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On Jun 14, 2009, Paremiologist New York, NY wrote:
I bought the small ladybug package a month ago and had my credit card charged. No reply to phone messages and email. Now my address is about to change, and still no reply to request to update the order (like it will ever come now).
QUESTION - can anyone who has officially complained to CA authorities post the contact info they used to log their complaint?
On Jun 12, 2009, pkneisley Nicholasville, KY wrote:
I ordered Ladybugs and Praying Mantis eggs form this company. I sent numerus emails asking when they would ship they did not answer any of them. I called the 800 number no answer left messages with no response and on more then four of the time I called the voice mail box was full. So I ordered my ladybugs form another place and recived them before olive-trees.net would evern respond to my questions. I have now sent 3 request to just cancel the order and they can't respond to them ether. DO NOT ORDER FROM OLIVE-TREES.NET THEY WILL JUST TAKE YOUR MONEY!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is funny that they post on the bad feed back to call the 800 number that is just a nonmaned line.
On June 12th, 2009, pkneisley added the following:
I just got this email It will speek for its self.
I have been instructed by my family and their advisors to close down the web site, Olive Trees Nursery or olive-trees.net and instruct all customers to get a refund from their credit company.
This decision was not mine. If you got your order, thank you. If you did not or your order is incomplete please contact [edited to remove unrelated email addresses and phone numbers] as they are now handling all of these matters. Calling 805 921 3900 will as you have noticed not get any information about your order.
If you still want or need your order and don't really care about the BS going on here send me an E-mail to sales@growquest.com. I am happy to ship it. I want and need the business even if they do not know what they are doing. Chris GilcrestOn June 13th, 2009, pkneisley added the following:
I am adding to this to say that Chris Gilcrest is trying to put blame on other people no one else is responsable but him PLEASE DO NOT EMAIL anyone else but him the other emails and names that he is sending to people are in way connected to him or his company!!!!!!! The only email that is connected is sales@growquest.com the other phone number and fax is not to be used. Until my june 12th post is removed please do not call or email anyone but him.
I ordered 2 small containers of 1500 ladybugs on May 26th 2009. There was a promotion- buy 2 get one free, and the free container was never added during ordering. I printed the ad page and e-mail it to them with my account info looking for verification that I would be receiving all 3 containers. After 3 requests, I received an e-mail that my order was shipped- no mention of the free ladybugs. In the end, I'd be happy if ANY ladybugs arrived. I never got a tracking number and my order was supposed to be shipped May 29th. Upon reading other testimonials i realized my mistake. if anyone is trying to make this right, my order number is OnlineOrder_10001175. If I do not have ladybugs by Monday, June 15th i will be contested the charges as fraud. Luckily, my bank, Wells Fargo, seems to know who the company is and can process my return quickly.
Do not purchase from this company. We placed our order on June 2 and nobody has contacted us back, regarding this purchase. Its truly sad, as we were going, to place a large order, somewhere in the $5,000 range but, we'll have to look for a new seller. We've e-mailed them and contacted by phone numerous times, with no contact back. Normally, we always read reviews on websites and yet, this is the one time, we didn't follow through with research. They will not getting my money, as we wil contact our CC fraud department. We've purchased from fast-growing-trees.com and willis orchards, with success both times but, this company is another sttory. Again, do not buy from them. I would love to have our order but, will only give them one more day, to give me a tracking number, with proof of a shipped package.
On Jun 10, 2009, Almostagardener Wiggins, CO wrote:
I ordered ladybugs from this company the 1st of May, still no ladybugs. I actually talked with a female 2 weeks ago and was told basically that there is a shortage of ladybugs as everyone is going to the Sierra's to get them. She stated she would put this order at the top and pester Chris to get them, but I really should have not ordered the larger order. I have not been charged and actually cancelled the card so they could not charge me in the future. She advised that they have 1000's of email's and cannot respond to them. I have left messages since and no return calls.
I ordered 1500 ladybugs with 2 day shipping May 30th. The order has been in a processing state since that day and my credit card has already been charged. All attempts to contact the company via e-mail and phone have failed. Currently contesting the charges on my CC.
On June 10th, 2009, trebligb added the following:
I don't care what they do now, I was able to successfully contest the CC charges and I have my refund as well as there is a stop payment against their merchant account to my account in case they get cute.
Normally it takes 10 days to do this but apparently these guys are in a database at Wells Fargo as known scammers and they handled me right then and there.
