Re: Wayside

At 04:30 AM 1/12/00 -0500, you wrote:
 >
>I have found that the large companies, like Wayside and Spring Hill, who
>have the money to come up with great advertising and mailing lists, will
>catch the eye of beginning gardeners, who then have many failures which
>they blame on the company.  If people were to accumulate a few years
>gardening experience and then revisit these 'starter' companies, they might
>find that they are not so bad.  I have received puny plants whichwere
>replaced when I compl.ained of the size.  In one case, I received the wrong
>species of Baptisia, and didn't get around to telling Wayside for three
>years.  They sent me the correct one.
>
>I know this is not quite the 'libel' tangent, but perhaps it's relevent to
>our group to discuss reliability, now that the ordering season is about to
>commence.
>
>
>Sheila Smith
>mikecook@pipeline.com
>Niles, MI  USA, Z 5/6
>

Sheila,
  OK, I'll bite...In one of my posts, I pointed out the need for companies
to be responsive to customers..And Wayside is a good example. I have had
mixed luck with them, some plants good, some bad, some mislabelled. BUT, I
haven't crossed them off my list because they have always replaced
material, no questions asked. So any time someone asks my opinion of them I
will include both those aspects..Yes, there should be fewer mistakes, but
like you say, they are a big company with a high volume and they don't grow
their own material in most cases. All that adds up to a higher mistake rate.

Negative example:
On the other hand a small nursery I have dealt with for years with nary a
problem sent me three mislabelled Hostas. I knew they were the wrong cv's
because I already grew the same one in my yard and it corressponded both
with written and pictured descriptions. But when I called this nursery they
were quite rude about it, insisted that they were correct and *I* was wrong
(although they are not Hosta specialists) and did not offer to replace,
refund or exchange. That was the last time I ordered from them, and I told
them so.

Positive example:
  Last year I sent a $75.00 order to Bridgewood (a first time order for me,
and before I joined the hosta list and met Chick). The order was sent
correctly, with one problem...They sent a duplicate order! Two boxes, two
sets of plants. I called and talked to them, willing to send extra plants
back, or even pay for them (since they were cv's I really wanted in my
garden). But they insisted I keep the plants, no charge, since "it was our
mistake." Now that's service! So they will definitely be at the top of my
list from now on.

Gerry
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