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On Apr 28, 2009, artemiss Toledo, OH (Zone 5b) wrote:
I recieved an email several days after placing my order giving me a shipping date and stating that my card wouldn't be charged until that date.
What actually happened was that my card was charged a full week ahead of the date I was given, and I have yet to recieve the promised shipping number.
Not such a big deal, except that I hadn't yet transferred funds over to that account, since I didn't anticipate that charge to be deducted until the date I was given, and I incurred fees as a result. My fault for not having the money there already, but still, I feel it was poor communication on behalf of the vendor. I have placed preorders with other companies many months in advance and not had this issue.
Note to Raintree:
It would behoove you to stick to the dates provided in regards to payment, especialIy if it is going to take several weeks to process your orders. I have heard really great things about your merchandise, and was pleased with your prices and selection. I would have loved to have left a positive review, but in light of the poor communication, I just can't.
On May 31st, 2009, artemiss changed the rating from negative to neutral and added the following:
Even though I was not pleased with their communication, the plants received were healthy and hearty.
Mixed results. Ordered raspberries, blueberries, fig, and a pear tree. The raspberries worked out well - not surprising since raspberries are easy to propagate. Blue berry bushes were very tiny. After two years, they are still less than 1 foot tall. The fig was also very small, but figs grow fast. The pear tree had no roots at all. Not just bare root, but no root. The ad says that their fruit trees are "well rooted". It grow about 2" the first year and almost died. The 2nd year it grew another 4", but looks like it will make it now. Raintree did refund my money on the pear.
On Apr 2, 2009, spidra Berkeley, CA (Zone 9b) wrote:
I have had normal experiences (not exceptional, just normal) with Raintree and I've had frustrating ones. My guess is that they have good intentions but have made some bad business decisions as far as managing growth are concerned.
My negatives are that they often take a couple business days to even confirm an online order. Furthermore, I ordered some bareroot trees in winter for spring delivery. I never got an itemized receipt in email and there was a great deal of mystery as to when in spring the trees would finally arrive. This made it hard to arrange the physical help I need to plant trees.
Most recently, I noticed Raintree had a rarity that I wanted to try. I ordered it. A day or two later I was contacted by email because apparently I had entered my cc# wrong. Oh, by the way, the main thing I'd made the order for, the rarity, was out of stock for the season. I found it odd it was mentioned in an offhand way because when checking out of the online shopping cart, I ticked off the box that said to call or email me if something was out of stock. I wonder if my cc# hadn't been typo'd would I have been contacted? In any case, they need to come up with a better shopping cart and inventory system that will let them know that something is sold out and immediately remove it from being listed on their website as available. It's so disappointing to think you've ordered something and come up empty.
On Sep 28, 2008, laurieeirual Boston, MA (Zone 5b) wrote:
Raintree has a nice selection of plants, and I've been happy with some of the things I've ordered.
However, one year I ordered a Hardy Chicago fig tree. It was DOA. They sent me another one, and it didn't make it through the winter. That was the limit of their warranty. As you can tell, I'm still unhappy about it, and haven't ordered from them again.
(I have had success with many other trees, and it wasn't a particularly hard winter.)
I have ordered many items from this compny, incl. grapes, black berries, marrion berries, peach trees, plus ornamentals. I have to say that when they are good they are VERY good, but when I received my first blackberries, one was huge and strong and the two others were tiny and dead, the company replaced them, with MUCH better quality plants. The same exact thing happened with the grape plants I ordered. There customer service was great about sending new products, but I would prefer quality the first time around. This company is not a cheapie garden center, the items are full price, the merchandise should always reflect the price paid. I have stopped ordering from this company after the above purchases.
On Apr 1, 2002, JoeStone Flagstaff, AZ (Zone 5a) wrote:
I've ordered from Raintree Nursery twice, I think, and had no troubles. The fruit trees are doing fine, so far. I did send two email questions to Raintree and was less than satisfied with the responses. In general both emails had to do with blooming dates (plums and quinces). I did not find out what I wanted to know re: plums. I have not gotten an answer to my question about quince blooming dates. I'll try again later, maybe they are busy with spring.
I ordered two blueberries and a book from Raintree. To my astonishment, I received one package (a tall shipping bag) with all three items inside! The smaller (wild lowbush) blueberry did okay, but the taller one (Rubel, northern highbush) was pretty badly bruised - obviously from the book knocking around in the bag. I called Raintree to complained, and told them that I expect it to survive. They said if it didn't I should call back for a replacement.The book was okay, although shipping a book with a bunch of damp plants could have been a problem, too.It's very sad, because the blueberries were large plants and were obviously healthy when packed. The highbush was at least a year older than a comparably priced plant (same cultivar) from Wayside. I think it will live, but it certainly won't do as well as it might have. One odd point is that they shipped a fully sprouted (not dormant) plant in the spring, but they don't grow these themselves (they told me this when I called) so I guess that's how they come in. Their catalog is great, lots of interesting stuff, as well as good selections of ordinary fruit. The information in the catalog, and the planting instructions sent with the plants are good, too. I will probably give them another try.
