The scoop on 'Vermont Bean Seed Company'

Although ordering just before the company's professed busiest time (a day or two before Feb.1), I received my order in five days at my home in Seattle! The freebies tossed in were a nice touch, and the prices were good. Will report back if having problems with germination or other plant failure, but all looks good to date!

I ordered the seeds and had very nice experience. The quantities were generous, quality and germination very good. I was pleased with my order and will order again.

I ordered seeds from this company, and received them quickly. I like that they have seeds in lb sizes not just packages.
I haven't planted them yet, but I'm sure they will be fine as all companies have to meet germination standards.....

The peas, pole beans, lima beans, and bush beans failed to germinate at all or in some cases at a rate of less than 20%. A total of 5 varieties were ordered and planted at least once and in several instances twice or three times. I also noticed that they did not put the year for which the seeds were packaged and that makes me suspicious that I am receiving older seeds. For a company named Vermont Bean, this is totally unacceptable.

This company had a good price for Wall O' Waters, a product I have used for 5 years and been so happy with that I ordered 12 more from Vermont Bean Co. What they sent me are not the well-designed, name brand WOW's, but a cheap knock-off that is a poor imitation. I discovered their shoddiness after taking 2 hours just to set up 9 of them last weekend. In that process, I broke 3 of my plants when the products - heavy with water - fell over on them, this despite being careful not to overfill any particular side which would cause the product to lean. Since real WOW's have an actual foot to stand on and the water is self-leveling inside the WOW, I have not had this problem with WOW's. Additionally, the substituted products do not form the protective teepee shape of a WOW unless you follow their suggestion to use a rubber band to close the top. What jerry-rigging!
If VBC had sent me the advertised product I thought I was ordering, I'd have been happy. It has been 4 days since I e-mailed them requesting a resolution; but I have not heard a word from them. It is inexcusable to substitute such a crummy product for a well-known product.

I ordered from Vermont Bean company and checked to be shipped early. After a few weeks I called and asked where my order was they said Ohio is late ship....I said look at my request and the woman told me I had early ship checked. I said yes where is my order.She did expediate my order and I received it 10 days later with the 2 Garlic collections backordered. Today I received the 2 Garlic collection and 2 of the 3 kinds were soft and moldy. The Elephant and the California. I cannot believe they would even ship this garbage. The bag is clear on one side and you can see the mold and feel they are mushy. I am really disappointed in the seeds and plant material I received from them. I was a first time buyer from them and now I am a last time buyer.

I placed seed order on February 15th along with many other orders to other seed companies including Seymour Seeds and Vermont Bean Seed Co which are related to Jung. I had not had problems in the past with Jung. In early March, I rec'd my credit card statement and was billed for the items but the items had not arrived. Meanwhile, all of my other seed orders came in about 7 days of ordering. I emailed Vermont Bean Seed Co on 3/3 and no one responded. I sent a second email on 3/5 and was told they had shipped weeks earlier. They said if I didn't receive by 3/9 to email and they would express mail replacement. I emailed on 3/12 and got no response. I emailed on the 13th & 14th and received no response. What horrible service. I am so angry that I have missed the deadline to plant many of the seeds ordered. To make it worse, I ordered product from two different web sites Vermont Bean Co and Seymour Seed Co and neither of the seeds have come. I will never again use this company for seeds or materials. It is frustrating to deal with customer service who obviously are understaffed and lack training. It is more frustrating that this company bills before they ship. ALL of the other items I ordered from various companies Pinetree, Select Seeds, etc.. -- over 70 packets of seeds -- were billed upon shipment - not upon order. So now, since they are not communicating anymore I will have to contact my credit card company to refute the charges. If you are a serious gardener please buy from this company at your own risk! They get an A+ for the catalog but a complete F for service and customer support.

This is the perfect opportunity to remind everyone that with internet ordering please watch the auto fill cities. If your zip code has more than one city listed in the directory please check that you have not just entered through the field, but that you have picked the correct city for us to ship your order to.

I plant a lot of dry beans. For a number of years my experience with this company on "dry bean seed" has been good. Many varieties offered are a plus here. Germination, growth and yield has been good regardless of the variety of the bean. I pick and choose seed companies based on the factors above. However I don't buy all my garden seed from this company.
BCS

Ordered orienpet lilies at a very good price but they back-ordered them. When they finally arrived, they were sealed in a plastic bag & very moldy & mushy. They gave me a partial refund when I complained but only 3 came up & they were tiny little things, too small to ever bloom.
Also, poor germination with some of the seeds (Delicata Squash, Mixed melons, English cukes). Several items back-ordered. On the positive side, they gave me free pea seeds that came up like crazy!

