Gardening ExpressReviews 594

Never again the worst online gardening company ever … ripped me right off sent me dead plants with bugs on them! Dead flowers ones that have been cut off! Just a complete mess!

I have ordered from gardening express and contacted them about a plant they provided as it was not showing any signs of growth. They refused any replacement plant and any further help. A totally lack of customer care and a 5 year guarantee is a load of CRAP.

The prices are cheap but the plants and trees that I have recently received have either died after a couple of months or never grown at all. I received a flat NO when I asked for a replacement of an order.

Think twice before using this Company. First time I've used them & wasn't good experience so will definitely be the last. Received an email from Yodel saying the plant we ordered had been delivered. Got home later to find no sign of it. Contacted Yodel twice & each time they failed to get back to me. Contacted Gardening Express through web chat who after lengthy delays finally said I had to print & complete claim form for Yodel( already told them I didn't have printer) & also said I had to contact Police to get Crime Report Ref no. Really think Police have far more important things to do than check up on courier who probably left it at the wrong address. Citizens Advice website confirms retailer is responsible for chasing up courier & if they fail to do so are in contravention of Consumer Rights Act so if a replacement plant is not received as per the letter sent to them I will refer this issue to Trading Standards. Their Customer Service is abysmal & don't think they understand the concept of customer service ie to help their customer. Think the extremely low rating given on various independent review sites says it all. THINK BEFORE PARTING WITH YOUR MONEY

I received a number of plants over the year from this company, without a complaint about any of them. However this year I received a consignment where a clematis was in "dormant" state in January and accompanying leaflet said to wait for it to leave this state. Certainly my other clematis were not showing signs of new shoots in January. However, at the end of February it was clear that, unlike each of my other clematis, this new one was in fact dead not dormant. I asked the company to replace or refund and that has let to a protracted and rude and repetitive unhelpful stance by the company. They will only communicate by online chat and said their T&Cs said I should notify them within 14 days of receipt which I had not done and now they could do nothing I pointed out that the plant was dormant and had I contacted them I would have fully expected them to refer me to the leaflet and wait. I further pointed out that I had contact them in what I considered a reasonable time to realise the dormant state was erroneous as it was dead. Response was that a variety of things could have cause this failure including customer not treating the plant properly! Whilst this might be true, not in this case as I unpacked it and stored in a heated greenhouse and kept it regularly watered. The plant is DEAD. I have since reviewed the company and got a response that they do not deal with complaints in this way and that I had not contacted them within 14 days. And so it has gone on for 4 days. Emails are received and responded to as a no-reply address and to talk on Online Chat. Round and round in circles. I have written and emailed the CEO but this email also is a no-reply address. All for the cost of £8.97 refund or replacement. Avoid this company, they have proven they want to be contacted ONLY by online chat, online chat staff fail to understand the T&Cs are overridden by Consumer Rights Act and Consumer Contracts Regulation. A V O I D. Arrogance and the attitude the customer is a nuisance and always wrong.

Bought a cycad advertised as 'HUGE…
Bought a cycad advertised as 'HUGE GIANT Cycad'- EXTRA LARGE 80cm-100cm. Barely reached 80cm in height including pot and will be considerably smaller when the leaves drop lower, as the they were held upright in the packaging. Unhelpful and uninterested customer service. Scam overselling of products, definitely won't use again

Save your money shop elsewhere. Their adverts are misleading. The trees I received are awful and the customer service dreadful. Their attitude is if you don't like them return them (at my own expense of course). Why would I throw good money after bad returning their defective trees.

I never got my delivery and the company were not interested and impossible to get in contact with them

Spent quite a bit of money here and never again! Long delivery times and worst plants I have ever seen. Sent the dead ones back and didn't even get a refund. They have two companies one is a garden center and they do supply good plants otherwise they wouldn't sell and the other is a mail order that supplies a load of rubbish... so be aware! Buy from somewhere more reputable is my advise.

NOT happy, you have sent me dead plants. You are not a trusted seller and I want my hard earned money back.
William Bell Order Number ******* Oct 8,2021

Disgraceful company. Delivered a plant that was ravaged by slugs. Customer service was rude and could not be bothered. Refused a refund.

