I must pay attention to Garden Watchdog

I still have 20 plants to unwrap from http://www.garys-out-of-africa.com/
Each plant is perfectly wrapped and some even are blooming or have stolens on the Episcias
The streps are goregous as well.
For 118.00 I have 35 magnificent plants.

The next picture is my order of coleus and begonias from a vendor with a low rating....I had not ordered from them in 15 years, so I didn't believe Watchdog................when I opened the box I sat in the floor and almost cried for wasting 165.00 plus there were no freebies as promised if I agreed to substitutions..............AND I have credit now with the company for 9.00 as they didn't even have one that I ordered!!! They just sent me the worst plants I have ever recieved.

Here is the good vendor!!!!!

sadly enough, here is the low rated vendor of these plants!!! Have you ever seen anything this pathetic?????????? The little one is not even rooted and check out the tall begonia stems and coleus stems............do ya think they are going to ever make pretty plants without me taking cuttings and doing the work that I paid them to do!!!!

Be sure to leave feedback for each vendor. Just as past comments help ed you, your new comments will help others now and into the future ;o)

This wouldn't be so funny but people tried to warn me and I didn't listen!!!!! I hate to bad mouth this vendor but I am so angry at the loss of plants and money, I am going to!!!!
Thanks, Terry...

gessiegail,

Looks like all you got from the lousy vendor is what I call 'genetic material'. You will have to do them over by re-rooting and growing your own plants from cuttings unfortunately. A whole lot of money for THAT. I can't tell you how many times I have received pure junk from plant sellers both so called professionals and ebay sellers. I sort of expect it now from ebay and rarely buy plants I much prefer just ordering leaves, rhizomes, cuttings, etc. and growing my own. There are some vendors you can count on like Gary, Lyndon Lyons, to name a couple. Sorry Gail for your expensive junkpile. I DO know the feeling and sympathize.

Snowrose, I'll offer you the same advice I gave gessiegail: please share what you know about vendors in the Watchdog.

Praising or grousing about vendors in a forum thread migt be helpful to a few people following this thread, or a few others who *might* stumble over it later, when it's dropped off the front page and is buried in the millions of posts we have here.

But posting the same feedback in the Watchdog (and don't forget to rate your local sources in Go Gardening, too!) will help out a lot more would-be customers know who's great, and who's not-so-great ;o)

It is so time consuming to take cuttings and start all over, but you are right....that is exactly what I will be doing!!!!
I was hoping for some Kohlerias from Gary instead of 10 more streps, but I can't complain as that is what I originally ordered.......didn't change my mind until too late.
He grows fabulous plants.....
I still need some more named cultivars of Avs......I ordered from Bluebird and they were healthy good plants, but they didn't have a big variety. Besides Lyndon Lyons, who do you know that sells a good variety of named minis, etc??
Thanks, Snowrose,
gail

edited to say I had forgotten all about local growers as people travel and will visit these local vendors.....will do that!!!

This message was edited May 11, 2007 12:02 PM

Just remember to post your mail order experiences in the Watchdog and your in-store purchases or visits in Go Gardening ;o)

gessie, have you contacted the company? I stumbled onto this post and I noticed the tag. I just ordered from them and was very, VERY pleased with what I received. I recommend everyone try to work it out with a vendor before posting negative feedback. This is my newfound philosophy, and I have had very successful resolution to issues. Just my two cents worth.

Tropicanna, I defended this company for 2 months on the coleus thread !!!!!! I do not have the time and energy to fight with a vendor................when any company sends out plants this bad, I no longer have any sympathy for them. I worked in a greenhouse in a management position. Our only labor was comprised of young adults with many limitations in a residential setting. We grossed waaaay over a million dollars a year doing it the right way!!!! We only had an actual staff of 6 employed people. I was in charge of ordering tropicals from this company and they did a great job back in '89. That is why I ordered from them again.
If I personally can grow better than the company at age 65, please don't ask me to defend this company in any way.....I wouldn't GIVE this plant material to a friend for free as I would be embarrassed.
gail
I won't post on a thread about this anymore....I posted it on Garden Watchdog....

ok gessie, I don't want you to think I did my review after yours because of this thread, I got my plants yesterday and knew I was going to do the review today. Just wanted to make one final comment that I've had bad experiences with companies with awesome feedback, and had to resolve those issues as well. Feedback is not always indicative of the experience YOU, personally will have, but what others have had.

It might not be bad to do a test run-only order small orders from companies you have no history with to test the waters.

Really, though, call the company. That's a lot of money, and both you and the company are aware of that. They would probably like to still have your business:)

Oh yeah, now I see the label. I quite agree with all the negs they have received. There would have been more if I had been a member of DG at the time of receiving my share from them.

I think it is wise to do as Terry said and post your experience either positive or negative. Most people shy away from posting negatives. I know I never have but usually just chalk it up and never order again. You know, live and learn.

I have a public apology to make to GlassHouseWorks and to everyone else watching!!!! The owner called me and offered to do anything to make things right. I was grumpy when I wrote my scathing review of them. Now I will go to Garden Watchdog and replace my very critical review.
sorry
gail

Hmmm. That's not the first time we've caught wind of this vendor offering to do "anything" in order to get a negative rating changed...

I know that it is hard for me when someone is bending over backwards to make things right.....it should be right the first time!!!!! If a company can do it right the second go round, then do it right the first time without any discussion.
As I said, he was extremely nice, but I won't be ordering again even though I did appreciate his attempt to ' make right'.

Gail,
Beautiful episcia. Bummer about the others. I too would give the company at least one chance to make it right.

My beef's with Beslisle's. I pre-ordered 15 episcias and about 30 av leaves back in late Dec. -early Jan. for spring delivery. They contacted me back that they had all of the ones I requested. Said I didn't need to give them cc info until they were ready to start shipping again in April. I've contacted them twice since the beginning of April and they haven't so much as emailed to say they were busy..on the pot....nothing so I may just take my business to Out of African.

Please tell me ebay's not getting a bad rap. I'm seriously considering mail ordering my perennial thru them next year.

P

I wouldn't order on ebay without personally knowing other people who have used a site....

I have rec'd a lot of AV from sellers on eBay and have had very good luck. I did look at the feedback first as well as how long they had been selling.