Comments regarding Peaceful Valley Farm Supply (groworganic.com)

These folks just do not get customer service , every time i order from them ,i pay premium for shipping and wait forever ,so if you are a serious grower and you need supplies , i would advise finding a more reliable source , especially if you need to get supplies to meet a planting deadline. I order from them only as a last resort and do not expect any communication as to when things ship , hey if you have good reliable suppliers I wish you could share them here on this site.

I recently ordered from Peaceful Valley via email, and my order was shipped out the same day I ordered. The packaging and the product both impressed me. I'll order from them again.

Just received my 2nd order from PV-40 lbs of seed garlic and assorted other items. Biggest heads of garlic I have ever seen! Quality and price were excellent. I also love their prices on bulk vegetable seeds. I am a small market grower selling produce, seeds, and plants and am very happy with everything I've received from this company so far.

Ordered 8 apple trees and 2 crab apple trees. Due to the wet, cold spring had to delay getting them in the ground. But all ten are doing great! Trees came well packaged and in good condition. I hope that they have their 10 for $199 special again next year. Great deal for good quality trees.

Posted on April 26, 2011, updated April 27, 2011
This is my second disappointment with Peaceful Valley. The first was years ago, but on advice of a friend I tried them again this year. I ordered a variety of blueberries over a month ago and as these came to ship, PV sent me an email saying that one of the varieties was out of stock, and said unless they heard from me they would ship out the remaining berries. The Chandler (out of stock variety) constituted half the order. I contacted them via email to get clarification on why berries that were ordered a month in advance were out of stock. I received no response. and PV shipped the half order without giving me an opportunity to substitute any variety. This is frustrating because of the cost of shipping (it is the same cost to ship 4 plants as 8, making the cost per plant significantly higher).

I was contacted this morning by a representative after having sent an additional email about the lack of response, and was informed that if I would like another variety, I can place a new order.... and pay the original cost of shipping again.

While PV's products have generally been very good, particularly as a producer of organic and sustainable plants and seeds, their customer service has shown itself to be lacking.

Peaceful Valley is a mixed bag. They are a good (if expensive) source for organic supplements and supplies. Their fruit trees however, although organic, are very mediocre in quality. Most are mass produced and by the time they get to you will be banged around pretty good and oversized for good growth. I definitely won't be buying many fruit trees from them again. I would personally go to Rolling River for much better quality certified organic trees.

I have ordered from this company a number of times over the years. It's a good place to get organic ferts of all kinds and stuff like rooting hormone. I've also bought row covers and rhizocoated white clover seed, and now that they have added Weck's canning jars to their food preservation selection, I ordered a bunch of them. Last time I ordered a bunch of the rubber rings for the jars and noted on the comment form that the shipping seemed pretty high for a bunch of rubber rings. They called me to tell me they reduced the shipping. I thought that was pretty nice.

I like their catalog. Very informative.

Peaceful Valley is a growing company with a great mission, but it honestly hasn't met my needs as a small farmer. It takes a lot to really annoy me, so that I am writing this in the first place really says something!

First, there is almost always a problem with shipping and customer service. My first order was lost somewhere in their system and I had to reorder a month later. The next time, I picked up my order at the store, but one fairly large thing was left out (but still on my receipt as being paid for). The next time I went there to pick up an order, despite talking on the phone to a representative and setting a date and time that I would come pick up my order, when I arrived at the store the order had not even been downloaded for processing.


Added to those issues, I do not find their catalogs very useful in seed selection because the descriptions give very little information beside taste and color. Also, in past years their seed catalog has arrived a month after most of the others, and too late to have a central place in my seed ordering.

Simply put, I would love to buy organic seeds from a place relatively nearby, but I will not be buying from Peaceful Valley this year. Other companies, even if not solely organic, have much better service, descriptions, and variety.

We love you guys at Peaceful Valley Farm Supply. You need to hear this every now and again -- how great you folks really are and the appreciation we have for your efforts in the organic/natural movement that's growing stronger every day.

Just want you to know I have been REALLY happy with your service over the years. Great customer service, always patient, smart, going above and beyond the call of duty.

Products, marvelous. Selection, vast. Shipping, really fast! Free seeds, yay!

Communication, outstanding.

A+ with honors. I recommend you often to my customers and fellow growers and gardeners.

Keep it up!

:)

Laurel Garza
Owner
Laurel's Heirloom Tomato Plants
http://www.heirloomtomatoplants.com

katie in customer service went way beyound the call of duty contacting a manufacturer about getting parts for a tank. i was impressed.

