Comments regarding rarepalmseeds.com

I have received my seeds from them after a month of placing an order. Customer Service was good in guiding me, how to apply for USDA permit.

I ordered 10 commiphora myrrha seeds from them, 10 seeds of wormwood absynthum and 10 seeds if myrtle communis (2 later, only because commiphora myrrha order was not large enough). None have germinated. I am growing wormwood absynthum, planted just week before (from strictlymedicinal), I found later commiphora myrrha seeds from sacred garden in ebay (out of 8 seeds, 4 germinated). Nothing, so far from rarepalmseeds. So, I am still hopeful, but not optimistic.

I bought from them the first time: Welwitschia mirabilis and Larryleachia cactiformis. Both species were on my wishlist for a long time. And I couldn't be happier: in less than a week 4/5 Welwitschia and 3/10 Larryleachia have germinated so far! The rest of the seeds also look promising, and also I never expect 100% germination, that is just not too realistic.
The price of the seeds for these 2 species were reasonable (they are indeed rare).
Processing and shipping time was fast (about 2 weeks).

OUTRAGEOUSLY HIGH PRICES FOR SEEDS THAT DO NOT GERMINATE.
In the past I had good germination rates from their seeds, but in the last years the prices have become exorbitant and the seeds are not fresh, so they do not germinate. I am so sorry that this company ended up like this.

I can’t express enough what a horrible experience I’ve had with this company this year and their customer service is beyond lacking. I would especially advise anyone located in the US not order from them. Let me explain why- I placed an order in February of 2022 for 3 packs of the same type of seed. It wound up getting confiscated even though it was not on any banned list and I received an empty envelope. I was charged 12 euros for shipping which was reasonable. So I emailed the company asking if I could pay to have it resent with the proper paperwork. I email and email. I receive a response over 8 months later. Now at this point I have obtained an APHIS permit and shipping labels for the seeds which I tell them. They would have everything they need to send the order and it not get confiscated. The customer service tells me they will resend the order only if I place another order. Fine. So I go to place another order for 7 packs of seeds and go to check out. The only shipping option now is for 86 euros! My goodness! It’s a tiny envelope and Chiltern is mailing me the same size package for 10 pounds or about 12 dollars including adding all my paperwork to the order! I email customer service and she’s now given me 3 different reasons for the ridiculous shipping amount. First- fuel costs. Ok, from February until November fuel cost to mail a small envelope from Germany went from 12 to 86 euros? I think not. Then she says they need to do some paperwork that costs 35 dollars. No. False. All they need to do is include my small lots seed permit and shipping labels I already emailed them. Then she made up another reason. To say I’m annoyed is an understatement. I ask how much it would be just to resend the original order and she just out and out refused saying they would not do it without me buying more stuff. I’m not a cheap person. I just spent 46 dollars to have a plant mailed priority from Hungary with the required but I just cannot justify spending 86 euros to mail a small envelope. Plus it states clearly on their website that it can take 2 weeks for them even to dispatch an order. So paying for priority shipping after that. I don’t think so. My original order total for the 3 packs of seeds was 57 dollars which I would have repaid but this company is just horrible with customer service. Just a bad, bad experience overall. Steer clear!

Website states that orders will be ready for shipping in 4-12 working days. Order still not shipped over a month later. That doesn't work for me.

Posted on April 14, 2022, updated May 18, 2022
Posted on April 12, 2022, updated April 14, 2022
Still not shipped one month after order and import permit provided. No indication on the website that shipping takes so long. They indicate it will take one week to process. I now risk not getting them in time to bring to Florida with me

Seeds ordered ($65.00 US) in November. Envelope received the next April. Seeds confiscated. Emailed at least 2 times. No response. Just kept the money. Seeds probably cost rare palm seeds very little. That is a lot of money to me.
Notice to people in the US, I would not order from this company again. The company is probably on a list to confiscate seeds in the US.

Maybe they will begin to care about customer service if no one orders seeds anymore. Might as well be a scam.

RPS has only one thing going for it: they have lots of very rare material that is virtually unobtainable elsewhere.

My first order with RPS in May 2020 was filled in a reasonable amount of time considering shipping from Germany to the USA. Germination rates on most of the material I purchased was decent to great with the exception of the cactus and bromeliad seeds I ordered from them, which generally yielded very poor rates.

My second order with RPS in April 2021 totaling over $1,000 USD still hasn't arrived (as of July!), nor have I been able to resolve the issue with them. I think my latest email to them explaining my grievances (still not returned a full week later) tells you all you need to know:

"It has now been 12 weeks since I placed my order totalling over $1,000 USD with you and I still don't know if or when my order will ship or if I can even receive a refund for the order. This will be my 7th time emailing you to try to resolve this issue, and only two of my prior six emails were even answered. The last email I sent two and a half weeks ago still has not been replied to. To say that I am unhappy with the service I have been provided thus far is a gross understatement. Please tell me what is going on with my order. If you can't send it because you can't secure a phytosanitary certificate for the order, then perhaps you had just refund the order then like I had requested, yeah?"

