csucculent.com (Carol Close)

At this time I will give them a disappointed and neutral rating Recently I came across a website I thought had so many beautiful cacti. Theshipping was so high I couldn't afford to buy any cactus. I was told the shipping was so incredibly high was because I lived in New England and they were in California. This didn't make sense to me because I see the television commercials how everything can be shipped anywhere in the United States for the same price. I had numerous emails with Carol at that point about how I need cold/wet hardy zone 5 cacti and felt I owed it to her to at least buy something. So I bought 100 unrooted cuttings for a set price. The shipping was $30.84, very high for just cactus cuttings. I was devastated and disappointed when 100 extremely tiny chicken and hens arrived. Miniscule. I was waiting for cacti. not chicken and hens. .Picture the smallest "baby" rosette, the size of the nail on your baby finger. A 98 plug tray, no dirt, no labels of any kind as to what kind was in what plug hole. They are obviously different. They could have just put a number on each plug hole and include a separate sheet listing 1-100 telling me what each plant was. Are some tall, some short, some wide, some not, so I would know where I would want them in my cold/wet hardy zone 5 cactus garden. In the front or back perhaps the middle? Does it grow so wide I can't put anything near them? I was also missing 2 plants. I checked out the empty plug holes and there was just one tiny rosette in each. I checked the envelope they came in. No 2 other plants and I even checked the box, no 2 other plants. Now Csucculents says they send out/ship priority mail, but the priority mail box was wrapped up in kraft paper on the outside, the 98 plug tray was in a envelope on the inside and the shipping price was right on that and was. $11.74. Not the $30.84 Csucculents charged me! It also had the weight on the shipping label, 2 pounds and two ounces. I read the price for shipping right on the package and it was 1/2++ less than what I was charged for shipping. I was overcharged by $19.10!!! They double + the price of shipping to the client.!! That is just wrong. Just so wrong. I emailed this company and Carol over and over and they would not respond until today Carole called to say those 2 "other plants" were in there somewhere. They are not! These rosettes cost me $50.00 PLUS the shipping. She called, finally, to say they are mailing me 100 cactus unrooted plants in another plug tray and I don't owe them anything and they NEVER do this for anyone just me. (So that I will shut up and stop emailing them, I assume.) That is my guess. About my missing 2 rosettes and the seriously overcharge they pulled on me. She claimed their computer sets the shipping fee. "It" doesn't know that the plugs go out without dirt and the already minuscule chicken and hens are already dried out and feather light. "It" doesn't know the whole package, box and all weighed just 2 pounds. So "it" charges as though there were dirt and heavier wet filled cactus in it. WHAT???? WHAT???? WHAT? I am now waiting for 100 cactus unrooted cuttings that I have no idea as to what is in what hole, again. They are supposed to be for cold/wet zone 5 What do I do? Do I lay them on their sides? Back? Straight up in the plug tray? For how long before I put them out into this years, first for me, cactus garden?. Yes, I do hope they are from " living cactus " and are not floor sweepings! I hope they are cold/wet hardy zone 5. Although I am not paying for this send out I still am losing plants and money. I was overcharged shipping by $19.10, we know what it will cost to ship this time $11.74 so I am STILL overcharged by $7.36, I am also still out 2 rosettes and have had a terrible experience with Csuccelents and will never purchase anything from them again. As soon as I see the condition of this new offering I will complete my rating for Csuccelents. Eileen