Fedco POE Substitution Policy

It is our goal to send you the potatoes that you ordered. This may seem like a simple goal to reach, but inventory of live plant material is an inexact science and we may run out of a variety that was “in stock” when you ordered it by the time we pack your order for a number of reasons, such as:

  • the only lots available for that variety failed winter virus testing
  • a grower had a short crop or graded their crop heavily at packing time and was unable to fill as much of our order as they expected
  • a variety suffered spoilage in the warehouse and we had to repack the bags and dispose of part of our inventory
  • we made a mistake on an order that was placed earlier than yours and had to send more or different potatoes to that customer than we expected
  • you (or someone else ordering around the same time) placed a large order for a variety when we had little inventory remaining
moose subs

When push comes to shove, most people would rather get potatoes than a refund, so we offer a substitution program for those willing to be flexible if necessary.

  • If you do not accept substitutes, you will receive a refund for any out-of-stock varieties at the time that we complete your order.
  • If you ordered conventional potatoes but we only have organic stock available for that variety, we may substitute organic stock of the same variety but we will not charge you more.
  • If you accept conventional stock in place of organic, we will substitute conventional stock of the same variety if that is available and refund the price difference.
  • If you accept variety substitutions, we will substitute a similar variety if we have one available. Our criteria for similarity are (in order of priority): skin color, flesh color, maturity, texture, storage capacity, and disease resistance profile. It is unlikely that all these characteristics will match those of your original selection.
  • Even if you accept substitutions, we may not have a reasonable substitute available (either because the variety is quite unusual or because we have no inventory left of reasonable substitutes). In this case, you will receive a refund as above.
  • We allot varieties in limited supply to orders in the sequence in which we received them. Even if you choose to accept substitutions, we will always send you the variety you ordered if it is available. Refusing substitutions will not increase your chances of receiving the variety you ordered originally.

We ship over 6000 potato orders in a period of four weeks with an office crew of four people and a warehouse crew of eight. We CANNOT and WILL NOT contact individual customers about out-of-stock varieties in advance, nor can we offer any guarantee that we will process custom substitution requests. Please do not ask us to do so.