Comments regarding Four Seasons Nursery

I received my 40 red twig dogwoods in June 1996. They were cheap! All I can say is I wasn't too happy with the plants when I got them, they looked like sticks, but this year they are $20 a piece plants. I think it cost me $10-$15 for the 40…I can't complain, most of my order did survive and I feel I won since I now have beautiful red twig dogwood. I had no problem with my order taking a long time either.

I found your site of catalog and company reviews. Thank you for having this on the internet. Unfortunately I found it too late. I ordered from the Four Seasons Nursery and it took a month to find that my check had been cashed but no plants. According to them my order is scheduled to be mail early next week (5/9/97). And since I have to cancel my order by mail, the letter will probably cross in the mail with the order shipment I decided to wait a little longer and see what happens. So far I am not at all pleased. However, I have warned them that I expect an order of good quality to be on its way. I will make sure I keep the original mail slip - I have a bad feeling so far.

I received one of supposedly two packages a little late. The plants inside appear to be slightly shell shocked but ok. I am still waiting for the other half of the order. UPS cannot track it because no UPS tracking number appears on the shipping label, which I saved. I cannot contact the nursery even at my own expense because the phone appears to be off the hook. A risky proposition I would not do it again. I am disappointed because I need a rather large hedge and their prices on tiny shrubs was quite good.

I placed an order with Four Seasons Nursery in February 1997. I wanted to call them to check on my order, but alas, no phone number in their catalog! I obtained the number from your list, and called them. Not only could the customer service representative NOT look up my specific order, she could not tell me an approximate time plants would ship to my area in Colorado. She said it depends on the weather---NOT!! I asked for her to cancel my order and send me a refund. She said that had to be done in writing, and a refund would depend on when they could find my order and check if it has shipped. Again, a runaround. I am sending a certified letter today (3/28/97) requesting a refund, with a note that if it is not received within a timely manner (14 days) I would take legal and other appropriate action.If Four Seasons manages to process this request in a timely manner, I may forgive them for their poor customer service. Otherwise, I will follow up with legal and other action. In any case, I will let you know how things turn out. [update] Here is "the rest of the story" from Four Seasons Nursery. I sent a nastygram requesting a refund and cancellation of my order on 3/28/97. I sent it certified mail. Four Seasons received it 3/31. I gave them two weeks to give me my money back. Well, I was patient, and waiteduntil 4/21 to call them. The customer service person this time was really nice. She looked up my order, and said that a cancellation had not been put on it. She said they were shipping to my area, but she would do what she could to see to it that my order was cancelled and I received my refund.The next day, 4/22/97, I received my complete order - 100% accurate (I must have ordered 20 items, so this is an accomplishment). I thought about sending it back, but decided to peek at the plants first. All the items were in good condition. The tree peony I ordered was 1/2 the price and twice the quality of the one I received from an upscale nursery a few daysearlier. I called Four Seasons and told them how they could improve their customer service and reputation by giving the customer service reps information. I also called and cancelled the refund. The customer service rep this time was also really helpful. I guess I will wait and see if Four Seasons starts improving their customer service. I really think the problem is that they do not have the orders in a database that is accessible to the customer service reps, and they do not understand the importance of being accessible for questions. If price is the major consideration and you don't care that you can find anything out about your order, then I think this company is just fine. I was very impressed with the quality of the plants they sent. Their prices were also a LOT lower than the upper scale nurseries. I may use them again if I want to place a small order, want to save money and don't care if there is a problem.

My mother ordered from Four Seasons Nursery this spring. She received the order about two months later after finally contacting them and complaining through her MasterCard bank (Four Seasons does not list its telephone number on its catalogs). Of the order she received, only four of the ten items were what she ordered according to the itemization, and everything was either dead or dying. I would not recommend using them. They make it very difficult to follow up on incorrect orders or to complain.

The plants that I ordered were all mushy and rotten. The ones that appeared to be in fair shape failed to grow.

Good prices. Trees ordered @ January were shipped in May (when they deemed appropriate planting time for Wisconsin). Temps here were already in the 90s. Roots were dried out and half the plants didn't survive. The $10 apple seedling looked like it was dead for a year. They advertise a one year guarantee if you save your original shipping label (I can't find mine). Curiously, I didn't receive a catalog from them this year, however I received catalogs from several other companies using the same address as Four Seasons Nursery.