Comments regarding David Austin Roses (US)

We bought 19 roses and got free design assistance which was great. Then we ordered 6 more to fill in some spaces. Shipping error and we ended up getting 6 more delievered which David Austin let us keep for free. Those went to post office who didnt tell us and let them sit there for a week. Planted them a day or so ago and hoping for the best.

I highly recommend David Austin Roses. Excellent plants. Of the first 19, all are doing well. I cannot wait to see the garden in full bloom.

Way better plants than roses we've bought elsewhere. Very healthy

This was my first time ordering from this company. No problems ordering over the internet, received a confirmation, and received an e-mail telling me roses had been shipped.

Got two large roses with great roots (nice and wet). Appreciated the detailed planting/culture instructions. Roses received Tues., planted Friday, new growth showing today, Monday. Whoopee, can't wait to see the blooms!

Hi! I just received my first purchase from the company and am happy with the results. They roots look healthy, were well packed and not dry in the least.

I wanted a David Austin rose for a very long time. This year, my husband ordered two of them for Valentine's Day. Yesterday, I received the beautiful rose-printed box at my door. I opened the box to find two plants (Christopher Marlow and Port Sunlight) that were broken and dry...ugh. I always heard DA roses were supposed to be top of the line, so I was very surprised to see them arrive in this condition. I tried calling DA several times today, but all you get is a recording. I left my name and number regarding the damage for Jo VonBargen, but hadn't heard from him/her yet. Kind of a bad first impression...:(

"On May 6, 2009 1:51 PM, David Austin Roses (US) responded with:

We do apologize for the situation, although I understand from my staff that it has all been handled. Shellie said she has taken care of reshipping a rose and Amanda said she had called you back several times about the email and you all had been playing phone tag. Sorry about that, but the phones are extremely heavy right now. I understand Shellie also took care of that for you and that everything is settled. Not the kind of first impression we'd like to leave, but happy that now it's sorted out. Many thanks for your patience.

Best Wishes,
Jo VonBargen
General Manager
800 328 8893"

I ordered $138 worth of roses, with shipping on 4/16 (Thurs). I received an order confirmation immediately, but no notice of shipping in the ensuing days.

Wanting to ensure they went out by Monday 4/20, I e-mailed on 4/19 asking when they would be shipped.

I received NO REPLY until 4/27, six business days later. No apology, just, "Shipped April 24th. Tracking number UPS: XXXXXXXXXXX(etc.) Many thanks!"

WHAT? They shipped bare root roses on 4/24, a Friday?!? So they can sit in a UPS warehouse over a weekend? What responsible nursery does this?! Not to mention they are in Texas (hot) and we are having a heat wave right now in downstate New York (85+ for four days running).

By the time I receive these on 4/30, the Thursday following shipping (according to tracking info), they will have been in transit for *7 days*. I will receive my order *two weeks* to the day that I placed it, having lost a critical week in the northeast's planting window for bare root roses (as an aside, their policy is to only guarantee the roses if you shipment falls within your region's ideal planting window...cutting it a wee bit close here, I'd say).

Regardless of the condition in which they arrive (which I will post upon receipt), the entire experience has been so poor, I had to report it.

I am incredulous; I guess all their operating money went into the glossy, *amazingly* beautiful catalog with a cover almost equivelant to a paperback book!

"On Apr 28, 2009 1:33 PM, David Austin Roses (US) responded with:

I am indeed sorry for your experience with this order. We do, however, dip our plants in a solution that seals in the moisture for 7-8 days for the shipping process so that no matter what day we ship, they should arrive alive and healthy. We do customarily ship every day of the week as the number of orders we have requires it.

The level of customer service we are able to give is not satisfactory to us, either, believe me. We are on skeleton staff as the home office in England is cutting costs and we are struggling to keep up with hundreds of orders and emails and phone messages and we do apologize.

Your credit card has not yet been charged as we are behind on that as well. We will not charge the card for, as you have noted, less than stellar service.

Again, our apologies.