As many others have stated, customer service is basically nonexistent here. I think they are trying to run an honest business, but it is nonetheless frustrating as a commercial grower and small business owner that my business investment of over $1,000 is languishing due to inept allocation of resources to customer service and communication.

Status of RarePalmSeeds service as of June 14, 2021.

My only attempt to order from them, begun in February (four months ago) to secure $300 worth of cycad seeds, has ended it seems in failure.

I obtained the necessary import certificate from the USDA and after providing it to them I received no response for a couple of months, despite repeated inquiries by email.

They finally shipped the order last week, and it was refused by the USDA as my permit had expired.

I am currently inquiring for either a full refund, or a commitment to reship immediately if I get a new import permit with a guarantee that the seeds will still be viable (cycad seeds have very short periods of viability).

Extremely slow service and poor communication still appear to be par for the course with this outfit.

Posted on April 8, 2021, updated April 8, 2021
Posted on March 18, 2020, updated April 8, 2021
Posted on March 11, 2020, updated March 18, 2020
Posted on December 21, 2019, updated March 11, 2020
Posted on December 21, 2019, updated December 21, 2019
Posted on August 13, 2018, updated December 21, 2019
Posted on June 4, 2017, updated August 13, 2018
Posted on May 20, 2017, updated June 4, 2017
I am a hobbyist (plant collector), not a reseller or wholesaler. I live in the E.U. (Azores like Madeira is a climate to grow many tropical species) so I don't need any certificates. My order for 60 seeds (3 varieties of tropical palms x 20 seeds each for success of germination of at least 1 or 2 seeds, of course with much better germination rate expected, thus fresh seeds requested) was placed online on 21-APR-2017.

Our summers are not hot, so I need to have seeds by mid May as the least, so I can store them in a tiny greenhouse for up to 3 month germination, so I hoped that almost one month is enough to receive these regular, seemingly readily available seeds.

My last order with RPS was a year ago for Bismarckia nobilis (60 seeds) out of which 3 seeds germinated totalling in a 5% germination rate. Bismarckia usually germinated 50% to 75% from my past experiences, without any problems and grows very fast. That was an expensive experience as the seeds are expensive cost me about 1€ each or more. Yet I decided with no other source in sight I will take a chance and order more seeds from Tobias W. Spanner - Rarepalmseeds.com this year.

I waited patiently thinking my seeds are on the way.

On 8-MAY-2017 I emailed them, and on 9-MAY-2017 I received an email:

"thank you very much for your mail. Unfortunately there was a delay in processing your order. The seeds will be shipped this week so they should arrive in a few days time. Sorry for the delay ..."

On 16-MAY-2017, almost a MONTH after I placed an order I receive an email noting that they are unable to charge my card. OK, so I assume they took almost a month to get me FRESH seeds as I requested. And the seeds were not shipped "this week". Yet they did not comment on the freshness on the seeds. I checked my card and I think it is my fault, because the card may be only good for my country, and not for the entire EU or the world.

On 16-MAY-2017 (4 days ago) I immediately within an hour sent them a bank wire from my computer and emailed them confirmations and even a PDF with proof of my bank wire and asked them to mail my seeds ASAP as I don't want to be late for germination. The bank noted that the wired money will be received the next day.

I emailed them to all possible working email adresses and of course to service@rarepalmseeds.com. My software confirmed delivery and receipt of those emails pon their end. NO RESPONSE so far or confirmation of my shipped order. I don't want to lose entire year because of this, I hope they already mailed my seeds.

Despite that their site FAQ or Q&A notes that for small packets they accept only credit cards, and despite I offered them to pay with a different credit card, with no response to that email, I read their email states:

"Alternatively you can pay for the order by transferring the total in the order confirmation below to our account"

Therefore I quickly sent them a bank wire transfer (€32) without hesitation as I need the seeds here ASAP.

Again, I am a repeat customer and I have purchased from them before with mixed results: one time wrong species germinated (Washingtonia robusta seeds germinated as W. filifera), in another case as per above a 5% germination of seeds that usually germinate for me at least with a 50% rate and another case, I think in 2015 some of the very tropical seeds arrived already germinating as noted, which was a pleasant surprise that year, although the seeds did not make to grow, probably because my climate is not tropical enough.

So, I hope that they already mailed my seeds and they just neglectful to their (repeat) customers. Yet a brief message "Your seeds have been mailed on ...." would suffice. No proper communication earns them NEGATIVE feedback, so far.

If they keep my money (as the other reviewer noted) and never ship my seeds I will have to post this information in many other locations on the internet. It is too painful to lose entire year for germination because of some LOUSY "service" that can't communicate fairly with their especially with repeat customers.

REMARK: I may update this to Neutral or even Positive depending on the outcome of my order.

