Gardening ExpressReviews 594

I ordered a pair of Photinia, the description says 'TWO strong' plants with a lollypop ball of foliage on top, which are 'ready to simply position and enjoy'. The plants I have been sent are young, weak, with no ball of foliage and a couple of years away from being ready to display.

The plants I have been sent are so weak they don't even stand up. They need repotting or planting in the ground. Not display ready.

Gardening Express took a week to reply. There doesn't seem to be an email or phone number and they said the plants look as they should and that I can't return them.

Also took more than two weeks for these weak little plants to arrive, even though it says 3 - 5 days.

Ordered from this company, not cheap i may add spent £152 and may aswell have thrown my money down the drain, complained to gardening express and havnt heard any thing back from them, ordered a photenia and it arrived all diseased, ordered a wisteria and this was nothing less than a twig in a plant pot, all plants arrived dead, dehyrated from the delivery not good. I have worked in plant wholesaling and this company is buying end of line products at a cheap price and selling for max profit, gardening express are nothing short of criminals stay away and do not purchase

I have had the same terrible experience of this company reported by other reviewers.
The plants supplied to me were nothing like the photos and descriptions on their website and the returns process is such a nightmare that most people just give up, which is exactly what Gardening Express is counting on. They are not remotely interested in customer satisfaction, just getting your money.
I have been gardening for over 50 years and know what healthy plants look like! I returned the pathetic specimens which I had been sent and after numerous emails, did manage to get my money back but they refused to refund the return postage.
Trading Standards state that if goods supplied are NOT AS DESCRIBED, you are entitled to a full refund INCLUDING the cost of return, regardless of what the company's T&Cs say.
They are also required by law to provide a link on their website to the ODR (Online Dispute Resolution) service, which they do not.
I wrote to their CEO to escalate my complaint and point out the missing ODR link. After a week, I was sent an email saying that he would not be replying because he was too busy!
I have given Gardening Express every opportunity to do the right thing but as they have not, I have reported them to Trading Standards, Watchdog and BBC 5 Live. I will be looking for other avenues to expose this appalling company but unless other people report them as well, they will continue to get away with it.
CONTACT WATCHDOG, TRADING STANDARDS and any other organisation which can do something to prevent other people from being ripped off.

Found plants in crushed box, all taped back up on doorstep. On opening at least 3 of the plants looked like they had been in transit for a long while in plastic bags - humid & drooping. Am hoping that the others may survive with a bit of nurture. Ordered originally as thought it would save time & money, but more like what a waste of time! Don't expect any compensation or remorse from the company so will only go with DON'T BUY FROM THIS COMPANY

Took my money and sent a dead, old plant. Now will not respond to my claim and have made it impossible to call or email them. Recovering money through credit card. If enough people do this then they will hopefully be held to account.

I have spent a lot of money with this company and I cannot believe how they treat their customers! Every plant that I have bought is sub standard and two of them are dying! My complaints have been dismissed by saying that they are not dying and they will come again. The topiary trees I bought for £70.00 are nothing like they advertise, and one is dead. When they arrived I complained and was told I could return them at my cost, which they are so big was impossible, plus it would have cost me a lot of money. Reading all the complaints I can't believe they can still be trading, they are a disgrace! The photos are what they should look like and what they really look like!

I have spent a lot of money with Gardening Express over the past few months and whilst my first order was ok the service and quality of plants has declined since. The latest insult is that they cancelled an order without my knowledge or any explanation but have not refunded my money. You cannot speak to them but you make a "ticket" with your issue. Mine remains unanswered after three days. Have now had to go to my bank to try to get the money back. My advice would be to go elsewhere.

Appalling service.

