Sportcraft Garden Collection Croquet Set

The material was of high quality and the set seemed very sturdy and well made.

I ordered this croquet set through Joe's Sports web site. The assembly instructions were garbled and incomplete. The wood pieces, including the mallet heads were cracked and then patched or drilled in the wrong places and then patched. The balls were easily dentable, contained large cracks, and were totally unacceptable. For the price, there was no excuse for such low quality. Like one of the other reviewers, we were also told by Sportcraft that our brand new set was an "old" model for which they carried no replacement parts.

The box arrived looking like it had been through the mail more than once. The plastic bag holding the balls had already been torn open, and one of the balls had a 2 inch long split in it. I got the impression that someone else had already returned it, and Fogdog turned around and sent it to me hoping I would accept it as is.

Fogdog won't make exchanges. They only take returns and give refunds. I would have to wait a full billing cycle to get credit, and then take my chances all over again hoping for a good set.

Sportcraft, after first leaving me on hold for 42 minutes waiting for a customer service rep to pick up (I finally gave up), and then again for 10 minutes before I gave up and emailed them, finally returned my email five days later. I was told that they don't have replacement parts... for this brand new set!

This review is for Sportcraft's poor customer service, and for Fogdog's "no exchange" policy and apparent attempt to give me a previously returned and obviously blemished set.

The package arrived in good shape, but with minor flaws. One piece of wood from which the cart was to be assembled had a knot with a split around it. Another piece split when the screw was inserted into the pre-drilled hole. The plastic stripes on two of the balls fell off before they were ever used. On the other hand, the mallets and balls are solidly made, and the wickets are much more sturdy than those in our previous set.