Nice company to work with. Cust service was polite & efficient. Seeds were packaged in very nice printed paper packets, an ample supply of seeds were included.

Ordered seven different types of beans. Received my order in a very timely manner and have had excellent germination with the seeds. Also ordered Datura seeds and had 100% germination rates with those. They may not be in Vermont but a great place to get a nice selection of bean seeds.

This was my first time doing business with this company. The catalog is very nice and my order was filled promptly and everything arrived in very good shape. All products and seeds seem to be of very good quality. When I called customer service on the phone they were very nice and polite. I plan on doing business with them again.

I placed small seed orders with Vermont Bean Seed Co. both last year and this year. Both times my order was shipped within 10 days and both were accurate and professionally handled. Seed count is generous, and their germination rate is good. I will order again from them.

I have ordered from this company for years. My orders have always been shipped promptly. The seeds I have received have had excellent germination rates and excellent productivity.

I ordered seeds from this company in Feb.2004. They arrived in a decent amount of time 2 weeks. When I planted 25 of the seeds only 4 of them grew. I found out that the company is owned by Jung Seed Co. so I went to there store in Sun Prairie, WI spoke to a guy by the name of Jeff who refused to give me a refund or to replace my seeds. He told me that all the companies that are owned by Jungs, the seeds are all packaged in the same place in Randolph, WI Just put in different packages. I will never buy from these guys again.

Was going to order from them until I saw that they weren't even in Vermont...using the good name only. I emailed them asking why they called themselves the Vermont Bean... when they weren't even in Vermont, it seemed deceptive. I never heard from them, just ignored me.

I have ordered from this company a few times in the last several years. Overall, the delivery and quality is good enough so I do not throw away their catalog like some other companies.

One of the reasons that I order only every couple of years is the fact I order too much. I guess I did not need 5 lbs. of bean seed...

I have used VBS for several years now.
I find it a good source for bean and pea seed.
Shipment times have always been acceptable (but I usually order early maybe that is the secret(.
seed quality, germination, and packaging have always been superb.

I made an online order with this company. Seeds were shipped to my door just days later. The prices and shipping costs were a good deal. I looked in the seed packets and it seems that in all of them there were more seeds than what was stated in the catalog. I think I once read something in their catalog about them just recently making some service improvements. They must have done so, because I will be a returning customer to them. I really reccomend that others should give this place a try.

Our story is similar to that of others. We ordered from this firm based on advertising in a "country" journal we subscribe to. We ordered various vegetable and flower seeds. When I tried, after several weeks, to find out where our order was, I learned the company was shipping from the midwest, not Vermont. I got a man who indicated, after I complained, that our order would be sent out immediately. This was after waiting about four weeks for any piece of the order. (Needless to say our money had already gone through their till.) The rate of germination of the seeds was the poorest we've had in over twenty-five years of gardening. We also bought plants that were clearly stressed (long leggy, light-starved appearance) and did not survive more than a couple of weeks. We will not order from this company again. (I wish I'd known about this WEB site before we ordered the first time! Thanks for a great service fellow gardeners!)

I ordered all my seeds, from 3 different companies, on the same day. The 2 other orders came within 10 days. After a month of waiting for Vermont, I called and was told my order hadn't even been processed yet, and would be sent to the order-filling department in 10 days to 2 weeks. After another 3 weeks had gone by I called again and was told my order would be sent to the order-filling department in 10 days to 2 weeks! At that point I cancelled. Under no circumstances would I recommend anyone use this company!!!

Plants ordered never arrived. Customer service says shipped 10 days ago - but can't track shipment because they didn't chosse to use UPS or Fed Ex. For seeds, some packets ordered not included in shipment. Avoid at all costs. Excuse by customer service, "Overwhelmed by orders." Shouldn't be a problem next year. This misjudgement on my part to be resolved through the credit card company.

Each year I order seeds from a variety of companies. This year I ordered from J.L. Hudson, Select Seeds, Park's, Seymour's, Johnny's Selected Seeds, Cook's Garden and others. The yields were anywhere from 80 to 100% except for one company: Vermont Bean Seed. The yield was 0%. I sowed a second batch. 0%. Given that I germinated the same seeds (just different colors) from other companies at the same time and same conditions I would have to say that this is not a company I would order from again.

