Smith Family Farms beefandhayproducer Bait and Switch Gainesville, Virginia

I ordered a turkey from Smith Family Farms this summer and had a serious customer service issue when I went to pick it up. The sales representative (Brad) from Smith Family Farms actually threatened to humiliate me in public when he refused to address my issue because I had told him that I was not happy and that I would dispute the charge on my credit card if he did not ameliorate the situation. I certainly hope the attitude of the individual I dealt with is not representative of this company's customer service ethics.

I have done a lot of business with this farm in the past without preordering and had great results. That was up until tonight. First of all, they had a problem with delivery and instead of being able to pick up the turkey in Kingstowne as promised, I had to drive to Burke. It sounded like there was a family emergency so I was willing help out. Little did I know, they were not going to be as nice to me.

Secondly, I made it very clear that I wanted a turkey weighing 20 pounds or less at the time of order. The sales representative indicated that the turkey could be up to 5 pounds less than 20 pounds, and I agreed to those terms. I went to pick up a turkey at the expected price of $140 or less and then was told it would cost an extra $40 because they could only sell me a turkey weighing 5 pounds over my original order. The sales representative providing the turkeys actually made me feel guilty about complaining and talked me out of refusing to buy the turkey by indicating they had no control over how fast the turkeys grew.

After I had purchased the turkey, I noticed three other customers had received a turkey closer to the 20-pound range. On the way back to the truck, I heard a customer asked if they had "extra turkeys" if not preordered and the customer sales representative said: "Yes, we have several extra turkeys. What size would you like?" Hearing that they had some other turkeys available, I looked in the truck and saw at least 30 turkeys left over. They were getting ready to leave for the night, and so I then asked for a smaller turkey or to return the turkey that I had bought. I was basically told that I was stuck with the turkey I had purchased. I warned that I would dispute the charge with my credit card company and post several reviews containing my experience on the internet. This is when the sales representative threatened me with public humiliation the next time he saw me at a farmers market.