'll wait a few more days and then take it up with my credit card company. I definitely wouldn't shop with Maine Potato Lady again, even if I moved to a different state with requirements that were more to their liking. Their poor customer service and communication just isn't worth the hassle.

Placed a fairly large order last year and forgot to leave a review then, but it was a very positive experience. Variety choice was awesome (but order as early as possible--things sell out FAST) and prices were the best I've seen on small quantities of individual varieties. Product arrived when stated, as stated, well packaged and in excellent condition, with some extras thrown into each bag. I had a great harvest, some of which I saved for replanting, and ordered new varieties from her again this year.

Posted on April 25, 2019, updated April 26, 2019 Took over a month to ship. Too late for planting. Called to cancel order and was told it would be canceled. The next day the order shipped. Shady. Would not order again.

I wish I could give this a positive but I just can't. The seed potatoes are fine. They look really good, honestly. None are rotten in the bags or anything and they should make fine plants in a few weeks. I got 70 pounds in a shipment of 2 boxes. Shipping was 34 dollars, which is a lot but I understand due to the weight. However, the problem for me was the complete and utter lack of any communication whatsoever. I got an email early on about one of my ordered potatoes failing certification, and asking me to substitute. I replied, but never received any confirmation back about whether my substitute was available or was accepted or not. I just assumed it was. I had ordered in January, well before the deadline for 'March Shipping' they advertise. March came and I heard nothing. It got to be almost the end of March and still nothing and nothing had showed up. So, I emailed them just inquiring about the order and trying to make sure that I was going to still be getting what I ordered. At this point, many things were 'sold out' on the website and I was worried. I sell a fair amount of potatoes at my farm stand and can't just suddenly have none for the next year. Yeah, there was no reply to this at all. Now I know there's something on their website that says that even for the March shipping they can 'ship later if weather is too cold', and the weather WAS a bit on the cool side at that time. So I don't necessarily fault them for this. What I just wanted is some confirmation that it was coming.... at all... ever. Nothing. Finally, I got a random shipping notification from UPS on Apr. 4th, and delivery was expected Apr. 8th. The potatoes did arrive, arrived early actually, and looked fine upon inspection. I am not at all dissatisfied with the quality of the goods. The total lack of response to my concerns is the troubling part. I mostly ordered from them due to selection, as I wanted to try a couple of new varieties, but I'm not sure if I'd order from them again, since I can actually talk to a person at my local feed store and I know their potatoes grow just fine even if they are of just a few 'common' types.

This was my first year ordering from this vendor. I ordered some purple viking, dark red norland and nicola potatoes. I ordered them a bit late in the winter and had missed the march shipping deadline. However, I still selected the early shipping and was pleased to have received my order early. The seed potatoes were very firm healthy looking. I planted my taters at 15" spacing and 20" rows. The yield for the purple majesty was outstanding at about 12:1. The dark red norland were some of the most delicious I have ever tasted and they too had a good yield of about 9:1. The Nicola did not grow as well. I had a huge amount of tubers but they all stayed very small in the 2"-3" range. If i try them again, I will try different spacing. I plan to order from this company again.

Happy with orders for organic LaRatte Fingerlings, Dark Red Norland, and Kennebec--and Beauregard Sweet Potato slips. All very productive. I'll order them again next year from Maine Potato Lady. Overall good customer relations. Glad Beauregards lived up to reputation of not cracking. I had had bad luck with another type the previous year from another company. Two of the slips were quite short and did not survive, but the rest did well. Kennebecs have stored well so far. Fingerlings did well--once I learned I needed patience to wait longer than planned for larger sizes. I was new to them. I did have to initiate an inquiry on a delay on my shallot order. The company had to cancel the shallots order due to poor weather conditions. My money was promptly returned.

Posted on April 23, 2013, updated July 5, 2013 My experience this year with the Maine Potato Lady has so far been great. I ordered my conventional Red Pontiac and organic German Butterball seed potatoes in January with the promise they would be here mid-April and they were received the first week of April in excellent condition. I am still waiting for my sweet potato slips which should be shipped near the middle of May and will keep the Watchdog community updated.

I ordered for varieties of potatoes from them this spring. They arrived on time. Because our tractor broke down, I was about four weeks late getting them in the ground. When I opened the bags two potatoes were rotten out of the whole bunch. Not sure if they were sent rotten or because I had them for 4 weeks before they were planted. In any event, my overall experience was positive and I would consider buying from them again next year.

