Comments regarding Gardens Alive!

Gardens Alive (dba Breck's) will take forever to ship, and in the year 2022 are unable to send a bill through email. Placed an order for hellebores based through a paper order form sent to me in a Breck's catalog. The order was received by Breck's on 1/14/21 with estimated ship date of 5/14/21. Received email on 5/20/21 informing me that shipping date was delayed until 10/21/21. Order finally shipped on 9/22/21. Received email correspondence regarding order status but it never indicated any outstanding balance on the account. Breck's claims they sent bill through mail, which I never received as I'd moved away from the address in question by the time they sent it, and they never many any attempt to send any statement electronically. Instead of ever trying to call or email, they passed the account balance on to a debt collector. Will not be spending another cent with Breck's. They're at best misleading - and at worst it's a total scam that will show up long after promised, with all sorts of nasty surprised attached.

Ordered 2, 2 lb Purple Majesty potatoes. When they arrived, one bag had 2 white moldy potatoes and a couple of the others were soft. Called company April 14, the day they arrived. We were told another 2 lb bag would be shipped. On April 20, we received notice they going to be shipped. Replacement bag of potatoes arrived on April 28. Opened the stinky box and one of the potatoes was so squishy it bled onto the order form and the bottom of the box. We will never order from this vendor again.

Negative is generous. Ordered through their Gurney's Seed & Nursery. Knew the pricing was too good to be true, but had just bought a home and was starting from scratch to build a new garden, well... Complete order was not fulfilled, but I was charged. Root stocks that did arrive were dried, shriveled and dead. Contacted customer service. Despite my listing of orders, date placed, copies of all notifications from the company and records of delivery and my credit card documentation, they could not figure out what had happened. I asked to cancel the outstanding order. I, also, asked given the mess of the situation, that they refund since I had no intention of ever using a credit from the company. They said that they would be back in touch. Instead the balance of the order arrived too late to be productive in the vegetable garden. No credit or refund was given for the dead stuff received. Incredible! I then did some research and sent letters to the company President and VP for Customer Service over all of their companies. No response to either. I've saved the list of all of their companies. I will not order from any of them although I had from time to time over my 3 plus decades of gardening. Buyer beware. There are wonderful mail order nurseries with greater integrity and better plant material to order from...find them!

I would like to order bulbs from this website, but I am not sure if they are related.

[HYPERLINK@dutch-bulbs.com]

Any help would be appreciated

Jane

I placed an order on-line paying in full the amount listed. After the goods were sent, the company sent a supplemental invoice! When I asked for an explanation, the company rep (I think in an off-shore call center) could not provide one, so either the company did not charge the correct amount to Paypal when they shipped each of the various parts of my large order, or they changed the price after the fact. In either case, the rep didn't care that they were losing a long-time customer over a trivial sum and their inability to explain it.

Note that equivalents for many of their headliner products (like "Iron-X weed killer") are now available elsewhere in other forms for a fraction of the price Garden's Alive charges...

I have used these products for Years, Never had the slightest Problem. Pyrolia is the Greatest Organic Garden Pest killer I have ever found. The Grass Seed is amazing as well as the fertilizers.
After some Research, it shows that they have gone on a Massive Expansion endeavor, buying out companies and such.
Growing Pains? There sure are a lot of complaints here?

I ordered from them years ago and there was almost always an issue.
This past week I decided to give them another try and nothing has changed. When I called to ask a question I ended up in a foreign call center and had to waste more time on hold trying to speak to a US rep. Their site is a pain and their shipping costs are HIGH.
I planned my spraying window carefully (ordered organic iron based herbicide) based upon cooler weather. They shipped 1 bottle instead of the 2 I paid for and don't even have the common decency to expedite the replacement since it is their error. Now I have to wait another 7-10 days and miss my cool temperature spraying window. Absolutely the last time I order from these clowns. Usually I'm the outlier in these but the number of complaints on davesgarden.com against gardens alive is incredible. I should have checked here first. The amazing part is they are still in business.

On July 4, I placed an order with Gardens Alive! dba Breck's. I paid for the order in full at the time of the order. In early October, I received a partial order. I know this is normal, so I didn't think much about it. When the remainder of the order hadn't arrived a week later, I investigated. The order was marked "completed" all shipped in one box, 1 tracking number, 8 pounds. The 8 pounds included the box, packing materials, 2 dozen ferns, 6 iris rhizomes, and 3 geraniums, all packed in plastic bags with dirt/peat. The missing 17 hostas in no way could have been packed in that 8 pound package. They were never packed or shipped to me.

