GARDENING EXPRESS

pulliptears

I ordered with these a couple of weeks back.  Time between order and delivery was eleven days.  The tree I purchased turned up healthy and a good size for the money I paid.   I'd use them again, but with no expectation anything was going to arrive quickly in current climes.

Davesnave

I'm not getting involved in spats on this thread, but it's worth people noting here that there have been 2 Gardening Express threads running in the Greenfingered section for years. They are mainly critical of this company.

As a former nursery person, I have my own thoughts about the pile 'em high and sell ''em cheap merchants with their slick web sites. Those I'll keep to myself, but the really enthusiastic gardeners, who do more than buy a bit of bedding will, hopefully, be supporting local businesses in the immediate future, in order to ensure their survival. Many are already on a knife edge and run for love rather than money.

Thank you.

hollydays

Mse will not investigate  it

Davesnave

Someone opened yet another Gardening Express thread in Greenfingered yesterday, complete with terrifying pictures of abused plants. X certificate stuff.....

hollydays

Davesnave said:

Someone opened yet another Gardening Express thread in Greenfingered yesterday, complete with terrifying pictures of abused plants. X certificate stuff.....

Won't someone think about the seedlings?!

bergmaster

The people defending Gardening Express and angry at those who dare criticise them,
might first want to check out the reviews on TrustPilot before pleading for those who have been ripped off, to 'give them a break'. And YES I have created this account just to post this comment, give ME a break!

blobbi

Gardening Express are appalling. The “Please wait 14 days” trick that they then state you can’t cancel your order as it’s over 14 days? I have had a dreadful experience with them. Regardless of Covid, in my case, I gave them the benefit of the doubt, and despite multiple opportunities they have failed to redeem themselves. May I suggest going to your CC company and requesting a refund. Mine was issued with no questioning and was informed that multiple people are in the same boat. Good luck and steer a wide berth. Let’s hope they get their cards in order. 

Mdfs54

Sorry, I am not on twitter or Facebook. Having said that I do know what is right and what is wrong, so despite the assertions I see from GE  (Katrina Waves) what is happening with them as a company is VERY WRONG and should be stopped.

My Story:

It is said that the definition of a fool is someone who does not learn by his or her mistakes. It also says that a fool and his money are easily parted. I therefore have to put my hand up to being a fool. There have been a number times when I have done things and bought things without looking at the reviews, 3 different hotel stays instantly spring to mind, each one would have made Fawlty Towers look like the Ritz. Unfortunately, fool that I am, I did not look at the reviews for Garden Express before spending £124.93 on three very poor quality plants, oh dear!

I have three large empty ceramic pots and wanted to quickly (sic) fill them with some established, fairly mature plants before the end of the summer. Garden Express was offering £10 off orders. I spent some time doing a bit of research on their website (not looking at reviews) and was seduced by their description of the hard work of Chris Bonnett, the ‘company’, their ethos and mission statement with phrases like:

‘… the business has become a force to be reckoned with in mail order Gardening’

‘…we now ship thousands of plants every week’

‘Everything we sell is guaranteed - we don't send out anything we would not be delighted to receive ourselves’

‘…we tell you exactly how large or small they are. We were fed up of ordering expensive plants and being sent spindly twigs’

Mitigation for making the decisions I did? I don’t think so; I am old enough (but obviously not wiser) to know better! The irony of these statements, for me personally, is brought into sharp focus when I consider the atrocious quality of the plants I received.

Here is part of the email I sent to Garden Express within hours of receiving my plants:

This is my first foray into ordering plants online and I am disappointed with the quality of the plants that I have been sent; there is little resemblance to the description on your website. I understand there have been issues due to Covid 19 and maybe to some extent the recent hot weather, but I feel that I have been sent the 'runts' of the 'carefully selected plants'. They are not of the standard I would select myself:

Hibiscus - Described as: Extra Large Tricolour 5 - 5.5 feet as you can see from the photos it is barely 4 feet 4 inches; I could have bought one this size for £29.99 from a different website! The plant does look healthy but some of the bark on the stem has been scraped off (photo) not sure if this will affect the plant.

Corkscrew Hazel - Described as:  Fresh green foliage through out the year. The photos show that it is not very healthy, all the leaves are curled and yellowing some with brown edges. The pot was crumpled as it was forced in to the same box as the Korean lilac.

Dwarf Korean Lilac - Described as: with a bushy head on a stem.... covered with buds and blooms in season, second part of the season being August - September. As you can see from the photos it is straggly with not a bud in sight.

I paid a lot of money for these 3 plants; more money than I have ever paid for three plants, which makes my disappointment even greater. Based on your descriptions I expected great plants that I would be able to put straight into 3 large pots. None of the plants came with any planting or care information.

I uploaded 10 photos to support my claims.

 I received an email from Garden Express that essentially said 

‘This ticket is now awaiting review from our Horticultural Manager’

Five working days later I emailed Garden Express to find out where I was with a resolution. No reply, in fact I have not heard anything since (15 days ago). I have emailed on numerous occasions, they have now blocked my email address. Nobody answers the one phone number I can find.

It was then I read the reviews, oh dear! 48% giving 1 star and such scathing (deservedly) comments you would not believe. I am not sure how this company is still trading. The comments I have read are real expressions of the misery this company is causing to so many people.

 I don’t hold out much hope for a resolution to my plight; or at least not anytime soon. 

I have just seen this on the side panel of Trust Pilot feedback page:

 Gardening Express is 194 out of 194 ranked companies in the category 'garden centre' on Trustpilot.

All of this makes an absolute mockery of the flowery (pun intended) descriptions on the their website.

Please don’t be a fool like me and buy from this company. I would urge anybody who have had poor experiences with garden Express to complete a Money Saving Expert (MSE) Resolver form and if ever the BBC bring back Watchdog then contact them with your story as I will do.

 

 

Davesnave

Mdfs54 said:

Sorry, I am not on twitter or Facebook.

Neither am I.  We both appear to be here, anyway!

markinldn

Agree with all the scathing negative comments. Avoid this company!! Wish I had checked their recent reviews. Appalling, non-existent customer service. They also closed my ticket weeks later and never responded. Will try to raise a claim with my credit card for my hard-earned money they conned me out of.