After reading the Clematis forum about the shameful business practices of KOI Garden Club and Mr. Post, I wanted to read the comments on the watchdog posted by Kell, GardenQuilt and others. I was surprised to find an apology from this unscrouplous Post person. I hope he means what he says, now that he has finally decided to come out of hiding. Please let everyone know if it is just another one of his ploys or he is sincerely trying to get his act together. Thanks - Joyce
This message was edited Aug 4, 2009 6:55 AM
Perry Jerome Post appologizes on WatchDog Aug. 3, 2009. To little to late?
the people he owes money too don't want an apology they want a refund along with it. maybe he has resolved all those refunds and complaints as well as the apology.
That would be wonderful if they did get their money back. Its hard to believe sometimes the things some people will do. If I treated people like he has my conscience would drive me crazy. Couldn't live with myself. Guess its true some people just don't have a conscience.
Maybe I'm an exception to the rule but I always felt he would deliver eventually and from his Email to me last night and this morning my optimistic nature tells me he will come through. I hope everyone is as fortunate.
Pirl
You are not the exception to the rule - I feel the same way. I think we all get into a bind from time to time, regardless of who we are. It takes a big man to admit when he has made a mistake......
Thanks, Carolyn. I do believe he has a conscience and I do believe he will try to make things right. As I told him, "Spit happens". I hope everyone gets satisfaction from him.
hopefully he is giving folks a chance to say deliver late or give them a refund. i agree that it is good to own up when something is mishandled, but getting shipped a plant many months after paying for it would not be a resolution all would feel resolved the issue. many lessons here for sure from the business side, and the consumer side.
He's broke. He admits it. It's an option of waiting or trying to get money from someone who doesn't have it. I wish it were different and so does he. I'm sure he's learned many lessons with this experience.
hope all the northern zone purchasers who may receive plants in the foreseeable future have a plan for wintering them.
I'm sorry if my statements in this thread were to harsh. I too have been broke before but I always stayed in contact with someone I owed and kept them up to date on the situation until the debt was paid. His lack of response to emails, dmails and phone calls just made me so angry. This is not the place to vent my anger and I was wrong to do it. Guess I'm just too emotional about gardening!
Just because I've been patient (for maybe the second time in my life) it doesn't mean I'm thrilled with the long delay since I did place the order and paid for it in December. I can't even explain why I am not a crazed lunatic over it but, in the end, they are just plants and I do feel bad that his best of intentions didn't work out as planned.
I guess I'll grow them on our enclosed (unheated) porch that receives sunshine most of the day and hope for the best.
Edited for spelling.
This message was edited Aug 4, 2009 6:10 PM
Truthfully, I am not worried about it either. Either way, I don't have the money in my hand, so I may as well wait for the plants. Seems to me that gardening is an exercise in patience, isn't it?
It would have been far easier for Jerome to have never responded and left us all wondering than to post what he did if he was trying to get away with something.
I have overwintered a couple dozen clems over the years and have only lost one....... so not to worry.....
Carolyn is right.
This isn't like some of the disaster co-ops of the past where the person had the plants but didn't send them or co-ops were the plants weren't ordered, etc.
In early July we tried a new restaurant for dinner and we both got food poisoning. All in all I think I'd rather spend the money and wait for the plants than waste the money on a dinner like that one!
you guys are nicer than i am for sure. if i ordered a clem and didn't have it that many months later i probably already would have found it elsewhere. and wintering over in gallon pots here in zone 5 is not something i do. i am not set up for it, have no interest in it and do not plan to do it.
for some reason koi shipped me pristinely and promptly and i disrespect that he did that while dissing others. i am not a big liner buyer and have no intention of becoming one, i am more of a landscape gardener and clem collector. so for me it is not emotional, just more of a reaction to the impact on the industry in general of clems and people being warm and fuzzy about them which is important to me.
people who get them in late summer and plant them out have a huge risk of failure and dissatisfaction with clems. that is my concern not dissatisfaction with koi gardens.
Hey a bummer is a bummer. What really bothered me was a lack of action by our administration of this site in another similar situation. I spoke with them one on one. It was a no-brainer that that person was bilking the customers. The bottom line is I no longer buy from sources that would wish I would. The system they (the bad individual) hid behind sucks and provides no valid control what so ever. Meanwhile historically fine companies have been beat to death within this same system by members of this site. In fifty years of ordering through catalogs and now the same companies on the web I have had no difficulties. The only difficulty ever was right here within DG where I would have hoped trouble would not be lurking without control that is of value.
