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Gardening Express Reviews Summary
The company's reputation is marred by consistent complaints regarding the quality of plants and poor customer service. Customers frequently report receiving damaged or subpar products, along with significant delays in delivery. Many express frustration over the lack of effective communication channels, as the absence of a phone support option exacerbates their concerns. While some customers have received satisfactory plants, the overwhelming sentiment leans towards disappointment, particularly in the company's handling of complaints and returns. Overall, the feedback suggests a pressing need for improvements in product quality and customer service responsiveness.
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UPDATE - after 2 months I received 2 out of 3 plants. I presume that I am lucky to have received some relatively healthy plants and will have to write off the third plant to experience.
No plants received so far, but I did get one reply to my emails requesting a refund. This stated that they are unable to give refunds due to their automatic process! No further replies received to my emails, no refund & no plants 7 weeks after ordering. It certainly seems like a scam. I wish I had checked the company out before ordering. Should have know better.
Received my order yesterday after 7 weeks waiting delivered by Yodel very well packaged and a very healthy plant. T he guys from GARDENING EXPRESS need to improve the communication issue which left people baffeled by how their order is doing. See photos.
Waited so many weeks for my plant, I almost forgot I'd ordered it. The plant wasn't the evergreen variety I'd paid for, had no proper label, was poor quality and diseased. There is no way of having any dialogue with this company and you simply lose your money. Can't believe they get away with it.
Order placed over month ago, money taken on day 1, no plants supplied and do not respond to email.
FRAUDSTERS
1 star because you cannot give less, wish I had seen reviews before placing order, live and learn
5 weeks of waiting when the original timeline was 3-5 days - then extended to 2-4 weeks. When the timeline was extended i. E. delivery terms changed, I should have been offered a refund or to continue waiting. I wasn't offered this. No phone support exists, they switched off their chat support, and you can only raise a ticket, I did that and continued to ask for a refund for 5 weeks. Finally out of frustration I contacted my bank to do a refund based on non delivery. Then I mailed them again to say the money was being refunded. Lo and behold they then say my plants are on their way it's too late to cancel, well I won't take delivery, it wasn't too late to cancel 5 weeks ago when I first contacted them. If they dare to send their driver over to me they can just drive right back with my plants, they are probably dead anyway. My advice, contact your bank and get your money back and never go near this company again. I'm not sure it even exists anyway. They could have saved all this bad reputational damage (see other reviews sites too) just by offering a refund option. Silly, fools to themselves.
Dear Chris Bonnet,
I know you read these reviews frequently and as there is no other way to contact you as your company email is blocked, your chat messages are switched off, and there is no phone number or genuine address, I am trying to appeal to you via this public site; you leave me no choice.
I understand that you have probably worked very hard as an entrepreneur and you are ambitious and want to succeed' in the commercial world, and may have started off as a youth with bit of money from your parents and a love of gardens, and not much beyond that, and as a small business person myself without any formal education, I relate to that. It's hard, believe me I know.
BUT you have to get that customers come first. That's how you succeed. There is a difference between greed and ambition. If you make your first million and you have happy customers who will come back THAT is success, if you make 10 million and you've just ripped off thousands of decent people, that's really bad, you know. That's not success. Success is about providing a good service, to good decent people, who put their had earned money and trust in you. Some of the reviews out there are from people who had little money, living in flats with small balconies, on jobs that would be shortly lost, with partners who had lost their jobs in the lockdown. £60 may not be much to you to take from then, but 8 weeks into lockdown with no plants to cheer them up, and no refund, guess what, they could do with that money for food. But it's in your bank account. They can't afford food and you are in profit, big profit, 5 times the amount of usual orders in April I read. Well great for you. Not so great for the poor people whose money you took and didn't deliver?
