Comments regarding Growquest Growers (also dba Olive-Trees.net and Surf & Sierra Wholesale Nurseries, LLC)

Hello All,

I am one of the un-lucky people who did business with Chris Gilmore of GrowQuest Growers. I had months and months of chasing Chris down and finally got him to deliver some Avocado Trees after badgering, pleading, threatening and making Chris's life just miserable... After somewhere around 5 months of consistent contact, Chris finally showed up at my home with some rag-tag trees to accommodate my request. Rather than argue about the condition and size of trees, I handed him a check and sent him on his way.

I have been watching this slow motion train-wreck happen from afar for years. In all seriousness, Chris must have something wrong with his head to make this kind of thing a habit. It would have been much simpler for him and all concerned to have done straight business transactions, but, he somehow just could not.

Bottom line is that Chris finally pleaded guilty to felony counts of grand theft and conspiracy for not delivering the goods to customers throughout the nation. And when the goods did get delivered they did so without the proper inspections and quarantines.

Prosecutors said Tuesday that Christopher Morgan Gilcrest, 51, also pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor count of false advertising in connection with his business, GrowQuest Growers.

The guilty pleas came after an investigation by the Ventura County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office, the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.

Prosecutors said Gilcrest illegally operated GrowQuest Growers selling and delivering rose bushes, citrus and olive trees, ladybugs and other items from his website.

Authorities said Gilcrest sold the items without a valid license and failed to comply with quarantine regulations and also accepted some payments without providing any products.

There were dozens of complaints filed against Gilcrest including with the Santa Paula Police that referred them to the District Attorney’s Office. Online complaints of GrowQuest’s failure to deliver started showing up more than a decade ago.

In addition, the Tri-Counties Better Business Bureau received hundreds of complaints from across the nation about GrowQuest over the past three years, according to prosecutors.

GrowQuest Growers for years had an office in Santa Paula located on Davis Street.

District Attorney Greg Totten said, “The quarantine violations,” by Gilcrest by shipping stock without the proper wait or inspections, “posed a serious threat to California’s multi-billion dollar agricultural industry.”

Prosecutors said when Gilcrest is sentenced June 24 they expect he will receive one year in Ventura County jail and five years’ probation and be ordered to pay restitution to victims. And, as part of his probation, he will be prohibited from engaging in the agriculture business or selling nursery stock.

Posted on February 26, 2012, updated July 14, 2015
Wish I had done some research on Growquest before ordering from them. A simple Google would have found this site and I would have saved myself $60.00 I'll never see again.

I ordered a Chihuly 36" standard rose tree from Chris on Dec. 1. He required payment through Intuit. I usually use Paypal. (They have a money back guarantee for non-delivery. Must be why Chris prefers Intuit, the do nothing tax people)

I waited for a bare root rose tree. Finally e-mailed him on Feb. 1 as I think 30 days is quite long enough to get a tree. He then e-mails me on Feb. 16 that he has to call me for a credit card for delivery since it's no longer in his system. (It was never in his system). The tree is all "boxed" and waiting for FedEx but I haven't paid for shipment. Apparently the $10 was for a wooden crate, not shipping a bare root rose in a cardboard box like any other nursery. Then he says he's just going to delivery it himself. Well, that's come and gone and still nothing.

So now I'm doing the research I should have done to begin with and I find this guy is a grifting fraud. He provides just enough to appear to be legit, while defrauding thousands of dollars from customers.

Hey, Chris. I'm not waiting any more. It appears I'll never see my $58.94 again. I could *really* use that money. You've got family problems? (Hey, you're a business and that shouldn't interfere. Man up.) Well, I've got my own. I'm a teacher, haven't had a raise in 6 years, plus I've got furlough days that further reduce my income. But the cost of everything goes up. I saved a long time to be able to afford a $60 tree rose because Chihuly is what I wanted. Thanks for stiffing me.

I've gone ahead and called Intuit. I'm going to try to get Chris' account closed so he can't use them to bilk people anymore. I've filed with the BBB (yeah, get in line). I'm posting here.

Not that I've heard he's got videos on YouTube I'll be posting comments there too.

If I can't get my $60 back in cash, I'll take it out in covering the net with negative feedback for Growquest. Oh, I'm Italian so retaliation is all part of the package.

I'm tempted to drive up to Santa Paula, show up at his door and demand my rose. But I really don't want to make a 7 hour round trip wasted trip because I'm pretty sure he doesn't have my rose and I'd leave empty-handed; no rose and no money.