I ordered several items for seed starting via their website. All items arrived within a week - faster than originally indicated. I've ordered from this company before and will continue to do so. PVF offers great products at reasonable prices and for reasonable shipping cost (esp. for folks out west, who suffer high shipping costs from companies in the eastern US).

I ordered a portabella mushroom kit and it was delivered on time and in good condition, I followed the directions exactly..but I got one or two mushrooms. I called the company and they immediately sent a replacement, no questions asked! Now we are enjoying lots of yummy mushrooms. I have ordered things from them before, and my experience has always been good, but this was above and beyond!

We have used this company to obtain a commercial grade of Bt (Bacillus thurengiensis) Dipel DF, an organic caterpillar killer. We have found it to control cabbage loopers, tomato hornworms, tent caterpillars and many more. We have found it interesting that we have also noticed reductions in the numbers of leaf miners in columbines and Swiss Chard , fruit tree borers, apple maggots, blueberry maggots and even the grub stage of Japanese beetles. We also have purchased organic seeds at reasonable prices from them and have always been satisfied with the products and customer service.

Posted on December 25, 2009, updated March 5, 2010
I placed an order for 10 fruit trees from Peaceful Valley on Dec 8th. I was told the trees would be available to ship on the 18th and that they would ship 1-3 business days from that date. On the 18th I called to make sure all 10 trees were in fact available and 1 tree was out of stock. I called back an hour later with a substitution and was assured they would all ship in 1-3 business days.

Two business days later I received an email with a tracking number with an expected delivery date of Dec 24th. I really did not think Peaceful Valley would be able to ship on time. I have ordered from many online nurseries and regardless of promises I have grown accustomed to 2-3 week or longer delays in shipping. I find it to be incredibly refreshing to find a company that does what it says when it says it will. I mean they got all of these trees delivered to them on the 17th and they had to sort and store them and fill months of pre-orders and still they processed my order with a change order and still got it shipped in less than three days.

Christmas Eve arises and the trees arrive. They are well packaged in a heavy box with the roots bagged and filled with damp saw dust. The trees are large caliper with most being ¾” or larger. The trees were all topped and root pruned to fit the box. I chose to place an order for 10 trees in order to obtain a 10% discount on Peaceful Valley’s already low prices which would have saved me $ 19.99. However when I called to make the tree substitution they allowed me to change to their 10 tree sale price of 10 trees including shipping for $ 199.00 which is a savings of $ 30.00. They did not charge my credit card until the trees were shipped.

These same Dave Wilson trees sold at some other online retailers are $ 23.99-27.99 and they are not offering free shipping. In the hands of some online retailers the trees I received would have been much more than that. All of the trees looked to have been 6’-8’ tall before they were topped. I know there is at least one online retailer who would sell these same trees without topping them and would have sold them as 6’’7’ or 7’-8’ tall trees at prices ranging from $ 69.99-118.99 per tree.

All told I spoke to customer service three times. Each time they were immediately available friendly courteous knowledgeable and helpful.

I am very happy with the trees their service and the price and look forward to buying from them again.

To all those who have taken the time to read my review please forgive my gushing. But its hard not to gush when they pulled off a perfect order and they got my Christmas presents delivered by Christmas Eve.

Thank you Peaceful Valley

Bought some Korean fir seedlings that were supposed to be 12-15". What they sent were less than 6".

Emailed them about it and got no response.

Their web site still lists them for sale and 12-15". How can I tell which descriptions are accurate and which aren't?

"On Jan 28, 2010 12:58 PM, Peaceful Valley Farm Supply responded with:

This customer was fully refunded and presented with a $20 gift card immediately following our investigation and confirmation of the size discrepancy of the plants. At the same time we refunded the customer we edited the description of the plants on our site. Unfortunately, our delay in responding to the customer's e-mail was due to a serious storm front that created system and staffing slow downs. We have had no other complaints about this product and normally respond immediately to all customer service e-mails. We sincerely regret this error and any inconvenience caused to this customer.
"

I received my first order from these folks today - blackberries & raspberries. Price-wise they were quite competitive. Due to the price I expected them to be decent-sized. They were not. They were HUGE. Much bigger diameter & roots than I expected. I am VERY pleased & will be using these folks again!

I have been very pleased with all my dealings with Peaceful Valley Farm Supply. They offer a wide verity of products for both the home gardener and commercial farmer. The products are reasonably priced and often the lowest prices I have found both locally and on the internet. Their service is excellent and they are very helpful if you have questions regarding your order or how to use the item you have bought to its best advantage. I spent several hundred dollars last year on garden equipment, organic fertilizers and seeds. I received them all promptly. When one of the items was not in stock they called me and asked if I wanted the whole order to wait and be shipped together or to have a partial shipment. If I have had questions on the best product for a specific purpose they have always been helpful in providing suggestions from their vast experience. I will continue to use them and I recommend them to all my family and friends because of their outstanding customer service, knowledge and fine product selection.