I placed an order with Olivetrees.net, and, sadly, my story is the same as so many others on this board – dozens of calls to the nursery, with never a message returned, no replies to any of my emails, and on the rare occasions that I reached someone at the nursery, I was promised that the items would ship “by the end of the week” or “in the next couple of days” or “we will call you back to let you know the status.” Nothing, although thank goodness our credit card has not yet been charged. However, I did a little research, and this is one of the shadiest internet retailers I have ever heard of. The issues that customers are currently experiencing have been constant (albeit at his various companies) since early 2004.
In the years between 2004 and now (as near as I can tell from the internet history, but quite possibly longer), Chris Gilcrest has been associated with, or opened and then shut down or renamed at least six garden retail businesses with complaints lodged against them in Tulare County and Ventura County, CA:
1. A Better Plant Grower
2. biopest.com/Applied Bio Pest
3. SurfandSierra.com/ Surf And Sierra Wholesale Nurseries LLC
4. APB Wholesale/ABP Nursery
5. Growquest.com (closed, then re-opened)
6. Olivetrees.net
In January of 2006, while operating the previous incarnation of Growquest in Visalia CA Chris Gilcrest was arrested because he (a) charging customer credit cards, and then not sending them the plants they ordered, (b) ordered plant material from suppliers and did not pay them, and (c) was not paying workers compensation insurance or tax withholdings for his employees. The D.A. allowed the vendors to go to the nursery to view and recover their property, but the story wasn’t clear on whether the customers or employees ever recovered the money he took from them. (County of Tulare D.A. Office press release, 1.26.2006).
According to some of the posts, he has also apparently been known to send threatening and/or rude emails to people who are angry with him about taking their money and not sending them their plants, for example, according to one posting dated February 10th, 2006 “After posting this and sending my complaint to the MD Attorney General, I also sent an email to Chris telling him he'd been reported, and that is the first time he replied. He denied having received any other emails or calls from me and was very angry that this posting was negative…He then proceeded to threaten me and "put me on notice" that I had 30 days to remove my negative posting...” There were a couple of other reports of a similar nature. There have also been a couple of comments (although I cannot vouch for their veracity) that representatives of the various companies he has operated have been caught posting fraudulent positive experiences.
The posting from Chris Gilchrest saying he has sold the Growquest business to Olivetrees.net seems to not be true – every time I was able to reach someone at the nursery, their response was that they needed to wait for Chris to get any answers. It seems to me that he is still running Olivetrees.net.
I know he lists a number of rare and hard-to-find items on his website (that’s what sucked me in!), but at the end of the day, the chances that he actually has the item and will actually ship it seem to be very low, judging from all the complaints I’ve seen about the series of businesses he has owned. Given all this, I am shocked that this man has not been barred by the state of California from obtaining a business license.
In summary, anyone who has these types of problems with Olivetrees.net should report it to the Ventura County Better Business Bureau (http://www.santabarbara.bbb.org), and the DA (http://da.countyofventura.org/) – it seems like he is heading down the same path as he has with previous businesses, which resulted in a number of innocent people (both customers and vendors) losing their money. I think that as a gardening community, we all have a responsibility help prevent that from happening again if all it takes is a simple email or phone call.
On Jun 9, 2009, Growquest Growers (also dba Olive-Trees.net and Surf & Sierra Wholesale Nurseries, LLC) responded with:
"On Oct 14, 2009 9:47 AM, Growquest Growers (also dba Olive-Trees.net and Surf & Sierra Wholesale Nurseries, LLC) responded with:
First off the user name should TwiggsandBerries because that is what their brain is full of.
First topic names; Biopest.com was my first web site, short for Applied Bio Pest. I had all the luck in world of coming up with the same name as Biopest of Santa Rosa Ca. after two years of bickering in the legal process we made a compromise I would give up my web name of biopest to him and change my business and web name to ABP, which morphed into abpwholesale.com.
ABP Wholesale sold ladybugs to garden centers in the USA. I decided to go back to my horticultral roots so to speak, so it was proper to use ABP Nursery (A Better Plant) at the time. That lacked any creative character to it, and the name Growquest came to mind, don't know how or where it came from at this point.
I was looking to grow and expand my business in the Spring of 2007 so I formed an LLC, Surf and Sierra Wholesale Nurseries, LLC. I made a http://www.surfandsierra.com web site for wholesale or large landscape transactions and kept my http://www.growquest.com site and went to work on building a more modern site http://www.growquest.net site.
Yes one grower came to my site to reclaim and then further steal another 160 trees roses, that was Tom Lucas at Perfomance Nursery, Inc. And he could only do that because I allowed it, otherwise he would not be able to come to the property as it required my agreement at that time.
There were no convictions on any criminal charges, because none existed. A huge waste of time and a destruction of my personal life that cost me custody my children, whom several judges in two counties had ruled were best left to me to raise.