Chris, I only hope God reins fitting Karma down on you. Like having all four tires go flat at the same time. Of course, then you'd just scam some more poor mark out of the money to replace them. I look forward to the indictment and jail time you'll serve when you finally defraud someone of enough to qualify as a felony rather than a misdemeanor. Couldn't happen to a more deserving guy.

BEWARE! Unprofessional, endless delays, bad communication, payment issues, and to top it off, attitude from the seller. I had to file a paypal dispute to get out of this nightmare. Look elsewhere.

I chose a neutral rating because it is the average of positive and negative. The negative first (which is livable) and then the positive.

Business in general runs on delivery commitments made and delivered. Over several weeks, Chris committed to send out the plant I ordered "by the end of today" and several times in a row, nothing was actually done to ship the plant...along with no notification that it wasn't being shipped. As a result, I felt wary and uncertain.

Now the positive. The plant (it was a delicate one), arrived on the third try - from California to Connecticut. It is just beautiful. Amazingly carefully packed, in a very sturdy wood container...not a tiny branch bent or broken. The plant was also very well selected and was a specimen of the quality that I would have picked out myself.

In the end, after weeks of uncertainty...I am delighted with the plant's quality and price.

Wow! Chris has delivered a total of 4 trees in the past few months. My first impression was how fast he delivered the first tree. It was a LAMB HASS and this tree is now full of new avocados. The tree came, he helped me plant it (im a novice), and within 15 minutes we had the whole thing done. This guy knows his stuff. He showed me how the experts care and grow their trees....So I call Chris on a Tuesday and told him I was off the next day. I told him what I wanted and within a second he KNEW what would work best in my location (considering my soil type). He showed up the next day...All my other trees (Hass avocado/ Newly Improved Meyer Lemon/ Cara Cara Orange) arrived and Chris helped out again. He actually cares and wants his customers to enjoy the whole process...Looking forward to more trees from you Chris...Good stuff bro!...

Frank

so much negativity and I stood up for this dude, seemed ok to me but then it came to delivery.



for my brothers birthday a del from one area of CA to another, promised the week of his birthday, nothing.



three emails sent, no reply.



emails before order sharp and aggressive and I still didn't understand because links were to web pages that didn't quite work and I couldn't roll down through. He was a bit rude 'if you had looked at', If you had bothered to read' etc. I had explained I couldn't cos his page was a bit out of whack. But I still trusted him, thought just less tetchy and more a garden person



other links sent me to unresolved server errors.



Sad cos my bro pretty reknowned in his field, coulda won a lot of kudos, but hurt me, and disappointed, and now, well, , coulda done him some good. He blew it.

Posted on June 23, 2005, updated June 1, 2014
I ordered a 10 lb container of Sluggo, as I am being overun by snails and slugs, from Growquest. On their website they show the nice neat containers of Sluggo and the sizes available much like any other website selling Sluggo. They charge my card right away. Then nothing for several weeks. I go to their website and find out the wife is supposedly ill and send a polite email sending my condolences and inquiring when I might be able to expect this order. No harm, no foul, life happens sometimes out of our control.

I recieved the order today. Well I think, sort of- maybe. What I got was a dirty, old, white, completely unmarked bucket with all kinds of stuff ( including what looks like droplets of congealed urine- maybe from a dog) all over the outside with these pasta looking grainy things about halfway filling it and the top of the bucket doesn't seal firmly enough that an animal or child couldn't get into it, just a flimsy light plastic lid (like you would use on cheap storage containers in the fridge) being held on with packing tape.

I don't know if this is actually Sluggo as I have never used snail bait of any kind before. This COULD be anything, including something that will harm my plants if I spread it around my plants (which is what I would do to get the snails and slugs), I don't know if this is safe in case my kids touch it, I don't know if this is safe in case the stupid rescue dog knocks it over, spills it because the lid is flimsy and eats it. Are they sure what it is or did they yank it out of a room of buckets half filled with misc gardening supplies and mixtures? And if they are sure it is Sluggo then why did they take it out of the sealed package to do this to it? And if there is a good reason why it was not in it's original packaging then why was it not put into a clean safe container with the info that is contained on the original label and other instructions and labeled on the container itself what it is?. Isn't it illegal to sell stuff like this without all the info and without labeling?

When I ordered like everyone else would, I expected a new sealed package of what I ordered. That way I know what it is and that it is probably fresh enough to be effective. I didn't pay nearly over $25 for what appears to be somebody's leftovers from their back shed.