I've ordered from PVFS several times over as many years and have always been satisfied with their product, prices and service. I generally order bulk cover crop seed and fertilizers and their shipping prices are reasonable.

I've placed several orders with Peaceful Valley Farm Supply over the last year or two. My latest order was placed several weeks ago for about 15 lbs of various cover crop seeds and a couple of pounds of shallots. Their shipping on heavy orders is very reasonable.

As with my previous orders, everything arrived safely and in a timely matter. Anytime I've had a question it has been promptly answered by customer service. The best company I've found for bulk cover crop seed.

i ordered seeds, and it took about 2-3 weeks to arrive. however, they did offer me a coupon for 2 free wildflower seed packets.

I recently placed an order with this company and it was my first order. I have mixed feelings about the company and will not be ordering from them again. My original order was place 4/10/09 and was just finally resolved the last week of May. I placed an order for seeds and had 3 items on backorder. April 22nd they informed me my backordered items would arrive by April 29th. On May 7th, I contacted them via email and told them to cancel any and all backordered items I had with them. They emailed me back and said they had released my pepper seeds for delivery but the rest is now cancelled. I told them the pepper seeds are fairly worthless to me now because it was getting too late to start them from seed in my area. I was charged and they were sent anyways. Plus, most of my seed packets had a significant amt of seeds missing. I need to mention they did have someone contact me to address my issue, and they did replace my big max pumpkins, which only had 3 seeds originally (two of which didn't germinate). The pkt is supposed to have approx. 10 seeds. My corn with approx 50 seeds showed up with 30 seeds. They replaced this packet as well. They asked me if I'd like any other packets replaced and I said no but I did let them know, except 2 pkts which had the correct amt of seeds, the rest were all short by at least 20%. To me, this is a big ordeal when you are trying to figure out how many packets you need to purchase to plant your garden.

One of my biggest gripes with this company is I felt the customer service is lacking immensely. They did not go out of their way to keep me in the loop as to what was going on. They may/may not answer emails. They may/may not tell you something is shipped. My order which was originally placed on April 10th, took until the last week of May before it was complete.

The website is not as complete as it could be as well. You can not go in to look at your order and see what is on backorder, etc.

This company is ok but in my opinion, there are MUCH better organic seed companies that deserve my money.

Their website offered a deal--buy $100 of merchandise get a discount on a tumbling composter. When I tried to order merchandise on line the website prevented me; some of what I wanted then sold out. When I called to complain (and spoke to Ryan) they agreed to give me the composter discount even though my order without the out of stock items was well less than $100. Also, they offer free seeds for larger orders and I received 16 packets with my order. This was the number I would have qualified for only if I had purchased the out of stock items as well as the composter at full price.

I ordered 3 sunshine blueberry plants and an assortment of pheromone lures for my stone fruit orchard. All arrived in great shape and in the correct quantities. They even gave me some free seed packs of vegetable types that are hard to find!.. Their catalog is a treasure mine of information. They are clearly a specialist in tools for people and businesses who grow things.

So I like these guys and will do alot of business with them.

Just got my trees from them yesterday. They arrived in fantastic shape, with way bigger roots than I had expected via mail order. I'll order more from them next Fall as my orchard slowly grows...

These guys are great. I've ordered from them a few times and they ship things right away or let you know if it is not in stock and let you choose whether you want two shipments. They have an excellent assortment of organic ammendments as well as seeds, trees, tools, etc. They do bulk quantities and small quantities in most products.

What a wonderful experience I had ordering online. Their website is easy to navigate, and I like the "In Season Items" drop-down feature.

Order confirmation is also quite fast, and following up on my order is easy. Andrew G. Bergthold, is the gentleman who emailed me regarding shipping charges. Prompt to reply, and very pleasant on the phone to boot!

The fingerling potatoes are in perfect condition, and packaging was impeccable (and we're talking potatoes here).

I will definitely order from them again. Thank you!

I just want to add my comment of a great experience I had with this company. I had bought several hundred bare root strawberry plants and some blueberry plants from them three years ago. I typically buy from my local nursery for bare root strawberries but I wanted to start a bit early to plant this time as the weather and ground was in good condition. I've always liked strawberries in my landscape over the years mainly because it is a real fun crop for kids. When my kids, nieces and nephews were toddlers were just beginning to walk I'd have them help me find and pick the fruit. The smile on their faces as they helped were priceless. They are teens now but it is still a fun family tradition to go out in the yard to pick a bunch together for dessert. These were the best bare root strawberries I have ever seen with wonderful root growth almost a foot in length! They came in a timely manner and were packaged very well. They are still thriving three years later. I had a great experience buying from this company.