Best Wishes,

Jo VonBargen
General Manager
800 328 8893

The roses from this company perform very well here in Arkansas. We do however get a lot of rain from time to time and have problems with blackspot but the roses smell so good and are so beautiful they are worth it! The customer service is very friendly, a little slow, but friendly. I would recommend them to any rose lover I know. A+

I ordered 10 David Austin Roses that arrived yesterday. They were large healthy bare roots with several shoots on each one. I have ordered from David Austin before and have never been disappointed. My roses from last year are shooting new growth and all survived a nasty Chicago winter. I also have several, 8 year old Teasing Georgia Austin roses that are going strong. A great company with fabulous roses.

I ordered 13 Crocus roses in February and Jo couldn't have been nicer. I was notified Monday that my roses were on the way via UPS and I was able to track the shipment. The roses arrived a day early which was wonderful. I opened the box and I am just amazed at how beautiful these bare root roses are. I think I expected 'twigs', but I am delighted to report these are definitely full grown bushes! I hope I can do right by these roses in my planting. I have had a very positive experience with this company.

I ordered over 20 roses from them earlier this year and a few were slower coming up than others so i was worried but they all are up and running now and about 5 to 7 of them are already blooming. They were shipped bareroot and were quite large when i got them. i don't think it will take long for them to make a nice display.
Jo was also helpful in making the decision of which roses would tolerate the heat and humidity in Alabama.

I ordered three climbing roses from David Austin.

They have been in the ground for a month now and are all showing good signs of growth. Although the ground around them has been thoroughly amended with compost and composted manure, the natural soil is a very heavy clay. As we have had about four weeks of rain I expected the poor things to rot off. Instead they are looking healthy with many shoots developing. I am looking forward to seeing the flowers in Summer.

Order #1 arrived at the appropriate planting time and in good condition - very nice plants.

"On Apr 7, 2009 9:34 PM, David Austin Roses (US) responded with:

Yes, I believe that was me to whom you spoke and those plants are indeed on the way.

I do thank you and all the others here who have posted such lovely comments. We sometimes do accidentally get it right! We're very appreciative of all our customer comments, both good and bad, because the feedback is very helpful in finding ways to improve our service which at the moment is not up to par by any means. We certainly thank all of you for your faithful support and your incredible patience. We love our David Austin customers....you're all the BEST! Many thanks, Jo VonBargen (Gen Mgr)"

I am hoping that I will be able to change this to a positive rating. Yesterday, I ordered 4 roses on the website, which got totally messed up. (I thought everything was ok until I got the confirmation e-mail) I immediately sent an e-mail back, and tried to call the number in the confirmation e-mail, but it was a Sunday, so no luck. They only have hours M-F. The problem is the website. It would not let me change the amount of roses I was ordering, and kept insisting that I was in Alaska for shipping. Well, Minnesota is northern, but not quite that far north! Today, I received an e-mail with the cryptic note "All is done!" All WHAT is done? Order fixed? Order cancelled? Knowing that sometimes even the best companies can have mix-ups, especially at this busy time of year, I called to confirm what "was done". I must say, the young lady that I talked to was very dismissive of my concern, and got very short with me when I had to interrupt her to tell her why I was calling. To top it off, she told me that their computers were not set up to send confirmation e-mails for "fixed" orders. I will get one through the post office in 2-3 weeks. Well, I hope that it won't be too late to fix before my credit card is charged, and the roses are shipped. The attitude with which I was treated is really the reason I am disgusted with the company. There are so many places that sell beautiful plants, I don't feel that I need to give my business to one that thinks customers with questions or concerns are someone to be rude to. I hope that this is the exception, and not the rule, for David Austin Roses.

"On Apr 7, 2009 9:20 PM, David Austin Roses (US) responded with:

I am extremely sorry for your experience with one of my new people and believe me, we will be working on more useful techniques in dealing with frustrated customers. I did see she was having trouble with your call and plugged in to hear it. You were upset with the website and subsequent email and she was extremely harried and overworked; neither of these being your fault, of course, but you were asking questions and then interrupting and not letting her answer. It all made for a very volatile situation. They are indeed working on our website which is in England, and for some time the email confirmation feature was disabled and it took them some time to figure out why.