I emailed- this afternoon- nothing yet. I tried calling but of course you can't get ahold of anyone in the office or in the field and I have requested a call back- They had hours and hours to call me back and no call. Considering the rating this company already has- I am posting this.

They may eventually make this particular situation right- I would hope so. This evaluation/feedback still stands regardless (though I will be fair and post if they make it right and exactly what they did to make it right). There are serious issues going on when a business let alone an owner would let something like this be boxed (or give the employees the idea that this would be acceptable practice), let alone through their door as a filled order that someone would accept. I am frankly absolutely floored by such behavior. Any nursery I have ever been to would FIRE an employee on the spot for sending or attempting to send something like this. I will NEVER EVER shop there again- If this is an example of what they consider an acceptable quality order then I hate to see what their plants are like and am not interested in finding out on my dime.

I wish my experience had been more positive but I am sitting here feeling used and scammed and cheated and not knowing what I should do with this stuff- use it and take a risk? or toss it in the garbage as that is exactly what it looks like. Just what I needed- more negativity in my life. Thanks a bunch growquest.

Paula Shepard
Stockton, California

I was searching for the perfect pair of Swan Hill Olive Trees and found Growquest listed as a vendor, the nursery was in good company with well known and highly credited nurseries.
I contacted Chris Gilcrest, the owner, and we made arrangements to meet at a tree farm in the Fillmore area. He mainly sells fruiting olives, which wasn't what I was looking for, so he took me to the farms that do sell Swans. I was so impressed at his generosity, he spent a lot of time with me knowing there may be no financial reward. He is extremely knowledgeable about olive trees and has a great eye for picking out winners, plus he was full of information regarding the planting, care and feeding of the trees. It was such a pleasure to work with someone so kind and generous, still can't believe my luck in meeting him!

I ordered a 24" box lamb hass from Chris and had nothing but a good experience. These trees looked really healthy and had fruit on them at the time of delivery. He showed up on time, answered all of my questions and i hope to do more business with Growquest in the future.

Posted on December 5, 2013, updated December 6, 2013
Posted on December 5, 2013, updated December 5, 2013
Posted on December 3, 2013, updated December 5, 2013
Posted on December 3, 2013, updated December 3, 2013
Much delayed writing this. Do NOT do business with this company. I placed an order a few years ago with Gilchrest for a Satsuma tree. He called me to confirm the order, and in utterly surly tone went on to patronize me about how I should appreciate plants. (Is this a California thing??) He also alluded to his drug use. I then became very unsure about my order. A few months later I called the local police department, and to make long story short was told that they could not shut him down and that he had to make a living some kind of way. !!! I was completely dumbfounded. I will never do business with California again (after having other problems with plant retailers there 5 years prior, with their sanctimonious, holier-than-thou attitude. Now I hear, gleefully, the over-priced Monrovia growers are suffering badly from this mentality.) Stick with the Southeastern US citrus and nursery growers -they are impeccably honest and do what they say they are going to do.

I did a search on the web for Avocado trees. I was interested in purchasing a Hass to replace my dying 50 or so year old tree. Growquest was one of the sites that came up. After reading the info on their site I decided to order a couple 5 gallon container Hass trees.

Chris emailed me back to say he could provide me with a single 15 gallon tree for the price that I was going to pay for the two trees. After considering it for a minute, I decided to go with the larger single bigger tree.

Chris said he would deliver it in a few days, on the weekend. I was excited that it would be here so soon. Ah, sad story, he called me on Saturday and informed me that he had injured his back delivering trees and would not be able to deliver it that weekend. As there really isn't any big hurry to plant the tree, it was no big deal that it wasn't there that weekend. A week or so later he delivered the tree. WOW! what a nice beautiful tree. While Chris was delivering it, he mentioned that I might be interested in also purchasing a "Reed" tree. He explained that the Reed produces opposite the Hass. Chris delivered the tree with no "delivery" charges.

After considering the purchase of the "Reed", I emailed Chris to order a 15 gallon tree. He dropped it off about a week later, while I was at work, and left me instructions on where to send the check.

The "Reed" tree was close to 8 feet tall! The foliage was lush, and the color was a very vibrant green. I was extremely pleased with both of my trees and sent an email to Chris immediately stating my satisfaction.

The weather here in So Cal has been extremely warm this year. The temps have been very close to 90 for the weeks that I purchased the trees. I planted both of these trees within a few days of receiving them. The first tree, never lost a "growth" beat, the small leaves are still thriving, and new growth is evident. The second tree has only been in the ground a few days, but does not seem to be suffering any issues from the transportation or the planting. The second tree, the Reed, even had an avocado on it, unfortunately, I knocked it of while I was planting it. I was so upset.