Olive-trees.net domain was and is mine as a result of buying out another nursery. Olive Trees Nursery was not and is not mine and I have ZERO control over it s orders!
Surf and Sierra closed due to my being hustled in large olive transaction by angry petty chubby old man.
I have repeatbly asked for this figsandapples to contact me. I will now is the court system for this defamatory posting.
"
I will have a pending lawsuit against this company. I have placed an order and they have been paid for. I have not received any product and they will not answer calls or email. Be aware that any orders coming after they get sued probably will not be filled. This lawsuit is going to be expensive for them.
On June 9th, 2009, Fishalaska added the following:
Word of advice.......these people are not too smart. Call and leave a message that you want to purchase a large order and wish to speak to a rep. They WILL call you back, and you can let them have it. You all will have to sue them. They have no intentions on filling orders.
June 6, 2009: I made my order on May, 16 2009 and a payment was made on May, 20 2009. I have not received my order yet or any other notice. I have left messages and sent multiple emails to no avail and now their phone "mailbox" is full. I will not stop until I either get my money back or my order. I wanted to buy more from them, but I don’t think they really want the business...
My order number is: 10000744
On June 9th, 2009, Shannon2 changed the rating from negative to neutral and added the following:
June 8, 2009:
I am changing this to neutral because Chris called me tonight. He stated that he was not the owner and Margaret Gilcrest is the one I need to file my complaint with. He gave me her number, so I will be calling it in the next few days. He stated that a simple order like mine should have been filled within a couple days and that he had to he would ensure that I either got my order or my money back...
Thanks Chris I expect to see some results soon...On June 12th, 2009, Shannon2 changed the rating from neutral to negative and added the following:
June 12th 2009:
Changed back to negative
Margaret called my wife this afternoon and politely informed us that she could not refund us the money and that Chris would have to do that. Per Chris (as noted on my last update) said he didn’t have any control over the company no more. I don’t know or care who runs the company, I just want my hard earned money back. I have left additional messages and emails that of course do not get returned. I do expect to get my money back, and as per the web site I have also requested it in writing via email. Chris you said (when you spoke with me) that if you had too you would issue a refund personally if you had to; well I am expecting at least that. I don’t know the issues at hand there but I do expect you to honor your word you gave me... You have my phone number if you want to discuss this privately and politely.
My husband ordered lady bugs online from this company on 5/24/2009. He received an e-mail from them that they were SHIPPED on 5/26/2009 FedEx priority 2 day. It is now 6/6/2009 and we have no lady bugs. They had no problems taking our money quickly but apparently, from all the other postings, have a huge problem with every other part of running a legitimate business. My husband and I both have called and e-mailed the company many times with no response back from them. We have never once been able to get in contact with a representative. We just keep leaving voice messages, when the voice mailbox is not filled. Find a better company to get your gardening supplies from! In these hard times, spend you hard earned money on a company that deserves your business!
Order number# 10001095
On Jun 6, 2009, JustWantMyOrder Los Angeles, CA wrote:
This is the absolute worst online buying experience that I have ever had. Originally, I made the order with the expectation of giving the plant to my mother for mother's day (early May 2009). The description of shipping stated 2 days for processing and up to 7 days for shipping. It has now been a month since the order and still no product. A dozen phone calls and e-mails have gone to them and absolutely no reply has been given. Who is in charge of this operation? I'm extremely disappointed with this company and strongly recommend against anyone buying from them.
I had the same issue that most on this post had. They wouldn't return phone calls or emails. After leaving a second message on their answering machine, they responded to my email and said they would ship out my olive trees next week. I am happy to say they did in fact ship the trees and they were healthy. So, this company is in business, and trying apparently.
We just received two three gallon ground covering Rose plants and two five gallon orange Day Lily plants. All the plants were covered with blooms and buds and arrived in healthy condition and in a timely manner from the date of order. Hopefully this company has finshed their reorganization and is on firm footing now. We were happy with our dealings with them.
I ordered a lemon tree and ladybugs, Order #01033737 back on April 14th. I have sent 12 emails and left probably 10 messages. That doesn't count all the times the message box was already full. About 3 weeks ago I got a call back and the person promised my order would be shipped the next day. It has now been over 6 weeks since the order was placed and STILL NOTHING. I can't even get a return phone call or email. They are thieves. Do not buy from them.
I too have gotten ripped off by this fraud of a company. I ordered merchandise and have never received them even though I was told they had shipped. I suggest to all of you to do the following things in addition to filing a dispute with your credit card company:
1. File a complaint with the Ventura CA county district attorney's office.
2. Complain to the web hoster. I believe Growquest.com (or OliveTree-net) is hosted with IS West. Chris Gilcrest probably just keeps moving his web site around to different web hosters just long enough to use their credit card processing services until they find out that he is fraudulently processing credit card transactions and they catch on to what he is doing.