I placed an order in January, and a lot of the seeds I wanted to order were already out of stock. It also took 2 mos. for my order to arrive. When it did arrive, the order was correct. I probably won't order from them again unless there are some seeds I cannot find anywhere else.

This used to be a good company. I hesitated this year when I saw their address as I recognized it as associated with another company which had disintegrated into a very poor company to deal with. I should have listened to my instincts as I have been unable to acquire a refund or my seeds well past the time when they should have been shipped.

Placed a vegatable seed order in early February. Here it is almost mid-April. No seeds, no notification.

Going back to my reliable sources, Pinetree and Stokes.

Vermont Bean Seed Company may have a wide selection but their service is very bad. I placed our order on February 21, 2003. To date, I have received two partial shipments. The last shipment billed us for two items (thermometer and ties) which were not in the box.

We have called, spoken with a rep., and sent an email but have not yet received the items or been credited the charge.

In addition, I have recently sent an email requesting information on a number of backordered items and some plants that are on hold. I wanted to know when VBS expected to receive the backordered items and when is the anticipated ship dates for the plants. After waiting over five weeks, this is not an unreasonable request.

I received a very short answer stating "Thank you for your order, It is in the filling area along with most of your backordered items. " Well, a lot of good that does me for planning purposes.

I haver sent off another request asking for specific information. All I want is basic information about my order.

I have purchased from three other seeds companies this season, including Johnnys Seeds. All the other companies provided prompt shipping and were very helpful in answering questions. Vermont Bean is the worst. I will not purchase from them again.

This is not the same company I ordered from back in the 70s & 80s.

It took almost a month for our seeds to come this season & with backorders. Being a small Farm, we depend on getting the right seed that is offered for sale. Their site is a mess & needs updated.

I called for 2 weeks & wrote 6 e-mails, none of them were answered, that's right even the telephone. Well for those of you who were growing back in the 70s, you will recognize their partners today are those seed houses we did not order from even back then.

It seems like a lot of the great seed vendors out of the 70s, have the same name but the people who made it like that then are gone now.

I ordered from Stokes the same day, & got my seeds in 2 days. Stokes will call you when there is a back order.
Don't waste your money on whatever this has become, it's not Vermont Bean & seed any longer. I even took them out of my favorites.

35 DAYS since I ordered and nothing has arrived.I have called three times in the past two weeks and unlike a previous comment, I received the same excuse "your order is in the shipping room now and will be going out in the next day or two" same operator?. NEVER AGAIN

Customer service is abysmal. On-line order placed, including 2 phone numbers & e-mail address. A US mail question re: my order was sent 5 days after the on-line order. Received by me 10 days after order placement. No phone call or e-mail to request follow up information. So why do they need them??? if not for service, eh? After 10 calls to customer service and not being able to get through, I sent an e-mail questioning customer service. This has not yet been responded to (3 days) and continued the telephone attempts. 5 attempts later I was able to at least leave a message. Again, no response...3 days. Certainly can not recommend.

This company is to beans and peas what Tomato Growers Supply is to tomatoes and peppers. You will find varieties here you can find nowhere else, including both new varieties and lots of heirlooms. Their selection on other types of vegetables is nothing to write home about, but after reading their catalog you'll want to plant nothing but beans anyway. Quality is always high.

i ordered 25 asparagus roots, and 2 different kinds of potatoes. i was worried at first that they wouldn't arrive in time to plant but they did and i planted as soon as they arrived. everything made it and growing great. i also ordered a bunch of beans every seed came up. i am very happy and will order from them again.

I would not order from this company again even if someone paid me. The customer service stunk...it took almost a month and a half to receive my order. I made phone call after phone call and each time got a different excuse.

We have had good success with seeds from Vermont Bean Seed.

First time to order form their web site. What Happened? Most of their products never came up when selected. Also typed in the skew number and nothing happened. They better update their site, don't think I'll be back.

Good source for beans, excellent results!

I HAVE USED THIS COMPANY ONCE AND THEIR SEEDS GERMINATED JUST FINE.

I have used this company one time and service was fine.My seeds came in a timely manner and germination rate was good.

We have been ordering large amounts of seed, perennials, fruit and shrubs for the farm over the past decade. For seed, we recommend the Vermont Bean Seed Company, which has lots more than beans…

Guess what their specialty is??? BEANS. All kinds of BEANS!! Plus other assorted vegetables and a few flowers from Seymours. If you are looking for an heirloom bean, these guys probably have it!