Took 4 weeks to arrive. When it arrived all items were packed in the same box squashed together, on top of each other and some upside down. I ordered 3 trees, 1 Bush, 6 succulent plants and 2 large pots for trees, basically squashed in a box 18" x 18" maximum. The succulent plant pots squashed, 9 small heads broken off plants. The Bush had 2 broken stems and the smaller tree was damaged with twigs snapped. It was like, let's see how many items we can squeeze in the box to save on postage, sod the care of the plants. I have ordered trees elsewhere from other suppliers and they come in individual boxes each. Needless to say I won't be recommending them to anyone. If you want to contact them, good luck, as website contact details take you onto questions and answers, but no messaging facility. I replied to ask where they were by the first email received confirming order, and in fact asked if they hadn't posted them to refund me and I will go elsewhere. No answer, but a week later received an email confirming being picked, waited 3 weeks by now, how long does it take to pick them! Then had to wait for delivery. It was with the delivery driver for 5 days, so no watering during that time.

Very disappointed - bulbs arrived later than suggested - about 1/3 were almost rotten through.
Planted the others and half of those have grown.

Shocking company, bad customer service, missing plants, dead, tatty plants, arrived 3 weeks late...

It's been weeks and weeks since I ordered my plants and still I've received nothing. I've had almost no communication from them. It's impossible to speak to or contact anyone. No email address or phone line and their poxy chat service is awful. This is the worst customer service experience I've ever had. No plants, no answers and no information. Rubbish company. I wish I had never ordered from them in the first place. Please do not shop with this company! I will be contacting trading standards very shortly if I don't receive my order. Absolutely dreadful.

Do NOT use this company!
Recently paid £80 for a single climbing shrub which not only arrived much later than expected, but was also virtually dead when it finally arrived. Not surprisingly, despite my best efforts trying to restore it, it has since completely died. I tried to contact gardeningexpress via their online webchat several times (they don't give a phone number or email address!) and have not received any reply at all! I then got a standard message to review my purchase, using a points system 1-5. The only problem is that this system is clearly set up not to accept any low score; I have tried several times to submit my score of 1, from different tablets and at different times, and it comes back every time, claiming to have a database error! Clearly rigged to weed out negative reviews!
If you don't want to waste your money, DO NOT USE THEM!

If there was a zero star I would give it.

Disgusting, disgraceful, unemphatic, uncompassionate, rudest company I have come across. There are no ways of contacting them either by phone or email, just their silly online chat forum which takes hours for them to answer. They do not honour their 5 guarantee shrubs and trees, like Large 4-5ft Magnolia acuminata Blue Baby, they sent out a bare root and expect you to send it back in 14 days if it does not flower or sprout leaves. I paid £30 for this tree and left it for 5 months, did a bark test, and it was dead. They were very rude when contacted online (transcript copied for court purposes) and would do nothing cos I had to send it back in 14 days, cr*p, rude, unruly staff, disrespectful, unhelpful, the owner, CB is not interested in feedback even when contacted by LinkedIn. Disgusting, if they want to survive they need to change their business model for sure. Try well known companies like Suttons, or the RHS. This company is really for the dunster for certain. DO NOT BUY FROM THEM YOU ARE WASITING YOUR MONEY. I have now had to get CAB and Trading Standards involved as the item is not fit for the purpose and promise, will take them to court over this of needs be.

Large circa 5ft Tricolour Hibiscus Tree

The trees were delivered bare rooted (as expected) and I immediately planted/cared for them as instructed. Three months later (from June to August) there is still no growth whatsoever and when snipping a stem back, no green or sign of life. Upon contacting the farcical 'fast messaging service' (as this is the only way to get in contact) and waiting literally hours for a response, I am told that there is only a 14 day return policy (and you have to pay to return the plants yourself anyway too).

When the instructions say that there will be growth in a month or two, how the hell is anyone supposed to know that they are dead sticks before then; and return them.

The messaging agent was totally unhelpful and dismissive. These trees were not cheap, but forgetting about the money, the customer service from this company is point blank the worst I have ever experienced.

PURCHASE AT YOUR PERIL