Pond Plants Direct

Poster child for a bad business. Payed immediately by paypal on may 11. Contacted company thru email and phone messages 6 times in 3 weeks and no response. Filed a dispute today with pay pal and decided I didn't EVER want to be contacted by him (as tho he would) and just escalated to a claim for money back. I have been in business 35 years and I Never failed to at least call someone back within a few days. Don't buy from him.

I ordered Anacharis for my turtles. I was sent something else which I do not want. My turtles wont eat this stuff. I want my money back. You still offer Anacharis but you don't have it or didn't send it. You have no contact phone number. Wish I read these reviews first as my turtles rely on this plant for food.

I placed an order on April 3 and paid immediately with Paypal. I have NOT received my order. So far I've sent emails, called and left voice messages, and have received no reply (today is the 23rd). I contacted Paypal and, of course, received no answer. Today I escalated to filing a claim. Wish I'd read reviews before today. If you actually want to buy something for your pond use a different company!

PondPlantsDirect.com is NOT responsive to emails. I've only used them once, and had issues with the quality of plants. I've tried to contact them via email pre-shipping and upon receipt of plants without success. Why? They did collect their funds promptly. Go figure. I would NOT recommend PondPlantsDirect.com from my overall experience.

I have to say I have a had a positive experience with Pond Plants DIrect, I ordered and before I knew it my plants were here! I appreciate your quick delivery Pond Plants Direct!

I feel like an idiot for failing to check here before ordering from this company. I guess I was too much in a rush, wanted to get some plants in my pond asap and didn't have time to go to the local aquatics store. Anyhow, their website says orders ship immediately. I also wrote in the comment section of the order page "Please ship ASAP." My credit card was charged immediately through Paypal but I heard nothing from this company. No response to my voicemail, left on the phone number on file with Paypal -- and I called during normal business hours. No response to my earlier email inquiring as to when shipping would occur. Finally, I opened a claim with Paypal through their Resolution Center -- first time I've done this. At the initial stage Paypal just facilitates your inquiry to the company. No response. So I escalated to a Claim, asking for my money back. Paypal sent this request to the company, and the way they responded was to ship out my order within a day, sending the tracking info to Paypal and to me. The tracking info didn't even include their name or mine; I only knew it must be them because of the city of origin. UPS delivered the package to me the next day (I am only a few hours drive away). The company never did send me an email of apology or anything. They never responded to Paypal either except by sending the tracking info. The shipment date was 9 days after I placed the order. This is totally unacceptable for a company that says immediate shipping on their website. The plants were in good shape; there was one mistake of sending me one oxygenator when I ordered a different one, but that was okay. The main annoyance was that when they hadn't responded and I had demanded a refund through Paypal, I went out and bought pond plants, so I now have more than I need and more significantly I spent more money than I needed to. However, I am sure Paypal would say I jumped the gun on buying the plants locally and since my pond is benefitting from the extra plants, I closed the claim. Of course, I will not order from this company again and neither should you.

Posted on July 19, 2012, updated July 20, 2012 I ordered from this company just 2 days ago so I cannot speak for their shipping speed as of yet, however I can say that after seeing the horrible reviews on this site I got very concerned and sent an email asking for order status, never got a reply. Sent another email today and surprise no reply. The phone number I got through paypal goes to a full voicemail so I texted and you got it, no reply. I decided to contact the Ohio Dept of Agriculture to see if this is even a legit business and was advised that in order to sell plants in Ohio you need to be licensed and inspected annually. This company is NOT licensed to do business in the state of Ohio. I even did my own search for the business address in their online search and came up with nothing. I just placed a fraud alert with my bank and they will also be reported to the dept of Agriculture. PLEASE DO NOT ORDER FROM THEM.

I ordered 10 Trapdoor snails and 2 pond plants. No water in bag snails were in just a damp piece of folded newspaper. (I've ordered snails online before and never had a problem. The difference is they were from other companies and the bag had water in it!) Needless to say all the snails and one plant were dead by the next morning. Website stated 7 days to report problems. I reported within 2 via e-mail because there is no telephone number listed. I resent e-mail on the fifth day. It has been 2 weeks, no reply. I saw owners comment from June 2011. It seems his customer service has not improved. I do not recommend buying anything from this online....merchant. I notified the credit card company but so far it is still under investigation. As far as I'm concerned I will never shop there again.

