PlantFiles vendor plant availability question.

I'm finding that in the PlantFiles where a vendor has listed that they sell a particular plant, this is frequently not the case.

For example, I was looking for an Pachyphytum (any, actually.) In the Plantfiles listing for Pachyphytum amethystinum http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/64981/index.html it says that one vendor has this plant for sale. When I click on it, it takes me to the vendor listing, but when I search that vendor, they don't have it (or any Pachyphytum, for that matter.)

It's not a huge issue, independantly, but I'm seeing this a lot. Should I report this as an error?

I had this problem too. Maybe the companies need to keep us updated on the availability of plants? Or would that be too much work? I'm not sure how these things get put together.

Not to try to shirk our duty, but this is really an issue that needs to be taken up with the specific vendor. Case in point, we recently (last month) updated Avant's PlantScout entry with their current inventory. If their offerings have changed again, it is up to them to provide us with an updated list or to access their PlantScout information and update it themselves. As we explain to the vendors, we make it as easy as possible for companies to keep their listing updated - at any point, they can:

1) tweak their listing (disable/enable or permanently delete/add items) online, real time (this works well for minor changes);

2) download their current list into a spreadsheet, make the adjustments and give it back to us (we typically upload their new list the same day they send it to us); or

3) send us a new/updated spreadsheet, which we'll upload and fix any broken links to PlantFiles.

We will be prompting companies to keep their lists updated, but feedback from customers about specific items will probably urge them far more effectively than a periodic reminder from us.

Okay, I was just wondering. I was seeing it a lot, so thought I would ask. I'll just notify the vendor.

It's a good question, and I'm guessing a lot of people will silently thank you for raising it ;o)

To give you a fuller answer, we waited a long time to take a stab at this feature. We saw others try and fail, and found a lot of broken-down, abandoned attempts on other sites, which made it doubly scary to think we could do it successfully. But we spent time analyzing what went wrong with those models, and tried to learn from their mistakes.

To try to avoid the "one-time data dump" mindset with vendors, we send each company a weekly email report of click-throughs so they can see how many potential customers accessed their website after finding an item they offer. We also give them a forum where they can discuss PlantScout with each other and us, compare notes on marketing/advertising tactics, give each other tips on their websites, etc.

But to reiterate, I think the best encouragement will come directly from customer inquiries ;o)

Thanks Terry

Yes, thank you, Terry

It really is a wonderful feature. I keep a "wish list" of plants in my trade list and plan on using that to order from the vendors who advertise on this site. When all the links work correctly, it's really easy to see what I want and where I can get it.