Buckle up! This is what you are UNDERSTANDING and AGREEING TO when you purchase from Stark Farms. Deviations from this policy are at the discretion of Stark Farms.
*There will be a test at the end of this.
Tubers are the roots of a plant. Thats it. Not a status symbol, winning lottery ticket, or the magic thing that will fix your personality-ugly people grow pretty flowers too. Your life will go on if you do not get the variety you want. You should not experience extreme anger or entitlement with any aspects of buying, trading, or correcting issues with regards to dahlias. If you do, take a step back, breath deep, remove the emotion and accomplish what needs to be done.
Customer Accounts:
Customer accounts are the customers responsibility. We advise one is created before times of sales to enable a speedier check out. Please make sure your address and information are correct. Almost every time we are contacted to change an address; it is messed up. This is...cough cough....someone's fault. But with you in control, now it's your fault if something is messed up.
Dahlia Ordering Options:
We offer dahlia tubers (single, not clump) as well as rooted cuttings. Prices and availability are on website. Prices are for one tuber or cutting unless otherwise stated.
Cancellation:
Cancellations cannot be made, unless severe circumstances are presented by customer. For example, if your house burned down, we don't expect you to be concerned with growing dahlias, but we will require proof. BUT, if you overspent and need to cancel, that's not an acceptable reason to cancel.
*Be advised that a restocking fee of 20% will be deducted from the refunded portion.
Changes to existing orders:
No. Thats it. No. Too many mistakes can be made. Changing an order is more than just making a little note to swap something. Price differences, availability, and adjustments online have to be considered. Too many factors can and have gone wrong. So, No :/
Shipping:
Buyer is responsible for shipping fees, to be paid prior to shipping. Buyer accepts the risk of lost, damaged, delayed, frozen packages and will file their grievances with carrier - not Stark Farms. According to the good Old US trade policy, as long as we state that- we are released of any liability. As long as an email is provided to us, the customer will be given the tracking information. IF YOU DO NOT PROVIDE AN EMAIL, SHIPPING INFORMATION CANNOT BE SENT TO YOU. IF WE CANNOT PROVIDE INFORMATION, YOU HAVE TO GUESS (AND YES, YOU ARE 100% RESPONSIBLE FOR WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR ORDER). Please be aware of the date of delivery in colder climates.
Your package is tracked. We can immediately see the date and time at which it is delivered. And so can you with your tracking number. Please do not claim to have not received it if you did-that's dishonest. Please check with your kids, pets, roommates, spouse etc. for "missing" packages before you claim it is gone. Understand we cannot be responsible for porch pirates stealing packages.
Sellers are not made out of tubers/cuttings and extra money for shipping.
If we provide a product, you ordered, over to the carrier service and they damage or lose package, that's on them. We have no control over what happens on their end, therefore cannot be responsible. Farms have a specific inventory or tubers and cuttings, many times cutting themselves short to fill orders for a second or third time. This also cost shipping fees every single time. Sellers are not made of money nor rich.
Having said that, again, we do not have extra money to pay additional shipping charges.
Shipped Cuttings:
Please photograph each cutting IMMEDIATELY upon receipt. Because many things can happen to cuttings after receipt, let's see how they arrived first. Follow the directions provided.
Cuttings should arrive in the time allotted for priority shipping. If they are lost, delayed by the carrier or destroyed, it is up to the buyer to file a claim for their purchase.
If cuttings arrive with some black leaves (within reason) trim that bad boy up and get it going. It is a living thing that is being stressed. How would you feel if you were wrapped up and tossed around in a dark box?
If cuttings die within the day of receipt, and proper care was given to get them acclimated, you can request a replacement. We reserve the right to send a replacement before a refund. Again, how smoothly this goes depends on you and your approach.
You will be required to destroy the cutting in a video before a replacement or refund is given.
When you get your tubers:
Please inspect within the day of receiving and let us know within 48 hours if there are any issues. It is recommended to take pictures of your order regardless of issues or not. If something is discovered down the road, we know how it at least arrived. Past that, we cannot be responsible for damages or rot. Tubers maintain an amount of moisture, so it is important to immediately open your package upon receipt.
If you decide to use your tuber for cutting, we cannot be responsible for drying out or rotting. If the tuber has a "skinny" neck (some varieties are just like that and we can't help it), bury that sucker up to the crown/eye so it doesn't dry out.
Some varieties take fooooreeeeveerrrrr to wake up and sprout. Take care not to make it rot while waiting- that's on you and it does not mean we sent you a rotten tuber.
We guarantee tubers will ship healthy, viable, and true to type.
If there is an issue: You MUST email your concern along with a picture, or if your claim is squishy/rotten a video is required. And please, understand shipping season is the busiest of all- allow us time to get back to you- 24 TO 48 HOURS.
DO NOT WAIT UNTIL JULY to send an email stating the tuber is blind or a dud. By this time, we are planted and you have withdrawn our ability to replace the variety and we will not refund.
The most common email states, "my tuber is blind". Rest assured it probably is not and need a little warm love and time to wake up fully. Sometimes we make a boo boo and a blind tuber slips through, please politely email and we can work through it. Theres no need to contact someone you are trying to impress and complain about the blind crap from Stark Farms....we see you boo, and we own our mistakes. Chances are those friends you are trying to impress are closer friends to us anyway.
You must give us the opportunity to replace a variety or item before a refund is given.
You must return the tuber upon request for a refund or replacement. Simply stating "my tuber is blind, send me another one or refund" is not acceptable. All blind tubers will be required to be mailed back at buyers' expense. Funny how many eyes become visible after this was put in place.