No one can keep pulling this kind of activity if enough people do the right things and get him shut down.
Been very patient trying to get them to send me my Holiday Avocado tree for about a year now. I have sent only very positve e-mails and phone messages to them and had what seemed as caring answers in reply.
Chris's post said to include an order number here and he would resolve it, so I am trying it out to see if this works.
My order # is: E01028031
Giving you one last try to have this matter resolved.
All I ordered from the jokers was an order of ladybugs. I placed the order on 5/1/09 and here it is 5/20/09 and nothing! I have called numerous times and no one answers the phone nor do they call you back. I have e-mailed I don't know how many times and not one has been answered. What I have done is reported them to the BBB in their area. Then I have reported them to the Federal Trade Comission and I have been in contact with the local police fraud division and my next step is to contact the local sheriffs. I fully intend to nail these people to the wall!
DO NOT BUY FROM GROWQUEST or OLIVE-TREE.NET THEY ARE 100% SCAM ARTISTS (and that is nice)!!!!!
Cannot begin to decide where to start rather than to say other than taking my money absolutely nothing these people say or write is true.
Everything went smoothly on the website, making the purchase, and then the disaster began with weeks of "unknown status", never a returned phone call, no response to repeated e.mails and finally spent an afternoon calling them. After 12 attempts found a human being (trying to be nice) who, with screaming employees in the background, said order was boxed and ready for FedEx pick-up.
Never got tracking number or status update so went on another calling binge: this time when I finally got through to a staff person (12+ attempts) was told plants were in nursery and shipping by Friday.
Needless to say days came and went and no product.
Bored, this almost became a game as I used auto dialer to finally find another non-automated response:
More promises, needless to say not fulfilled, and now have asked credit card company to refund sale amount. Called Sheriff, BBB and filed Internet Fraud report but suspect there are so many complaints about these fraudulent rip-off artists that nothing will happen.
Have been buying off the web for years and never have I seen worse customer service, heard so many lies and played so many games to try to get a straight answer.
Can hardly wait to get the "please call so we can fix your problem, see below negative review responses - what good would that do since they are almost impossible to reach, lie, cheat, steal and pretend they are a "new company".
NOTE: All this has happened since the supposed change in ownership - right!
On May 20, 2009, maxfli4916 Cuyahoga Falls, OH wrote:
These people are clearly crooks.
Ordered 4 roses on April 18,2009 (after supposed management change) and told them that I needed the product within 3 weeks as I was getting knee surgery. No product ever came, e.mails were not returned, daily calls went to voice mail and were not returned, when reached someone always got a run around (shipping today but never shipped etc.).
After 5 weeks I talked to a man who claimed to be in charge and told me "I don't care what my staff says". Just disputed charges by OliveTree.net (AKA Growquest) with my credit card company and hope to at least get my money back.
The ONLY thing Growquest / OliveTree.Net seems good at is debiting credit cards, ignoring calls/e.mails and NOT shipping product.
UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WOULD I EVER DO BUSINESS WITH THESE PEOPLE AGAIN!
Placed two orders for two tree roses on may 15.I also placed another order for two bareroot roses on may 16.My order numbers are:100000726,100000692,and 100000685.I have sent you multiple e-mail requests about when my order is supposed to ship out if ever.If I knew that your company had such a bad rating to begin with than I would not have ever placed the order to begin with.This kind of treatment of your customers is ridiculous.To me I do not see how a place like yours can still be in business.I do not think it's asking too much for an e-mail response.It does not cost that much to hire someone to check the e-mail for you.Obviously you could not be this stupid to setup an online business with some sort of customer service be it through phone or e-mail.You need to take the time to respond to peoples questions.Please contact me.