Our company is growing by leaps and bounds, and training new staff in the middle of a deluge of orders is total chaos. Again, not your problem. I would hope, however, that you would try us again to see if we've improved. We're not happy with our dinosaur order system either, and with impatience on all sides, it makes for a bad experience all around. The harried IT staff in England is trying to get it all sorted, but it's a slow process as they've added Japan as well, which is tied to our website, so they're dealing with a language problem as well. They have promised we will have a brand new order system by December. None of this has anything to do with you, and is certainly no excuse for poor service...I'm simply trying to show the circumstances in which we all find ourselves. Personally, I would like to see DA's stop growing for a moment so staff can catch up! Unfortunately, DA roses are in big demand now and these are the growing pains.

The young lady of which you speak is dealing with 250-300 emails per day and with that volume, all responses have to be abbreviated to get them all done. We will work on wordage that is more informative and less dismissive and again, we do apologize for your negative experience. If you wish to speak to me, you may phone 800 328 8893, or email me at us@davidaustinroses.com. We certainly would like to mend the rift if we can. All the best, Jo VonBargen (Gen Mgr)

Finally broke down and actually ordered roses as opposed to buying them locally. Beautiful,large roots. Moist upon arrival, well packaged. Loved the "rose" box they are shipped in! If there is one small glitch it would be the lack of an immediate confirmation upon ordering. I never knew if they received my order....I emailed them asking for confirmation but never received a reply. I could have called, but just assumed my order had been lost in cyber space. So, when I saw Jackson and Perkins had some DA at Costco I bought quite a few. Well, not 3 days later, I received an email from David Austin with shipping details of my order! They arrived exactly when they said they would and the difference between the 2 (Costco's J&P and my actual DA) were very noticeable. DA being far superior in all regards.

Was pleased with my shipment this week. Some of the roots were so large I had to expand my predug holes. Nice healthy plants. They had quoted me a later ship date, but I am always prepared as my experience over the years with many nurseries is that you might as well expect your order anytime after placing it. My only complaint is that I did not get an automatic return email, but they correpsonded with my quickly when I wrote to follow up. They have a great selection and a beautiful catalog to put under your pillow!

I just received my roses on 2/11/09. They were in wonderful shape and I look forward to growing them!
The packaging kept the roots moist and ready for planting, and all of the plants were in tact without bent braches or severed roots. Very nice job!

I'll update you as the plants come along!

Everytime I order with David Austin it is a great experience. Their roses are gorgeous, healthy, and smell amazing. Any difficulties I have had have been resolved by polite and timely customer service. I wouldn't go anywhere else for roses.

I ordered 12 roses from this company this spring. All the roses I picked were available when I placed my order, at least that's how the website showed. I waited two weeks and didn't receive any notification of shipment, then I e-mailed them several times but never received any response. 3 roses arrived a month after the order was placed. They were in great condition and they looked healthy and definitely much better than the roses I had ordered from Jackson & Perkins two years ago. However, I was very disappointed in DA's customer service. If the roses I ordered were out of stock, they should let me know about it. I was planning to plant a beautiful rose border, but now the plan has to be postponed.
They already charged my credit card for the full amount, but I have no idea when my other roses will arrive. Probably next spring?

"On Feb 3, 2009 10:53 AM, David Austin Roses (US) responded with:

Please phone or email me with your order information so I can investigate what was done. I apologize for the late reply; I only just now saw your comment. Our policy is to send a statement letting the customer know if something is out of stock. If this was not done, I need to follow that trail and get it corrected. My apologies for the lapses on our part.

Best Regards
Jo VonBargen
800 328 8893
us@davidaustinroses.com"

I ordered over 30 roses from this company this year. Every single one of them is beautiful. Taking care of roses is very hard work but it is worth it when those buds open up! They smell soooo good. The customer service is outstanding and all of my bareroot roses arrived in excellent condition. I will continue to do business with David Austin Roses.

