So this company makes a really nice product, and they have impressive equipment for delivery of their product.
I'd like to give you fair warning of their business practices. Let me start by saying that I'm not leaving this review out of spite, I simply want to ensure that no one else steps on a land mine, as we did.
We watched every YouTube video under the sun for months from Jamaica Cottage Shop. We were very impressed. We visited Jamaica Cottage Shop of three separate occasions, and we finally decided that we would get our first of three cabins with them.
We sat down with a woman at JMC, and I believe here name was Patty. Patty was very kind, and very informative. We explained what we wanted, and where we needed it delivered. We explained that the road was unimproved, but passable in a Toyota Carola. We were assured that the delivery team specialized in exactly this type of thing, and were more than up to the task. Our confidence boosted, we went ahead, and placed our order.
In the weeks leading up to delivery I spent my weekends cutting a driveway into the property, and ordering truck loads of crushed stone ( on triaxle trucks) to improve the driveway.
The morning of delivery, me and my younger brother got up around 5am, and started the three hour drive north. We wanted to be well ahead of delivery, and we were, luckily. That morning, on the way up, we decided to call JCS dispatch, and check the drivers ETA. When on the phone with dispatch, I recommended that the driver avoid Griffin rd, as it is a rutted dead end, that GPS, will tale you down. I also offered to meet the driver at the bottom of Piperhill road, and lead him in. Unfortunately the driver never got the info from dispatch, and ended up on Griffin road. The JCS dispatched reached out to us, and explained what the driver was seeing, and we knew right where he was, so we went and found him, we helped him turn around, and head back out to the main road, to our property. No harm, no foul. Once on the main road it took maybe ten minutes to get to our property, where the road dead ends in a fair sized turn around. (Large enough for a triaxle dump truck)
This is where it starts to go sideways. The driver was attempting to line up his trailer with our driveway, so he could back the trailer straight in, and he decided to pull off of the road, into high grass, where he got himself properly stuck. The poor guy tried everything he could to get unstuck, but in the end, it just made things worse.
At this point, I offered to go back out to cell service, and call his company, to have a recovery truck sent out, to which he replied, "What ever, I guess". So me and my younger brother hopped back into my pickup, and did just that. JCS dispatch apologized for the inconvenience, and sent a truck out. Me and my brother went back up to the property, to inform the driver. We asked the driver if he needed anything, or wanted to drive back into town with us to wait, but he declined.
Me, and my brother went back to our hotel room, and waited for news. We finally got a call later that night, around 830pm informing us that the delivery was completed.
The next day we went up, fully expecting that the delivery was in the road, and that is understandable, what we did not expect was the condition of the pallets. The pallets were so badly damaged that they could not even be dragged up the driveway with my truck, so we had to break them down, and drive them up, one load at a time. Very time consuming, but I chalked it up to simple bad luck, and a stressful situation for the driver.
Things however got much worse, when my neighbors arrived on there property to find that their driveway, ditching, and lawn were badly damaged by an unknown vehicle.
This was brought to my attention, and I was baffled.
I certainly didn't unhitch his gate, go past his "No Trespassing sign" and turn around twice on his lawn, but someone did, and very recently. Judging by the duel tire marks, and convenient angle neighbors driveway in relationto the stuck vehicle, either one truck trespassed onto the neighbors property, and turned around in two separate areas, or two trucks trespassed, and turned around once. ( A mystery for the ages )
My neighbor was justifiably upset, because he has family coming to the property for forth of July, and his driveway, and lawn are wrecked.
I called JCS, and explained the situation, and to my total shock, they attempted to deflect responsibility totally, by saying they were not notified about road conditions. ( which is untrue )
After a few days of calls, and emails JCS said that if I were to send them receipts for delivery of materials, they would refund my. In return I offered to hand rake, and compact the stone, repair the lawn, seed, and hay.
At this point, I am a little untrusting of their promises, so I get a quote done to repair with a local contractor, and send it to JCS. Unsurprisingly JCS was willing to cover 425.00 of the 1400.00 bill.
I summarized to them in email like this.
"You illegally trespassed on someone's property, out of convenience, damaged the property, and you want me to pay 1000.00, and landscape for a day, while you pay 425.00?
Does that seem right to you?"
To which they responded "............".
I further pressed the issue, trying to smooth this entire thing over, and was basically ignored.
So, if you learn anything from my misfortune, I hope it is that Jamaica Cottage Shop will not do the right thing when it really counts.
Friendly people, good product, but that's about all I can say.Business Response:
Samuel, we do appreciate you taking the time to leave this feedback and we apologize that this situation occurred. Had the necessary information about the delivery location been brought to our attention prior to us coming out, this could have been avoided. The end of the delivery site is unfortunately where the issue occurred, and not the suggested roads you mentioned us taking. We have been in continuous contact with you over the last few days, via email and phone, and have provided you with the support we can, while also abiding to our policies, procedures, and sticking with our terms and conditions, which were signed off on during the sales process. Our drivers are well trained in completing these Pre-cut kit deliveries, but when faced with unaware obstacles and a truck with 1,000 lb. pallets operating on washed out dirt road conditions, there is bound to be some room for error. This delivery was a one off, as our reps take the time and effort to go over the necessary information we need for our logistics team/drivers to set up and have a successful delivery. Again, our apologies for this inconvenience. We are here for any help you might need during your build. Please reach out if you need assistance. Thank you, Jamaica Cottage Shop