Breck's CSRs refused to re-ship the missing plants, even though they are still listed in stock and available for sale. I could actually purchase them again, at FIVE TIMES THE PRICE I PAID IN JULY!!!!!!!!

I placed this order much earlier than I usually do, because I especially wanted these plants.

Gardens Alive! dba Breck's has cheated me several ways: by holding my money for 3 months and not sending me what I bought, by trying to directly steal from me, claiming they shipped items that they did not ship, by refusing to correct this "mistake", and by trying to gouge me on the "replacement" price of something I already bought and paid for.

A criminally dishonest company.

Ordered a pack of their beneficial nematodes in March; I was given a delivery date range of April 7th-14th. The dates passed and still no delivery instead they updated it and pushed the date back another two weeks. I emailed them to complain that I never got my package or any sort of status update. I got an email from Nicole from their support team who apologized and said they'd send another package out to me, and I should've expected it by the 4th of May. Well... given that it's May 6th and I still haven't received anything. I plan to cancel the purchase and dispute it.

Seems like this company may have been reliable in the past, but it seems like a borderline scam company now. Beware of buying from them.

There was a problem with my credit card and when I called to give them another one, they tried to add another $50 shipping fees. Even though I had my confirmation with the total cost, the customer rep. insisted this was incorrect. I cancelled my order and will never order from them again. DON'T BUY FROM THIS COMPANY - THEY CAN'T BE TRUSTED!

I ordered three sets of 3 plants for two types of tomatoes and one sweet pepper. The website suggested their transplant care nutrient mix and I chose to order it. The mix was originally $7.99 and I was given a $4.00 discount so the mix actually cost me $3.99. When it arrived, the order total was $15.94 because the shipping and handling on my $3.99 order was $11.95. Gardens Alive! shipping and handling costs seem out of line.

It should be garden's dead! This is what they send! K. Van Bourgondien tries to hide behind a new name and affiliation, but it's the same broken, dead plants and now no one responds!

DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY. They are one of a number of companies (Michigan Bulb, Spring Hill, Brecks, etc.) that make you think you are getting a discount by giving you a coupon. The coupons either do not work, or, if the coupon does work, the prices for the items are highly inflated, so there is no discount in the end. It is all a scam. And their products are inferior, both plants and fertilizers. Save yourself aggravation and money. STAY AWAY FROM GARDENERS ALIVE!!!!

I've placed a couple of orders from this company recently and had good experiences. Products (both live plantings and supplies) received quickly and in season-appropriate time and in good shape.

Interesting to me that my experiences with Gardens Alive have been good, but that has not been the case with some other companies in the Henry Fields group. They need to work on better horizontal integration.

I was using one of their frequent 50% off if you buy $50 worth. Was sent one item immediately, and charged for it (far more than it's worth, but I figured the rest of the order will be "free") However, the rest has been on "back order" now for month after month after month. Is this a big scam?

I ordered Pets Alive, 2, 4lb bags on Jan.18.. Waited until February 10.. Received only one bag..had to call India that serves them.. To get the missing bag...have to wait another 10 days..
There is no reason to have to wait so long...not a plant..They cashed the money right away.! Terrible service...

Posted on April 6, 2016, updated July 28, 2016
I ordered one blackberry, one boysenberry and one raspberry from Gardens Alive! They sent me an email announcing that my order had been shipped with a tracking number. The order arrived on time and all plants were alive. They included planting instructions.

Received an offer in the mail that stated (in bold red lettering):

"$25 GIFT COUPON Good for $25 worth of products from this catalog when you buy $25 or more of additional products at the catalog price."

Under that, written in black:

"Use the order form inside the catalog to deduct $25 off your order of $50 or more. What a great way to try our gardening products with no risk!"

I thought, is it just me or are there two completely different offers on the same coupon? I decided to call to check on the offer and just as I suspected, I was not being offered the portion of the coupon in red, my offer was the one in black. The man (answering the phone in India where the call had been routed, even though the Garden's Alive number appears to be stateside) gave me some silly excuse about the coupon being misprinted. I'm inclined to believe that this was meant to be a bait and switch. Needless to say, I will not be placing an order with this company.