Same as the guys before me I am experiencing a large delay after I have completed a payment for my order of the seeds and absolutely no communication. I have ordered from them several years ago and none of the seeds have ever germinated under the perfect germination conditions and techniques, thus I have decided to never return to the RPS website. Yet this year I wanted to give them another chance and yet another disappointment. I see that nothing has changed at the RPS even if they now have got themselves a new website. I don't see any rebuttals posted by the RPS neither. This time I will keep my word and will never buy from RPS ever again.

I never received my seeds and did not receive replies to my emails. This was in 2019. Maybe the situation has improved now.

(Last week I checked prices and see that if I were to order 50 euros worth of seeds I'd pay a minimum of 80 euros in shipping (why? other sellers charge around 10 euros) plus the phyto cert of 45 euros.)

Posted on February 5, 2021, updated February 5, 2021
Posted on February 1, 2021, updated February 5, 2021
Emailed them several times and after 90 days they responded that they had sent the seeds that day without tracking and had not included the phyto. cert. which I both paied for, they did not give a refund. still after 180 days the seeds have not arrived and no evidence have been given that seeds ever where sent. no notification from customs. Asked for a refund but only excusses from them came back, will talk to the bank.

I suspect rarepalmseeds.com are opperating a systematic fraud.

I ordered from rarepalmseeds.com on October 31, 2020. It is now December 28, 2020 and still nothing. My order was to have been received by December 1, 2020. I received an email with a tracking number that does not actually track anything and the only information provided is the package is in pre shipping (whatever that means). I ordered items from Australia, paid a lower shipping rate and received them in two weeks. Australia is substantially farther away from where I live. I sent numerous emails through all known email addresses and received no response. I waited until today to dispute the charge on my credit card and I only did so after sending an email and a message through the website stating that if I didn’t get a response and a tracking number that actually tracked something, I would dispute the charge today. I read a lot of reviews that said customer service was non-existent, I should have listened. There was no indication that rare palm seeds.com was a scam, only that it’s customer service skills were sketchy at best. Fortunately, my credit card company already refunded me the charges, but now I do not have my seeds. I truly wish there was a mail order house in North America that sold a variety of hard to find seeds.

Posted on April 1, 2020, updated September 6, 2020
I have ordered 5 different Items from RPS destination Thailand.
Aware that it might take a long time, the parcel was arriving within 5 weeks standard mail.
Not longer than any other stuff I bought recently.

The germination rate was like I expected.
Some seeds didn't make it as they were too long on transit and others my wife and I screwed up by over-watering and wrong USDA Zone.
But if we order seeds we are looking up the needs of them and there are seeds that cannot be stored longer than a week outside cool storage,
others you have to eat the fruit and spit them seeds into the soil.
So people like to blame the supplier.
We simply took the risk and gambled our luck.

Sure is, the ones we have been aware that they can handle a long storage period were also germinating to 100%.

Too many hobbyists ordering with a half knowledge and blaming the supplier.

We just ordered again and we will order again at rarepalmseeds and we will gamble again.
Just one seed that succeeds even it is not supposed to can make you standing off the crowd within your collectors.

I travel worldwide and wherever I find some specimen I'll get seeds when traveling home.
Is the same situation 80 are dead when I am arriving home.
Its the nature not the service.

I ordered seeds from Rarepalmseeds about two months ago. I received my order envelope in the mail only to open it and see there was a document from customs department that my seeds were confiscated and destroyed. I reached out to the owner of rare palm seeds several times however I do not get any replies. I guess it is a 50/50 chance you will get your seeds if you live in the USA. I will not be ordering from them again . 50.00 loss and lessoned learned

I was a bit nervous to buy from them because of the comments about infertile seeds etc.
But I did receive the seeds I ordered and I sowed them right away. (Thaumatococcus daniellii)
It took 3 months but then 1 of 5 seeds sprouted. So the seeds are ok, it's just a matter of patience.
In general, seeds can even take years to germinate if not stratified.

I bought wholesale seeds from them but I didn't get any seed they didn't reply on any email I have sent to them It is a fake website that's why they didn't have PayPal option to pay because they know that paybal can stop transfer money to them if the buyer complained

