"I worked with this company selling…"

I worked with this company selling lumber. Basically they are just middle men between you and the mill and its a rip off. Call the mill directly you don't need these guys. I have sent them multiple invoices for work done and they have not paid. Owners are fighting and suing each other not sure how much longer they will be in business.

"Severe siding defects, no refunds or replacements"

Order received on Friday, January 6, 2023.
Received a significant percentage of unusable lumber that is supposed to be near clear - exterior grade use.
Contacted the customer service immediately. No commitments to replace or refund anything is provided.
Monday, January 9, I have successfully sorted out bad siding (details below)

ordered near clear, primed, smooth-finished 1x12 siding - $15.99/SQFT - Final Tally: 47/10', 36/12', 8/14'.

- received defective boards: out of 91 boards, 46 cannot be used for plain wall siding.
- out of 46 defective boards, about 20-26 boards can be salvaged for short length 2-4ft around windows (near clear areas) (about 20% of the siding order);
- the rest 20 (about 20% of the siding order) boards are defective throughout the full length and cannot be used for anything on the project;

ordered near clear 2x4 primed for exterior trim (smooth) $5.89/LFT - Final Tally: 32/10'.

- 7 pieces cannot be used for exterior trim at all due to various defects on at least two sides (20% of the order)
- an unknown number of pieces is warped and won't probably be used for exterior trim;
- the rest is pending evaluation (one side can be coarse but other is smooth, probably usable)


Ordered near clear 2x6 primed for exterior trim (smooth) $9.59/LFT - Final Tally: 32/10'.

- 6 pieces cannot be used for exterior trim at all due to various defects on at least two sides (17% of the order);
- an unknown number of pieces is warped and won't probably be used for exterior trim;
- the rest is pending evaluation (one side can be coarse but other is smooth, probably usable).

Defects include the following coarse milling, non smooth jagged surface, deep cracks, long continuous cracks, complete splits, missing overlap (lap siding), warping, knot holes, dings and gashes.

When we received the wood, we noticed a significant amount of moisture between the boards.

Communicating the details and pictures to the customer service representative did not result in any concessions from the Buffalo Lumber.
I have not received a commitment to replace / refund a single linear foot of wood.
The customer service representative, Joel Cochran, did not directly refuse a refund, but also did not provide any commitment to replace anything. I was receiving statements like "we’ll work to address any issues that may arise beyond normal use."

I was informed that unless face checking makes them structurally unsound, they need to be used as a standard board. However, the order was placed for very expensive near clear cedar siding which was supposed to be clear of major defects (minor knots or small shallow crack). We're talking about $150+ per siding board and $100+ per 2x6 board. I have received at least 20% of fully unusable siding boards, another 20% are mostly defective but 2-4ft linear increments of near clear surface without major cracks can be salvaged.

It seemed that the cracks on the boards appeared due to excessive exposure to moisture prior to shipping from the lumber yard. I was informed that the wood was stored outside so it let me to make a prediction that the protective film the wood was wrapped was not sufficient to withstand some rain and vapor transfusion.

The pictures attached show some of the defects marked while sorting the defective boards. Plenty of pictures and videos are used to document the defects.

After this review, I was able to get a refund of $3517.92 for 240 LFT of siding (from $24,154.16 original order). The final waste was over 50% of the order which is equivalent of $12077.08. I accepted this refund as I decided to let this go and not to fight it in court. The remaining usable boards are used on the side of the house primarily and short cuts around windows, repaired where possible. In the end, I was able to get a lot higher quality siding to replace all the waste from another mill, although it was not primed and I had to prime it myself. It costed me an extra 10K in just materials. I used the new wood for the front of the house and buffalo lumber for side ally. Even with this partial refund, I believe it is still unfair customer treatment and a low quality product compared to other options available on account of the fact that over 50% was complete waste ($12077.08), the rest was low quality compared to other suppliers and used only for short cuts around windows and garage side of the house that is not front facing.

It is a still a very low quality product compared to what I got elsewhere.