I purchased from two of Garden Alive's subsidiaries this past Spring. One had a 50% off coupon which I enclosed a full two weeks before the deadline. This coupon was not honored. I was assessed an additional $10.00 late fee and then the bill was sent on to a collections company. The second subsidiary posted in big letters on the front page that everything in the catalog was 50% off if sent in by the deadline. I did just that. Again, I was assessed a $10.00 late fee and the bill was sent to collections, who, by the way, are very harassing.

I would like to add that many of the plants did not make it as they were sent at a time that was not optimal for northern New England. I am very unhappy with this company and will shop only local from now on.

I am a member of our local Garden Club and annually host the membership at our home and gardens. This experience has taught me that purchasing with catalogs is not a good experience.

I first try to purchase nematodes to keep the Japanese Beatles at bay, but they sent them not in a "perishable envelope," and they were left in my box, as I was not aware of a shipping on the way. None lived. I called and they were going to send more, but the timing was too late, but they sent some moth catchers that I was interested instead; although I am trying another lure from another company.... THIS IS SOMETHING YOU ALL NEED TO KNOW...I RECEIVED A MAGAZINE CALLED 'TOUCH OF CLASS,' I DID NOT ORDER THIS MAGAZINE, NEVER PURCHASED ANYTHING FROM THEM. I CALLED AND THEY WERE KIND ENOUGH TO RESEARCH IT AND LEARNED THAT MY NAME AND ADDRESS WAS PURCHASED THROUGH 'GARDENS ALIVE.'

I WAS LIVID, I WAS A CUSTOMER AND THEY ARE SELLING MY NAME TO OTHER COMPANIES FOR A PROFIT. I CALLED AND WAS LEFT ON HOLD FOR 18 MINUTES UNTIL 'CARLA,' WITH CUSTOMER [NOT VERY SERVICABLE] SERVICE CAME ON GIVING ME A LAME; 'I APOLOGIZE ABOUT THAT!' ATTITUDE, BUT STARTS GIVING ME THE LECTURE ON HOW I CAN CONTACT THE DO NOT MAILING LIST [paraphrased]. I would not have had to contact anyone if they were respectful to their customers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

BE ADVISED THAT IF YOU START GETTING MAGAZINES FROM ANOTHER COMPANY...I ALLEGE IT IS FROM ORDERING FROM GARDENS ALIVE! I HAVE IT ON A VOICE MAIL from the Rep with Touch of Class!

Last fall, I was purchasing on-line plants for the first time. I was going through SpringHill and Breck. Generally, I was very happy with them but this year when I was going through my E-voices I saw that they have the same format in their messages. Apparently just the names were changed.

From my experience last fall, I was not happy with the invoices because they did not place the invoice number in the subject line making it very difficult to track. So I wrote to both of them saying that I would not be ordering from them unless they modified their message structure.

Now for the strange part. I received an e-mail response TO me and it was marked as being FROM me too. I have seen this in scam messages before so I looked at the hidden header. It is from GARDENS ALIVE!

P.S. I hear that Springhill is probably going bankrupt as hears in an NPR article this afternoon. Apparently they have been in the red for three years now. NPR mentioned that they are the largest grower/nursery in US.

I just checked the headers for Michigan Bulb, Breck's, and Spring Hill. They are all through Garden's Alive.

The plot thickens....

This is just an interesting FYI: I recently received a notice from UPS that a package was being sent to me from Gardens Alive! Since I had not ordered anything from the company in quite a while, I was confused. After a little research, I discovered that the package was from Bits and Pieces, a jigsaw puzzle company, which is also owned by GA.

I ordered from gardens Alive with one of their buy $25 get $25 promotional catalogs. I ordered promptly from them and had the four items I ordered, a sprayer, packet of corn, key lime plant, and a meyer lemon plant on hold with four estimated ship dates. Within a month the corn and sprayer arrived and they changed the date of the lime plant to deliver another month behind and the lemon was to ship in September. After receiving several notices on ship dates being changed the company just cancelled the remainder of my order. BUYER BEWARE. I spent $25 on corn and a sprayer and never got the free products.

I sent an email to Garden's Alive on 6/9/14 inquiring if they purchase any products from Monsanto or Monsanto's seed company Seminis for I recently heard that they do.