Posted on March 8, 2019, updated March 8, 2019
Posted on March 8, 2019, updated March 8, 2019
I (we) have contacted Rare Palm seeds several times, re: POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE, incorrect number of seeds, but been charged for them at full price, prices of seeds going up within seconds, incorrect quantity for example you put one in the box, and suddenly it was changed numerous times to higher quantities, supposed to receive a credit note/refund for £20.00, as the seeds we ordered were in stock then, they were out of stock, and I notified them straight away, and they have pretended to pay it back, but they haven't, they have continued to lie about this, they have paid it to someone else and not back to me, this is still going on, and trying to sort it out, they are being really awkward, they NEVER replied back to any correspondence, or people's emails. I have only just received responses recently.
We have ordered thousands of pounds from them for many years, from when they first started.
They don't care about their customers or communicating with them, all they want is money from people, and certainly themselves.
There has been many times when the seeds have arrived, they are very old seeds, and not very good germination.
Tobias W spanner reckons that they are a good company, and very positive, huh what a joke, they are not this at all, he also reckons that any comments or complaints that people make are hearsay, where it is isn't, and people have to suffer bad experience from this company RARE PALM SEEDS, instead of these people resolving the issues or problems, they just ignore people, and be rude to them, I have receive lots of rudeness, sarcasm, patronised, and disrespectful, disgusting and dispicable manners from TOBIAS W SPANNER from Rare Palm Seeds, and I have just read my email today, and he said I should medical help, because I have sent them numerous correspondence to try and sort out these problems because of them, this appalling for him to treat me this way, and he and Rare Palm Seeds employees have done this and upset alot of people, I don't think these people would like to be treated in this disrespectful way, he pretends that he is a nice person but he isn't, he is very RUDE, ILL MANNERED, IMPOLITE......
They should be closed down, cease trading, as they don't care about people or customers at all, like I mentioned before all they want is people's money, and themselves.
They should be named and shamed for the disgusting way that they treat people. I am already in the process of contacting the media, and I will make sure this gets mentioned local, national and international, social media, everyone I know and other organisations too, which would love to hear about this, especially in Horticulture Industry,as it's not nice what this company is doing to people, I care more about people of what they are going through and what they have suffered from RARE PALM SEEDS than they do.
I hope everyone is Ok, and please don't give up re: this company, fight them all the way to receive a positive outcome, it's not very nice that you have to suffer lots of stress and inconvenience because of them.

Never got around to rating this company the first 2 times I made an order there. And to rate the whole experience altogether, it would start off as positive, fall down to neutral and finally, this last order pushes it way into the negative zone.

It seems placing an order doesn't actually accomplish anything, seeing as nothing has been shipped for half a month now and nobody is answering the inquiries. Obviously the customer has to rely on wether somebody is just going turn up and perhaps ship your seeds sometime in the future, while also charging your card regardless of when you placed your order.

Regarding what was actually done on the previous orders, the seeds were generally fine, although a batch or two were clearly not viable, though were shipped nonetheless. The shipping company for regular shipping was just horrid. While specifically stated that temperatures might get low, they were bounced all across Europe, spent a night in Finland and after passing the destination country twice, finally found their way.

Overall, I had high hopes for this company and was looking to add it to my regulars list, but the bad service is a strong enough deterrent, I just hope I'm not going to be charged for the unfulfilled order after buying the needed seeds somewhere else.

I order small packet seeds on October 18. I wait to receive my order. I send Email ask my order status many many time because I didn't receive anything from this shop. My shipping address is in Germany. Reply Email told shipped my order on October 26 but I didn't receive my order as now. I can't check my order status. I try to send Email many time for ask about this problem but shop not respone anything.

Found a much-wanted species of cactus on their website, but the photo was clearly not of the species indicated. Before ordering, I wanted to clarify if the seeds were the same as the NAME or the PHOTO.

They responded quickly that they put the wrong photo up from that collector, and they even sent me a photo of the species listed that I wanted, confirming that their seeds were indeed the correct species listed.

I ordered immediately, and received my seeds within a couple of weeks in great condition. I haven't sowed them yet but hope to soon.

Also, I notice they now have the CORRECT photo on their website for the species...but, they still have the INCORRECT photo also! Hopefully, they will remove the incorrect one soon.

I am very new to negative feedback, in the very rare case of a problem I prefer to solve it with the seller.

I have a business myself and I know well that problems may happen.

But after months I have wrote several emails with NO reply, I have had enough!

I buy from them from years now.
Not always the seeds were fresh, some times they were smelling mound, another time they had holes and bugs.
Did not say anything, apart from 1000 annona muricata with also, they sent the replace with the new order.

But this time 1000 seeds arrived crushed, destroyed, in 100000 pieces.
I sent them a email, explained that all was well packed. Arrived well apart from this bag that obviously left already crashed.
Added photos

No reply.
I have waited a long time, sent another: no reply.
And again.

I have then said that the situation was not acceptable, there are rules in commerce, also e-commerce and ignoring the problem was not acceptable.
I have added that I was going to share the experience on the forum and, guess what?
I had a reply, they never got my previous email ( just that one where I was talking about the feedback? Uh-Uh....) and maybe it was the leftover what they sent, I had to wait few days, till Monday, to get the answer, after the check.
Cool, we are going to solve that, I thought....

Wrong!!!!

He did not tell me Monday which year, because possibly it is not any Monday in 2016 as I am waiting after few months, and again my emails appear like do not touch his email box...

What to think?

A good company IS also a good customer care, IS who can solve problem or is in touch with the customer.

My order was, if I remember well, around 300€, what if all the seeds were damaged?

No one can be that busy to ignore a customer, customers are what keep a business alive, together with the quality of a product.

I am very happy to read only positive feedback on their website but it is also possible that the negative ones simply, like my emails, disappear before arriving (!!!??)

Will keep you posted if something happens but they are too busy to read and, even more, to reply.