On May 19th, 2009, Chrisscamsus added the following:
I called the nursery who claims that my roses will be shipped out next week.Me myself I do not believe her.The woman I talked to claimed on their website that it takes two weeks for your order to be processed.Why in the hell does it take two weeks to process roses you should already have in your possession.I could drive over there in less than a week to get them.Their excuses are poor and ridiculous.The woman also claims that the two weeks order processing is stated on the website which me personally I know is an outright lie.Check the website yourself to try to find this policy.What a bunch a bullcrap they love to shovel out.Probably laughing at all of us the entire time.I also added one too many zeros in the order numbers sorry about that.Not that olive-trees.net will ever process the order anyway since it's all lies.On May 21st, 2009, Chrisscamsus added the following:
Finally received two e-mails and a phone call stating that my orders will be shipped out by fed ex thursday.I hope they are telling me the truth about my orders and not bullcraping me.Also in the e-mail they claim I can still get a refund.I really want the roses I ordered preferably though.I spent almost 190.00 on these orders.I still have my doubts about the truth of their claims.Still really wished I had not bought from him though.I understand he had some bad things happen but we all have situations to deal with in life.We have all had horrible things happen to us.You really need to get over it though and focus on your business.On May 22nd, 2009, Chrisscamsus added the following:
Really negative.All they do is stall and make excuses.They keep telling me when they will send my orders out but never do.They are nothing but deceptive liars and thieves.If the orders do not get sent out why in the hell are we immediately charged for what we order upon payment.I know they got my payment but they do nothing but make up more lies.If they devoted as much time trying to fill orders instead of bullshiting people than I would be willing to bet all the orders would be filled.The answer is real simple if you do not have enough people to run the business properly than hire more workers stupid.The employees seem to try their best but I can see chris has an attitude just from the e-mail response he finally sent me after three days of hearing nothing.I finally got sick of the crap and demanded that you get the orders out today or cancel them.I do not trust this business for nothing.I better get my refund or you will be hearing from my lawyer.On May 23rd, 2009, Chrisscamsus added the following:
This here tells you how seriously screwed up this company is.Today I receive an e-mail stating that my orders have been cancelled and that I was being issued a refund.This good news to me meaning the situation might have finally been resolved but no.Later at night I received another e-mail saying that two of my orders are packed and ready to be shipped so which is it?Are they refunding my money or sending the roses.This company really needs too get their damn act together.I even checked the status of the orders and it still says in process.I can you one thing I will never be ordering from this company again.The customer service is by far the worst I have ever seen.This whole thing is just ridiculous.On May 28th, 2009, Chrisscamsus added the following:
I did finally receive a refund for my orders.I am still not sure if my orders were cancelled or not because every time I send them an e-mail they never answer the actual question I ask.I know one thing I will never buy anything from this joke of a business again.If they ever do send out my orders they will be refused by me for delivery as I do not trust chris at all because he lies constantly.I am repeating this message to chris DO NOT SEND THEM OUT AS THEY WILL BE REFUSED.I am sick the games and no longer trust this company.I have learned something though to do my research first on the place I am buying from.This company is definitely a total scam for sure.On June 4th, 2009, Chrisscamsus changed the rating from negative to neutral and added the following:
I have changed my rating to neutral because I do feel bad for chris.I too have recently had family problems as well.I sent him an e-mail on wednesday stating not to ship the orders out because I wouldn't be able to pay for them because of I could no longer afford them.This was because of my recent family problems.Chris sent me an e-mail stating they had already been shipped and too just keep them.Sorry about all the problems.
Close to nuetral, but I can't do it..
4-6-08 invoice E_01027188 ordered 3 trees, got 2..
Call and email, no response, I finally call and somebody answers the phone, they promise to send it, and add some praying mantis's for being slow, I verify some stuff and order some ladybugs and a Hass Avocado 6-23-08 invoice 1064, I have not heard from since, called a number of times, and couple emails, I only want my stuff..
contact me please, no smoke..
Jim
On May 13th, 2009, jabwocky added the following:
I meant to say, no smoke and mirrors, fix this, contact me, I may have a remedy you like.On May 20th, 2009, jabwocky added the following:
Still going to keep my rating for now, but finally talked to somebody (Leslie?) that said they are working hard on catching up with old orders, and would get my order out.
I will repost again, and let you know what is happening. On June 24th, 2009, jabwocky added the following:
I also contacted the Attoeney mentioned at their site, response:
This law firm does not represent Olive Trees Nursery or Chris Gilcrest. The information you were given to contact us because we are handling his business matters is false and was not posted on his website with the permission of our firm. We do not have any records regarding your orders nor access to your order information. If you cannot get a response from Mr. Gilcrest at his nursery (805-921-3900) we recommend that you contact your credit card company or bank regarding any charges to your account.
Please be advised that this firm is not authorized to discuss this matter in further detail with you at this time due to a potential or actual conflict of interest. However, if you feel that your rights have been compromised, you should seek the advice of an attorney of your choosing.
I ordered 12 bare root Red Muriland roses in early Feb 2009. They were never delivered. After many non-responsive emails and phone messages, at the end of March I was actually able to speak with Chris on the phone. He assured me that my order would be shipped the next day. Of course this didn't happen. Now, on May 11, my credit card company has given me a refund on this disputed claim.
Never do business with Chris, either as Surf Sierra, Olive Tree or whatever.
