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Posted on October 30, 2008, updated January 10, 2012
Very bad service, MORE than a year and I have not received nor the seeds I paid, neither a refund of my money, they prefer to ignore the many emails (about 30) I've sent them.
Mr. S. Möller aswered me one time 5 five months ago, he offered a refund and told me "we will keep you informed" and since then nothing more has happened, and they still ignore the many mails I send them asking about my order. Be very careful if you buy them.
order 1146-96-31960
Total US$: 203.00
On January 10th, 2012, franmor changed the rating from negative to neutral and added the following:
On february 2009 I finally received a compensation, new seeds in good condition, and an apologise of Mr. Spanner. That is why I'm changing my comment from negative to Neutral.
On Aug 18, 2006, B1ZZYL1ZZY Javea Spain (Zone 10a) wrote:
My Order :
Dear Customer,
Thank you for your order dated 02-07-2006 at 00:57. We hereby confirm receipt of your order as detailed below. (Please keep this e-mail for your records, as you will not receive a written invoice with your delivery):
My first message to Rare Palm Seeds:
Dear Service
I have not recieved my order yet. It has been 10 days. Please could you let me know the status of it. Order details below.
Many thanks
*************
Response from Rare Palm Seeds:
Thank you very much for your mail. Unfortunately there will be a delay in processing your order as Mr. Spanner is abroad travelling at the moment. The seeds will be shipped at the end of July.
Best regards,
Silke
--
DELIVERY TIMES:
All goods deliverable from the warehouse are generally dispatched within seven working days. Once dispatched, delivery within the E. U. takes 3 – 5 working days, and for products delivered to other countries up to 4 weeks. Please do not submit delivery status queries before the expiry of these periods. With inquiries about your order, please be sure to include the order number and the purchaser's name.
DAMAGE TO PACKAGING:
If your parcel is damaged on arrival, we recommend that you make an immediate claim for damages to the delivery agent and have this claim confirmed in writing. This is the simplest way of making a claim.
Second message to Rare Palm Seeds at the end of July:
Hello
I am writing with regards to the order I place for some palm seed. My concern is that the viability will be affected now as they should be very fresh when sown. Please let me know what you will be doing about this. I am paying quite a ot of money for these seeds and I want them to be in top condition. Can you let me know when these seeds were harvested?
I hope you understand my concerns.
*********
No Reply............
Last message from me 06-Aug
Please can you let me know the status of my order placed on 2nd July. You did not reply to my last e-mail and I am left wondering if I am ever to received my seeds. Please can you tell me what is happening.
***********
No reply to this as I assume the order had been despatched and I recieved the seeds a couple of days later.
They should learn to communicate with the customer not leave them hanging wondering if they have just kissed goodbye to their money. I am not giving a negative because I think that what Tobias is doing is very good but the problem is one of communication........Please, Rare Palm Seeds take note and listen to your customers without whom you do not have a business.
On Aug 18, 2006, rarepalmseeds.com responded with:
"
On Aug 19, 2006 9:06 AM, rarepalmseeds.com added:
Our apologies, we are aware that our communication is not always 100% efficient. We are trying to reply to every message, but sometimes we are simply overwhelmed with the amount of e-mails we receive (and that already excludes all the spam messages). We try to concentrate on getting out your orders. Please take into account that we are shipping out hundreds of orders a week, to nearly 150 countries around the world, all with different import regulations that require attention. We handle large quantities of perishable, difficult-to-handle and even more difficult to obtain palm seeds in a large variety that is second to none for good reason. Our website is the most popular palm site on the internet and naturally requires a lot of maintenance as we would like to keep it there and have the best information on palms available for everyone.
Rarepalmseeds is just a small company with 8 employees. Our communication is not outsourced to some call center in a far away place and hiring and training more people to answer all the e-mails we receive is a serious cost factor that will reflect on the cost of seeds you buy.
We think we can offer a good compromise between cost and service and hope you will be easy on us even if you are not getting a reply to every e-mail as you should. Its not because we are rude or lazy, just very busy."
