On April 26, 2010, cherubgarden from San Antonio, TX wrote:
I am a gardener of many years & have to say that they are very nice to me when I go to the san antonio location. I think some people are too sensitive & want to be smothered in excessive customer service. I think they are great in customer service. I frequently go to visit & get inspired to expanding my rose garden endeavor. They are like family & are very warm people & definitely know their stuff about roses. The selection is exceptional & ever growing like anybody's garden. If they were so bad, when I accidentally locked my keys inside my truck (this past saturday) they could have ignored me & kept on with business. I was helped most courteously & got my truck opened. I was so happy that I didn't have to call the pop-a-lock people!! I was so thankful for there help. Their prices are reasonable-besides nurseries take more love & care with the plants they carry. I rather pay more for something that will flourish than some clearance item from last year that won't last past summer. My grandma used to say "you get what you paid for!" They have alot of rose's that are hard to find like..'Chestnut Rose' or ‘Hoi-tong-hong’ rose from china. You can look everywhere but no one will carry it I promise. A real gem for the garden. Something Lowes / HomeDepot will never carry-ever! As for the people that say that A.R.E. employee's can be rude,ect."NO" they ~are the friendliest people you can meet!~ ....So don't believe everything you hear, especially lies! : )
On April 18, 2010, NotANumber from Austin, TX wrote:
Unfortunatelly I just experienced the same type of treatment that Speckled_Hen descriebes last Saturday... These guys (I should say Ladies) are offering a very poor customer service.
One piece of advise: check out their web site (pretty nice) and order online... You will save the trip and the desillusion!
On December 2, 2009, Speckled_Hen from San Antonio, TX wrote:
I live near the San Antonio ARE location. I have visited there about 5 times and enjoy the roses I have bought there. The reason I have given them a negative rating is for three reasons: 1)their consistently poor customer service/bad attitude 2)the health of the stock 3)the plants are over-priced.
Every time I have visited since the first visit, I knew I could pretty much count on being treated as an imposition, as though I were being a complete nuisance by letting them know that I'm ready to check out. Really, I get better treatment and customer service at Lowe's then I do at ARE. Their ornery attitude is odd and inexplicable. I asked my husband to come with me once to see if he noticed it. He was surprised by how rude several of the ladies were and said that if he treated his customers the same way, he would get fired. They watch you constantly, apparently concerned that you'll make off with armfuls of rose plants. I find it annoying and offensive to be treated like a potential shoplifter.
I was there twice recently and was shocked at the poor quality of the stock. Most of the roses were plagued with blackspot and looked pretty bad, their perennial selection was sad (many of them were dead or dying) and most of what they had to offer looked neglected and sparse.
Their prices are just too high. I couldn't believe it when I spotted a brown-leaved, stunted, 2" high columbine seedling potted in a one gallon pot with a price-tag of $7.99. I asked one of the ladies there if that one might be discounted b/c it was so small and she just gave me that cold ARE glare and said "No." Another example: a little 4" salvia greggii for $7.99 that I could buy at Lowe's at a much larger size for $5 or $6? Please.
I love the roses I've gotten from ARE but after my last experience, I'm ready to give my money to a business who appreciates it's customers more. I'll be ordering my roses online from now on. It's a shame too b/c I live so close to the ARE but I just cannot stand going there anymore. The place gives me the willies . . .