Possibly the worst company I have
Ever had to deal with. Ordered a pair of
Evergreen Photonia Red Robin Tree's which were pictured to have a ball shaped
Foliage and described as having ball shaped foliage (similar style to a bay
Tree) What arrived where a couple of
Miss shaped bushes with no form or structure resembling a ball. Not to mention Yodel just dumped them on the
Door step and ignored instructions to deliver to neighbour. Gardening Express don't accept phone calls,
They don't accept emails, they don't communicate on Facebook or Twitter, they
Make it virtually impossible to communicate with them other to log a support
Ticket. Which when they answer they
Simply close instantly unless you respond.
Their excuse was that with careful pruning the trees could be trained
Into a ball shape, but I am not Alan Titchmarsh, I ordered something based on a
Description and a picture. My advice is
Not to use them, in 2019 a company should show more customer service, also when
They close your support ticket just keep replying with additional messages,
Least it wastes their time as lets face it they didn't' waste any time dealing
With my request. The most annoying thing
Is you pay for postage, they deliver rubbish and they expect you to return it
At your own expense.

I haven't had my order ship yet and I've already decided I will NEVER use this company again. I wanted to cancel my order to amend it and re-order. This company is operated by a young chap, David, who would rather avoid direct contact with customers. He hides behind emails via his online contact method. This is "so he can keep employment costs down in order to offer the best prices". After emailing to request an order cancellation since it's the bank holiday weekend and they shouldn't be picking and packing my order until it the day it should be shipped (you would think), David has said this,

"We're actually picking, packing, and dispatching over the whole of this bank holiday weekend.

If your order was placed less than 24 hours ago and when you login to your account there is a cancel' link next to your order then you are best to cancel it and start afresh order excluding the items you do not want from the basket.

If however the order is over 24 hours old and there is no cancel link then it is now not possible to stop or intercept your order. We are processing 10,000+ orders a week which have to be hand picked, hand cleaned, and hand packed which makes intercepting orders impractical on our time and resources to do.

Hope this helps.

Kind regards
David
Gardening Express IT & Web Dept

Well maybe it's just me, but that reply felt a bit snarky. I honestly thought ecommerce selling laws state we have 14 days to cancel an order without any reason from the moment an order is placed. He is intentionally NOT cancelling my order because he is busy picking and packing the 10,000 + orders he gets per week and they don't have the resources. Well any good business is going to ace their customer service over their greedy reasons for not efficiently staffing to deal with customer issues and customer demand equally. Having read the reviews from this website above, I'm regretting I did not do my quality control in making sure this company was reputable and I fear my inability to cancel my order before it has even been shipped is going to be the least of my problems based on the low quality plants people have complained about on here. Thankfully credit cards have our backs and we can get our money back from people who start businesses but fail to handle the customer side of things appropriately. I will re-review once I get my order, which I am expecting with 3-5 days, however there is a sneaky little notation stating orders can take up to 14 days during busy times. It's never too late to up your business service, get some quality customer service staff and staff to handle the influx of orders so you can expedite them quickly and efficiently. Let this business venture of yours be a lesson. I'm off to the Northamptonshire Notice Board to slag you off...

My plants arrived today, 22 days after I ordered them. They are dead, nothing like the description given on the website and although I've raised 3 'support tickets' in the last week I've not yet received any response.
I have made a complaint to Trading Standards and would encourage other customers to do the same. Please use the link below:

https://www.essex.gov.uk/Community-Safety/Trading-Standards-for-Consumers/Pages/Default.aspx

I ordered a cherry almond tree in January which arrived looking stunted and sick. Despite the utmost care, it failed to thrive and by mid March, I pronounced it dead and contacted the seller. Now, 6 weeks later, they have claimed to have 'lost' five separate emails from me, all with photographs and refuse to speak to me on the phone. Do not touch these crooks with a bargepole! My trading standards department are now investigating my complaint.

Waiting 16 days for my delivery. Company does not reply to e mails and has No phone number for you to contact them. This company needs to improve drastically or else shut down.It should not treat paying customers so badly. Money taken out of my account straight after the purchase, but after 16 days of waiting and e mails not answered still not had my order. Disgusting service. Given one star but if it had been possible I would have given none. Save your time and money and buy at your local garden centre where you can see what you are getting and take it straight home. This company needs looking into by trading standards ASAP.