The plants are robust and look healthy. Therefor, a positive rating.
But... It took them a week to get here; shipped on Wednesday, arrived the following Tuesday. That I have never heard of before. No other company lets plants sit in a box that long. They are dormant, so it shouldn't have hurt them. ( Or so I hope...)
Some roots are broken and the canes were sticking out of the plastic, out of the box. There was nothing but the plants in the box, no material to prevent the roses from shifting during transport. I was horrified to see the box get to me in such a way.
Christie
I have been happier with other companies so far, but will comment on the progress of the roses and see how they hold up.
Because I ordered the plants in May, late in the season according to their terms, I had to accept them without the one year warranty. My choice. I plan on pampering them because the catalog has such outstanding pictures.

"On Feb 3, 2009 10:50 AM, David Austin Roses (US) responded with:

Dear Mrs_Colla,

I do apologize for the obvious sloppiness in packing this order. We are currently undergoing a training process with an entirely new warehouse staff and have had a few slip through like yours. No excuse, please understand, but that's the reason. I'm hoping these types of errors will not recur and if you will phone or email me, I can mark your order in case you have trouble down the line. Our roses are always guaranteed for a year in any case. We do appreciate all feedback as it helps us to improve. Many thanks!

All the best,
Jo VonBargen
800 328 8893
us@davidaustinroses.com"

Very helpful, polite, and knowledgeable customer service department. The roses were shipped as expected and were huge. Although three are slow to come out of dormancy, they asked that I keep them posted to as to have them replaced if necessary. You can't ask for a better company to do businesss with.

I was so impressed back in 1991 or 92 with Austin roses, I went into business of selling these roses and only them. I had at that time had searched hard to find a local wholesale supplier. I live in Maryland. I ended up buying over 400 from Hortico in Canada. Myself and cousin took on alone getting the rose root stock planted in pots. We took some of those to a well known very old seed supplier and small nursery. They were so impressed they bought from us right away. The Ladew gardens, a well known topiary and mansion, the president saw the roses at the seed company and took my phone number to contact us. She also had a beautiful English style prominent residence and almost a half acre of nothing but roses. She planted the Austin roses closest to her home in her starter garden. She asked what I used for fertilizer. Horse manure. We owned 6 Belgian draft horses plenty of manure of course. Manure tea works great. Heritage, Abraham Darby, as numerous species as we could get along with these. I am not in business now but, remain dedicated to only buying Austin roses. The introduction to the area I was living in made such an impression on buyers there along with a wider area across Maryland. The aroma and hardiness can not be surpassed in my view.

I have ordered from David Austin Roses for a number of years now, and have been consistently delighted with their plants and their customer service. Our rose society placed a large group order a few years ago and our members were also pleased. The roses came with good cane and root size and were packed carefully. I've only had one rose not thrive after planting it, and was immediately credited for another after I contacted their customer service. Because David Austin roses are hardy here in Northern Michigan and have such a beautiful form and fragrance, I'm pleased to have a reliable source with such positive customer service.

I ordered 5 different varieties, all arrived with moist bare roots and were in good condition. They all appeared to be healthy and of good size. Shipping was timed in accordance with the normal time for planting bareroots in my area. Provided the plants hold up to our heat and humidity I may try more.

I have ordered 3 times from this company for a total of 12 rose plants. All of the roses arrived in fantastic shape. If there was a substitution, then it was one I specified as acceptable. I have had 1 rose that didn't make it, but I believe it was due to animal damage, so I didn't file a claim.
All of the rest far exceeded my expectations for growth in the first year. My mother has ordered from them over the phone and says that she prefers this because the people are so nice. I will never buy any other kind of rose, and I will never order roses anywhere else!

"

I agree that this appears to be shoddy service and I do apologize. This is not the high level of customer care we have always aspired to. We have a couple of new trainees and it appears I haven't gotten across our standards to one of them for some reason and I will certainly work on that.

We will also pass along the broken root info to the warehouse manager. Something like this should not have gone out as a grade one rose.

If you will contact me personally at 800 328 8893 I will be most happy to make this right for you and for your Mother as well. We would not like to leave this situation hanging as an unappetizing experience for you both. Alternatively, you may email me at us@davidaustinroses.com.

Again, our apologies for the poor service.

