Re: Bad Experience, but not dead plants

I had the wrong thing shipped to me once, or so I thought.  The third
spring, my "blue angel" hosta were still definitely green and the leaf
oblong and pointed; also fairly small.  This was the last straw!  I called
the nursery and they asked that I send in a leaf, which I did.  AFter their
botonist looked at it, he was fairly certain it was a blue angel, but
couldn't be positive since they didn't look like blues in their youth.  The
question for me was:  it's the third year and this is youth??  (I know it's
basically young adulthood for most hosta...BUT!) Anyway, they sent three
replacements all with giant root systems, and I replanted the first set and
replanted with these new ones.  This was such a lot of work that I felt like
keeping the first ones--whatever they were--was just due (not that the
nursery asked me to return them).

Guess what?  This year, the old three came up in their new place and are
DEFINITELY blue angels!!  The three they sent look just like my old ones
did!  Once I look up which nursery this was with, I'll call them and update
the story and pay up.

Diann

> -----Original Message-----
> From: PRIMROSES [s*@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU]On Behalf Of
> Gerry/Bob O'Neill
> Sent: Friday, July 14, 2000 6:50 AM
> To: shadegardens@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
> Subject: [SG] Bad Experience, but not dead plants
>
>
> 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
>
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