Comments regarding Smith & Hawken - (Target Corporation)

sad to see how they have come down.....it is a name only now!...have a number of their older "Bulldog" tools; strapped spades, forks, billhooks; they used to be real gardener oriented now they appeal to the upscale yuppie crowd....very overpriced and not much that is usable to grow home crops

We bought several of the Smith Hawken amaryllis bulb kits for Christmas, because we LOVE the "apple blossom" variety, which is what the package said was inside. You guessed it: So far, we have not yet seen any of the lovely WHITE flowers; today the first bulb bloomed and is a bright ORANGEY-RED color. It is not unattractive, but we specifically chose the APPLE BLOSSOM and are disappointed. (We are, however, impressed with the size and health of the plant & the flowers are enormous!)

We are giving Smith & Hawken a NEUTRAL rating for now, because we will contact them and try to persuade them to send us replacement bulb(s) that WILL bloom the WHITE & PINK "APPLE BLOSSOM" variety. If this is not successful, we will come back and make a NEGATIVE rating. But first, we want to give them a chance to correct this.

By the way, this has happened before, and not necessarily always with Smith & Hawken. Think we once had similar experience with Home Depot Garden Center and once with Jackson Perkins, who promptly replaced the bulb. For some reason, these companies seem to get the bulbs mixed up; you'd think they would consider it a PRIORITY to keep the bulb varieties PROPERLY SORTED! It's frustrating to wait 4-6 weeks for something to bloom and then have it appear in the wrong color!

The kaffir lime I ordered was so-so and their website should have made it clearer that it was packed in wood chips, not in soil. It wasn't that big and had some awful looking round bug that looked like white corduroy on the main trunk. Plus, I didn't like the extra shipping charge, which also could have been more obvious during the checkout process. Since the plant was fairly healthy, I'll give them a neutral.

I recently ordered 2 Maidenhair fern plants. The plants were shipped overnight by FedEx which was good. The plants themselves were in excellent condition and of good size. However, there was nothing to hold the soil in the pots and a good deal of it was either loose at the bottom of the carton or simply gone. I have ordered from many online nurseries and there are many methods for holding the soil in the pots, so I was surprised that a company of Smith & Hawken's reputation did not use any of them.

My order arrived in decent condition, but I was frankly unimpressed with the quality of the plants. They seemed undersized, especially considering how much I paid. The convallaria majalis "Rosea" I ordered was impossible to find anywhere else, so I suppose it was worth it. Many of my friends have had more positive experiences with the company, however, so I will consider ordering from them again.

I've ordered via the website many times over the years (my local store is terribly unorganised, carries almost nothing, seems to take 3 weeks to unpack new items and the staff are lazy and rude). Christmastime is always going to bring delays and problems, no matter the merchant--My transactions throughout the "normal" part of the year have been positive, on the whole.
Now Scotts has acquired the company and what really bugs me is that the website was changed with NO notification to registered customers and all passwords were made invalid. It was necessary to re-register as a "new customer" and, worst of all, all previous orders were now untrackable!! No more order history-- and some of my orders were still in process!
I'm curious to see if this is just "conversion pains" and the website/online ordering system is really improved. I'm hoping that quality and unique offerings won't be sacrificed for mass merchandising, as lower-grade S&H items are now being sold in Target stores.

As a positive, All of the plants I've ordered from them lately have been very healthy and robust (Leucanthenum, helleborus & delphinium).
However, I ordered the delphiniums in early February, and instead of being shipped for planting time (late April in my zone) they were shipped immediately. I tried to pot them and keep them alive indoors past the last frost date, but they became pot-bound and leggy. Customer Service was very apologetic and helpful, and had new plants re-shipped at the proper time without requiring any return or extra shipping charges.

I am still trying to stay neutral. I still work for the call center Smith and Hawken has hired to do the phone orders and customer service. It is my thoughts that you still won't to stay away from the Web Site to purchase an item. In the last few month it has gotten worse not better. With christmas coming it will be evin worse. Last years orders placed on the website never downloaded to us. People never got orders and was a huge mess.

Customer Service is also worse. They have hired lots of temps for the holidays. The information you get from customer service can be good or bad depending on who you talk to.

In general Smith & Hawken does not really take the website serious. If you are going to order for christmas order early and keep track of your order.

You may also want to stay away from the flower plants subsciptions as they very seldom work.

I will try to explain why I stay neutral. I work for the call center Smith and Hawken has hired to do the phone orders and customer service. It is my thoughts that you may won't to stay away from the Web Site to purchase an item. It's great to look up plants or see the furniture, but the problems you may experience on purchasing is not worth the hassle. Get your order over the phone!

It has been 9 months and Smith and Hawken has not fixed the site. I do believe the Customer Service in general is OK, but they do hire alot of temp people around the holidays. These are my thoughts and what I have seen as problem areas.