Best Regards,
Jo VonBargen
General Manager
David Austin roses"

I ordered 4 roses for spring 2007. They came packed e in a nice looking box. They are very healthy. One of the roses I ordered Lady Emma Hamilton was out of stock at the last moment before shipping so they sent me Pat instead. I really like Pat so it was a good substitute. I put my order in really early for spring 2008 so I really hope they will have enough in stock for my order. I am very much in love with most of the DA roses and look forward to my 2008 spring order.

I purchased 2 rose bushes from Dave Austin Roses that were delivered today. Since I had read the reviews for this company, I knew they would be arriving in a plastic bag sans packing material. I work for a web-based company and make a large number of purchases on line, but was always leery about purchasing plants. Dave Austin replied within the hour, ackowledging my purchase. Shipping was timely and I was furnished with a tracking number and a link to UPS so I could watch my little guys as they moved across the country. The arrived at my door well packaged in a very sturdy box, are a good size and in great condition. I am a VERY satisfied customer.

My two DA's bareroot roses were excellent specimens, with large canes and extensive root systems--and arrived moist and ready to go.

I am just a beginner with roses, and usually consider all the thorns to be a real bother. I prefer to grow Tree peonies and daylilies, along with magolia as my favorite trees. But my wonderful neighbor recently bought a Heritage DA rose bareroot for me as a present. She loves roses, and thought I should try one. After i planted the bareroot, I did some research and discovered how beautiful the DA roses are. I then went on the phone and ordered three Gertrude J. at half price from the recent sale. They came in a well protected box right on time, and I gave one each to my wonderful neighbor as a return present, and one to my mom, and kept one for myself. Hopefully they will grow and prosper, but I must say, the company is first rate from service to prompt delivery. It's a real winner in my book.

I purchased David Austin Roses in 2001. They flourished. I fell in love with David Austin Roses. I just recieved my three Shropshire Lads today and as before David Austin Roses were lovely. They are the only roses I will buy.
Crystal Berger
Birch Bay, WA

I was completely satisfied with this Company's service, shipping method, and, most importantly, plant quality. Planting bare-root roses, usually when the weather is cool, is frankly a chore.
The plants exceeded my expectations for #1 grade.
I just filled out their "Customer Survey" and thanked them for providing a venue for outreach and feed-back.
The Company offers toll-free phone contact for advice.
They emailed me a week before delivery with the exact date so that I was expecting the roses.
Both their catalog and web site are beautifully designed and informative.
I am very partial to these generally fragrant and graceful, rather than stiff, Austin varieties. They also seem to be over-wintering well in my zone 5 region.

I have ordered a number of roses from David Austin over the past few years. They have always shipped large healthy plants which do wonderfully in my garden. Last year one of the roses I ordered was mismarked and turned out to be the wrong cultivar. Of course I didn't find this out until it bloomed the wrong color and shape, but when I contacted the company in June 2006 they were very helpful and promised to ship me the correct rose during the 2007 shipping season as all of their plants are bare root and it was too late in the 2006 season to ship safely. The replacement has arrived, been planted and looks great. I am always impressed at the size and quality of their plants, and their customer service gets top marks.

I have grown HUNDREDS of roses over the years (including some DA roses) and even now have over 30 in my 1/3 acre yard. My friend and I ordered 12 DA roses. We asked them to ship earlier than their normal time (May) because here in the Pacific NW that is late to plant roses. They arrived in May (late May? June?) and we planted. Four of our roses did not make it. We asked for replacement and they did not respond, finally I called in late winter and they said they would send replacement next spring. Never arrived. I had to call again and they said they were out, they would send replacement NEXT spring. So we will have to wait another year.

Outside of service, the roses themselves are smaller than I would have thought, very prone to black spot & mildew, smaller flowers and very floppy. Will NOT order more English roses.

"

Dear Kimsuki,



We’re sorry to hear that you have had a bad experience with David Austin roses, but are puzzled by the dates and details you provide.

David Austin Roses normally ships in late March or early April to your area, with the exact dates depending on the season’s weather conditions.

