Buggy Crazy/Garden Watchdog Question

I noticed recently a feedback that was left for Buggy Crazy. I know she is a favorite of mine and others here. I just always thought that you had to have a direct experience with a vendor in order to leave feedback. Am I wrong? Does checking out a website and not liking what you see, without so much as making a contact, count as something of an "experience" to note on Garden Watchdog?
http://davesgarden.com/gwd/c/3719/

Looks like Lisa put this person in their place. I'm glad Lisa keeps the pictures up on the site even though they are currently not for sale. But as for your question-- yes a customer is supposed to have dealings with the business and has to try to resolve it before posting. It's in the Acceptable Use Policy.

I have to say that is quite shallow. As Buggy stated in her rebuttal, the person didn't even spend the time to read that she is a Fall shipper. Quite bizarre to leave negative feedback just because the website said everything is "sold out". I disregard these frivolous remarks when using Garden watchdog. My thought is these types of remarks should be nullified.

I did read the acceptable use policy and that is what I gathered. I just thought it was a very strange remark. Lisa did have a good and appropriate rebuttal. I just hate that that ridiculous comment is reflected in her feedback totals. She should be at 100%, not anything less. Lisa is just above and beyond wonderful!

The posting made for Buggycrazy is very unhelpful and a false response as to the quality of her business. She did not order anything nor did she receive anything to complain about. Therefore no response should have been made. We need to have some sort of posting police or an unbiased jury to review and remove any silly, vindictive, or useless watchdog postings as this kind of posting makes this valuable resource meaningless. Patti

Patti, I agree whole heartedly with your comment. Well said. This post-er had no experience with her business, yet brings her feedback rating down 4%.

If you send Dave/Terry a note to that effect, he may address the person who left the post. Can't hurt - maybe it will be removed. I sent Dave or Terry a note a few years back about a post I read because like this one there was no indication of experience with the vendor and I thought it was unfair if nothing else, and they replied to me quickly and addressed the individual. I think the post may even have been deleted.

Is there a way to request the admin. review it? I would have thought that BuggyCrazy would have done that.
This brings up a point that we need to keep in mind with review sites that don't have anyway to verify the authenticity of a persons claims. I could say I was a customer and trash talk a business without actually being one. It happens all the time on the internet, companies praise themselves/products or write negative reviews of other companies/products. So I guess in the end without anyway to verify a claim we are on the honor system.

I've always been a big supporter of the Garden Watchdog & honestly, sometimes I will see a number up there and decide it is not worth looking into, based on the percentage of negative feedback of any given merchant. It makes me think maybe I need to be looking a little closer when I evaluate a merchant for a potential purchase.
Steve may be right, d-mailing an admin. might be helpful in this situation.

I have seen several frivolous comments in the past. One person put down a negative comment because they didn't like the selection of plants a company carried. Strange eh.

I have seen and weeded through comments that don't hold up, or make sense. But this has to be the worst I have seen, overall. I d-mailed Dave.

Good magnolia....I know people are pretty passionate about Buggycrazy and I would be surprised someone hasn't complained before now. You did the right thing.

Steve, thanks for the tip. Look forward to seeing your lilies. I see your show has begun. Lucky you!

Let us know what the admin. says.

The rating one gives should be based upon the criteria that is listed. I should not be allowed to give a negative rating to a speciality grower of berries just because I don't care for strawberries. Nor, because I want to order my tulips this week for fall , should I be allowed to slam one of the bigger vendors who has not posted their 2007 list yet. Personalities should only play a role if it affects the service, good, bad or indifferent. I am glad you sent admin. a note to address this issue. Patti

Funny ~ I read that negative comment just last night and it was on my mind all of today. Was wondering what could be done about it because it's very unfair.

Sometimes I wish only subscribers could post to the Watchdog because I've seen many negative posts where the person signed up just that day. Everyone's opinion matters but I think they're a bit hasty on occasion.

Mags, good for you!! :) Buggy doesn't deserve that negative mark. I hope Dave or Terry removes that mark against her. Good for you Mags, standing up for what is right! :)

Diann

How can you give negative feedback if you have never bought the product or talked to the seller??? It doesn't seem fair to judge when you haven't even purchased or spoken to the owner/seller. I have never recieved bulbs as big as I got from Buggy Crazy last fall and they are poking through the dirt as I write this!!
That remark was not called for and in MHO should be removed ASAP!!!!!!!!

Here are some of my buggycrazy narcissus in bloom this year. Patti

Well, it looks like the negative remark is going to stand. Here is the response I got from Terry... It's still too bad.

Hi Ticker,

Per our guidelines, a person who makes a bona fide attempt to purchase and is stymied by the website (or lack thereof), out-of-stock items, or other hindrances, is permitted to leave feedback based on their experience just as someone who ordered and was dissatisfied with the products or service they received.

It seems BuggCrazy has responded to the feedback, so hopefully they will work out a satisfactory conclusion.