This is the response I received back:
service@gardensalive.com
9:34 AM (1 hour ago)
to me
Dear Sally:

Thank you for your email and interest in our products. Unfortunately, in compliance with our agreement with our vendors, we are unable to disclose manufacturer information. I apologize for any inconvenience. If we can be of further assistance, feel free to contact us.

Sincerely,

Paul
Customer Service

Now, I believe in full disclosure & transparency from anyone wanting my money &/or support. (For example, upon questioning, Johnny's Selected Seed & Territorial both admit to purchasing some of their seed from Seminis. Johnny's even lists the varieties so a person can choose to avoid. I do not believe in the ag gag law either, I want to know about my food, how it is cared for, what's in it & where it is from! So, buyer beware when it comes to Garden's Alive!!!

Posted on March 19, 2014, updated March 19, 2014
I've been a customer for over 10 years, usually two orders a year, each usually a minimum of $100 or more. Beginning of March I went online to place my spring order, had problems with the web page although it indicated the charge had gone through, called on a weekend to do order corrections and got a polite male person in India who spoke heavily accented English. Order confirmation he did was wrong. Called back, got a female person in India who spoke heavily accented English who could not understand me and I could understand only an occasional word she said. It took a lot of repetition but she finally got my name and address correct and identified my order. It was taking forever to go over and over the same information and I had other obligations that day, so I asked three times for a representative in the USA or someone who was a native English speaker but she wouldn't/didn't transfer me. She kept repeating over and over "give me your credit card number" "give me your credit card number" until I finally hung up. The next person I got had a Philippines type accent and when I asked she said she was not in India. Gave her my credit card information. Cancelled one of my two orders. Their overseas representatives apparently can read a script from a computer screen but they don't have the knowledge of the context of what they are reading. Then I kept getting emails from them saying my credit card charge had been declined and had been referred to another department. I went in person to my bank, thinking my card information might have been stolen, and verified that I have more than enough available credit for that order. Called them back. Company said I had to call to verify my credit card information. I did that twice. Kept gettng emails that said the charge had been declined. Kept sending emails back to them that my card was OK. Got an emal back that I had to call the company. It's been over a dozen emails since the first of March and today I got one that said they had cancelled the order because the charge wouldn't go through. This used to be a very reliable company, but I'm not going to waste time trying to deal with them again and won't recommend them. I looked online and found a variety of stories similar to mine told by people who won't deal with them any more and also read the reviews on Dave's Garden. Something has gone very wrong at Gardens Alive. Have they gone bankrupt, been sold to a company in India, been bought by a conglomerate that owns other gardening companies? Sad. They can't afford to pay someone in Indiana or a US call center $7.50 an hour for a person to help their customers and process orders? Very sad.

First they lost my shipment. They sent a replacement. Then they sent a bill. I indicated that I'd paid by credit card and sent copy of order showing nothing due. I suggested that they were charging for the replacement. T

They sent another bill with a statement form someone else in an entirely different state and 3x the amount I ordered. And a pretty nasty letter. Indicating that there had been a "glitch' in their system and they'd been unable to charge my card. NO envelope to send payment. I sent e-mail indicating that enclosed statement was not mine and requested they call me so can correct. They indicated that I needed call them. They have NO 800# so this will be along distance call. Requested they call me and I'd give them cc#. They e-mailed back that they can't call out.

Said no thank you. Send me another invoice with correct statement and a return envelope with postage paid. Why should I need to spend my $$ to call them to correct their errors or for that matter spend the $$ for an envelope and a stamp...it's down to the the principal of it now.

Horrible Customer Service. There are so many companies out there that actually care. do business with someone else.

Scam Alert!

I operate a small farm http://www.thenatomasfarm.com AND a landscaping business for years.Seen many good vendors out there.....these guys are not the good guys at all.

These guys sent me a catalog with a big $25.00 off any purchase....even if it is under $25.00! I seen this scam from the Gurney Seed folks (the ones that never responses back to inquires). Gurneys simple charged $25.00 for a postal fee to mail out a two pound box to Sacramento ca. to make up the "deep discount".

I had to test the Garden Alive site to see what the scam was for them. Well....Garden Alive simple wont accept the coupon code for a purchase under $25.00! Say Gardens Alive.....dont respond here saying "perhaps I entered the code wrong". I did not after three tries.......and the Internet was working perfectly here too....so no loss connection to mess up the code process :-)

I believe these companies are betting on the fact that someone has spent so much time at their site picking out stuff, and then finds out that there are real issues with these so called coupons.....that the buyer will just go ahead and purchase anyhow.

