CSA Membership & Refund Policy

We ask all customers to read the following policy prior to participating in Collins Family Orchards CSA program or purchasing any fruit from our orchard. If you have any questions, please email us at csa@collinsfamilyorchards.com

Payments

We use a web-based service called Farmigo to organize our CSA program. Through Farmigo, our CSA members are able to create and sign-in to a personal account, track and make payments, and adjust their orders.

We accept two types of payment: credit/debit card or electronic check. If either option proves challenging, please contact the CSA manager for alternative payment methods.

As a CSA members you may choose to pay for the entire season upfront or in installments and agree to pay your account in a timely manner and keep their account membership information up-to-date. Those who sign up for a payment plan of three-installments will be reminded to make payments on the 1st of each month. While we understand people may forget, we kindly ask that you either set up auto-pay, or that you make notes of your due dates and send your checks or login to pay on time.

We will give you two payment reminders, and will place a hold on your box if payment has not yet been made by the next delivery. Refusal to pay for the CSA once it has started will lead to a cancelation of your membership.

We require at least one-third to one half of the total payment due by the start of the CSA season or your box will be placed on hold. Installment payments are offered with either 2-3 installment options depending on the duration of the season.

Delivery

Collins Family Orchards does our best to leave your share in a safe place at your requested location. Once the share is delivered, it is no longer the responsibility of Collins Family Orchards. If your box is stolen, we will replace it if notified immediately. We cannot replace it or refund the cost if not notified by the end of the delivery day.

While our deliveries generally go very smoothly, we understand there will be hiccups and our drivers sometimes put the wrong number of boxes down or the incorrect sizes. If this happens, please first work with your pick-up site host to sort out the issue. Depending on what happens, please notify the CSA manager if something needs to be updated or credited to your account. We may be able to offer a redelivery later in the week or a credit for any issue with the delivery, or lack there of, of your CSA box.

Delivery holds

We do not offer a refund on delivery holds. We will offer you credit that does not expire. This credit can be used to purchase fruit from the Farmigo Store, kept on your account to discount a future season, or can be be redeemed in person at our warehouse in Georgetown.

CSA members who will be out of town at some point during their subscription may either arrange for someone else to pick up their share or may place a temporary "hold" on their box by logging into their Farmigo account.

Please note the following policies for holds:

Holds must be placed by Saturday at 8 PM for the following week. We can not place holds after this timing cutoff as our logistics are done ahead of time.

There is a 3 hold limit per season. Holds will be credited in the form Farmigo credits, which is a currency that can be used to place orders in the Farmigo member store. Credits do not expire and can be used towards a future season.

If a member requires more than 3 holds per season, additional holds must be approved by the CSA manager and will be issued in the form of a redelivery (aka make up box) only.

No Shows

CSA members are expected to pick-up their CSA box by the time their pick-up site closes ( 9pm for most sites). If you are running late or if something comes up, please contact your host immediately to notify them so they can either leave your box out, or put it out in the morning.

If you do not pick up your box by your pick up sites closing time (generally 9 PM, please check with your host to confirm) and do not respond to communication from the host or the CSA manager, you forfeit that box to the host. The host can either hold the box for you until you are able to come get it, but they do not have to do so. If you do not show up, the box becomes their property and they can give it away to a neighbor or friend should they choose to do so.

If you do not show up for your box, you will not receive a credit for it unless you have notified the CSA manager or your host ahead of time about your missed pick-up. Please pick up your box on time for the best fruit quality.

Fruit quality

We pride ourselves on the quality of our fruit! We do our best to pick the fruit a little under ripe (summer fruits) so that it will ripen on your counters, and to have minimal bruises or damage to the fruit during delivery. However, it’s impossible for every piece of fruit to arrive in perfect condition each time.

As a member of our CSA, we want you to experience the best fruit and be happy with the quality. However, we do want to clarify that this is fruit that gets picked directly off our trees, packed in a box, driven over to Seattle, and then delivered to you – so there can always be some small bruises or knicks! If you are expecting every piece of fruit to be totally perfect with a wax coating (we do not wax our fruit), then you will not enjoy our CSA and we would suggest you do not sign up.

We are willing to work with you know and will always replace fruit that does not meet your standards. While we instruct our employees to inspect fruit a they are packing them into your CSA boxes, we know we miss some things every now and then. Should you ever receive fruit that is overly bruised, has open cuts, or has any mold or grows mold very quickly, please notify us immediately! We will either credit you for the cost of the fruit in the form of a store credit, farmers market gift card, or we will send a replacement box if bandwidth allows.

We also ask that you notify us immediately when you receive bad fruit. Nothing breaks our hearts more than for someone to reach out mid season to tell us they have been receiving bad fruit all summer long and want to cancel their membership. Please, if you receive bad or damaged fruit in your box, e-mail us! It’s also helpful to us if you send along a photo so we can problem solve what happened and notify our orchard team in case it might be an issue with the fruit.

Please follow the CSA Manager's instructions in the weekly emails for care for your fruit in order to maintain the best flavor and freshness. 

Communication

CSA members receive weekly email reminders about their delivery and information regarding their participation in our CSA program. Please read our emails as soon as you see them. Please add csa@collinsfamilyorchards.com to your address book to protect our communications from spam filters.

Our preferred method of communication with CSA members is through e-mail at csa@collinsfamilyorchards.com. This helps us maintain a record of our communication so that if we ever need to reference it again, we have it logged in our e-mail.

You may text us during business hours, which are 8am - 2pm Monday - Thursday during the Summer season. (Please note, we are a small team and are not always by the phone. Emailing is the best communication avenue for us.) On delivery days for questions about your box, please contact your host. If you need to follow up with the CSA manager, please contact them via e-mail. If we do not answer our phone or text message, please follow up via email. We will get back to you as soon as we can.

Also, please keep in mind that we are a small farm. There is only one person that answers our e-mails and phone for all of our business work. While we do our best to offer exceptional customer service, response times may be slower than we wish. We will get back to you as soon as we can!

Changes to your account or canceling your MEMBERSHIP

You are welcome to change your box size at any point during the season if you realize a smaller or larger box would better fit your needs, or if you need to upgrade to more fruit!

If you move or need to change pick-up site location for any other reason, please let the CSA manager know via email no later 8 PM Saturday prior to the change needing to be made. Please contact the CSA manager if you need to cancel your account. If an account is cancelled, we will refund you any payments made for CSA boxes not yet received. While we hope you will not need to cancel your account, we allow cancellations for a refund if you are moving, are no longer financially able to afford the CSA, or if you are unhappy with your experience.