I have ordered from them many, many times over nearly 10 years. I order the species listed as 'new' and get good germination rates. Other seeds not listed as 'new' can be months or years old. I have gotten 0% to 30% germination rate from them. Also, e-mail response has gotten much better over the years. A long time ago it would take 6 months, now I get a reply in one day.

Posted on December 5, 2014, updated January 23, 2015
Posted on December 5, 2014, updated December 5, 2014
Rarepalmseeds certainly has a huge variety of rarities. For that, I am pretty glad for them. You can find some really rare and critically endangered species.

Trouble is, they don't care about how long they stock up their seeds. So you will end up with half of your species not germinating, because they are probably too old.

If you email them, they will not reply. So again a problem.

But like I say, I always got their seeds, without any problems, within Europe, and always got some species that germinated, some of them pretty rare, so my review is mixed.

Andean Walnut seeds:

I just received these seeds, and I am already regretting my decision to purchase them. The only reason I had the confidence to spend that amount of money, was the fact that in the listing they were marked "new".

I am sorry to say, this may well be my last purchase from Rare Palm Seeds. (And I have been a steady customer for more than ten years).

The seeds which have just arrived are decorated with colored glitter, and were obviously taken from some sort of Christmas decoration. It is now the end of September, some nine months beyond Christmas.

This follows on from several previous instances when seeds received were clearly well past their storage life. It seems Rare Palm Seeds keeps their inventory indefinitely, and have no transparency regarding age or storage conditions. They need to step beyond greed and back into dependability as a source.

My disappointment is profound.

I have searched out a number of studies on storage, germination techniques and cultivation for Juglans neotropica, and will of course, see what happens with these old seeds. Should I have success, I will share the info here.

More orders from this seller.
First, lets say 3 orders were OK, I ordered under "new" cycad seeds. Came nice fresh, heavy seeds, about 70-90 pct sprouting success. I was happy.
But last two orders were just bad, once I have got 12 cycad seeds, where 11 of them were for sure very old and light and floating on water - no way the person who was packaging seeds didnt notice it. These were not noted "new" on the website, so I guess they dont care about old seeds to get rid of and happily selling them on and on. Not only my impression.
When I sent 3 emails about this order, no response at all. Funny was, altough no response to my complaint, few days after I sent new order email to them and right away they sent me email with payment instruction. So no response to problem, but imediate response to another order request.
And last order 20 seeds of cycas, even under "new", they were very light and floating in water - I have suspection they just sell the old seeds as new ones, OK I can be wrong, but since the very same species I ordered year before was very fresh and heavy seeds, year later, same seeds under "new" were light and till yet, none of them germinated yet (still keeping in process).
So, I had strong need to add my comment. Earlier orders were fine, latest bad.

"On Dec 3, 2013 3:57 PM, rarepalmseeds.com responded with:

I am sorry about your problem with this batch of Cycas. Next time you place an order, please make sure to mention this in the "comments" field and we will be happy to replace them."

Posted on June 30, 2013, updated June 30, 2013
3 years ago I ordered several different palm seeds, a very small order and it took some time, but I received it all in good order. Three years later, now, I found out when the palms grew up a little bit that one of the seeds turned out to be something else. Not a big deal as I still have the palm, but I needed this particular seeds for a research to compare to the others, how they germinate, how they grow etc. I do not leave negative feedback, because seeds were received and no problem except the above problem.

Also, a totally different issue: recently I went to their website to leave a feedback about Bismarckia nobilis which is being sold by RealPalmTrees.com as zone 8B palm and it is impossible to grow that particular palm tree in zone 8B nor in 9A and it probably is impossible to grow anywhere else as it dies no matter how perfect conditions are. An extremely hard to transplant palm. So I left appropriate 3 star feedback on germination page at RaePalmSeeds.com about this Bismarckia Palm (sold by another company), but the feedback was not posted at RPS. Only 5 and some 4 star feedbacks are there. Now I question as well whether some of those seed germination comments are honest. So it's not a big deal, but a word of caution.

"On Dec 3, 2013 3:45 PM, rarepalmseeds.com responded with:

Thanks for your comments. I think it would be fair if you elaborated a bit on what you ordered and what came out of the seeds you received and how you determined that is was something else. Palms often look very different when young, compared to a mature plant.

A comment about transplanting success with Bismarckia is obviously misplaced in our germination comments. If you bought the palm at realpalmtrees.com, advertised with incorrect information, perhaps you should comment there?! I would also like to mention that we are in no way affiliated with realpalmtrees.com."

Posted on June 4, 2013, updated June 10, 2013
Placed our order, credit card was charged the next day for almost $400. Order confirmation said the card would be charged when the order is shipped... it also stated to allow 4 weeks for international delivery? We ship international all the time, it should only take 2 weeks....which raised a red flag with us to begin with. 4 weeks came and went, no order. We emailed, of course still NO reply 9 days later. So we hurried up and placed a dispute with paypal because we used our paypal debit/credit card. They only ALLOW 45 days to open a dispute and Rare Palm Seed knows this! Past 45 days, and they get to keep your money!