Peaceful Valley has a nice selection but they seem to have a problem in the shipping department. I've placed two orders in the last four months. Both took on average of 3 weeks or longer to deliver. Their site says they have a 5-7 day turnaround during spring but it's actually much longer than that. I was willing to concede that they may have had some unexpected growth, but I've seen reviews going back as far as 2004 concerning shipping problems. I've moved on to another competitor company for now, and I have no plans to order from Peaceful Valley again.

I bought 5 25lb bags of surround for $29.99 each. Arbico organics and gardens alive both want over $70.00 per bag.

Peaceful Valley has a good selection of organic fertilizers and products (just about anything you would want), but their shipping can be expensive when you live in Florida (they are in CA.) Also, they are slow to ship in Spring. It took them 11 days to get around to shipping my order this month. They always say that they are very busy with Spring orders, but you would think they would anticipate this and get extra help (since it happens every year.) They are good with everything else, like billing and shipping (outside of Spring.)

I have been gardening,and buying products online for a long time.
This is the first time I have ever left a negative for any company.
I repeatedly tried to work out the delivery time for my order. I emailed before I placed the order in December to be sure they could meet my delivery time of early Feb They assured me they could. I placed the order for seed potatoes. I waited then waited some more. I tried to cancel the order when it became obvious they would not send the product in time to plant in South Texas.
They said they would cancel the order. Then by some miracle they managed to send the order before they could cancel. Imagine that!!!!
I would not order from these people again. I am not difficult to deal with. My experience with this company is the first time I have had a problem that was not solved. As I mentioned it is also my first negative rating.
I did receive the potatoes, definitely not the best seed potatoes I have seen. Also very late to plant in my area.

I was looking for this new cherry tree that another company did not offer and found it at this company. While I was on their website, I found their selection and prices to be good, so I placed an order for about 10 bareroot fruit trees, and they threw in a few grape vines for free. They called once to confirm the order and another time to tell me that my 4 in 1 fruit tree is now a 5 in 1 tree. The order came in fine. I had a question on one of the trees, and the staff there answered my question nicely. The person I'd talked to was friendly.

We have ordered through Peaceful Valley for several years, why? because you can't beat the prices on organic vegetable seeds. These past few times orders have been seriously delayed and backlogged items take months!
When called about the last order I placed I was charged an extra $17 in shipping for backlogged items and their mistake. I left a few polite messages with their customer service rep and never received a reply. Seems like they've grown too big too fast. This year, I'm not ordering anything from them and have placed my $300+ order with other places.

Ordered some products from PVGS and was very happy as they answered all my questions, very courteous, patient. I am a rookie gardner and small business owner, so I know about customer service.Product arrived on time, good condition. Defintely will have my business for many years to come.

I have ordered from this company for two years, and have always had a good experience with the products they carry, their personnel, and their prices. I don't find their prices to be any higher than other catalogs/companies that have high ratings on Dave's Garden Watchdog forum. (Remember, sometimes you get what you pay for).

I am a very loyal customer to them and do not plan to change my company any time soon!

I ordered two olive trees. They came as requested and were in good shape.

I've gotten their catalogs for 2 years now but only finally got around to making an order last month. It was a pretty big order by my standards. I'm inclined to cut them slack because they've got a good mission and I like supporting California companies, however they need to tighten up their act. I gather they had a much bigger demand than they anticipated lately and are scrambling to catch up.

My seed potatoes, which are fulfilled by the wholesaler, arrived on time. There was quite a delay in the arrival of the rest of my order and when it did arrive, it was missing something. I wrote an email politely pointing that out and I have yet to receive a reply. However, when I wrote an email just after the initial order pointing out I'd been charged sales tax on edible chrysanthemum seeds (Shungiku), they worked to make that right. The people I've talked to on the phone have all been polite and helpful.

Unanticipated growth has spoiled or killed a lot of companies. I hope Peaceful Valley learns how to prepare for success so they don't get killed by their own popularity.

Received exactly what I ordered in a timely manner.

I recently ordered a mix of garden supplies and a lime tree. I received a call within minutes of placing my order that one item was not available and was given the chance to choose an alternate item (which I did). Everything arrived as expected and the lime tree was in very good shape and substantially larger than I expected. Overall I was very pleased.