On Jul 24, 2006, basilio Athens Greece (Zone 9b) wrote:
I ordered about seven different seed small packs from this company. My order arrived after 17-18 days, which I consider logical. I must say that ALL the packs contained more than 10 seeds, which is the quantity of the normal pack, and one even contained about 18 seeds (great). Now, after 2 months that I've placed my seeds in containers and with constant ambient heat between 22 - 35C, the results are the following :
Sabal causiarum : 11 germinated out of 14.
Bangalow Palms : 4 germinated out of 14
Arenga Engleri : 4 germinated out of 12
Roystonea Regia : 3 germinated out of 16
Roystonea Borinquena : none out of 18
Euterpe Edulis : none out of 15
Musa Sikkimensis banana : 2 out of 14
I can't say that the germination results are too great, but seem more or less ok, although I expecting roystonea borinquenas to have germinated (at least some) by now. The rest of the seeds appear in good condition though, so I'll keep waiting.
One thing I have to say is that just minutes after I placed my order in their site, I emailed them asking if I could add another seed pack in my order. They replied that I could and I replied right back asking to add a phoenix rupicola. But my addition never arrived.
Overall, though, I'm fairly satisfied from my first purchase and I will definitely buy again from them in the future.
On March 2nd, 2007, basilio changed the rating from positive to neutral and added the following:
My second attempt to purchase seeds from this company was not as a pleasant experience as the first one. I placed my order on 7th of January and after about 45 days it had not arrived yet. I emailed them asking for information on my order, but they never replied. I emailed them again a week later, but zero response. So I called them on the phone and the lady that answered told me that my order had been shipped but she wasn't sure when. She also said that the delay was probable due to Christmas' busy period, to which I replied that my order was placed AFTER Christmas and New Year's Day, so this could not be an excuse. When I told her that it was almost 2 months since I placed the order, she said that it must had been lost (!) and she added that they are going to replace it. So, after having spent two whole months waiting for the original order, I'm now waiting for the replacement, hoping that it won't take another two months to arrive FROM GERMANY TO GREECE (a mere two and a half hours flight!). They sure have a great collection of seeds, but if my order doesn't arrive within the next couple of weeks, I won't buy from them again and I'll have to reconsider my rating even more. On March 21st, 2007, basilio added the following:
This is an update to my previous comment : Seeds finally arrived today, that is 2 and a half months after my original order. On the package, the postage date is 16 of March, so it left Germany just 5 days ago, although rarepalmseeds' claims to have shipped it on 21st of February...can it be? Well, whatever. Seeds came as ordered, they look ok and I must add that a pack of chambeyronia macrocarpa includes 15 seeds, all of them already germinated, which I find a welcome suprise, either they were sent to me germinated by purpose or they popped on the way to Greece (size of roots, though, indicates that they were probably sent germinated).
I won't change my rating for now (neutral) and, given their great catalogue, maybe I'll give them another try in the future. But I really hope their service improves (as well as their habit of never answering to customers, unless their comments are public). On Jul 24, 2006, rarepalmseeds.com responded with:
"
On Mar 3, 2007 7:12 AM, rarepalmseeds.com added:
Your original order was shipped mid January, not an unfair delay. After your call, a replacement was shipped on Feb. 21st, which should arrive any day. Please blame any shortcomings beyond this on the Greek postal system."
On Sep 1, 2005, elHoagie Altadena, CA (Zone 10a) wrote:
Only made one order to this company about 1 year ago. My germination rate exceeded/met expectations with all species. Downside was that it took about 2 months to receive my seeds.
OVERCHARGED ME. I ordered $100 worth of palm seeds and my CC was chgd $174.96 !!! I was expecting MAYBE $25 for phyto and MAYBE $15 for shipping global priority. I haven't got my seeds yet, but i'm terrified to think all that money.....down the drain.....If ....IF I get decent germination I might change my rating to Neutral. I will NEVER give out my CC number ever again! Man.....buying seeds is a gamble. You're gambling they will sprout.
On August 15th, 2005, amorning1 changed the rating from negative to neutral and added the following:
On August 16th, 2005, amorning1 added the following:
If I get good germination I will change the rating to positive, I'll let you know in about a month.
