Comments regarding The Maine Potato Lady

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.

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.

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.