Chris did not charge me anything to deliver the trees, and just "dropped" off the second tree, over a hundred dollars worth, without so much as a "physical" order, I had only emailed him that I wanted one.

I am perfectly happy with my trees, and Chris's service!

Thanks Chris, great job!

I would definitely recommend your trees and service.

Jef,
Covina, CA

I placed an order on line from grow quest for three avocado trees with shipping. I received an e-male a couple of days later confirming my order and to my delight, informing me that the shipping would be much less than quoted. Delivery was one week after initially planned but was explained prior in an e-male so no big deal. The trees arrived in excellent condition containing more than 6 large avocados each. As a bonus, one of the trees came as a 15 gallon instead of a 7 gallon at no additional charge. Chris called the day before delivery and then again the day of in order to accommodate my schedule and drop off requirements. He arrived on time, was very nice, took time to talk about different avocado trees and the planting and their care. My credit card was never charged, he gave me the option of paying with check or pay-pal. A few days after delivery, Chris sent me some links in regards to care and planting and also reminding me to water daily while the trees were still in pots. I will definitely buy from him again. Thanks Chris.

I wanted to plant several varieties of Avocado Trees in my backyard so I went to local Nurseries but they had limited types of Avocado Trees and most of them in poor condition.

Because the local nurseries did not have healthy Avocado Trees, I browsed the web looking for Avocado Trees to buy online. Fortunate for me Growquest came out of the many hits.

I ordered 24” box Lamb Hass, and 15 gallons Sir Prize, Bacon, Pinkerton, and Hass.

Soon after, Chris contacted me and explained the types of Avocado Trees he has.

Since it was late August and the weather was really hot, he advised me to wait two or three weeks for the weather to cool down. And just like clock work, he delivered the trees on September 20. The trees are in great condition and the ones in fruit season have fruit on them.

Chris is very professional and explained to me planting and caring for the Avocado Trees. I am very satisfied with Chris and will do business him again. Growquest is the place to get healthy and variety of Avocado Trees.

We are newbies and were looking for a Meyer's Lemon. We initially found Chris from his YouTube tutorials on planting lemon trees in pots. It was refreshing to find his simple to understand and easy to follow instructions on how to plant a sustainable 15 gallon tree in a pot. We called (it can take a day or two for him to get back to you but worth the wait) and ordered a 15 gallon Meyer's Lemon that he delivered, planted, and trimmed for us. The experience was second to none. We highly recommend him. The tree was gorgeous, far superior to anything we saw in our local nurseries. The good ones are worth the wait.

I was interested in buying 2 California Hass avocado trees, 15 gallon size and have them shipped to Florida. I searched the web and contacted a few nurseries. No one was willing to fullfill this order. I then found Growquest. Growquest was the only nursery I could find willing to ship #15 trees to Florida. Chris at Growquest was very knowledgeable about his product and answered all the questions I had. (and I asked a bunch). My trees were crated perfectly to protect them during shipment and they were the exact trees I was looking for. I also liked that Chris sent me a video of my exact trees before they were shipped. I am happy with my overall experience buying from Growquest and would certainly buy from this company again.

Early in the spring of 2013, I was looking for a particular Rose , Ah found a seller " GrowQuest". I place an order only to never hear anything .I called the Fone # , only to hear a bunch of gibberish ramblings that went on and on . I then sent e mail inquiring about the order . I then rc'd an Order confirmation and #. Time went by , nothing , so started e mailing and rc'd a note back " you still want the rose ?" well sure where do I submit payment with pay pal etc ? Response was " will call you back".
This went back and forth numerous times with never a definitive answer .
The last time I heard anything from this outfit , was on 06/14/2013 which stated "I have the information I need to ship the plant. I am clearing out a backlog of orders, it will leave in the next few days"
This outfit is terrible and must be run from some dark alley .

At least there was never any $$ exchanged. I will wait til spring of next year and order early from Jackson~, as they had some early in the year but I was tooo late in ordering.

I doubt that I will ever hear thing more from this Grow Quest outfit - which is fine with me and would advise others "stay away far a ya can"

I emailed Growquest with questions about avocado trees, I wanted to buy 2 for 2 locations. I described the locations & Chris suggested a Reed & a Lamb Hass. We agreed on COD payment. About a week later the 2 trees were delivered. I wasn't there for the delivery but he dropped them off anyway. The trees appear to be healthy, quality trees, both have small fruit on them. I'm happy with the product. The following day I mailed him a check. Many of the negative reviews of him seem to be about prepayment & not receiving product. I suggest to avoid these problems deal with Growquest on a COD basis, as I did and I feel you'll be happy with the results.