I placed an order with this company on May 24, 2012. Order was supposed to ship immediately. The payment for this order was deducted from my bank account in less than 24 hours. Multiple emails were sent with no reply back whatsoever. It is now June 24, I have received no plants and no response back still. Paypal became involved after I filed a claim. This company did not even respond to paypals attempts for contact. I would not order from this company and would recommend the same for others.

I attempted a small trial order from this company, and despite numerous emails, have never received a reply either before or after the shipment. I had to file a claim through PayPal in order to get the plants shipped, and when they did arrive, the submerged plant bunches were dead/dying and in order to make the stem of a water hibiscus fit, they bent it in half on itself, thus breaking the stem completely. The remainder of the plants in the shipment were in neglected and unhealthy shape with stunted root growth and significant browning of the leaf tips. In 20+ years of plant experience, I have never seen worse customer service, or plant quality.

Posted on April 23, 2012, updated April 29, 2012 Absolutely Awful!!!!!! I have placed three orders with this company since January, and have received absolutely nothing...not an email, not a call, nothing. I have left messages, and sent emails. Have sent disputes via PayPal.... Spent 300.00 in total, and have nothing to show for it. I ordered in the off season, but Spring is here...and I'm plant less. Don't order from them.....please. I have sent a letter to the Ohio Attorney General, and am planning on filing a small claim with their local court system. I know it's not a million dollars, but the principle of it bugs the crap out of me.

I placed an order 4/1. It's now 4/26, and they state they ship to my zone mid-to-late April. I've emailed three times, and heard nothing back. I opened a PayPal dispute and did hear from someone, who made it seem like my order would be shipped ASAP. Still waiting. Will open another dispute next week if I haven't received my order by 5/4. No idea if the plants are worth it or not, but poor customer service can't make up for price or selection.

I placed an order with Pondplantsdirect.com on Feb.27, 2012. I had arrived at their site because of a advertisement shown on their hardypondplants.com site that I would receive a 10% discount if I ordered from pondplantsdirect.com with the promo code "pondplants". I requested the discount in the section for special instructions and placed my order using Paypal. The charges for the FULL amount WITHOUT the discount was immediately charged to my credit card, but NO DISCOUNT WAS GIVEN later. No acknowledgement of my order was sent to me. I have emailed twice (March 20 and March 27, 2012) requesting shipping of my order as soon as possible, and no response has been given. I looked up their phone number and when I called, the number was no longer in service. I am just glad Paypal has now credited my account back for the amount charged. Very poor business ethic if they are still in business at all!

DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY Their website looks impressive, but beware. I placed an order and they promptly took my money. I assumed the plant would be on its way. I have yet to receive email response from them about the status of my order. They have not returned any of the four emails I sent. This company is either a total scam or incredibly poor at communicating. Either way, they don't deserve your business. All of the following websites are the same company, so don't be fooled: //www.pondplantsdirect.com/ www.waterlilies.com www.hardypondplants.com Don't buy from any of them! And in general don't ever purchase from a company that doesn't list a working phone number. I will never do that again. There are plenty of other web companies that are very responsible. For example, I just ordered from www.pondplants.com and they arrived on time and in good shape!

The owner of Pond Plants Direct, Brad Larson, states below on that “starting out we had poor customer service, we've been working hard at improving this aspect of our business over the past couple years.” Later in his post he says “There's a lot of nonsense on here. If you have any doubt please drop us an email and you'll see that we have great customer service.” As a firm believer in reading customers reviews, I am extremely remiss that in haste I ordered from what seemed a reputable company without checking reviews. On 8/7/11, I place an order for $106.15 and was immediately charged. It is now 8/20/11 and I have not only NOT received the order, I have called and emailed Mr. Brad Larson three times and have received absolutely NO RESPONSE. I share the joy of ponding with many on several forums; however, I have never registered. I am now signing up in order to share this experience with fellow ponders in the hope they are not taken advantaged of too. Mr. Larson should be ashamed.