Bottom line is I just do not go this route ever again.
Forum swaps or gifting back and forth is entirely a different matter. There are real friends and associates out there willing to be ciber friends. Two RU meetings have been just great. A few real friends are possible for anyone willing to chat without profit as a motive. The best show of this summer is in process as three items flat out given to me at an RU meeting. It's show time and those first timers for me are doing just great.
Actually, I have found DG to be a help in this situation. Without the interaction here on this forum, many others might have continued to purchase from Jerome, unaware that he has treated others so unethically. Without a doubt, the Garden Watchdog has helped me find good vendors as I begin my online purchases of different types of plants, and the threads within the forums have helped direct me to the correct vendors and growers for the things I seek. Our local sources are limited at best, and my garden has taken off with plants that are unusual and interesting for our area. This would not have been possible without DG. Was I happy with the grief that I got from Jerome Post? No. Would I trade the positive assistance I've gotten from other DGers in gardening transactions to avoid having had this bad experience? No. DG didn't endorse this seller. Just like any other vendor, he built his business through word-of-mouth from satisfied previous customers... and now he is killing his business the same way.
docgipe, what is a RU meeting?
CG, it's a RoundUp. Do you not have those in the Ohio area? It's where active DGers get together to meet, eat, talk and trade plants. We had one scheduled for MidSouth in the spring, but unfortunately, the swine flu hit right then and caused it to be rescheduled to fall.
Round Ups that I have attended had about fifteen or twenty members from a radius of about seventy five miles. I had Violets and Christmas Cactus at the last one because my health does not permit me to be digging hardly anything. I took house items and recieved three nice house items all of which are doing just fine. Actually I was not there to swap or to get hardly anything. My items were flat out give-a-way for that reason. I pigged out on all the goodies others brought to eat and contributed a Monkey Bread dish. The only problem for me was it was hot and high humidity which put a strain on my oxygen support. We left early mostly to get in the car and use the AC to relieve me and the oxygen system I fly with. There was lots of yadda yadda and swapping going on. Everyone seemed to be having a great time.
i have never heard of the round up. how do you find out about them? i don't use much of the dg site except the clem forum, even had trouble finding the watchdog......
CG, they're typically discussed in the regional forums. Here's a link to the Ohio River Valley forum, which I think would be the closest to you:
http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/f/region_orv/all/
You would probably know some of the folks in the forum already, because several of them also post here in Clems. The closest forum for me is MidSouth, which includes folks from a very large area... Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and even some folks in Georgia and SC. Some states have their own forum, like Texas, Florida, and California, because they have a lot of DGers from those areas.
thanks blissful.
i am in an area between ohio river valley to the south and anything lake effect to the north...but will check it out. don't knwo what we are called but completely different climate. but i am glad to know about this and will investigate.
You could of course hang up your own shingle and invite others to come in for a swap.
We have two already going within my good driving distance. I tried to set one up and for some reason it did not take. Not a problem. Up against two nice existing RUs and timing could well have been the reasons. I'm content to visit with others.
Guru,
I think the Northeast Gardening forum has a lot of people in your time zone.
Dathen, I wondered about that one for her, or the Upper Midwest or Michigan Forums might be close to her. My brother lives outside Cleveland, Ohio, and I know their weather is very similar to what they had when they lived in Midland, Michigan.
we are not like cleveland weather at all. that is lake effect.
i will really have to research this, but maybe weather is not the main thing. blissful, your ru is so wide, that must include varying climatic influence? and there are a lot of nice folks in the cleveland area, some of whom i have already met!
at any rate glad to know what a RU is and i will def explore.
and next june i am having a garden open weekend, for two or three days, open and in garden hoping to invite and meet people who can make the time to stop by. no charge lemonade!
Yes, CG, our RU includes a range of climates. That works out pretty well, actually, because if you've tried a plant that isn't liking your environment, you can pass it on to someone in a different zone. There are still plenty of overlaps that we can all grow and trade. There are also RU's that are held by those posting on the Mid-South region that are targeted at subgroups. For instance, there's an RU coming up in Arkansas that will mainly be attended by those who live within about 100 miles or so of Little Rock. If you find the correct forum for those living in your area, you may very well find that there is a RoundUp hosted somewhere close to you during the year.