I just happened to see this post from Jerome in the Co-op Forum. He is being very honest and straight forward. You can decide if you wish to wait for what you have ordered or be refunded. He is responding to all D-Mail this Thursday. You will get an answer.
"Hello everybody,
Thank you for your patience while I was MIA.
Time to be honest with you. I got in over my head and have been completely overwhelmed for the past 3 to 4 weeks, mostly with shipping winter sale clematis. During that time some of the bareroot perennials from this co-op started to grow in the refrigerator before I could get them shipped off..........I'm shipping out everything that is looking good first, and working on fixing the screw-ups 2nd. Thursday morning I'll be wading through the spreadsheet and Dmails to figure out who wants refunds, who doesn't mind waiting.......At this point I will accept most any fair offers so that you know I am an honest plantsman who is interested in your satisfaction. Send your thoughts directly to me if you like. Will be addressing Dmails Thursday morning.
The simple fact is that I didn't account for the logistics of everything arriving and needing to be shipped out at the same time. My apologies for your frustrations. Please help me to help you come through this without feeling cheated."
Sincerely,
Perry Jerome Post
Koi Garden Specials
shirley, you are very generous in your attitude toward a partial shipment. personally i do not like to receive and plant clems after early to mid spring, as when it begins to get hot it is harder to start and transition them, in my experience.
by late may , i am over the planting mode and would be very upset if a company just delayed my order past the shipping date i had requested.
i also travel a lot so need to know when my shipments are arriving.
but each of us are different in our tolerance and expectations and i hope it all works out for koi and the value he offers.
on that note, there are 2 boxes on my porch that were just delivered, each containing 2 ssv roots, which are my last to be ordered this spring.
duty calls, time to plant them!
Thanks for posting that Shirl...Jeanne
CG -Your post at 9:39 is exactly how I feel - well put.
Thank you for your post, Shirley.
Shirley -
thank you for your post - I appreciate it too.
Carolyn
To Jerome:
I've been giving this a lot of thought, so I thought I'd write directly to you.
I don't know you, but when I heard you were taking on the business, I was very excited for you. One reason was I always wanted to own my own nursery but never had the courage to do it. I was also excited for all of us clematis nuts out there. We needed another source especially after the closing of Chalk Hill's retail/mail order business.
Getting a new business off the ground in never easy, as you have discovered, but I'm sure you will make it successful if you want it.
If you could read this thread, you will see how lucky you are to have some patient, understanding customers. That's nice for you, but you can't run a successful business on sympathy for very long. Your troubles have not instilled much confidence in the general buying public. That will be your challenge.
It sounds like you are now doing everything you can to get caught up with your orders. If I lived near you, I would help you get things straightened out only excepting clematis as payment, but unfortunately, that can't happen.
So, Jerome.... keep your head up and struggle through this bad patch. Once it has all quieted down, assess what happened and come up with a plan on how you can avoid the same troubles next spring. I'm sure you will do that and can also succeed.
One more note I'd like to add to JuliaJayne's comments... I know from my experience with Jerome that he is sending many customers 40% off coupons toward future orders to thank them for their patience. My suspicion is that Jerome is a wonderful person and enthusiastic gardener without much (or any) business experience. If all of us who received these coupons actually use them for 40% off of his $6.00 plants, there is no way Jerome will EVER get this business off the ground profitably. He's a reseller who is growing out starter plants that probably cost him the same amount or even more than he's offering to sell them for with that coupon. I understand he has good intentions in wanting to gain customer confidence and keep business, but I fear those good intentions will spell the end of that business. I, for one, do not intend to use that coupon when I order again in the future... simply because in this economy, I don't want to add even more stress to a fledgling plant business. Ev
blissful, you are right it is an interesting business model. usually extreme discounting to obtain and retain customers is with highly profitable, non shrinkage prone inventory and high, high volume of transactions. will be interesting to follow , as there have already been so many changes with the closing of chalk hill and so many other nurseries starting to expand their clematis offerings. good POV there. thanks.
Hello everybody,
$6 is definitely NOT a sustainable business model, and neither is a one man operation hoping for sympathy when times get stressful, although it is appreciated.
The business model was to revive Koi Garden Club as it existed, just a clematis mail order company, but I've been putting together a support team to re-build KGC according to my original vision of a community based mail order website specializing in both ornamental koi fish and a very wide variety of clematis at affordable prices. I have a 4 person team of people working on the new business model while I'm shipping and working part time.
Luckily I only have two days left at my job and then I'm back at KGC full time in clean up mode. I have no doubt that this experience will leave a sour taste to some. I am doing what I can to bring satisfaction, albeit delayed, to as many of you that I can. To those that stick with me, the near future holds some very exciting new developments.
Back to the Dmails and shipping...
Perry Jerome Post
Best wishes, Jerome!
Jerome,
I wish you the very best in getting Koi Garden Club back on its feet. I'm sure that every new business has gone through its "ups and downs". I for one have been very happy with the Clematis that I have received from you and I look forward to your "exciting new developments in the future".
Shirley
yes i agree with those sentiments. clematis needs all the supporters and resources it can get.
Jerome, I know somewhat what you are going through ! I started my business in the late 70's when gold was at an all time high ! Well, we all know what happened in the late 80's !!!!!! drop,drop,drop ,,,, prices that I had paid for beautiful gold nugget jewelry were far from what I could expect to get from my sales.....My business and I suffered terribly,,,,, but I rebounded !!!!
AND,,,, THEN I WAS ROBBED !!!!!! My house was broken into 5 times in one year ..... I was held at gun point and my car stolen with lots of gold and diamond jewelry..... I got out of the jewelry business !!!!!!! (well, I was forced out ) All of this is to say-----***** keep on trying to do your best .... I will be patient ,, as will lots of others,,, and I wish you all the best I can muster !!!
jana
I ain't going no where Jerome..cheers bud...Jeanne
ps..read my Dmail...
Hoping this message finds its way to all of the participants.
Perry D-mailed me ... and probably others. Here is how to contact him for refunds.
_____________________________________________
I've set up a gmail account for the co-op refunds. It is PlantsPayBack@gmail.com. I'll start paying people back, 1st come 1st served. If the co-op thread is still open, could you please let the others know?
DG Name
Real Name
Full Mailing Address
Amount I still owe you.
Which plants I never shipped.