Word of Caution! IF you chance ordering from this company....use a credit card so you can dispute the charge or enter a chargeback (within the allowed time) to get your money back if you get no order or else this company can really take advantage of you and keep your money.

Advise to Rare Palm Seeds: REPLY to emails, especially to those that have already paid for an order! Leave the emails with general questions for last, if your 'so busy'.

*In one of the other negatives we read where you replied to someone saying you have/had 8 employees! We have seen busy restaurants preform a busy lunch & dinner with less employees, so what is your excuse, seriously? If you cannot handle the business load with 8 workers....sounds like you need to rethink or restructure your business. Just saying.

Buyer Beware I purchased $330 worth of seeds and they sent them out without my import permit attached KNOWING that they wouldn"t make it past customs.When I asked why they said import was MY responsibility. They were returned to RPS they said they would need another 73 euro to cover return shipping,reshipping, and another phyto.I complied with the understanding that ALL paperwork would be in place.It's now 7 weeks since reshipping (supposedly) and now I don't get any email communication returned. OUT total of $400 +

"On Dec 10, 2012 6:10 PM, rarepalmseeds.com responded with:

Hi Jim,
You had placed your order without mentioning your import permit and we did not receive a comment from you that you would send it. Many customers do not supply their import permit, despite explicit instructions on our website (shipping/phytosanitary certificate information, links are also presented during the ordering process) suggesting to do so. Despite that, it is a rare exception that shipments are returned and you will appreciate that it is not our job to enforce compliance with USDA's import regulations (although we are always happy to help if asked). You are a permit holder and should therefore know what to do, it says so on your permit.
From your most recent e-mail I take it that you finally received our shipment in the meantime. I apologize for the additional cost and trouble incurred. Please let me know if you have any trouble with the seeds received and I will be happy to throw in some replacements with a possible future order.
Best, TOBY "

Posted on March 30, 2012, updated July 9, 2012
Posted on March 9, 2012, updated March 30, 2012
I am a beginner as a Palm grower from Indonesia. I have an american friend from Massachussett who will also find some palm seeds. So I asked him to find seeds for me too.. then he placed order the seed to RPS and ask some questions and instruction, but never had any respond, 10 emails had been sent, but no respond at all, so he decided to cancel the order before he gave CC data... BUT then I my self have placed order seeds and gave my CC data. It was Feb 21 - 2012. once I completely fulfill my data , I got an automatic good confirmation regarding my order... 5 days ahead I emailed again RPS about how the process is going , and he said will send in 4 envelopes , it was feb 27... but until now , there is no more respond from RPS even I had emailed RPS for many time....while on feb 27, RPS has debited my CC.... in my last email I informed Him that he GOT a bad feedback from anywhere . I ask HIM , are you a scammer ? fake and cheater ?? if so then HAIL HITLER !!
in this point , I want to spread out this fake business from RPS.. so that no more people get problems from RPS.. I hope Dave's Garden could be the frontier and spread out this horrified scammer to any palm societies... Thank you

"On Mar 12, 2012 6:06 PM, rarepalmseeds.com responded with:

Dear Aris,
First of all, I really think I can demand a more civilized tone in a conversation, did nobody teach you any manners? Let me tell you, this is NOT how you write to people! Elsewhere, your message would probably have been deleted.
As for your order, I apologize for not replying to two of your messages. As I have pointed out here and elsewhere, we receive a flood of e-mails every day on all sorts of subjects which at times is difficult to handle with the limited resources of a small company. For delivery times, please refer to our terms of trade. You order is still well within the limit given there, so please be patient, I am sure you will receive the seeds in due course and in good shape.
Best, TOBY

PS: I have been serving as vice president of the International Palm Society for the last few years, just for your information.

I'm the guy in Massachusetts. I had actually completed an order, but then after repeated emails, heard nothing back. Maybe you are "flooded" with emails, but that's not our problem. And, if you are the VP of the IPS, then you may need to choose between the two. All these unhappy customers aren't helping you. Is it worth giving your business a bad name?
That said, I will leave the door open, if you want to make things right.

"On Apr 11, 2012 5:51 PM, rarepalmseeds.com responded with:

Dear Jude,

We had a few short exchanges by e-mail on how to order etc. before you placed an order via our website, to which we sent a confirmation with shipping options and a couple of additions you made by e-mail. As far as I can figure it out, this order was never shipped because your credit card did not work, not because you canceled it. I do indeed have a number of e-mails from you that were not replied to because I could not figure out what you actually wanted and I was assuming you were in contact with my office anyway about resolving the issue with the credit card. Perhaps there were a few misunderstandings involved, and I apologize if I missed anything. I would be happy if you decide to give us another try. To avoid any confusion, just try to keep it simple and straightforward, write any additions or requests in the "comments" field when checking out your order from the shopping cart and when you can't avoid to send an e-mail (sorry, we get far too many), please let us know the order number you are referring to and your actual request.

