| Negative | slave041379
(2 reviews) | On Sep 10, 2009, slave041379 Santa Clarita, CA wrote: I purchased 2 phoenix sylvester palm trees (5ft) from realpalmtrees.com. The ordering was easy, but at times the site does slow way down. Ultimately I bought the palms from them b/c I couldn't find any sylvesters in California (and they actually ship here, where many others don't ship here).
So the reason this review isn't positive is that when I received the palms they were dried out and both were partially dead (I brought them around as soon as they were delivered, so don't think that they dried out on my porch). I watered them immediately and put them in a shaded area until I could get them planted (later that same day). After planting I really thought that I'd definitely lose the 1 that was the most dead. I had never mail ordered palms before so I figured this was the most logical course of action, to give the palms a chance to recover.
I decided to look at realpalmtrees.com to review the return policy and it wasn't very friendly. I believe you were to call them in an unreasonable amount of time and you have to pay to ship back the dead palm. When I read this I was already on the cusp of the return cut-off. Nevermind that you have to destroy the box to get the palm out of it (getting popcorn all over my yard), therefore you have to not only be inconvenienced shipping a dead tree back, but you have to pay to ship it, and pay for a new box! How's about I send a picture of the dead palm and you send me another?
I was going to review this site neutral, but after reviewing the ordeal I really think they deserve a negative. To conclude: The palm that was less damaged actually recovered after I cleaned up all the dead leaves and the totally dead branches. I had to cut the other tree down to hardly anything (I definitely thought I was going to lose it) and the tree made it, but it really bothers me that I paid premium prices for a 5 ft tree that I had to cut down to hardly anything (putting it's growth considerably behind the other tree's growth). I considered the neutral rating b/c the trees ultimately made it, but decided negative b/c of how bad things were when I received them.
I mean buyer beware, take your chances b/c others have rated this site highly, however, I would search locally first before you buy from them, and only go to them if you can't find it locally. They do have a very large selection of trees, they sent food with the plants (which I liked), and certificates of authenticity (for what that's worth). |