So I urge you, Chris, don't treat these customers like dirt. They are not just names on credit cards. It's terrible business to promise something (3-5 days delivery) and deliver something else (2-3 months delivery) and even worse if you don't offer a refund after you have changed those delivery terms. Any decent businessperson would have offered a choice at the point of change, a refund or stick with it, some people would have stuck with it. If you had offered that believe me you would have earned more customers' loyalty than doing what you did and bedding in ignoring people, switching off the phones, email and chat, and sending out a much as possible very late, in whatever crap condition, ignoring appeals for refunds. You know what causes 99% of the world's problems, it's lack of communication it's all about communication, if you can crack that then you'll be a winner. You have failed. Sending cut and pasted auto emails does NOT count as communication, only an ill-educated schoolboy would think that was acceptable.
So, Chris, can I suggest several things to save your company
1. You automatically give refunds to anybody who had waited more than 30 days for delivery (the legal limit to claim refunds on non-delivery)
2. Offer a public GENUINE apology on as many fora as possible including review sites such as these.
3. If WatchDog offer you a chance to appear, as I feel is bound to happen, you publicly apologise and explain about the refunds being given to anybody who wants one.
4. You invest some of your profits on business training for yourself, with a particular emphasis on customer service, so you can improve your company in future, if it survives, and have well trained staff.
5. You stop judging success by how much money you make and how many bedrooms your house has, and maybe consider that success may be about how many customers you make happy.
On 12th April I placed an order with garden express totalling almost £60. I have yet to recieve it despite sending several emails. I had one response suggesting that I cancel the order so long as it's status wasn't pending. I tried but of course it was pending. Terrible customer service. Will never use again.
Weeks and order arrived today well 1 box out of 6. The other 5 finally came. Condition better than expected after seeing so many horror photos on social media. Some of the plants are certainly not as advertised. Would I of spent £200 on the same quality of plants on a garden centre, No. To rub salt in the wounds they included a £5 off your next £50 spend in June to thank me for my patience, never again, Lesson certainly learnt.
I ordered my plants almost 4 weeks ago and am still waiting for a delivery date. I tried to cancel my order early on in the process, due to delays, but this was denied by their system. There is no customer service and so you simply have to sit and wait. I really want to support the gardening industry but this feels like they are taking advantage of the current crisis. They are very quick to take your money and then do not deliver the goods and make it impossible to contact them. Also, they place adverts with google to gain more business and do not deliver to existing customers. If they are a proper family business, with an ethical approach, then they need to invest in proper customer service.
This is my email to GE after waiting 61 days for delivery. Report your issues to Trading Standards.
I placed my order 61 days ago on the 11/04/20 and received my plants only yesterday which is both extraordinary & unbelievable. All this time waiting, only to receive plants that are in poor condition, were badly packed & their ongoing survival is in doubt. The difficulty in getting someone to respond on a general inquiry is impossible, so making a claim against these poor quality goods is a non starter & the 5 year warranty, utter nonsense.
I've previously used GE & the service has been at best, average but with very poor, almost non existent customer service.
With this order, I've sent emails requesting information and updates on my order but received nothing more, than heavily embellished, automatic replies containing glossy waffle which GE thinks is cleaver marketing but it's nothing more than a veil, attempting to cover bad selling practices.
Good plant suppliers will inform you prior to placing an order whether a particular plant is in stock or not, allowing the prospective purchaser the opportunity to either buy & wait or not to buy but GE doesn't offer a choice, it just takes your money, knowing full well you'll have to wait because if they don't have the plant you want in stock, they really don't care.
Sending out thousands and thousands of plants each day, training more staff to cope with demand, working day & night, REALLY?
Words like commitment, founding values, we're only a phone call away & we're the No 1 online UK supplier, utter tosh! You only have to read the many negative reviews which clearly bear out your dismal customer service.
All this & head office apparently is The Estuary Private Members Club.
I've raised a formal complaint with Trading Standards against your business practices and will also be posting negative reviews, adding to the many already posted.