In the mean time I bought some bare root "City of San Francisco" roses by Weeks via Armstrong Nursery. They are coming in beautifully
On May 11, 2009, mattwood2000 Wakefield, MA wrote:
Well Chris, as you requested here is my order number: O_01031920. I sent you and email two weeks ago with no response. I called and left a message...two weeks later, no response. I ordered an Avocado tree 3 months ago...no tree yet!!! I just emailed you this afternoon, but with your previous email performance...maybe this will get your attention! This is absolutely ridiculous. Please give me a status update on this order. I would rather get the tree than a refund...should I even hope for this???!!! This WAS an anniversary present for my girlfriend...maybe for next year though??!!
On May 11, 2009, howelljim North Hollywood, CA wrote:
I ordered 4 #1 olive trees because my landscape arch suggested I use them. I was assured that the trees would ship the first of April. chris actually called me after many attempts at the so called phone number failed. he assured me that Olivetreesnet would be shipping the trees and I up graded to #5 trees-doubling my expense. I have heard nothing since. He buys bare root roses in Bakersfield and puts the in pots, He hasn't paid that bill either. This nursery will lose their investment. How can we stop this idiot!!!!!!
I notice that there is an actual address in Lindsay, Ca
419 W Hermosa St 93247
Maybe we should all just show up with a huge protest and burn the sucker to the groud. Then he couldn't cheat people on the internet naymore.
The first order I placed was with Growquest. I was thrilled to find several roses I had been unable to find anywhere else advertised for sale on that webpage! The order was accepted and my credit card was charged $190. A couple of days later I received an email saying that Growquest had been sold to Olive Trees.Net and asking if I would like to continue my order with them. I was told that my credit card would be refunded. I said that I would like the order filled through Olive Trees.Net, and received a reply in the affirmative. My credit card was indeed refunded the $190, but it's been well over a month and I still haven't heard anything more about that order. I inquired about it and was told that Chris was busy buying roses because a lot of what I had ordered they did not have in. Then why on earth were they advertising them for sale if they did not have them? That is deceptive business practice! This does not happen with other rose retailers! When they are out of stock of a rose, they list "sold" on their web page.
Several days after my first order I had made a second order through the Olive Trees.Net website and noticed that a charge had been made to my credit card not long after. I was never notified that the roses were shipping except that I received a Fed Ex tracking number which didn't say who the sender was. A signature was required for delivery. However, only two roses were in the box out of the six that were in my order. The original order (including $22.98 for shipping and handling) was for 6 roses, but only two roses were received. There was no invoice in the box. The two roses in the box weren't labled, so I have no idea which two they are. They both appear to be older, woody roses, not the young kind usually sold in a nursery. One has a tag that is so faded I can't tell what it used to say, and the other has a hand-written tag that says "Golden", so I'm guessing it may be "Golden Masterpiece" which was in my order. I sent an email to olivetrees.net and also called and left a message, but so far have not heard back from them.
After reading the other feedback here I'm really worried. If I don't get a response from them soon I will send the roses back and ask for a full refund on my credit card, and dispute the charges or whatever it takes.
Ordered ladybugs. Never received them. Called them-no answer and "mailbox is full" recording. Emailed them-no answer. Contested charges on credit card.
I ordered fruit trees on 3/14/2009 and my bank account got charged $203.00 on their Invoice E_01032703. On 4/6/2009, Chris said that he was refunding my original order even though I never cancelled it. He further stated that if I wanted to proceed with the original order, he would have to bill me again! I got suspicious and surfed online for scams by this company. I found out they had been scamming since 2005! I e-mailed Growquest to send me my refund back. I talked to Mr Espinoza of Growquest and he assured me that I wasn't being scammed and it's their bank that was having problem. I told Mr. Espinoza that I wasn't buying his excuse and he had until 5/6/2009 to send my refund in money order or cashier's check. To date, I have not received my refund. I am now in the process of reporting them to the authorities.
On May 8, 2009, tinkerbelle22 Swedesboro, NJ wrote:
Order #01034188 was placed with Olive-Trees.net and my account was charged on 4/28/09, they even sent me a receipt acknowledging payment, so far no communication from them about my order, no response to emails, no answer to calls and no return calls after messages were left. I wish I had seen some of these postings before I placed my order, all I want is a refund at this point, I will be reporting them to the better business bureau
On May 9th, 2009, tinkerbelle22 added the following:
This company has a F rating with the BBB due to it's deceptive practices, I did report them to the BBB and the attorney general's office and I intend to report them to others. Company transition is no excuse for poor customer service and non- delivery of paid for items. Their so called transition is their issue and should not be reflected on the consumer. After an email I did get a voice mail message from Chis yesterday and when I returned the call to his cell phone I got no answer and a message that his mail box was full.