We would recommend Growquest!!!

We live in in CA and had been trying to find a Magnolia Soulangeana for months... But with our States agriculture laws and the cemetery's size requirements it was proving a nearly impossible task.

We saw a Growquest video on YouTube and immediately contacted Chris. We explained to Chris that our Son had been killed; while traveling home from work, on his motorcycle earlier this year. My husband had seen one of these trees and it was our sincere desire to have one planted by a bench next to our Son's final resting place.

We had originally hoped for a standard, but Chris managed to secure a "low branching" Magnolia Soulangeana instead. Chris then personally delivered this beautiful 7' (24x24) tree to the cemetery and even oversaw & assisted with the transplanting of the tree. Chris didn't even ask us to pay for the tree or anything, until he delivered it and we approved it.

I watched Growquest videos online and Chris reminded me of Huell Howser...approachable and knowlegable. I called Growquest and left a message for an avocado tree, then sent an email. Within a week I spoke with Chris on the phone and was pleased with what he had to say. I told him I'd think about what I wanted and get back to him. I took another week before I could get him on the phone to order the tree. He said he'd be out on Saturday to bring the tree and lady bugs for my daughter. Saturday morning we got ready for out tree delivery and then I received an email from Chris saying he was running behind and he couldn't make it until the next day at 10am. He arrived Sunday with a beautiful Hass tree and lady bugs. We were thrilled to have Chris in our yard as we have a good size garden and had lots of questions about the best appoach for our veggies. When we are ready I look forward to ordering another tree from Chris.

FRAUDULENT WEBSITE – THEIF – STAY AWAY!
DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM CHRISTOPHER MORGAN GILCREST – AKA CHRIS GILCREST -AKA GROWQUEST

Growquest and its owner Christopher Morgan Gilcrest aka Chris Gilcrest are fraudsters pure and simple. We placed an order of more than 30 rose bushes, only after an email exchange to confirm his ability to fill the order, he offered a discount for a check, which we then mailed. The check was cashed upon receipt and endorsed by “Heather Andrews” It was NOT endorsed by any business. After time had passed we began emailing asking for tracking information – ZERO RESPONSE – Daily emails from us asking the status, then a reply saying it shipped and daily emails did not help – we received four plants ordered and a mystery plant, Chris claimed was a gift (Yes a gift that cost us over $500) – he claimed the rest would be shipped within a few days, that was a month ago – back to the daily emails asking for details of the shipments – no response – then a marketing/spam message claiming all outstanding orders would be shipped as he was getting in a large shipment – big surprise – NO EMAILs – No Tracking Detail – and NO SHIPMENTS – no replies to any email – the phone number he provided are all burn phones with the exception of his toll-free number which is just an ultra-annoying rambling that gets you nowhere. We demanded a refund after missing most our planting season – NO REPLY – We’ve now filed police reports locally and in California. There is no business, there is no nursery – he is a middleman sometimes at best and very deceitful. Though we’d love the flowers ordered to arrive – we now would settle for a refund, alas assuming the best at this point all we can do is warn everyone else to stay away. If you’ve been unfortunate enough to do business with him, file police reports, though each order on its own is small the sum of the parts is huge and amounts to Mail Fraud, Grand Larceny and a few other criminal charges will inevitably land this man in prison, which he most definitely deserves.

I purchased four Albrequina olive trees from Chris Gilcrest and paid by check per Gilcrest saying he did not take credit cards except on the shipping cost for total $131.89 on 2/7/2013. One tree died days after arrival. I emailed Gilcrest many times concerning the dead tree, sent a jpg of dead tree per his request, and he promised to replace the tree. Then his emails went cold. Filed complaint with BBB Santa Barbara on 5/5/2015 asking for refund of $32.97 for the dead tree, then Gilcrest finally responds on 5/6/2013 with a "yes" to my email asking for a refund or a replacement, so that answer does not tell me anything. Gilcrest does not respond to BBB, so the case is closed with a three-year "bad" rating for Growquest. Filed a complaint with FBI division of internet fraud. This scam business needs to be shut down! Buyer Beware!