Originally had a good experience. Price was good and I received the pond plants within days of ordering. The plants all died, but I'm new to ponding so thought maybe it was my error. I ordered and paid via paypal for replacement plants, a $50 order. It has now been 12 days and still no plants. Last week I emailed and left voice message asking about the shipment. No response. I've opened a claim with paypal, to hopefully, get a refund.

I submitted an order to Pond Plants Direct on July 10th. I have not received my order. I sent 2 emails and left 2 voice messages for them and have not had any response from the company. Luckily I paid them with PayPal and submitted a dispute. That was almost a week ago and I still have not heard anything. I have now submitted a claim to PayPal to get my money back.

I placed an online order with Pond Plants Direct on June 20th for one Water Hyacinth and one Water Poppy. I immediately paid for it with PayPal. After 2 weeks, I had not received the plants so I emailed: no response. I then called and left a message: no response. Over the next couple of weeks, I emailed again and left two more messages: no response. I am extremely unhappy; they do not follow the 24 hours response time statement. Not a good way to do business nor create positive referrals. If I do not hear from this company in the next couple of days, I am going to go through PayPal to do what I can to pull my funds back.

Last Thursday I placed my first order with Pond Plants Direct. Keep in mind I live in the south of Texas and the company is in Ohio. Their policy is to ship orders that take 4-5 business days to reach destinations on Mondays and Tuesdays so they can arrive the same week as they are shipped. I received e-mail the following Tuesday that my full order had been shipped on Monday. It is now Thursday, 1 week later and I hold in my hands a fully filled order and the plants are in good condition. My experience was reasonably priced healthy plants in a timely manner. I have no complaints about this Company at all. Thanks Brad.

Ordered some pond plants in May. It appears that they were shipping timely but received them 10 days later and they were nothing but brown mush. Contacted the company and got a timely response saying they would resend. Never received replacement order so contacted again and was told they would check on status. Nothing. Contacted again and they said they would issue a credit. I told them I would prefer a refund but a credit would be better than nothing. Contacted again late last week and no further responses. Do have to admit that when Brad responds his emails sound sincere, unfortunately, no one follows thru.

Posted on June 1, 2011, updated June 1, 2011 I'm going to put Neutral experience for now, but let me say, I'm not too impressed with the customer service, especially considering the posting on this site by the owner today. I made an order over the weekend and knowing it was a holiday weekend, I waited to get notified of shipping status until Tuesday. It didn't happen, so I emailed the company with the PayPal information asking for details on when my stuff would ship. I still have heard nothing back. I emailed again this evening and called the number but its the owner's voice mail. I am clearly not happy about the fact that my payment was made immediately and its been now 2 business days with no response to my request for shipping information. Had I gone somewhere else, I no doubt would have my items by now or at least know they have shipped and that its not just sitting out there in limbo. It aggravates me to no end to then wind up on this site when the owner posts just today about working on better customer service when he surely received my email yesterday and never bothered to answer my simple request. Some work on your customer service. Nevertheless, I will be disputing my charges with PayPal if I don't hear back today or by the end of tomorrow. Its ridiculous to wait 3 days for shipping information...you wouldn't expect to wait 3 days for payment and be happy about it. If something isn't handled and handled well, this will also be the last time I do business with this company and will be sure to let others know of my experience. Its ridiculous and unprofessional. January Sedlak

To all who read, I am the owner of Pond Plants Direct. Starting out we had poor customer service, we've been working hard at improving this aspect of our business over the past couple years. As to the user "ignatzh", we don't even sell Azolla. This makes me question the credibility of these posts. There's a lot of nonsense on here. If you have any doubt please drop us an email and you'll see that we have great customer service. Sincerely, Brad Larson

Another miserable little internet company that you should avoid. I agree that they're drop shipping from other suppliers, as is so often the case these days. Azolla arrived rotting and full of duckweed...no customer service, employees unpleasant and unhelpful.

I saw this site after placing my order, and then I got nervous. So I emailed them and I got an immediate response. I received my order in a timely fashion. Absolutely no problems here. My best guess is that these people ordered in the off-season. If you order in the spring/summer time you'll get great customer service.

only one item out of two ordered and paid for arrived, and it represented 2/3 of the cost. in other words the cheap item arrived, the expensive one did not. emailed and got no response. complaint to Paypal and no response. avoid this vendor at all costs.