I contacted my bank found out that you can have a charge back done if you used a credit card.
On May 7, 2009, GrowquestisScam New York, NY wrote:
INVOICE # 01031009
I wish I saw these postings sooner so that I knew NEVER to order from this unethical company. I ordered my plants in Nov with the understanding that the weather may not allow me to get them until the Spring. When I got back from a vacation in the winter I called to confirm that my plants would ship out as soon as it warmed up. At the time I got someone to tell me that they would ship them ASAP but then got an invoice saying that they were put on hold and ever since then have not been able to get anyone on the phone. I have called at least 10 times and left at least 5 e-mails to them. It's been over 60 days so I cannot discpute it to the credit card company. My only next step is to sue them in small claims court. Has anyone else had better luck than me with getting their plants?? This whole company is a complete sham and completely unethical that they are STEALING people's money.
If it wasn't for Dave's Garden, I would have thought that I was the only one having problems with this company. Looks like I am one of many.
My order # was 01033823, and I was expecting to receive my plants in April. My fear is that, now if they arrive, they will do so while we are away on vacation.
It's a pity that this company is displaying such disappointing customer service because their web site is awesome - well organized, easy to navigate, and informative.
I hope they are experiencing a rocky road during this transition, and not that they are going to consistently have terrible service. If I owned the company, I would work like crazy to address these backorders and make amends to my customers.
A good customer/retailer relationship is built on trust, and in this case that trust has been broken. It's time to re-earn our trust.
It seems as though I am in the same boat, as everyone else.
I ordered three rose trees, back on March 11, 2009. I kept wondering when I was going to recieve them, since they WERE meant to be gifts. I placed a "couple" of calls, a "couple" of e-mails, then I finally talked to someone. I was charged for my rose trees on April 10, 2009, and told they WERE going out that Friday, which by the way would have been April 11, 2009. Now It's May 2, 2009 and guess what? I still do not have my rose trees, and looks like I am out $141.65!!!!!
By the way, you want us to include our order # 01032620
UNHAPPY CUSTOMER!!!!!!!!
On May 8th, 2009, tilmister added the following:
Nothing has changed with my order. I have called 1-805-921-3900 EVERY DAY since I placed this posting. I have also Emailed them SEVERAL times. I did tell them if they could not fill my order, that I would be happy with a refund! Yea, like that will happen! This Is my first scam. Needless to say, I am not taking it very well... I have been reading some of the other feed back, maggie65 has left some WONDERFUL web sites, for all of us to visit. I will be doing just that when I am finished here!!! I will be letting anyone and everyone know about the way this man is robbing people.
I wish all of us to do the same. This man needs to be shut down! On August 4th, 2009, tilmister added the following:
Hi to all on this web. Up date on my order from MR. GILCREST, growquest, olive- trees, or whatever in the world he's calling his scam. I have been talking to the Ventura CO. District Attorney's Office. They seem to be pretty interested in this scam. So if all would e-mail da.criminal@ventura.org
I ordered back in feb, and have yet to see a tree, same story as the others, numerous attempts to contact, no messages returned, I did get one helpful girl who told me it would be shipped in two weeks...needless to say is been beyond two weeks.
On Apr 28, 2009, gtohomecali San Juan Bautista, CA wrote:
I placed an order recently and have been unable to reach this nursery by phone or by email after many attempts.
I'm interested in a shipping status on the order 01034043 and wanted to add two items if I could get a response from this company.
If I can actually get a response with quick closure to my questions along with shipment details, I would be happy
to change my rating to positive.
Looks like this company is in transition and I would like to give them a chance to fix their apparent bad history.
Hopefully, they will contact me ASAP at the phone number I provided in my email (twice) and voice mail (twice.)
On May 1st, 2009, gtohomecali added the following:
I was contacted by "Olive Net" indicating that they were processing my order and it would
be received within the next few days.
I have given them one week to fulfill the order before I dispute the charge and will post an update one way or the other so people are aware of the companies ability to
support recent orders.
The experience thus far has been negative, but they have
a chance to redeem themselves by delivering on schedule.
and earning an improvement in their rating.
Rather than worry about "phantom postings" you should fix the disaster that is olivetree.net. Along with many others here, I placed my order and nothing happened except my credit card was billed. I have called long distance five times, left multiple messages and nothing. I have also sent numerous email messages as requested by olivetree.net and no one has the courtesy to respond. THIS IS THE WORST COMPANY I HAVE EVER DEALT WITH ON THE INTERNET. If they really cared about improving service to its customers, it would do something about it. The people who have posted positive messages here must be relatives because their service is horrible.