Best, TOBY "

Posted on May 18, 2011, updated February 9, 2012
I have ordered some bismarckia nobilis seeds around november/2010, it took a few weeks but all the seeds were delivered just fine. As I got good germination results, I decided to order some more, and on March 11th/2011 I ordered 1.000 seeds. The only e-mail I got this time was from mr. Spanner saying that the seeds would be sent as before. It's been over 2 months and I havent received any of the seeds and mr. Spanner does not answer my e-mails for over a month... I am very upset because I really believed in this website, and had a great first experience...the second one was horrible! I feel like I lost my money...plus, I can't seem to get in touch with them by phone.
Sure hope you'll read this mr. Spanner, I would really like to work this out.

Posted on October 30, 2008, updated January 10, 2012
Very bad service, MORE than a year and I have not received nor the seeds I paid, neither a refund of my money, they prefer to ignore the many emails (about 30) I've sent them.

Mr. S. Möller aswered me one time 5 five months ago, he offered a refund and told me "we will keep you informed" and since then nothing more has happened, and they still ignore the many mails I send them asking about my order. Be very careful if you buy them.


order 1146-96-31960

Total US$: 203.00

I ordered palm seeds from rarepalmseeds in Germany two years ago and had a very good experience.

All the seeds arrived in excellent shape, fresh, clean and well packed, some had started to send out radicles and none were damaged.

I phoned rarepalms from Hong Kong a few times to make my order clear and establish the freshness of the seed and transport company I wanted to use. They were very polite efficient and accommodating which gave a personal touch that is much appreciated .

I spent a good amount on the courier company as I wanted the seed here as fast and safe as possible. The seed arrived three days later from order and was planted on the fourth.

I can recommend them.

I have used other companies before with limited success especially from North America, very few do international shipping and those that do are not very good. It seems the actually postal or clearance procedure there holds up the process considerably leading to damaged products. This is also due to airline routes as none are direct.

I will certainly use rarepalms again.

Very importantly you get the assurance the seed is indeed what you order and the general quality is good to excelent, the selection is also unrivaled wolrdwide.

For me a starting point.

Posted on November 23, 2010, updated March 25, 2011
My total order from this company was NZ$3382 (US$2578) of palm and strelitzia seed. A very substantial sum of money in anyone's language.

I run a small-medium scale palm and cycad nursery in New Zealand and after 6 years of operation decided to do my first ever seed import from this company.
I dearly wish I had found this forum prior to placing my order.

•9/9/2010 Contacted and placed order with RPS (Rare Palm Seeds)
•9/9/2010 Received confirmation of order from RPS.
•9/9/2010 Credit card debited NZ $3382.80 for order when RPS website clearly states that client’s credit card will only be debited upon shipment of order.
•16/9/10 Receive email from RPS covering several concerns about shipment delivery and also offering a personal guarantee of “safe arrival” of seed. They also advise strongly of sending via express shipping (the most expensive form of freight).
•12/10/2010 Receive notification of order being shipped from RPS. 33 days after credit card was debited.
•13/10/2010 Receive notification from UPS (shipping company) that goods are in NZ and waiting to be cleared by Customs and MAF.

•19/10/2010 Receive notification that MAF (NZ’s Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries) have found substantial issues with pests in majority of shipment and require my assistance to make decisions to destroy, re-ship or fumigate problem seed.
They had found both live mites and beetles, and significant volumes of fras and borer holes in the seed.

•28/10/2010 I notify (via email) RPS of problems with shipment.
•29/10/2010 Receive email back from RPS which does not address MAF issues.
•2/10/2010 Sent further email to RPS outlining options MAF have tabled for dealing with problem seed.
•3/10/2010 Because there has been no response from RPS to do with decisions about infected seeds future, I notified MAF to destroy seed.

NOTE; I made the decision to have the seed destroyed as the information I had gathered at the time suggests strongly that if I decided to have the seed fumigated (at my own cost), then germination rates would be severely affected by the methyl-bromide fumigation process, thereby offering no guarantee of any germination of fumigated seed.


•5/10/2010 I contact RPS by phone and conduct 25 minute phone call with Director of company (Tobias Spanner) outlining issues with seed and making strong demands for compensation. Director blames MAF for all issues and alludes to MAF being excessively cautious in inspection of seed.
•9/11/2010 Receive email from RPS outlining compensation shipment of seed. This is not agreed on as satisfactory compensation by myself as there is substantially less seed offered (worth in excess of several hundred euro) as part of compensation package. Also since my original order was placed, 2 of the seed lines I had ordered had subsequently sold out so were being replaced with top ups of a far lesser valued species of the same genus.
•9/11/2010 Send email to RPS with revised compensation package which does still not adequately cover my additional costs to do with seed issues, Included is report of pest findings from MAF.
•9/11/2010 Receive email from RPS agreeing to my compensation package.
•12/11/2010 I finally receive cleared seed from MAF and NZ Customs to discover part of order is actually missing. 1000 Strelitzia Reginae ‘Mandelas Gold’ worth $320 euro ($NZ 562 or $US 428) Receive verbal assurances from MAF that missing items were not included in original package.
My original order which weighed 55kg is now down to the revised and cleared order which weighs a total of 2.3kg.

