Thompson & Morgan Seeds

PZH

Just posted a new thread on the '5 star service board.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?p=11168737#post11168737

Fantastic customer service - well done Thompson & Morgan.

:T

mrbadexample

Well I wish they'd hurry up and send the seeds I ordered on Wednesday. Not too much trouble to put a pack of 8 seeds in the post for £1.99 delivery charge, is it? :mad:

Robothell

Hmmm.......I think their service is good but I'm having very bad germination rates from their seeds. Will see how good their customer service is when I ask for replacements.

A_Clock

Robothell wrote: »

Hmmm.......I think their service is good but I'm having very bad germination rates from their seeds. Will see how good their customer service is when I ask for replacements.

Yeah ive not had much come up from them either, in fact morrisons 59p seeds have done better! I got some Chrysanthemums 30 seeds for £3.89, and had 3 come up out of 15 i planted, gave the rest to my mum and she got the same! 6 plants for out of 30 seeds is abit crap tbh

There customer service seems ok as i ordered some poached egg seeds and on their site it said 150 seeds, but on back of packet it was only 100, so they sent me a free packet! They havent changed it, so you can still try your luck and get a free pack

http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/uk/en/product/gwr6444/1

They normally £1.99 but the childrens range is only 99p

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

I ordered T&M seeds and they took over 3 weeks to come.I've had bad results with some of my seeds too.I'm not doing anything different so I can't understand why.I did'nt know they would replace or refund seeds.

olly300

MRSTITTLEMOUSE wrote: »

I ordered T&M seeds and they took over 3 weeks to come.I've had bad results with some of my seeds too.I'm not doing anything different so I can't understand why.I did'nt know they would replace or refund seeds.

Don't know what the delay is. Maybe they didn't actually have all the seeds you wanted in stock so had to wait for a delivery. Under the law they have 28 days to send you the seeds.

Apparently according to Which all seed companies will refund or replace seeds that don't germinate.

The poor germination rates could be to poor seed quality control. I've noticed with all companies that I've brought seeds from or got seeds from, that only new varieties have a decent germination rate unless the seeds are something like sunflowers or poppies.

Gardening-girl_5

A-Clock and MRSTITTLEMOUSE I haven't had much luck with germination rates with T&M seeds either, last year they did well but not this year and i haven't done anything different either. This is the first year i haven't had much success though so maybe something's changed via their end.

A._Badger

I posted some weeks ago about having had truly terrible germination rates from T&M Kelvedon Wonder pea seeds. I sent the packet back and received a replacement, promising that I'd report back, saying if these were any better.

The answer is, yes - but only a little.

While I was waiting for T&M I sowed some Suttons Hurst Green Shaft peas and these though did better, they, too, were below what should be an expected standard. Both, incidentally, were sowed under test conditions, so they can't blame mice or the weather!

Some years ago, I decided I didn't get very good results from T&M and had only gone back to them because of the recent Gardening Which? report saying how good they were. So much for Which?!

For veg seeds, I think I may try Kings next year as people seem to speak well of them, or maybe one of the other small seedsmen, like Marshalls.

I must say, though, that for flowers, I have had excellent results this year with Suttons and Carters ( a cheap sub-brand of Suttons, these days). If only their peas had been a quarter as good!

Farway

Like some others on here, I have found T & M seeds to be poor on germinating, and switched years ago to other suppliers, like Suttons or Marshalls

Now however I tend to buy from Lidl or Wilko, and often get reduced at end of season seeds from Wilko, like 5p a packet for Tumbling Toms.

I have generally found these clearance bargains germinate readily the following year, but I am not too picky these days on variety, so pot luck is OK for me but maybe not for everyone

A._Badger

I think Farway makes a good point about cheap seeds - providing you can get the variety you want and that they aren't faulty in some way.

Quite how seedsmen arrive at their pricing is beyond me. I mentioned Carters in an earlier post, so let me give an example.

I sowed Alyssum Snow Carpet this year (as usual) and found two packets on offer at my local Wyevale in the Suttons section (Carters is Suttons 'cheap' brand these days). One packet was branded Carters, the other Suttons. They were same variety and, as far as I could tell., contained the same sort of quantity and yet the Carters version was a good deal cheaper.

It seemed to me that you were being expected to pay a lot more for the perceived 'better' brand.

Thanks for the tip on Wilkos etc. I managed to get a lot of next year's seed from a branch of Julian Graves a few weeks ago, which had a 'half price on everything in the shop' offer - including Suttons seeds! As you might imagine, I stocked-up!