DO NOT SEND EMAILS CONTAINING:
"Out of all the farms I have bought from, yours is the only one".... This is not tolerated.
Profanity will not be tolerated.
Rudeness is not tolerated. We are all adults, and the products are roots of plants, or baby plants, we can be nice.
Emails just to inform us your upset because something sold out... guess what? not tolerated.
If a product becomes unavailable...
Due to an unforeseen incident, you will be refunded. This may happen due to a storage failure, including but not limited to ninjas stealing all of the tubers. This does not mean we have kept your money and just decide to give it back for fun, returns cost money in refunding transaction fees.
What Tubers can look like
Tubers are the vessels for DNA of a variety of dahlia. They will not and cannot be entered into beauty pageants. They came from the dirt and will return to the dirt. There's nothing glamourous about them to look at.
Many tubers are grown from cuttings and pots, some may be smaller and twisted- but we assure you they will grow big, beautiful plants.
Tubers can be the size of a double A Battery or thumb. This is the best size to grow plants. The smaller size allows the tuber to put out feeder roots earlier and commence growing faster.
Big, fat, long tubers can be cut in half due to their obnoxious length. Longer and heftier tubers are like the 40 kid who lives in grandma's basement. They are a little bit slower at participating in their life. They will get there eventually, but because they are starchy and basically feed off of themselves-they take forever.
A Knick or pitchfork cut is just fine. This will not inhibit the growth of your dahlia. Sometimes not-so-fancy tubers slip through, but alas, hold the same DNA as a fancy one and will grow the same flower.
Skin peeling or missing around the neck of the tuber is ok. This happens during the digging or washing process and the water knocks off the skin. It is not CRUMBLING.
If you receive tubers that are broken in half from shipping, they are perfectly fine and will grow. Tubers only need a viable eye to grow. Some tubers have crown and long necks, while some have no necks at all, and eyes grow right on the round near the crown.
The tuber has to be completely severed (holding on by the skin), or the tissue damaged beyond growth, for the neck to be broken. Just because it bends does not mean its broke. If you feel its broken beyond growth, you will be required to mail it back at your expense for a replacement or refund.
General Shipping:
We begin shipping tubers in late April/May. Cuttings will be shipped separately from tubers also in April/May depending on if the weather allows.
Combined orders: YOU HAVE TO SELECT LOCAL PICK UP FOR ADDITIONAL ORDERS AFTER YOU HAVE PAID FOR SHIPPING OF YOUR FIRST for combining orders. Combined orders will only be with the same name and address. We cannot combine you, your sisters dog walker, yo momma, and bestie boos orders together. Unfortunately, too many things can and will go wrong. It has happened many times and has cost us many tubers and extra shipping fees. We will combine shipping if you have selected LOCAL PICK UP for each additional transaction. When we have combined in the past, it has cost us dearly in transaction fees to refund, this will eliminate that transaction fee as well as extra cookies for the shipping department to keep spirits up and operations moving smoothly. Your address and name must match for us to ship otherwise the order will be canceled.
That whole paragraph was repetitive and.....we still get questions :/
There is No need to message, for we will do a search specific to your name to ensure we combine everything, as long as the fee per order is paid. IF for some reason we miss an order to be combined, it will be shipped separately.
Hey things happen:
IF for some reason your plant grows and it's not what you ordered:
- We are truly sorry. And please know this was an accident. It was not intentional in an effort to just send you "something" and not the variety you ordered. We know and understand how much time and energy is put into a plant, and it's a bummer when it is the wrong thing.
- Please let me know as soon as possible so we can work out a way to make it right, i.e. replacement the following year. You will be asked to provide a picture of the plant/bloom with your invoice number (for verification).
- Please do not post negative posts on social media, or negative reviews, please let us have a chance to make it right.
With regards to viruses. We thoroughly inspect each and every plant we grow. If anything shows signs of any of the multiple viruses we will immediately dispose of the plant. We do not test our plants due to the incredible cost associated with said tests AND they do not have tests for all viruses.
ANYONE who says their stock is guaranteed virus free, may not be educated. Tests will give false positives dependent on several potential factors, including the time of infection relevant to test and location of specimen that is tested.
There is absolutely nothing keeping a bug from biting a healthy plant and infecting it immediately after a clean test result has been shown. Even plants grown through tissue culture can always be infected after the fact.
IF you plant shows signs of infection, if you feel you have a bug free environment and the virus came from us, please let us know. We can always work together to compare plants and figure out a path forward.
Same goes for leafy or crown gall. It can easily be transferred between plants. Dahlias are not the only plants that can harbor this bacterial infection, meaning the ability to come from outside sources other than dahlias is there. Please let us know if your plant/tuber becomes infected.
IF You take your grievance to social media, we do and will reserve the right to ban you from our site as well as add you to a national " Do not sell list" for other sellers to view.
No customer should feel they should single handedly destroy a farm because they are not happy.
Just ask the last Lad...I can't even say lady... heathen who tried. Turns out she was already on the "Do not sell List" smh.... You cannot get your order and not check it only to say its dried-out weeks later. And then claim to have paid $30/tuber....don't lie- that makes us really mad. Really, really mad.
If you made it this far and are ready for the test, great job! There is no test. All you get is a grower (actually the whole family) who is happy to have you as a customer. We are human, we are not amazon. We are also not "Three flowerpots on the Porch" growers, but at the same time- we are not Swan Island. It's just us: a Mom, Dad and two kiddos. We greatly appreciate your time and hard-earned money trusted with us during your dahlia journey and look forward to watching your garden bloom!