Happy Gardening,
Terry

:( Maybe there are a few people out there who could add positive feedback that haven't done so yet? Let's, at least, water that negative down a bit.

I still find it unfair. It will make me think twice about feedback in Garden Watchdog, and the number of things it could represent or misrepresent. Buggy Crazy has to be one of the best vendors around and I mean that. It seems Lisa is caught in a lose lose situation, unless this person gains some sense and changes the posted comment.

Perhaps you could appeal, very nicely, to the original poster. Maybe she could be persuaded to change it to neutral?

I have to disagree with the admin. on this. Being pretentious and demanding a store have items in stock 24/365, against the posted store business plan, doesn't seem to be a good reason for negative feedback.
The very nature of anonymous feedback systems make the results iffy or untrustworthy. I would think every effort would be made to keep the system genuine as possible.

Still very unfair!! If you don't have to buy anything, and you don't have to talk/correspond with anyone from the company, then what are feedbacks for? They cannot in fact give an accurate positive/neg. rating to the company's performance, or quality of it's products.
Because the poster did not see the seller's (Buggy Crazy) timeline of sale, then the seller is the one who takes a hit because the said poster didn't like or didn't read the time line of sales. It's really sad that they are judged by WHEN they can sell, rather than by the quality of service and the product. I think most of us perfer to judge by the quality of the product and service, and Buggy Crazy has the best of both!!!!!!

This is the response I got from Terry.
Hi magnolialover,

Our guidelines state that you have to have personal experience with a
company to leave feedback.

That usually comes in the form of an order (and most feedback
suggests those experiences are positive, by and large ;o)

However, feedback can also stem from an (unsuccessful) attempt to
order, as appears to be the case here. Customer frustratons with a
non-working website, lack of availability of items etc. are all
arguably legitimate reasons to leave feedback, although we encourage
every person to first contact the company before leaving negative
feedback.

For legal and practical reasons, we must remain neutral - we can't
place ourselves in the role of deciding whether each review such as
this has merit or not, or if the company "deserves" the criticism. To
keep things as fair as possible, we let companies know immediately
whenever feedback is left for them, and they have the ability to
dispute it via a rebuttal or privately contact the customer (or
would-be customer) to attempt to work out a satisfactory resolution.

Happy Gardening,
Terry

Moby, would you feel comfortable e-mailing the poster? You have such a great way with words :0)

You mean my great way with words didn't persuade YOU to do it? LOL I'll think on it ~ and maybe visit with Terry first.

I wouldn't touch that one with a 10 foot pole! Let sleeping dogs sleep.

I did notice that Faraway Flowers had some success, as a business owner, communicating with a person that left her negative feedback, turning it into a positive. I wonder if Lisa tried.

Ok, I bugged Terry again and this is the response I got, so, I'm going to leave off this now...


Hi Ticker,

I appreciate your input. But Lisa's rebuttal indicates that whatever this person was seeing was probably really happening, even though they may not known she was in between spring and summer plantlists.

The person who gave the negative feedback actually contacted us first to ask if BuggyCrazy was perhaps closed because they couldn't find any products available. We promptly told them that wasn't the case (as far as we knew), and encouraged them to contact the vendor to inquire about specific plants they were interested in.

What happened after that is anybody's guess, but given Lisa's response I'd say they must have run into some problems she was aware of, and hadn't had time to correct. That's unfortunate, but it doesn't mean they can't leave feedback based on their experience.
(There's no rule that says you must be persistent or patient before you can leave feedback ;o)

Happy Gardening,
Terry

Oh, but I did up-date my BuggyCrazy feedback. :)

I just added my $.02 worth! Lisa's bulbs are absolutely the best there are and she is the standard by which others are judged. 'Nough said.

This message was edited May 14, 2007 5:33 PM

Well, hopefully Lisa knows she has a fan club now, as if she didn't before ;0). Thanks for adding your comments to Garden Watchdog for Buggy Crazy, fellow lily enthusiasts. I'm sure it is appreciated.

That is a big UNTRUTH that Lisa doesn't have anything available on her website. There are 149 varieties of seeds (minus a very few sellouts) and 45 lily seeds, these available year round. So there. But if this rating is going to stand, I think Lisa should put an explanation on the homepage that she leaves the soldouts up (I am always refering back to them and don't want to see them go). Summer is coming on and she could replace her rant on wildblue sattelite internet with an explanation of how she operates the website. This person COULD have emailed her and got a response and explanation..

I can feel that we all are frustrated here. I love that she keeps the list up there, so I can view the comments she has made about the lilies I am growing and, of course, potentials for next fall's order.

I wanted to dig up this thread and make a special note of Buggy Crazy. She is now listed as follows:

Buggy Crazy is a Watchdog 30 company

I have always felt she was more than worthy of this honor and I am so happy to see her there as one of the best, if not the very best indeed. Congratulations Lisa! You deserve it ;)

She should be in a Watchdog Top 10 in my book. Keep posting those reviews. Patti

Watchdog 1, isn't that what you meant ;) She's awesome.

Too funny but you are right. Patti