Gardening Express, Primrose and Plantsavers

[Thecazelets]

Has anyone actually received any plants from these 3 firms since lockdown? I foolishly placed orders with each of them in early April. Nothing at all received so far from GExpress or Plantsavers and my attempts to follow-up have been ignored. The only way to contact GE is to raise a 'ticket' online - no response so far, and Plantsavers similarly haven't responded to my query.

I did actually receive half my Primrose order after a month, with no reference to or acknowledgement of the (paid for!) missing items and the order date on the packing slip changed to 30 April (the order was made on 11 April). My follow up email querying the missing items has been ignored so far.

I realise these are tricky times, first world problems and it's churlish to complain when people are doing their best - but I've had no such problems ordering from elsewhere online, and I am down to the tune of £150 between the 3 of them as they all took payment at point of order.

I'd be interested (and maybe comforted if I'm not the only plantless one!) to find out how others have got on.

Sarah Raven are excellent, really well packaged and also reliable, they are a bit more expensive but worth it I think. I have also used Farmer Gracy but for tubers, again good.

I can 100% recommend Secret Gardening Club. I bought masses of perennials last week and they arrived within 6 days. Three items missing and I had a refund on those. Free delivery if you spend over £20. Free fast delivery if you spend over £50.

I am looking to buy lupins and will absolutely avoid the sites mentioned above. West Country Lupins are despatching within a week.

I’ve bought bulbs from Farmer Gracy and they’ve been good too.

Sarah Raven I find very hit and miss as the order arrived in drinks and drabs. Quality was fantastic too - I bought salvias and they were all outstanding.

I had an email (finally!) from Gardening Express today. Apologetic in tone and say they are looking into what has happened with my order. We'll see what happens! Nothing from Primrose yet.

Thanks for the other recommendations by the way. Am feeling a bit battered by these recent experiences so it'll be quite a while before I risk buying plants online again, but you never know.

Nothing from Primrose and I've emailed twice to cancel. How on earth do I get my money back?

I placed an order with gardening express early in lockdown, plants arrived two weeks later, well packaged and really good sturdy plants. I think they are struggling but doing their best to get the orders out.

@corpsebrid3 Wish I knew!

So still nothing at all from Primrose and now 2 weeks since the last email from Gardening Express. What absolute crooks these two companies are.

I had an order with gardening express placed mid April, had given up hope and assumed my money was lost when out of the blue last week I got a dispatch email, plants arrived a day before scheduled delivery. All in great condition and well packaged. Don’t give up hope!

Thanks Sweetpotatoaddict - that does help a bit to know! Glad you got yours eventually.

Never, never again for me though - quite apart from the money I've lost it's also cost me a fair bit in time and annoyance. Not to mention lost growing time!

I ordered young plants from Hayloft that were due mid may, no communication and no reply to email. They turned up Saturday just fine so approx theee Weeks late, thankfully they are fine.
Same with an order from crocus, patio planter due mid may, came yesterday again really nice condition just very late. Fingers crossed you all get your orders, albeit late.

Primrose order turned up today. Interesting "living creatures" label which had me wondering what the hell I'd been buying for a few moments

I joined the primrose Facebook group - so many people in the same boat. My order has eventually arrived and the pint plants really are lovely. And then they send a promo email saying they miss my custom! Who is running this business? Bizarre to not be responding to me or updating me and then want more sales. Why would I do that to myself again? Better to have explained why things went to shit and how they now have employed people?

Yes - it infuriates me. I even had one of those 'How did we do?' emails from in May and it made me splutter with rage that they were seeking positive feedback and gold stars having sent me nothing and ignored all my communication attempts!

I am still waiting. Some numpty from GE re-sent me a 'dead' Hermes tracking link yesterday which clearly shows my order was lost or destroyed on 24 April, but that's it. Primrose - nothing at all.

This was discussed on the R4 programme You & Yours the other day and Primrose came off badly on that. There might be hope as apparently they are looking at orders again

I placed order two months ago and am still waiting... sent message via website and no reply

That's interesting Burgerseverywhere. Might try and listen to it, if it won't get my blood pressure up!

It was quite balanced and reasonable so you should be ok!

Ordered from garden express . Plans came 6 weeks after they took money from my account. Plants were dead . I raised a support ticket on May 21st which is being ignored. Now going to try get my money back via the bank . I noticed that they have a lot of positive posts about being kept informed, quality of plants etc on FB which I presume they are writing themselves as anyone I know who has used them had dead or dying plants delivered.

A friend and I ordered from GE on 23 April. I've used them before, several times and mostly been pleased. I've heard nothing, despite the plants still showing as in stock in their website. Hers arrived half dead, and the small tree had clearly been damaged so was lopsided, but still got sent.

I'm still living in hope that mine will come and be alive, but it's fading fast.

Just listened to the You and Yours episode about GE and Primrose (on 1 June). At least GE put up their CEO to speak, and to be fair he was apologetic. Other people's experiences pretty much mirroring mine so far. Wish I'd thought of complaining via Y&Y as they said listeners who'd done so had been contacted and got their money back!

I've had a slightly confusing email from GE today which says variously

• it's being escalated to management
• management will resend my order
• that they've given me a refund

I'm not sure what to expect now, and am crossing my fingers for a refund rather than the delivery of some dead plants, but I suppose at least they have responded.

Unlike Primrose, which still owes me £45 for plants ordered on 11 April but hasn't at any point deigned to respond.

In my opinion GE made a mess of managing things. They should have stopped accepting orders till they caught up.
The plants I received last week took 6 weeks to arrive, but I am pleased with what did arrive, especially with what I paid for them. They would have cost £££s more from somewhere like Dobbies. Would I use them again though? I’m not sure, due to their lack of communication and the fact they took payment way before despatch.
Perhaps I was lucky with what I ordered, and hearing other people have received dead plants makes me more reluctant.

It's odd that it's been so bad, given they were both exclusively online businesses before the lockdown - not as if the model was new to them. They really should simply have stopped taking orders before they got totally overwhelmed - I think most people would have been fine with a message to keep checking the website for an update on when they'd be able to take new orders. Certainly less reputation-damaging than what's actually happened.

Bakker isn't doing well on the feedback on trust pilot. I had a nosey when they sent me a link to review them.

I believe that companies employ social media and review consultants when they are getting bad reviews. I can only guess what they do but I'd assume they find a way to get the good reviews at the top of a google search and try to dilute the truthful negative ones.

Talk about stable door horse bolted if that's where they are spending g their money now!