I ordered 8 weeks ago and nothing has arrived, you cannot contact them in any way other than raising a ticket and then you get an automated response. Nobody has had any response from any tickets rasied. They sent a generic email saying that plants are growing in their warehouse and will be even bigger, the reviews suggest the opposite. Thankfully i paid on credit card and have logged a dispute
I have used internet shopping for many years and without doubt, these are the worst firm I have ever came across.
Like many others, I have waited weeks for my order and they completey ignored my emails.
In a "this is money" article, they responded to the criticism by saying "anyone can cancel their order as long as it hasn't been shipped"
So that's what I did and guess what? They just ignore your request!
I eventually got a reply back today, saying that I couldn't cancel because the order has been sent out but "may be delayed by the courier owing to the volume of orders!
They have, apparentley used the same line on numerous other people.
This firm has just taken advantage of the garden centre lock down and taken everybody's orders (and money) without any concern that they wouldn't be able to fufill the orders in an appropriate time scale.
Stay well away from this firm!
They took my money a month ago, and still nothing. I tried to contact them on their website but their contact system has been shut down. I think they are going out of business which means the end of my money.
Worst customer service ever, extreme delays and no way to contact them. All avenues of communication are ignored!
I ordered 3 plants on 11 April and I am still waiting. I have asked them to cancel my order and issue a refund but they have ignored me and have said they are processing my order. They took my money on 13 April but still no goods. The Competition Markets Authority will confirm you cannot charge for a service or product not delivered.
STAY AWAY EVERYONE DO NOT USE THEM!
Ordered plants on 20 April. Told can take up to 4 weeks, has now been 7 weeks and still counting. Have used the email form 3 times, never get a response. 3rd June was told package had been dispatched to Hermes for delivery and given tracking information. To date Hermes have not received package and no indication of when I will receive my order. I cannot get a refund please, cannot get my plants, the company is either a complete shambles or is deceiving customers. Am now going to Trading Standards to see if they can help. I wish I could add photos but have no plants!
Y
I ordered plants on 12th April and they arrived today (8th June)! This is DESPITE me sending four separate emails over six weeks asking them to cancel the order. Will be reporting to Trading Standards, just dreadful all round.
Eight weeks since our order on 14th April and still waiting. Money taken the day after. No way to contact them, they don't reply to their on-line tickets. No phone or e-mail. Appalling. Mr Chris Bonnett, MD, you should hang your head in shame.
On 13th April I ordered £89:00 worth of perennials from this online company www.gardeningexpress.co.uk whose website looked impressive and who seemed to be one of the only companies with any stock still available. They quoted 2-4 weeks delivery due to Covid 19 situation. However they took the payment from the bank on 15th April. I finally received 4 cartons of dead and dying plants 7 weeks after placing the order. Communication with this company is impossible. Throughout the 7 weeks of waiting I made numerous attempts to contact them with no success. They do not have a phone number and the only response I have received to my many e-mails is an automated reply. They offer one option to get in touch which is through a system of completing a Ticket Request, which they never reply to, despite claiming a response within 3 days. They even send an automatic reply asking you not to keep sending "Tickets". Finally, to receive
A load of decaying plants is the last straw
Worst company I have ever dealt with. I had tried to cancel my order numerous times over the past 2 months but now the plants have arrived, 50% of them are diseased. I will have to burn them as it will cost £70 to return them.
What can I say. This outfit should be stopped from trading. Ordered April 11th 2020 and received the order June 3rd. One item I have to say was pretty decent. The trees although alive bore no resemblence to the website photos. The Daphne was just alive. I had already reported them to Trading Standards and initiated a charge back from my credit card provider. Chris the Conman do the right thing stop trading and ripping people off as your disgraceful, unscrupulous behaviour has gone on for far too long. I have contacted Rogue Traders to try and put a stop to this company.
From the business
Gardening centre for garden plants and flowers. The UK's No. 1 Online Specialist in the UK with Hardy plants guaranteed 5yrs
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