This is my second year ordering with this company. I have had great experiences both times. My potato crop was great last year. All of the items I ordered arrived on time and are in good shape.

I placed my order within the time frame for a march shipment and we ordered 300lb and I was hoping to continually order 300lb a week for a month but that will not happen and I will never order from them again. They sent me a confirmation email which i recieved, then march came and went and i had recieved NO WORD from the company so i sent an inquiry email april 8.... no response! So i sent a cancellation email today and what do you know i get a call minutes later! Along with an email saying it was my fault they didn't keep me informed, they had the wrong email (then how did i get a confirmation email?) i didnt answer the phone after i already sent a cancellation email (of course I didnt icouldn't was finisheda i alreadyhave told them tothat cancel my orderphone i havwe nothing toi talk toto them about) and just completely blaming everything on me. I understand this is produce and weather affects your crop but if you dont know how to communicate with your customers you will eventually fail or lose a bunch of good opportunities to grow!

Ordered way early, never received months later despite an email confirmation, so emailed to check status. Was told they missed the order, and couldn't fill part of it, and what they could would take a few days to ship. Hadn't charged my card, so I just cancelled since it's too late to plant where I am with the shipping time added in, but frustrating. I'll order elsewhere in the future.

Ordered in February, was told order would shop 2nd week in April. 2nd week came, no email or anything I was expecting something because they don't charge your card until they ship. I sent an email on Tuesday, no response, emailed again Friday and got a snippy response saying my order was going to ship the 3rd week in April and that the company was small and they had to choose between filling orders and answering emails. Then my card was charged. Received the potatoes today, one bag was rotten. The rest ($70 worth) looks really good. I sent an email about the rotten potatoes and received a very fast response saying they would be replaced even though they are out of stock on the website. Even if the product is amazing the customer service was a real let down.

ordered garlic late last summer,most were sold out but bought sampler pkg. TOTALLY satisfied on time,great instructions 98%success rate,getting ready to order again.

Poor business practice of contacting the customer, about shipping 2-3 weeks late, after the expected delivery date and having that turn out to be more than 4 weeks late. The sweet potato slips were fried when I received them. I salvaged 7 of 12 and got them into the ground the last week of June...now does that sound right to you? Also, I thought I was buying from the grower and found out they were ordering from some vendor down south. I won't do more business with them.

Ordered 5# of the All Blues and was thrilled to recieve lovely many eyed smallish potatoes. They planted three 25' rows! I had also ordered three other varieties from a different supplier and was sorry I did after comparing them to what I got from The Maine Potato Lady. Found her to be friendly and warm to talk to on the phone too.

My partner and I are in our first season establishing a small for-profit farm. We ordered a large amount of potato and allium seed from the Maine Potato Lady. The billing address and shipping address were different, several hundreds of miles away. She shipped our order to the billing address, causing us to be late planting. We had to arrange with our buyer to have them driven up to us a week later, since she was unwilling to ship new product to the correct address. By the time they got here, the onions and shallots were sprouted and molding, as were the potatoes. She was EXTREMELY rude and unhelpful on the phone. She also forgot to ship the Adirondack Blues, sending us some junky white potatoes instead. I strongly caution all growers, gardeners and farmers alike, to AVOID this so-called company.

Got an unexpected and unwelcomed substitute for the Polish Red, which I thought I'd ordered early enough in the season to avoid (apparently not). I guess I didn't mark "no substitutes" on my order, so, okay, I'll keep the Inchelium Red. What really isn't so great is the condition and size of the hardneck bulbs: little, deformed bulbs, with correspondingly small, and bare, cloves, and quite a few loose stragglers. If I wasn't planting in two days I'd be pretty concerned about storage. Guess I'll just have to wait and see how they grow out.

Communication is a little strained, but her products are well worth it! The All Blues, All Reds, and German Butterballs are some of the best potatoes I've ever grown!

Although I ordered late for my home garden, a hand-written note and return check for one out-of-stock variety was sent immediately. When the other seed potatoes arrived they were in excellent condition, and we are still (Feb.) enjoying some of the crop.

Purchased potato's, onions, garlic, was very pleased and had excellent results in NE Pa zone 5a. Still using stored onions & potato's from 08 harvest in Feb 09.

I was very pleased with the quality of the Red Sun shallots that I received. The bulbs were of good size and color, and were obviously well-grown, well-cured, and well-stored. The customer service was excellent and my order arrived in a timely manner.