Gurneys is known to have less seed count per package.....I bet this company does the same.

"On Apr 29, 2014 8:14 AM, Gardens Alive! responded with:

We appreciate your posting. All of the coupons we offer are valid and can be used. We do have problems at times with the codes not working properly but we will always honor our coupons. If you have problems like this you can call us and we would be happy to place your order for you. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information."

This company has turned into a conglomerate of low class, low quality, and poorly rated gardening companies that were formerly independent. Gardens Alive bought out these struggling companies and did not improve them but rather made them worse and continues to sell defective, dead, dying, low quality items.

I once used to order a lot of their lawn and garden fertilizers and potions. Over the years, I've watched them deteriorate into a giant cesspool of bad products, no customer service, and useless bankrupt companies. They bought these companies not to improve them but to feed off of the previous reputations before they were tarnished. Here is an example:

TIMELINE:

1984 Natural Gardening Research Center founded

1988 company name changed to Gardens Alive!

1997 acquired Audubon Workshop catalog out of bankruptcy

2001 paid $10.75 million for most of the horticultural titles from bankrupt Foster & Gallagher’s, which included Breck’s, Gurney Seeds, Henry Field’s, Michigan Bulb and Spring Hill Nursery; sells F&G’s Stark Bros. catalog

2008 acquired former BlueSky Brands catalogs Bits and Pieces and The Paragon

2009 purchased six catalogs: Room Service Home, Spilsbury, The Added Touch, Images of Canada, TouchStone and the U.S. operations of Thompson & Morgan Seedsmen

2010 bid unsuccessfully for the Park Seed and Jackson & Perkins catalogs.

I fully expect them to buy Burgess Seed, a notoriously poor company with reviews which reflects it.

Even Gardens Alive has outsourced it's customer service and order lines to India rather than provide jobs in the USA. When I called last fall, I couldn't understand the rep I was speaking with and called back. I received another rep that repeated the same monologue but couldn't answer my questions or deal with the call adequately. If you don't understand how these call centers work in foreign countries, there are "grades" of them. The skilled ones have people working in them that have little accents, speak English as well or better than we do, and get paid substantially more. It goes down from there and I'm fairly certain that Gardens Alive has hired the bottom of the slum dwellers.

Products that were previously good are no longer available or have changed formulations. My last order never arrived, it was out of stock. I think I lucked out although getting a refund was quite a chore. Never again.

I'm sure I'll get a company response to this and then no follow-up that I would be able to understand if they even made an attempt. Beware of these types of businesses. They are bottom feeders, have poor or non-existent customer service, and low quality control, if any.

"On Feb 11, 2014 1:02 PM, Gardens Alive! responded with:

We appreciate your feedback. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information."

Over a month ago I ordered 2 #4413 Sunshine Blue Blueberries from Gardens Alive after receiving from them an unsolicited "$25.00 FREE" offer of plants. Shortly thereafter I received 3 emails from them to ADD to my present order which I declined. Today, over a month later I received a postcard, NOT an email, stating "The following items are out of stock for the season", which of course negates and cancels their "$25.00 FREE" plant offer! If when I originally ordered these plants they were UNAVAILABLE, why was I not advised of this, instead of them attempting to increase my order? No matter how I look at this, it seems a "scam" to me!

"On Feb 11, 2014 1:00 PM, Gardens Alive! responded with:

Thank you for your feedback and I apologize for the problems with your order. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and check into this for you."

I have ordered from Hentry Fields for the past 3 years and was satisfied with the varieties and quantity of seeds I received. However last year I tried ordering live plants with the expectation that they would provide the same satisfaction.

I ordered blueberries, strawberries and raspberries and they were shipped long after they should have been planted. When they arrived all the strawberries were completely dried out. The raspberry canes had some evidence of growth and the blueberries were still dormant.

As soon as the plants arrived they were planted, watered and nurtured. Of 24 strawberry plants only about 6 were viable. 1 of 5 raspberry canes survived and only 1 of 4 blueberry plants grew. Extreme disappointment not only at getting ripped off but of having to delay another year for fruit plants.

Never shopping through Henry Fields or any of their affilliates again.

"On Jan 22, 2014 11:57 AM, Gardens Alive! responded with:

I am sorry to hear about the problem with your plants. I would be happy to reship these to you. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information."