I was looking for a particular rose (Black Bacarra) and was unable to find one anywhere except at Growquest. I was very leery of purchasing from them because of some of the reviews here on Dave's Garden. I decided to give them a try. I ordered my rose and got an email confirmation right away. The rose took about 12 days to arrive and I admit I was getting worried. I want to note though that my concern was because I really wanted this rose. Their website says not to pay until the rose is received and believed to be ok so I was out nothing. I sent an email to inquire and got a email back asking for a review of their service. A day or so later the rose arrived. It was definitely alive and may not have been the most robust looking plant but it is a bare root and the largest budding canes that it had were white! I had never seen that before but we took care of the bush as they told us and it began to green up and grow after a few days. It is now looking great, has many new leaves and its first tiny bud. We are really happy with the bush and are sending in a check. Thank you, Growquest! I would definitely order from them again.

Ordered a rose in early May. He was quick to respondwith an invoice with shipping charges and instructions to send a check. Mailed check and it was cashed right away by company. Rose was not revieved. When I emailed and inquired about the status, he sent me another invoice with additional $5 for shipping. Inquired what was going on, never received an response, tried calling and got a long babbling answering machine with no way to leave a message or reach Chris. One month later still no rose, I guess I should have researched this company further, if I had I would have seen all the negative complains about him and would never have ordered. I don't expect to receive either a retund or the rose I ordered from them. Growquest is a rip-off--DO NOT ORDER FROM THEM!!!!

Posted on April 26, 2013, updated May 18, 2013
Hello, I contacted Chris Gilcrest, Growquest, regarding my interest in purchasing three pistachio trees. Chris came to my house with three very mature pistachio trees that were way larger then i expected. He not only delivered them to my house for no charge, but he walked through my backyard and gave me his advice regarding all my other fruit tree that were recently planted. He spent about an hour and a half giving me ideas and helped save two of my fruit trees. Chris also gave me information on where to plant the trees, where to get soil and what to use in fertilizing the trees.

A month or two later i purchased two avocado trees from Chris. Again the trees were very well priced and showed up much larger then i ever expected. I previously purchased two avocado trees from Barron brothers in camarillo, ca. They were substantially smaller and died. They gave me crap info in taking care of the trees and clearly wanted me to make the purchase and get out the door. When chris brought the avocado trees he also gave me two tango Mandarin trees for free. I have to say i have never seen a grower be so generous. No grower does that.

I know chris has gotten a lot of negative reviews, but he has been incredible for me and my family. The trees that he has provided us are way beyond what i expected. ,About a year ago, i purchased blueberry bushes from a place in new jersey called Dameco Farms. When the bushes arrived they died days later. I was so angry and the owner basically told me to F off. So i know when you order something online you are taking a chance. The owner from Dameco Farms, said to me that if i can get trees from a local grower then i am a fool to buy on line. He said you are always taking a chance when you purcahse on line and the plants/trees are delivered. This was a $100 lesson that i learned.
If you are able to have chris delivery your trees to your house, you will be very happy. I will always do business with chris Gilcrest in the future.
thanks chris for all the advise, incredible trees and professionalism.
steve

Avoid doing business with this guy, Chris. He strung me along for one month on an order for an avocado tree. He confirmed a delivery schedule time after time, and never delivered with some reason or another. I followed up by email & phone and got only lies from him.

I am very pleased with my experience. I have been searching for a Honey Dijon rose and Chris made available to me one of his four year old roses. I also ordered a Stainless Steel at the same time. Both roses came very well packed in a wood crate. Both roses arrived in bloom and have not stopped growing and blooming. Will happily use them for future purchases.

Buyer beware: I had prepaid for these roses (even forgot to deduct my "prepay" discount). Even so, they never came. The first time I emailed, I received an immediate response indicating that they would be sent in short order w/ an extra plant. I waited. Still, they never came. I sent several more emails, this time requesting a refund as I had reached the point of giving up on them and never received a response. I'll give them a week to send me a refund.

I have done business with Chris and Growquest for the past 7 years. I have had nothing but good experience with them. In fact, on my latest order, Chris went out of his way and found 6 roses for me to match the 40 roses we purchased from him years ago. I searched all over the country for them prior to Chris finding them for me and personally delivering them. That is service beyond compare. Chris, my wife and I thank you very much. I would recommend you without hesitation to anyone.

I recently put an order in with Chris from Growquest for three roses. Chris told me that I could expect the roses in about one week. after 2 weeks I called Chris to tell him the roses where not delivered yet. He was very nice and explained that he was very busy but he would get them out this week. I explained that I had a family emergency and would not be home for the delivery and ask him if he could please wait till the following week. Chris did wait to send the roses till the following week. The roses are in very good condition. I,am very happy with the roses and I will definitely do business with Chris again. Thank you chris

I recently placed an order with Chris from Growquest. We were in contact for a few weeks prior to the deliver, he provided great direction on how to plant to the trees and optimize the growth. Although the deliver was delayed one day, I must say I am very pleased with the quality of the 5 15G Avocado trees delivered.