•13/11/2010 Send email to RPS asking for explanation as to why part of the order is actually missing.
•14/11/2010 Receive email back from RPS once again laying blame with MAF for this.

From then on I decided that the situation had become totally farcical and started to initiate a Credit card chargeback.

This whole sorry exercise could have been avoided if Mr Spanner had supplied a completed order which contained pest free seed in the first place. He had provided a phyto sanitation certificate stating that all the seed had been inspected and cleared for signs of pest.

Clearly this was not the case.

At no time throughout the almost 3 months of dealing with this horrendous situation have I received any apology for what this company has put me through.
The additional costs in an international phone call (conducted at 11.30pm at night here), costs in additional biosecurity checks, massive time wastage with emailing the RPS company, phone calls and emails with MAF and now dealing with credit card companies have left me feeling extremely stressed and overwrought.

I have been in tears several times over this.

I should have realised warning signs when I read through page after page of ‘glowing’ testimonials on the RPS website. As is suggested by a poster below who has also had a negative experience with this company they seem to treat customers who have serious issues as minor nuisances and happily take their cash…quickly.

I find it almost impossible to believe that a person can conduct a supposedly successful and internationally regarded business like this when there is such a huge degree of denial and blame laying.
During my phone conversation with Mr Spanner I repeatedly stated that if this matter was resolved amicably I would remain a worthwhile and repeat customer.
I did not want to intentionally rubbish the guy. It certainly was not in my best interests to do this.
Rare Palm Seeds is in the enviable situation of having a monopoly on supplying the most extensive range of Palm and Cycad seed available.
What beggars belief is that they are still operational.

My advice…avoid this company and take up travelling the world and collecting your very own seed. You’ll have more fun.

"On Mar 18, 2011 10:47 AM, rarepalmseeds.com responded with:

I have only just been made aware of this post. Apparently Dave's Garden no longer sends out notifications?

I will try to address just the important points in Ms. Grays wild accusations and misstatements.

1) MAF's (actually Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, not Fisheries) Biosecurity Authority/Clearance Certificate states merely: "Live insects found". No mention is made of frass, holes or mites.

2) The above document is signed Oct. 15th by a MAF officer. Ms. Gray did not contact us until Oct. 28th.

3) I sent a reply the same day that DID address the issues, although further e-mail exchanges were delayed for a few days the following week. I also explained to Ms. Gray that is is occasionally possible in palm seeds that beetles can hatch from inside the seeds where no visible signs of their presence were detectable when inspecting and sending out the order.

4) Just ONE day after listing MAF's options (return to sender, fumigation, or destruction) to me, Ms. Gray authorizes the seeds to be destroyed. This does not look like she was actually waiting for a reply.

5) Despite all this, I did agreed to send a replacement shipment as demanded by Ms. Gray.

6) Two days before the replacement shipment was due to be mailed and only a few days after we received Ms. Grays OK for our replacement shipment, we received a chargeback for the amount of the original shipment. I sent several e-mails to Ms. Gray asking for an explanation but received no reply. We decided not to mail the replacement as we would have ended up shipping two orders with no payment.

7) Ms. Grays Garden Watchdog statement was posted only a few days after our agreement. I seems to me that a resolution of this problem was never intended.

Some of Ms. Grays remarks are highly slanderous and her behavior seems fraudulent. If her company was not located in New Zealand, this case would have been taken to court by us.

RPS has been in business for over 15 years and thousands of customers all around the world continue to put our trust in us, including several large and long-time customers in New Zealand. We would not be where we are today if we had not earned that trust."

I am only a small order kind of guy but I have had no problems with them. Since I am no germinating expert I can't say anything about the quality of the seeds . I only know I had a good number of them sprout and since I do not sell plants I guess that is good enough for me.

Danny

My small order came fast in 2 weeks. All the palm seeds were in great condition and smelled fresh/healthy were not moldy. Palm seeds do not have a 100% germination rate as they are attacked by molds/mildews/bacteria/viruses during their long germination. Use Mr. Spanners baggie method with a high quality peat moss. Soak seeds in a disinfectant for 5/10 minutes before soaking in a 1 tsp liquid kelp per 32 oz for 24-72 hours. Disinfect/fungicide again 5/10 minutes then immediately plant and seal baggies/containers. I will report my success but can say any good seed given optimal conditions and time/care will grow wonderfully given this method.

For my first buy not one of the seeds sprouted ...The second time, I never received the seeds nor my money back...

Be very careful with this company!

"On Mar 18, 2011 11:04 AM, rarepalmseeds.com responded with:

Looking back as far as 2007 I have not been able to find any orders from Montreal that these comments could apply to. If this claim is honest, I would appreciate a few more details. Until then I will consider it not authentic and would request its removal. grbjbs's only activity on Dave's Garden seems to have been the posting of this negative entry."