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I ordered a Mother's Day gift from Gardener's Supply online. Not only was my order mishandled, resulting in my mom receiving the shipment twice, after Mother's Day, but the customer service was horrible. Initially, I (politely) spoke with Lisa, who not only didn't apologize for the mishap but sent me a follow-up letter telling me why the mishap was my fault and why I wouldn't receive a credit for the shipping I paid.
A few days later, when it was clear that there were still problems with my order, I called again and spoke to Vicki. Vicki was a lot more helpful and agreed that I should receive a credit for my shipping cost.
Today, I called and spoke with Emily, who definitely seemed to understand the definition of customer service. She told me that she was going to email me a label that I could forward on to my mother, in order to return the duplicate shipment she received. I still haven't received the label, but at least Emily was friendly.
On Dec 17, 2007, carolinablue Aulander, NC (Zone 7a) wrote:
I recently did some Christmas shopping online at the Gardener's Supply website. While shopping I noticed that several items were marked "out of stock." Every item I ordered was marked as still being in stock.
I placed my order and it was processed online. Several days later I receive an email informing me that two out of the three items were out of stock.
Why was this information not available on the website? I was sending the order directly to family. Now I am sending them a rather skimpy gift and it's now too late to cancel and order elsewhere.
This is not my idea of how a website should work. If I'm paying a premium price for both items and shipping (yes, you are higher than other vendors) I expect better service.
I wouldn't waste my time (or money) ordering from this company again, unless you enjoy being disappointed or disappointing others at Christmas.
Buyer beware! Unfortunately I purchased some items from Gardener's Supply Company. I have no complaint with the product, but after receiving them I found the same item at another site on-line for 30% less!! Shipping and handling charges were also significantly more than the other site. Before you buy from them, spend a few minutes on-line searching for other sellers. You will likely save some money.
I have ordered from Gardener's Supply several times in the past and received the merchandise I ordered as it was described. My last order has been a disaster and I will NEVER order from them again. I ordered the folding firewood cart. When I unpacked the order on March 10th I did a parts inventory of the hardware. I was missing one cotter pin and received 3 bolt and nut sets instead of the five required. I immediately called the number on the parts list and was told they would send the hardware in about two weeks. I then e-mailed Gardener's Supply to complain about the poor quality of the cart. The cart would be simple to put together if the parts fit, but they don't. I'm a 53 year old pharmacist and I have a lifetime of experience putting things together, but the parts have to fit, I can't bend metal etc to make them fit....I also told Gardener's Supply about the missing cotter pin and the missing bolt and nut sets.....they also told me they would send the missing parts. As of March 27th I have not received the missing cotter pin or missing bolt and nut sets. I asked the name of the carrier and tracking number and got one of those "lost in the mail " stories.... I have lived in the SAME house for 26 years .... I also never got the hardware from the company that I called when I unpacked the firewood cart......guess that was "lost in the mail" too......
On April 12th, 2006, Evelyn3170 added the following:
If you received an Item that required assembly and called the same number on the page for missing hardware that I called then you probrably won't receive the hardware.... a customer service person at Gardener's Supply told me that company went bankrupt....
And in defense of the US Postal service I've never known a "lost in the mail story" that turned out to be true and I received the package that Gardener's Supply mailed to me on April 5th ....they mailed it March 10th ...... it arrived on schedule for the way it was shipped.
I tried to order a Garden screen/sieve here but couldnt find one in their catalog. I live in Vermont and prefer to patronize local businesses.
I finally found a sifter/sieve from a garden supply in Washington State and was slightly annoyed that it had to travel the entire country to get to my garden in Vermont.
The sieve is a life saver here in Vermont. My "soil" if it can be called that is extremely rocky in addition to the fill that was used when my home was constructed in 1989 which is mostly sand and stone and gravel.
Sieving not only helps my new plantings, its also provides me a never ending harvest of gravel for ongoing paving projects.
On Sep 9, 2004, plantaholic2 N Middlesex County, MA (Zone 5a) wrote:
I inquired if they sell a separate rose for the watering can that I bought some time ago because mine broke. I never said it wasn't my fault, but they offerred to send me a replacement at no charge. Wow! I *am* a regular customer, but still... I think that was awesome customer service. And I told them so. They were pleased to hear it.
On March 28th, 2008, plantaholic2 changed the rating from positive to negative and added the following:
I've been a strong positive about this company for a long time. They do *SEEM* to bend over backward to solve problems, but I am getting tired of the same repeated shipping problems. I have complained to them in the past about poor shipping and they are so apologetic and considerate (as they are with other minor problems I may have experienced in the past), that I let it go. Well, I just opened a shipment and I am so irritated, I should probably cool off before I hit submit, but I think Watchdog is the only way to go. Maybe this time they will change their practices instead of just sweetly apologizing and sending me a new whatever.
I ordered some Compost Plus in small 5 lb bags and they are so poorly packaged the bag popped because they put heavy things squished up next to it unsecured. The HUGE box and all my other things in it are now covered with dirt. I ordered tub trugs and they are squished together and possibly deformed. Some warm weather will probably help that problem.
I havent even opened the 2nd box. I don't even want to look.
I wouldn't give this entire shipment too much thought if it had not happened TWICE or THRICE before with the SAME ITEM (or greensand) where they apologized and came up with some excuse or false promise.
On Aug 3, 2004, Commonsense Rock Hill, SC (Zone 7b) wrote:
I ordered a pair of grass shears from this company. When they arrived they were simply not operable. Although they hadn't been cheap in price, they were certainly below par in quality. I sent e-mail to gardener's supply asking them what to do.
They told me to ship the shears back at my own expense. I wrote to them again and asked for a postage-paid label. They responded that they would be happy to refund my shipping costs if I sent the shears back via parcel post or UPS ground. I sent them UPS ground, which cost over $17.00.
Days went by and I heard nothing from them, although according to the tracking the package had arrived. Finally a credit appeared on my card, but only for the amount of the shears plus a few dollars. I wrote to them again, asking if they needed any further information from me to refund my return shipping costs. I offered to send the shipping receipt, etc. They said they didn't need any of that, and that my money would be refunded.
The last I heard, they said they had refunded my shipping charges, although the amount has not shown up on my card. I will wait a few days and start chasing them down again. All in all I've sent over 10 e-mails in regard to this return, and I've had less than helpful responses from these people. I will certainly not order from them again.
I, too had problems contacting Gardeners Supply over the phone this spring. I called for 2 weeks at various times of the day and never got more than an answering machine. Since I do not casually give out my credit card information and in particular will not leave it on an "answering machine", I eventually called Wayside Gardens who had the same merchandise at the same price and placed my order with a live person who gave me an order number for reference. I do not know what the problem was with Gardeners Supply, as in the past I've ordered from them and had no problems. But if they are trying to keep down costs by eliminating the "human" factor, they will find out that they have eliminated this human being as a customer.
I can't say I'm very impressed with their customer service. I attempted to call them three times to place an order and eventually had to leave a voice mail order with their service. I left my email address.The next day I received an email saying there was a problem and please call them right away. There were no details about what the problem was. This I did and once again could not get a real person on the phone. Thinking maybe it was my credit card number, I left another voice mail with my credit card number again.Next day I received ANOTHER email stating they still had a problem and I had to call right away. Again, no human was to be found and no details about the problem, even though I remained on hold for over 6 minutes.Finally, I sent another email canceling my order. It was too bad because they had other items I was considering, but if I can't get a hold of a live person and my first order was such a hassle, I'll go elsewhere.