I ordered some organic drain cleaner and a couple of garden items recently. A few days later, there was a call from Gardens Alive! but I missed it and didn't know what it was about. Maybe a week later, they called again and left a message with my son that I needed to call them. I phoned and was told that my credit card number had been wrong. I gave them the card number and was assured that the order would be on its way. Nothing happened for another 10 days or so, until they called again, saying that I needed to call them. I called, and they said that they had no credit card information on my order, so they couldn't ship it. I canceled the order and told them that I had lost confidence that they could handle credit card information safely and securely.

"On Nov 15, 2013 12:50 PM, Gardens Alive! responded with:

Thank you for your feedback. We apologize for the confusion over your order. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and check into this matter."

I have not received my product yet but I would like to post feedback on the ordering and delivery process. Early on a Monday morning, I ordered 900 ladybugs. The person who took the order said that since I had called before noon, the package would go out that day. On Wednesday I called because I had gotten no bugs and no shipping notice of any kind. I was told that the ladybugs had not shipped; they only ship one day a week, either on a Thursday or Friday and they ship UPS. I said that since UPS doesn't deliver on the week-ends, there was a good chance that all these bugs could be sitting somewhere in a building or on a truck over the week-end. The person on the phone agreed but assured me it wouldn't hurt the bugs. Every other company that I know of that ships live insects and even many companies that ship life plants, always ship early in the week to avoid this exact problem. No wonder the instructions for the ladybugs say to give them water as soon as they arrive because they will thirsty! It makes no sense at all to pick one day a week and then pick a day when the bugs aren't likely to make it to their destination in the week they are shipped!! If you want ladybugs, I would go somewhere else to get them!

"On Aug 23, 2013 9:06 AM, Gardens Alive! responded with:

Thank you for your feedback. I apologize for the confusion on the shipping of the ladybeetles. We usually ship the ladybeetles on Monday or Tuesday and we ship via first class mail. The information you were given is incorrect. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and check on the status of your ladybeetles for you."

I have used their fertilizer products (Vegetables Alive, Tomatoes Alive and Roots Alive) and some of their garden pest controls (Bulls Eye, Pyola, Escar-go and Green Step at different times and for several years. I still use them especially the fertilizers. They have all performed very well to my satisfaction. Well Done!

"On Jul 12, 2013 11:11 AM, Gardens Alive! responded with:

Thank you so much for your wonderful testimonial about our products. We look forward to helping with your gardening needs for many years to come."

This year was my first order. So far everything has been positive. I ordered pest control powder and 6 roses. So far all the roses, except one, is thriving and growing. One of the grafted roses turned completely black after about 2 wks. They said another one would be sent. This is the negative part. it has been 5 weeks and I haven't received the rose replacement yet!!!!!!!!!

"On Jun 21, 2013 11:12 AM, Gardens Alive! responded with:

Thank you for your posting. I will have one of our customer service representatives contact you for your account information and check on the reshipment for you."

I am an avid gardener, PhD scientist and Director of Sales in a Biotech company and have used Gardens Alive products for a few years now. I recently made 2 separate orders of 3 different species of grafted tomato plants on each order to be sent to 2 different delivery addresses in my home state of Connecticut. I placed these orders in March and when I received my first shipment in mid May, only one plant arrived and it was in a state of dehydration with dead branches and severe yellowing on the plant sent. I'm sure this is an expected possible consequence of shipping immature seedlings in a cardboard box thru UPS & USPS delivery. My first shipment at my other address also arrived in mid May and contained only 2 of the 3 ordered plants with 1 plant in a similar stressed condition to above, while the other plant was broken in half at the point of the graft. I contacted Customer Service and they said I would receive a replacement for the broken dead plant in 4-6 weeks and the remainder of my outstanding orders on both orders would ship in 2-3 weeks. I did receive another shipment at my first address in the beginning of June that contained only 1 of the 2 plants due. I contacted Customer Service again and they told me that their records show there were 2 plants sent, despite the fact it had only one in it when I opened it. They also told me that the replacement plant for the broken plant sent to the second address was now canceled and the outstanding plant due along w the replacement for the missing plant would arrive in a possible 4 weeks (July). I was never notified of the cancellation of the broken plant and dismayed that the partial completion of the remainder of my orders was delayed even further. More than the loss of the plants, I was at odds w/ their Customer Service's perspective to accept the possibility of a discrepency in what their records say was shipped in the box and what was present when I opened it. In addition, in my mind, waiting until July to plant tomato seedlings in Connecticut is a waste of a gardening opportunity this year. Since the Customer Service Rep was in the Phillipines, I concluded he didn't appreciate the limitations of the New Engtand growing seasons and now I just wanted to forget this entire experience. He offered a credit slip for the cost of the 3 missing plants that could be used for future purchases with Gardens Alive, but I insisted on a direct credit be applied to my Visa card. I have not verified receipt of this credit on my Credit Card account yet, but I have learned a valuable lesson about buying grafted seedlings shipped thru UPS&USPS delivery. I recognize this seems like a lot of hysteria for a few tomato plants, but I was interested in the hybrid plants as a scientific experiment and I want others to understand possible consequences in a much larger financial investment in this type of product.

