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On Sep 13, 2005, myresortonahill Pickett, WI (Zone 5a) wrote:
Schreiner's has the worst customer service. According to their web site the last day to ship to Wisconsin was Sept. 8th, and you had to post your order in advance a week prior. I posted my order on Sept. 1st. It took me quite awhile since I have only dial up service, and I did so after a long work day driving across state. I followed up with a call on the order the next day to make sure they received it even though the website said the order was successful. The next day when I spoke to the customer service representative, she was very rude. She told me that the cutoff was on Sept. 6th, and when I informed her that the website had a Sept 8th cutoff, it took me awhile to post the order, and it was my first time...etc, she said that the date was being "corrected" as we spoke! I could have the iris order, but no guarantee! But when she saw that I had an order amount for $107, she consulted someone else, and said that they would honor the order. I told her that I intended to pot up a couple of iris, she got rude again and told me point blank that I could not do that! I am a novice, I will admit, but on their webpage there is a large section on potting up iris, and informed her of that. I told her that I would think things over.
I did just that, and located some very reputable growers.
One large grower offered to dig iris out of their show gardens after hearing of my poor customer experience!
Schreiner's customer representative told me that I would probably get a letter in the mail explaining the reason they could not honor the order, but that was before she told me that they would honor the order afterall. I have not received a response from the company. No one has gotten back to me after another follow up call. In fact the order is still hanging out there. As far as I know it has not been posted to my credit card, since I did check. There are so many contradictions that this representative stated, that I can only hope for the company's sake that this is a single isolated incident and does not reflect on the company as a whole since they overall have a very positive rating. I just had bad luck, but it was bad enough to make me look elsewhere and find companies that are just as good if not better for my needs.
On June 2nd, 2008, myresortonahill added the following:
I am so glad that I ordered from a different company. My iris are so beautiful, years and still growing strong and beautiful INCLUDING THE ONES THAT I GREW IN POTS and later planted out the following season. Schreiner's Iris Gardens never contacted me and never apologized for their poor customer service. I guess in these days of cash being a little less fluid, it doesn't matter that they lost a customer. I have the most beautiful bearded iris from Nola's Iris Gardens and Nicholls Gardens.
In late summer '95, I saw an ad for Schreiners in one of the gardening magazines. The iris were pretty, the price seemed reasonable. I wasn't familiar with the company but decided to take a chance and send in an order.What I got in return was a box of 20 or so slightly blemished iris AND hundreds and hundreds of lively, well-nourished APHIDS!I wanted to destroy the entire package before the livestock escaped! What I did first, though, was call the company and tell them what happened. I expected them to ship me new, aphid-free plants. WRONG! The woman answering the phone said I should rinse the irises in a bleach and water solution, then plant them. I said I wanted either replacement plants or a refund of my money. She said they'd send me a refund, but I had to return the irises, first.I called our County Cooperative Extension Service to see what they thought about the bleach idea. They pointed out that aphids can infect plants with disease, and suggested that I send the iris back and not deal with that company anymore. (The Extension Service also sent me some literature about diseases aphids can transmit to plants. Since the plants could have been diseased -- why take the chance???).It was a pain to pack up the iris and send them back. I sent them back c.o.d. and this meant I had to go to a "real" UPS office -- not one ofthe local stores that offers UPS service. The nearest place is about 30 miles from where I live.Schreiners sent me a refund and an apology. But, as the saying goes, "too little, too late". That was my first and last experience with Schreiners.