Shipment outside the delivery window for the area would only be agreed at the customer’s own request, which would normally only occur if a customer placed an order very late. Where a customer specifically requests a late delivery, shipment can only be made at the customer’s own risk, although we do offer advice on the special care which will be required to help their roses establish in their garden during hot spells.

All roses bought direct from us through our mail order services and despatched during the recommended delivery windows are covered by our twelve month guarantee. If you have bought our roses from another source, which does seem to be a possibility given your timing information, you would need to check the terms of their guarantee.

We take great pride in our responsiveness to customer enquiries or requests for information. I have personally looked back through all orders raised for your area since 2002 and have not so far been able to locate your order. If you can contact me toll free on 800 328 8893 with your name and address (and ideally the order number if you still have it) I can respond to you in more detail. This will also enable us to remove your details from our mailing list.

Best Regards,
Jo VonBargen
General Manager"

Beautiful roses, all in wonderful condition, all grew and bloomed. Not a blackspot in sight. Knock on wood.

Wish I had room for more.

Absolutely first rate! I love David Austin Roses! I have ordered many, many roses from this company and all have just done fabulously! I live in CA (I suspect despite the lack of humidity, the climate here is perhaps similiar to that in Texas) as does most of my family, and we have all planted bareroots from David Austin with great success.

Amongst all my others, I have a Glamis Castle that is the envy of the neighborhood! And my mother grows a St. Swithun that is the most beautiful bush I have ever seen! It blooms without abandon throughout spring, summer and fall here- and the blooms look like lovely, pinky, tissuey-paper things!

I find myself ordering from David Austin year after year- and eagerly await the arrival of the catalog- as well as the announcement of the new roses for each year.

They also have great deals if you order in quantity- check the website and especially their catalog for the particulars.

Very pleased with the three roses that I purchased.
Healthy roses, great packaging, and my order was
processed quickly.

C&NN

I received 3 roses this week in beautiful condition. They are soaking right now and the leaf buds are starting to unfurl. They all have long, healthy roots and several thick branches. They even arrived in a beautiful box with black toile roses printed on it. First class operation.

I have grown DA roses a number of years. Until last year, I ordered from another company. Last year I ordered 14 from DA's Tyler, Texas. This year I ordered 9. I was thrilled with the roses I got last year, much bigger and healthier than the ones I ordered in prior years. They leafed out only a few days after planting. I recieved excellent CS both this year and last. My problem is, living in the desert, I need my roses as early as possible and I always order late! My roses have come very quickly and in great shape both years. This year's 9 (actually 10. They sent me a free one), are soaking. They look great and I am looking forward to seeing them in bloom. By the way, I think DA roses are beautiful, though very different from each other. There is something for every taste. I have about 30 in my yard and love every one. I am looking forward to some of the new "style" such as Windflower, Buttercup and Scarborough Fair. I love David Austin's new book, The English Roses, which just came out. Beautiful!!

I ordered four roses from their specials' collection and I have to report that they are doing fine. They arrived with a minimum of 4 canes each. Very healthy and broke dormancy within a day of being soaked.

Beautiful selection of DA's on the website, easy to order, and good customer service. The only thing they don't provide is a bib with all the drooling you will do looking at all those pics.

I am hoping they email coupons and specials for their repeat customers. I am really looking forward to next year's selections. Oh wait, I am not going to be able to wait a year for my next order.

Marta Acaba
Tampa, Florida

Excellent, excellent customer service! My previous opinion was pretty lukewarm, but they've been so fantastic since then that they've more than made up for it. I ordered 6 bareroots last year. They arrived very late (2-3 months after they were supposed to arrive to me in zone 9b). They were disappointingly small, with a few that are still much smaller than most bareroots I've gotten this year, so I suspected my order had been forgotten and I got the runty leftovers. I got one rose from DA this year at the proper time for my zone and it was much larger. I sent them an e-mail with photos stating that this year's rose made me convinced I had indeed been forgotten last year. They offered to replace the whole order. They were very accommodating about the shipping date, since I was traveling, and I've got my much bigger replacements soaking now waiting to be planted. If you have any problems, contact them -- they will make it right.