POLYWOOD — Local services in Syracuse

This is my second time ordering from Polywood. It will be my last. My EDGE six-piece deep-seating set arrived later than expected (which I know was just a window). I noticed that the holes drilled into the top of the back rest were too large for the screws on each of the three corner seating pieces.

I reached out to Polywood right away and opened a video call with Mindy who saw exactly what was wrong and immediately offered to replace the pieces – the three corner pieces. I explained to her that I didn’t need the pieces. I just needed larger screws. “Nope, we don’t know the size of the hole; we will send three new corner pieces. And for your trouble, we will give you a bit of a credit back.”

I tell her about the Lakeside 9-piece bar table and chairs I ordered in 2021 that arrived with half of the chairs missing holes and pieces put together upside-down. Back then they also sent me new chairs when they also could have just sent me new screws.

Fast-forward 10 days to get my replacement order of three corner deep-seating sofa pieces (when I could have just gotten screws. I carry them to the deck and start to put them together … the edges of the plastic are all jagged. Like they were ripped off the assembly line. Being the optimist that I am, I think, “not a problem, I can just sand that down.” Fine. I take the backrest pieces out. Hmm. I wonder why these holes aren’t lining up. I’m using the right pieces … check the instructions again. Yup, it’s the right piece. Wait a minute. THE BACK OF THE SOFA IS UPSIDE DOWN. It’s supposed to be slanted to accept the back rest you’re attaching. Well, it’s slanted alright. THE WRONG DIRECTION. The piece is attached UPSIDE DOWN. This has to be a joke. I look … two out of three of the pieces are constructed this way. But not only that, on ONE SIDE OF THE SOFA CORNER. So, if one is inspecting it (and I’m not a quality-control inspector and I noticed it), one would say, “Hmm, why is THAT side angled backward and THIS side angled forward … that doesn’t seem right!” BETTER YET, THE HOLES ARE STILL WRONG. On one piece, a screw is sticking out of the side of the sofa. And on two of the three pieces, the seat bottom is attached BACKWARD so there’s no way to attach the base of the backrest to the seat bottom. These three are even more unusable than the first order I received. I call Polywood. Wait to speak to someone for 26 minutes. Finally Deanna was lucky enough to get me on the phone. “Don’t send me anymore pieces. I do not want three more pieces. I am going to do what I should have done before and just gone to my local hardware store and get larger screws and be done with this.” She offers again to ship new items. I absolutely do not want new items because NOW, I have to disassemble these in order to recycle them. These are 100% unusable. The lack of quality control in production is appalling. Products going out the door that cannot be put together is unacceptable.

I feel the best way for people to show dissatisfaction is to not patronize a business that does not perform up to your standards. So, after spending over $6500 at Polywood over the past three years, there is absolutely no way that I would recommend these products to anyone unless their quality control undergoes some major change. The reason I repurchased from them was because the dining set withstood two harsh winters in a...

The actual product is pretty good....but as a Canadian do not buy from Polywood. This is a rather long story but the warranty system they have for Canadian shipping is a MESS.

First they sent the wrong part via FedEX shipping. Then I contacted them again and they finally sent the correct part.

A month or so later I get two invoices for approx $57 each for handling fees, duties, etc. for a WARRANTY ITEM. Polywood needs to handle their international warranty shipping accounts better so that international people do not pay for a warranty item replacement.

Anyways, I contacted Polywood and sent them pictures of the invoices. I told them that I am not willing to pay for it given that these were warranty items. They accepted this and told me they will inform me when it is taken care of.

A month or so later I get another invoice payment reminder from FedEX requesting payment. I sent these invoices to Polywood again and Oli H states "That it has all been taken care of."

A month later I received another copy of the FedEX invoices requesting payment....so I contacted Oli H again at Polywood and they said "that is has been taken care of." again.

Now it's been 4 months and I receive a letter from a freaking Debt Collection Agency demanding payment within ten days. I contact Polywood and it HASN'T actually been taken care of! At this point I am now dealing with Polywood's accountant and as nice and friendly as this person is, I had to be the one to motivate them to get this done.

However, FedEX is also at fault here. Polywood DID in fact contact FedEX by e-mail twice to get the invoices transferred over to their accounts. The sad part is Polywood just stopped trying after FedEX did not reply. I have dealt with FedEX before and they are one of the worst shipping companies to deal with as well.

In the end, phone calls are what get things done. I had to call FedEX and relay this massive story and how to deal with it, as my name is wrongfully in the middle of this attached to the invoices and Debt Collection Agency (I also dealt with someone at FedEX during this process earlier, who was equally useless). Anyways the new FedEX representative I dealt with was much better and brought her manager in to deal with Polywood directly. I had to direct both FedEX and Polywood on the steps that they need to take to get it all dealt with.

I was tempted to just pay the damn invoices myself in order to avoid the stress of dealing with non-motivated people such as these.

In the end, it was taken care of by Polywood at the expense of the likelihood of my credit rating taking a hit due to the collection agency. I should say it was taken care of by myself though, as I was definitely the motivating factor.

Polywood's product is fine, but their warranty shipping accounts is a mess with international customers. Canadians please be careful and maybe just buy a local or a Muskoka chair....at the Muskoka's....here in Canada. Most of these products use recycled plastics...

I could not be happier with the furniture. I have a dining set on my downstairs patio and a bar high table with chairs on my upstairs deck. Very attractive and comfortable. Hopefully they will last a long time in the salt air of where my home is located.

Now the delivery is another story. I had the first delivery made by Fed Ex. There were no issues, good communication and time was well spent waiting for and receiving the furniture with great communication. The second set was delivered by UPS and was a disaster. UPS sent me the delivery date,, which would not work with me out of town and no way to reach them to change. Finally, I got help from the Polywood people. They changed the date to one in which I was going to be able to receive it. Still I had no communication with UPS. The day before delivery I was given a 12 hr. window ON LINE. I went to the property to wait for delivery. I made sure that I was available to let-the driver into the gated community and opened windows and door so I could hear the truck if they arrived. At noon, I received a notification when I checked, that the furniture would arrive at 2 PM. I waited, and at 3 PM received a message from UPS that the furniture had been delivered at 1 PM. There was no furniture anywhere around my property. I called every number I could find on line for UPS reaching only a retail store in my area who could not help me. I finally reached someone in Asia who barely spoke English. He was of no help, but told me to call that number again. I did and left a message. Finally someone locally called me to let me know that my furniture was delivered to the wrong address and that the driver was returning. He returned. I expressed my anger since the address on the boxes were very clear and they were delivered 50 yds. from my home at another address. He threatened to leave without bringing them to me. Finally, he brought them over and left them in from of my neighbor's house refusing to help me get them into my condo. The boxes were damaged and one totally torn open and exposed. After he left, I called the number locally from which I received the call and received a message that it was not a working number. I again called the 800 number and reached someone in Egypt who could not connect me with the person I had spoken with locally. I told him that I wished to speak with her and wanted to lodge a complaint. He told me she would call me and would send me forms to fill out to complain. I am still waiting for the call and the forms 3 weeks later. I MAY AGAIN BY POLYWOOD PRODUCTS, BUT I WILL INSIST THEY NOT BE DELIVERED BY UPS . IF THAT IS ALL THEY HAVE I WILL NOT...