I'll be doing business again with Chris, and hopefully I can reap a full crop of Avocado trees this season. Thanks for the delivery Chris keep delivering a good product.

I ordered 5 roses from GrowQuest.com. I did my research and Chris had the best selection. I wanted certain roses and he had what I was looking for. Also he has some great YouTube videos. I sent my check because I wanted the best price and I knew I would not be home for a C.O.D order. This was in the winter time when I placed my order and I knew it would be awhile before my order would ship. The weather started to warm up and Chris said my order would be shipping soon. I didn’t hear back from him or get the tracking number. I got worried and saw all of the bad reviews. I e-mailed Chris my concerns. He apologized and told me the situation. He shipped my order directly and threw in an extra rose for the delay. The order arrived as promised. Minus the FireFighter rose but his picker said the quality wasn’t that great and he will find a better supplier and ship that one separate. The root systems on these roses were very nice and they looked like nice sized roses. One rose looked like it was taken out of the pot and had lots of nice soil. I’ve looked at the reviews and it sounds like sour grapes. I don’t know the story behind them but I do know that my experience was good. Chris cares about the product and the customer. He only ships when the weather is good. It says that on his site, that is the second reason I decided to order from his site. I could pay $30 plus dollars for a rose at my local nursery and I didn’t want to spend $17 for a dead rose delivered via the mail. Again I was very happy with my order. Be patient, wait for the right weather conditions, send Chris a nice e-mail and he will update you. He is a good honest guy.

I was looking for a non fruiting olive tree at a fair price and Chris came through with an attractive 36" box wilsonii, delivered and at a great price!

I ordered 18 Floribunda rose bushes from Mr. Gilcrest about three weeks ago and he hand delivered them to my home yesterday. The roses exceeded my expectations--the plants were older than I thought they would be, had many, many strong canes and their root systems were large and healthy. The plants arrived in a moist condition. Upon arrival of the plants Mr. Gilcrest asked to see the site they would be planted on and I took him to the back yard and showed him the hillside I had prepared for their arrival. He was pleased to see the holes I had dug for the bushes were quite large and would easily handle the excellent root system the bushes had. He then showed me two methods for planting the bushes that was different than I was about to do. He planted a couple of them for me and showed me how to water them in deeply. Using his method I was able to plant all 18 bushes in under two hours. (Since I had previously prepped the holes and the 50/50 top soil and mulch combination.) He states he is going to follow up with me in April to see how the bushes are coming along. He feels they will thrive very well on the sloop and produce a mass of pink Passionate Kisses Floribunda roses year after year. I wish to thank Mr. Gilcrest for his time, teaching and labor he didn't need to do any of those extra things. He gave me excellent prices, also.

I ordered 4 roses on 8/11/2012 and just took delivery on 2/2/2013.

I must say the process was confusing. I placed the order but was not being asked for any payment. I was not sure if it went through or not. Therefore, I ordered a few more from other suppliers.

On 12/31/2013, I received an email telling me that the order was being processed, and they also lowered the price and asked me if I am still interested in this order. I replied that I am still interested and was told that my order would be arriving in next week. But the order did not arrive.

On 1/24/2013, I sent an email asking about the order.

On 2/1/2013, I was contacted that my order was in and they will drop it off the same day that evening and asking me for a payment when it was delivered. I already had other commitment so I left the company a check. But no one showed up and I got another email telling me that it got too late at night and the delivery will happen the next day.

On 2/2/2013, the roses showed up in my front door and they took the check. They also thrown in a free rose. The roses look nice and healthy. Better than the ones I ordered from other online store.

Anyway, it works out ok for me. For some, it might not be acceptable and will give a neutral or even a negative.

Growquest Nursery, Christopher Morgan Gilcrest, is a total scam. Do not be fooled by their beautiful website. Mr. Gilcrest will gladly take your money. You will never, ever receive your product and you will never, ever receive your order. I ordered and paid for 3 roses, plus shipping in August, 2011. He has been dancing me around since then despite my calls and e-mails. He has finally just stopped responding to me.

