Comments regarding Amity Rose & Garden Nursery (Amity Heritage Roses)

I placed an order for 11 plants back in December. According to the shipping info the company had listed, the plants were supposedly supposed to ship late March-April time frame. March came and went and then April did too with no email from them explaining. I tried contacting the company by phone and email to find out what was going on. After several attempts, I finally got a response that said they were behind schedule and that only part of my order was ready and if I'd like part of it now and the other part later. I said that was fine. Over 6 weeks later, I finally received my plants. They did not seperate the order and it was late May (like the 28th or something) that I finally received my plants. It was already beginning to get hot here in NC so I followed the directions and got them planted as soon as possible. Temps were already over 90 by this point but I've tried keeping them watered and such. Less than two weeks have elapsed and over half the order is dead and the other half is just barely hanging on for dear life. I have had good experiences with other mail order companies and because of this companies good rating I took a chance. I tried contacting the company several times, both by email and by phone and haven't received any answers. The plants when shipped looked pretty healthy, but the extreme lateness and the extreme heat is just too much for them. I don't appreciate placing the order, then not hearing anything from them for months then when I finally receive the plants, they die! The roses I planted earlier in the year look great so I'm certain it was the lateness of the shipment that is mainly to blame. It is very bad business to not contact a person expecially when there is a problem. I doubt I will ever order from this company again. I would caution any one else from doing so either, because if you do have any problems, you'll never get the chance to speak with a person. Be very careful and hope you have better luck than I.

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I am very sorry that Christina has not checked her email or perhaps her spam filter for her replies from us. Since she has taken this public I will do the same and hope that she can read our 2 replies in the last week here:

June 11, 2008Hi Christy:

I'm sorry to hear of the problems. We had weather problems of our own this spring and in March the plants were about 2" tall, if that - just too cold and they sat and sat... There would have been nothing to send you in March, I'm sorry. We did have people cancel orders, which is understandable if growing conditions are not right.

Did you follow the planting guide that came with the roses? Anything over 85 is going to put them under stress right now. Are they shade covered for the hottest part of the day? If so and they still die they might be refundable or replaceable, but your weather may not be any better for shipping in July either and as we state in our guarantee, we can't guarantee the plants in adverse weather.

Let me know.

Thanks,

Janet
AHR


One June 12th without further communication from her:

Hi Christy:

Tracy would like specifics of which plant is dead and what others (all?) are near death. Also if you read/followed the planting guide. He'd like to consider a partial refund, despite the weather problems we've both had and have no control over.

I'll be out of town until Monday, so we won't be in touch again till next week.

Thanks, with apologies,
Janet
AHR


We're still waiting to hear back from her with details. Our guarantee states that we are not responsible for weather-related failures, but we'd like to help out if we can. Customers please note - if it's too hot or too cold for you to plant our small potted roses, please don't have us mail them to you. It really depends on the customer as some are able to pot them up and keep them growing in safe places until their weather is more favorable to plant out in the permanent spots.

I just pulled up the order and the SIX emails I've sent to Christy over the past 6 months regarding the details of her order. An ASAP ship date was requested. We left a voicemail and an email on May 7 and 8, respectively, about trying to ship part of the order earlier. We shipped the entire order on 5-22 because she was unwilling to pay the extra shipping charges quoted to split ship. That is no where near 6 weeks later and she could have had part of the order 3 weeks earlier! I know it can FEEL like an eternity when one is waiting for plants, and I know we were unable to ship many orders when we hoped this year because of cold weather and poor growth, but we do not guarantee a shipping time frame or a specific shipping price - we can only guarantee what we are responsible for: quality plants received. Except during extreme weather, potted plants can be planted year round. I am sorry we've not had better communication about her planting conditions.

Christy: Please write us back and we'll see what we can do!

Janet
AHR

Hi Christy:

Below is the email exchange we had May 8th about splitting the shipment, but you didn't want to pay for additional shipping charges. It sounds like you've not been receiving only some of our emails. When an order is placed with us we specifically say to make sure you can receive emails from the domain AmityHeritageRoses.com and if you don't hear back to call the toll free number. We use several accounts ([email protected], [email protected], and [email protected]) depending on the type of communication. As an internet company we rely on the internet for business. We don't call unless someone doesn't have email.

We'll review your lost list and see what we can do. I don't believe we'll be shipping plants this fall and most of these varieties are sold out for the year anyway. If there's no way for you to pot them into gallons and keep them in a protected place or shaded during the hottest part of they day, then we will see about a partial refund.

When you've changed your email to accept our domain, please email us at [email protected] so we can communicate directly about the final resolution.

Thank you,

Janet
AHR

Janet

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May 8, 2008

Hi Christy:

The amount quoted before ($171.35) is for shipping the plants all at one time. We charge the exact price of shipping to the customer, not higher plant prices to hide shipping costs as some other nurseries do. To ship it split the totals come to $102.85 and $90.55. If you don't want to pay for the extra s&h then we will hold the plants here until they are all ready to go at the same time. We are not able to guarantee plant availability in an agricultural setting, but we are able to guarantee our plants once we've deemed them shippable and the customer handles them according to our planting instructions.

I do apologize for the inconvenience. If I don't hear back from you then we will email you when they are ready to ship together, hopefully another 3-5 weeks.

Janet
AHR


On May 8, 2008, at 4:36 PM, CHRISTY DINGER wrote:


Hello, I want you charge the account the amount I agreed to when I placed the order (I don't have it right in front of me but it was roughly $150)but I don't mind the shipment being split. I've been keeping the paypal account open so please go ahead and charge for the full order and keep me posted when the other half of my order ships. Thanks.


Christy Dinger"