On April 29th, 2009, geoffgrig added the following:
I can, and will, dispute my VISA charge. Others should know the most credit card companies protect consumers from fraud but you only have 60 days to dispute the charge. Send an email to the crooks telling them to cancel your order so you can show the credit card company your issues were unresolved.
On Apr 28, 2009, naivegardener Long Beach, CA wrote:
How incredible stupid I feel for being robbed blind by this fraud. I really cannot add anything more than the others of dozens good folks stories. Same for me- placed a order for roses- 2 months ago, $151 paid through google check out, and have seen the names and websites change as I have tried to track my order. I cannot believe that this still is possible to happen with all the internet safety and that someone could be so devious, evil and criminal and be able to continue to exploit and abuse. I called the number noted here as a company rep from now olive tree.net once again today and the nursery name-GrowQuest is mentioned again by the woman who recorded the sarcastic outgoing message. I would like to thank the person who did all the great leg work to list the sites for reporting. It is worth it to do again and again- new company names and all. Chris is no better than a terrorist who needs to pay and go to jail. Do the right thing an give me a refund.
On Apr 28, 2009, Growquest Growers (also dba Olive-Trees.net and Surf & Sierra Wholesale Nurseries, LLC) responded with:
"On Apr 28, 2009 9:00 AM, Olive-Trees.net (formerly Growquest, A Surf & Sierra Wholesale Nurseries, LLC) responded with:
Please provide your Order Number so we may assist you."
I have been looking for a particular olive tree variety for several years. This was the ONLY place that had them in SoCal. And they had quite a few varieties I had not seen available elsewhere, and in good sizes. I'm very pleased with the tree. They also had a lot of citrus varieties, and I may check back when I finally decide.
It has been a long search for an Arbequina tree but Olive-tree/Chris had one. This nursery has many varieties of FRUITING olive trees and a good selection of citrus too.
It was a good experience.
I ordered a rosebush in Feb for a gift and was told because of weather it would not be sent out until March 1. Okay I Can live with that .. Well, It is now mid April and almost the end of April and the rosebush has not been sent and always the same excuse of being overwhelmed and it will get out the following day or next night blah blah blah .....I have tried to call no answer and I get e-mails back that is true but they are never saying it has been shipped always it "will" be shipped.
I found this website today and wish I would of found it before I placed my order, I think it would of saved me alot of headache and perhaps with a tad bit more searching I can find another company in which to order this particular rosebush from and this time I think I will do some more homework so I am not writing another negative report about another company in the pursuit of this rose bush .
I have requested a cancellation of my order and I expect that ASAP.
On April 29th, 2009, mk1972 added the following:
My order is 01032228. I have called and e-mailed several times about the order being cancelled and the status or even ackowledgement that this order was canceled by the nursery and my card would be refunded and yet nothing has been e-mailed back to me nor have I gotten a call explaining what is going on. I am hoping that we can come to a quick conclusion in this matter. I am just asking for the money to be refunded and hope that this company understands that as a customer if they would would of been more on the ball instead of dropping the ball than it would of been a better situation for all. On May 5th, 2009, mk1972 added the following:
I have now left four e-mails requesting information on the status of my reimbursement to this company . along with provided my order # here as requested and have yet to hear a peep from this company. Google is no help in this matter and this whole experience has been super unpleasent. The most upsetting thing to me is that I had ordered this as a present! I do not think that I have asked for anything more than a bit of courtesy in this matter.. The present is already way late and so I have already had to expain that I had to cancel the present and find a new present and that in itself is upsetting enough and now I have to deal with the fact that no one seems to hae the courtesy to let me know what is going on with my refund ...Shame on you is all I can say .On May 22nd, 2009, mk1972 added the following:
ended up having to put in dispute for this company since no one returned an e-mail or called back. So disapointed that they ruined what could of been a great surprise. Because I gave them benefit of the doubt and waited as long as I did before canceling order, all other nurseries are out of the rose bush I wanted to send for a gift . I am still searching for it in hopes I will find it but because I waited on this company and them telling me it would be shipped out the following week etc etc it seems that I lost the chance for it really to be sent .....On Apr 23, 2009, Growquest Growers (also dba Olive-Trees.net and Surf & Sierra Wholesale Nurseries, LLC) responded with:
"On Apr 25, 2009 2:59 PM, Olive-Trees.net (formerly Growquest, A Surf & Sierra Wholesale Nurseries, LLC) responded with:
Please provide your Order Number so we may assist you.
On Apr 28, 2009 9:02 AM, Olive-Trees.net (formerly Growquest, A Surf & Sierra Wholesale Nurseries, LLC) added:
Please provide your Order Number so we may assist you."