"On Jun 18, 2013 12:51 PM, Gardens Alive! responded with:

Thank you for letting us know about the problem with your order. I apologize for the inconvenience. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and make sure your refund has been issued."

last year i ordered 2 grafted plants from gardens alive.they were impressive!packaging was incredible plants arrived healthy and large. 8-10 inches tall.i bragged them up all year!!!several people made the decision to order this year.i avoid them at all cost!!the plants i ordered were almost dead or already dead.packaging was awful !!i was upset!!.i emailed them and they are sorry.so what?my garden is ruined.i have to buy from a greenhouse now.normaly i start my own plants from seed.the grafted plants last year were just see what they were like.i was so impressed there was no need to start my own tomatos and peppers.3 plants might pull thru but the san marzono was doa.last year the box proudly said gardens alive in large letters like they were proud of the product.this year the shipping label said gardens alive in very small letters.the old bait and switch!

"On May 18, 2013 9:19 AM, Gardens Alive! responded with:

Thank you for letting us know about the problem with your plants. I apologize the plants were not in good shape and for all your inconvenience. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and take care of this for you. I can assure you we are the same company and we will do everything we can to make this right.


"

Posted on May 5, 2013, updated May 12, 2013
I ordered online $250+ of grafted tomato and pepper plants from Gardens Alive. The health quality of the plants I received was pitiful considering they sell them at $9.95 a piece. All the tomatoe plants I received looked more dead than alive and were all rootbound in pots too small when compared to the height of the plant. The website advertises you will receive Brandywine and Mortgage Lifter varieties in 3" pots, but I did not. I have sense purchased a few more grafted tomato plants from my local nursery. These plants are from Burpee and the difference is night and day. The proof is in the pudding.

"On May 8, 2013 7:35 AM, Gardens Alive! responded with:

Thank you for letting us know about the problem with your tomato plants. I apologize the plants were not in good shape and for all your inconvenience. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and take care of this for you."

I ordered online 3 beefsteak tomato plants and 1 GRAFTED TOMATO CARMELLO in the middle of February .
When i get beefsteak tomatoes i was so damn badly shocked!!!!
I get 3 dead yellow sticks instead of plants. they advertised that plant come in 3 in. pots but it was 1.5 .
As for grafted tomatoes i get almost dead plant ,which costs me $8.46. For beefsteaks i payed $11.
Yesterday i went to Menards and find a lot of different kinds of tomatoes there hardy ,alive and the same size for $1.50 per 6 pack.
I HATE GARDEN ALIVE! STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!

"On May 11, 2013 10:24 AM, Gardens Alive! responded with:

Thank you for letting us know about the condition of your tomato plants. I apologize for the problems. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and take care of this for you."

Posted on April 2, 2013, updated April 10, 2013
I recently placed an order for several items, one of which was a tool. When the box arrived, I opened it and found that the tool was broken. When I called customer service, the said they could give me a credit towards my next purchase but no coverage of the shipping costs. When I explained that I was not at all happy to find that despite having paid for a product and paid to have it delivered that I would in fact not end up with the product, they hung up on me. If they can't stand by their shipping, then why should I waste more of my money trying to order the same item again and paying shipping again? They also weren't willing to just refund the money so I could purchase the item from either a local store or a place where I know I'll get what I paid for.

Last time I order from them.

"On Apr 5, 2013 12:04 PM, Gardens Alive! responded with:

Thank you for your feedback. I truly apologize for the way this was handled. I would be happy to reship the tool or refund you for the product including shipping. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information."