At 12-feet tall, Skelly’s formidable stature looms over lawns across America. But even he isn’t a match for the Trump administration’s ongoing trade war. 

The abnormally large skeleton and other Home Depot decorations have delighted Halloween aficionados for years. These products are made by Seasonal Visions International, a U.S. based company that works with suppliers from countries like China, Vietnam, South Korea and Mexico.

However, customers who encounter defective or missing parts for SVI products have to pay for any replacements they need this year — parts that would have previously been shipped to them for free. 

SVI emailed customers back in June letting them know that they would have to alter their customer service policies thanks to rising tariffs and “their impact on the global supply chain.” 

The Trump administration has imposed tariffs on countries around the world, ranging between 10% and 50%

Karyn Skiles Andersen, a Texas resident who hosts an annual Halloween haunt, said she’s encountered numerous defects with the SVI-decorations she purchased this year. One of them includes an animatronic known as the Fear Valley Wolf.

“His head did not work, it didn't light up, it didn't move, etc. So we actually just returned it, since we couldn't get a replacement part,” Andersen said. 

But she was most upset by the issues she encountered with the Wyvern, an animatronic mythical dragon. “I was so excited about this thing, I bought six of them,” she said. 

She encountered numerous defects with these products — some haven’t been lighting up or moving properly. She returned half, and opted to buy replacement parts for the remaining Wyverns she kept. In total, she’s spent about $300 on those parts. 

SVI not only stopped sending free replacements, but it also shut down its phone and email support system and reduced the amount of parts they have available in their inventory for purchase, according to a separate announcement on the company’s website. 

Andersen said that the lack of customer service means she doesn’t even know if she bought the right parts. 

“You're forced to try and trouble shoot yourself as a basic consumer, and hope that the part you're ordering is what you need,” she said. 

Thomas Schick, a Home Depot customer who’s purchased SVI-made products, praised the company’s attentive and expedient service in the past. 

“Their customer service used to be amazing. They would send you whatever you needed, sometimes no questions asked. They were very pleasant to deal with … and extremely fast with getting parts out,” Schick said. 

Marketplace reached out to SVI for comment but did not get a response by publication time. But Home Depot did respond when contacted, telling us that the company “is committed to providing an excellent customer experience.”

“We are working with our supplier partners to ensure customers are given options to resolve any issues they may have,” the Home Depot representative continued. 

Even without tariffs, it’s always tricky to plan for short-selling seasons like Halloween, said Julie Niederhoff, an associate professor of supply chain management at Syracuse University. 

Companies that sell seasonal products usually don’t have the time to see how products are performing and obtain more, she explained.  

“They kind of have to make a one-shot gamble on what's going to sell and what's not,” she said. 

Companies don’t want to be holding onto spare parts they don’t need, especially as the costs of procuring them go up, she explained. 

“Items like replacement parts or repair parts are notoriously difficult to forecast. The overall demand is low and the variation around it is high,” she said. 

The added cost pressures of tariffs and shipping costs means that a company like SVI likely reduced their orders of repair or replacement parts, she explained. 

And the Trump administration’s constant changes to tariff policies earlier this year likely didn’t help either. 

“The reduced product availability is likely compounded by the uncertainty that came with fluctuating tariff costs when they were making these decisions over the summer and into the early spring,” Niederhoff said.

But relief may be coming for companies that import products abroad. Trade tensions have de-escalated recently as the U.S. has struck trade deals with China, Japan and South Korea that would entail lowering tariff rates on imports from these countries. 

In the meantime, the issues Karyn Skiles Andersen has faced this year aren’t going to ruin spooky season. 

“I think we’re still gonna have a good Halloween. My husband and I do an extremely over-the-top Halloween set-up for the community. It's a full walk-through experience, we don’t charge the community,” she said. “I'm just real disappointed because the Wyvern was my star this year.”