Posted on August 17, 2010, updated August 17, 2010 Was prepared to post an angry, negative response about a completely messed up order. I had picked out some items but didn't submit the order. My credit card was charged anyway. I emailed repeatedly without a response, which is unforgivable behavior by an internet company with only an email for a Contact Us.. Finally I got a reply. A refund was issued by this company. So, I rate them negative on their customer service, but positive on their honesty. The issue of HOW I got a bogus ccard charge is unresolved, but I got the MONEY back..

I placed my order, then found the reviews here. I became nervous. However, I received my complete order 3 days after I placed it. Plants looked good! I would order from them again. Thanks, Pondplantsdirect.com for excellent service. Hope you have a good ponding season!

Just noticed on Pond Plants Direct site that they are sending out orders placed between 7/10 & 7/20 on 8/10. My order was placed on 7/9. Hopefully this is true. Explained delay as "Major technical problems".

Completed an paypal transaction with this company 7/11/09 expecting to have some if not all plants/tadpoles etc here in 3 days or so...It is now 7/22/09. I have emailed them several times with no response. Their cs voice mail has been full for a week or more. I just started a dispute against them via paypal. Very disappointing...

I ordered plants and tadpoles on july 9, 2009. Told on the website I would be contacted on shipment. Never received email, credit card billed immediately on the 9th of July. I sent them email, no response. I tried calling the number they showed on website and it comes back disconnected.

Bought 3 water lillies got conformation after paying with paypal and that's it no phone don't return email got scamed would stay away.

Pond Plants Direct was very prompt in sending my order. Nice plant! It was well packaged and came with detailed planting instructions. I would order from them again. Thanks, PPD

I found the Pond Plants Direct website while browsing for pond plants and thought I'd give them a try because they said that their plants are shipped to a customer "live" and ready to place in a pond. I saw some plants that I wanted for my patio pond, so I ordered two on March 16th, 2009. According to them, shipping time is only 3 days because of where I live. They accepted my order, my credit card and emailed me a "tracking info" link, which goes nowhere. I have not heard from them, nor have they replied to my email. It is inconvenient that that don't have a phone number, either. I'm still waiting for my plants and wonder if I've been scammed.

I ordered from PPD late last spring (2008). I was frustrated because I remember checking on the order status after about a week, and it said it was still being processed and then later that same day, my order arrived! So the shipping was quick, but it was really irritating that the status was not updated at all. Secondly, the plants I received were very small, juvenile plants. It was like they only sent me one or two stems of each plant. Maybe that is the way it is when you order online, but after spending over $55 on plants and seeing what little I got, I am really nervous about buying online again. The marsh marigold and water mint both died, and I'm pretty sure I lost some others (it's been about 6 months since I got them so my memory is a little fuzzy about what else I bought). I'm not sure if this is because I didn't plant them correctly (even though I followed the enclosed planting directions), but I ended up losing quite a bit of what I bought. I hate to leave negative feedback for anyone, but I can say for sure that I won't be buying from PPD again.

Well, we tried to order from them..... very disappointed. Got any email saying my order was placed, but on their check up page it never moved past processing. I tried countless emails to check up but they never replied, I could not call because their phones are listed "down till Spring 2009". If this place is closed for the winter, they don't list it on their site and it's very bad for customers. After 2 weeks I gave up and ordered from Dragonfly aquatics...

DO NOT order from this company. I ordered some plants several weeks ago, the order has not been processed, but I have been billed. There is no phone number listed (a red flag, I should've heeded this warning), the contact link does not work on the web site. I live only about 4 hours from the address listed, I could have driven to the company (If they even exist) quicker. I have contacted the North Canton area Chamber of Commerce and the BBB, as well as Mastercard. This company is a fraud, do not order from them unless you want to lose your money. NOTE: They are affiliated with Lilyblooms, another North Canton company. I called Lilyblooms for some assistance but the man was very rude, would not give me any information, and basically said to me "tough luck buddy".