Bad Experience, but not dead plants
- To: s*@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
- Subject: Bad Experience, but not dead plants
- From: G* O*
- Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2000 07:50:26 -0400
At 02:23 AM 7/14/00 -0400, you wrote:
>The megabusinesses are usually the ones that don't argue about
refunds...they make so much
>money, that the possibility of losing 'good will' sales from an unpleasant
dispute isn't
>worth the price of the average gardener's order. I have contacted Burpee
before (about
>seeds with poor germination), and they gave me a refund AND new seeds. No
requirement to
>return the 'bad' merchandise, or other rules. Their customer service
people couldn't have
>been nicer.
>
My experience with the large mail order outfits has been the same. Cheerful
and prompt refund (not alwyas replacement, though).
But what do you do when the order arrives alive, but it's not what you
ordered? A couple of years ago I ordered 3 Hosta montana aureomarginata
from a specialty nursery that I had patronized for a long time. When they
arrived, they were clearly NOT H. m. aureomarginata (which I already had
but wanted more of) but just "plain" ol H. montana. When I called to inform
the nursery, I was put on the phone with the owner who insisted that I was
wrong and he was right and was quite rude about it. My suspicion is that he
was sold the wrong plants by a wholesaler and didn't want to have to
correct the problem. Either that or some temporary nursery help sent me
the wrong plant and the owner didn't want to admit that possibility, either.
Nothing I could do but tell him he had lost my business forever..The only
consolation is that now, five years later, I have three of the most
beautiful H. montanas you've ever seen. They still list the plant in their
catalogue...I'm almost tempted to order another and see whether things have
changed.
Gerry
