Image: Michael Macor
Mike Ozanian, Forbes, December 4, 2016
A report published today claims FieldTurf, the leading maker and supplier of artificial turf sports fields, essentially knew for many years they were selling a defective product.
According the report by By Christopher Baxter and Matthew Stanmyre for NJ Advance Media, FieldTurf and its executives :
• They knew. For most of the time they sold the fields, at $300,000 to $500,000 each, executives were aware the turf was deteriorating faster than expected and might not last a decade or more as promised.
• They misled. Despite candid, internal email discussions about their overblown sales pitches, executives never changed their marketing campaign for Duraspine fields.
• They tried to cover up. A lawyer warned that some of those internal emails could be damaging in a lawsuit, and an executive sought to delete them. An IT consultant refused, calling it a “possible crime.”
• They kept quiet. From the time fields began to fail in 2006 until today, executives have never told most customers about Duraspine’s problems or how to identify signs it was prematurely falling apart.
• They stonewalled. Some customers who did report problems said FieldTurf officials slow-footed warranty claims and told them the deterioration was normal, or that their fields needed more maintenance.