Posted on August 16, 2012, updated August 17, 2012
Posted on March 13, 2012, updated August 16, 2012
Posted on March 12, 2012, updated March 13, 2012
Hello Everyone,

I can't beleive all the the negative things that I have read. My name is Chris and I just placed an order from this company for one large strong Hass Avocado tree. One hour later, I got a call from Chris (the owner), he was very professional, nice and very pleasing to deal with. Here is what he did for me. He told me that he will give me two trees one "A" and one "B" to pollinate the other. He looked up my address on the google maps, look at the google earth to see my house and backyard, zoomed in and he told me how and where to plant my two Avocado trees, what kind he will give me and what I need to do to protect them from the frost. He is sending his driver over to my house tonight to drop my two trees off including some Gypsum powder for the soil. He told me that he will give me the very best strong trees that he has so they will survive the heat and frost that I get at my house. He even offered to come over to my house later this week to paint the trunk of the tree with white latex paint to protect it.

I think Chris is very nice. I work in an industry that I come in contact with over 2,000 people a year, so I can spread the word of how Chris treats his customers and how he goes out of his way to help others.

NOTE: Once I get my product tonight, then I will write him a check, per his instruction. He saved me a bunch of money, instead of shipping the tree, he is throwing in a second tree for the price of shipping cost. Basically, my bill never went up and he is giving me more than I even asked for.

WOW, awesome, business man!! I will spread the word around to buy from Chris at GROWQUEST.COM
Chris, Love your videos, thank you!!

Customer for life,
ChrisJR

P.S. Chris, I hope all your family issues are getting better. I have read so much about it. Urg!!
I stand by you and your products. I think that some people can not ever be pleased in this world and hurt others.

Wow, I can't believe all the negatives.

Well, all i can do is share my very positive experience with Growquest.

I've made 3 orders for total of 4 avocado trees and am very pleased. Ironically I probably would not have ordered if I would have read all these posts but alas, I did and would not hesitate to order again.

Chris actually came by tonight personally to help me plant the last one - a 24" Sir Prize.

I now have:
Oldest to newest
Hass
Multi avocado
Lamb Hass
2 Sir Prize

These trees look so much more vibrant and healthy than the ones I've seen at Home Depot..
Chris, if you read this, thanks again and it was nice meeting your family. I pray things get better for you brother, everyone deserves a second chance.

Anyone who reads this please contact me if you have any questions.

Pat from Newbury Park
Thursday 8-26-2012

Posted on July 9, 2012, updated July 24, 2012
Posted on June 28, 2012, updated July 9, 2012
Posted on June 23, 2012, updated June 28, 2012
Posted on June 21, 2012, updated June 23, 2012
Posted on June 4, 2012, updated June 21, 2012
Posted on June 4, 2011, updated June 4, 2012
Posted on June 3, 2011, updated June 4, 2011
Like many others, I ordered, paid, and have not heard from Chris or Growquest since, except for additional invoices of varying amounts. I have filed an FBI complaint ( cybercrime and interstate fraud ), so anything I say here is a matter of public record. CHRIS: send me my money or my trees, and I will cancel the federal felony complaints.

Order placed 3/19/2011, for 5 bare root roses, paid this character $140 w/cashiers check, after sending him a Chase Quick Pay which he never picked up. No plants received, but several e-mails were received:

On 3/26/2011:

YOUR ORDER Has been processed & adjustments have been made based upon current market place prices, seasonal & availability issues.

One 3/30/2011:

Sorry I got married and went on my honeymoon and I have been back at work for a few days, but I am not going to be able answer you specific email because I have fallen too far behind with emails and my packing and shipping. ..........

And, on 7/28/2011:

I am contacting because I am missing a lot of records for orders from this last winter and spring.
If you made payment to Growquest for this order please E-mail back the amount of the check or electronic payment you made. Remember that I do not charge credit cards.
I am in the process of personal reorganization this summer. I am taking the this time off right not to compile a list of refunds needed.
I have a large supply of olive, citrus and avocado trees at this time if you need those plants. I am not processing new orders for roses and not shipping old orders of roses at this time due to weather.
Please get back to me ASAP so I can get compile the list of shipments and refunds needed and act on it right away.
Thank You
Chris Gilcrest
http://www.growquest.com

AKA: http://www.growquest.net
//www.youtube.com/growquest

and the guy even has the nerve to have a page on Face Book :)!

I tried getting help from the authorities, federal and local in Santa Paula, CA; no one responded.
First bad experience with a plant or related vendor, and the last !
Filed a complaint on theripoffreport.com and an ex-employee replied and stated this guy has been doing this for years, and that he had very few actual plants in stock.
Obviously, stay way away from this character and business !