Comments regarding Gardens Alive!

I have had the best experience buying from Gardens Alive... definitly will use them again...
customer service is excelent,

they quickly replaced one item that came damaged! great company!

I have ordered from Gardens Alive in 3 of the last 4 years I have had a garden and have been pretty happy with each transaction. Of about 9 [purchases I have made with them, I only had a minor issue with one that really was half my fault and half theirs- maybe 2/3's mine and 1/3 theirs. I do have to confess to a bit of sticker shock each time I order due to the shipping costs. I know they can't do much about it but it is pretty eye opening to have about 35% of my order paying for shipping. I would shop somewhere local to save the shipping but their products truly are superior to anything I can get around here (Northern VA). Yep- I am a satisfied customer and expect I will be again in about 30 minutes.

I've purchased fertilizers, soil additions, and both pyola and soapshield from Gardens Alive!. I've been satisfied with their products, but am switching to a local rose fertilizer after having joined the local rose society, as it is made for Colorado soils (a challenge all its own!). I am very concerned at how similar some of the negative comments are to what I've experienced with Brecks (as have many others). I will purchase from them again, but will be alert for problems stemming from whatever internal changes they've recently made. Like other reviewers, I too wish they would more adequately list fertilizer ingredients and analyses. I had to call to get the #-#-# rating for several of them - couldn't even find it on the website. But overall, I've liked their products. There are not very many sources for organic gardeners at this point, so GA is a pretty safe fallback.

Yes, I finally yielded to the coupon. Finally got the website to work. Saw the "final" page where it shows that my coupon had been applied. Hit the submit-the-order button. BLINKED IN HORROR as the "receipt" page added the 25 dollars back to my order! (with no explanation and no chance to change my mind)

Of course, no one is answering their phones. Frankly, from the other reviews, I suspect it might not matter if they answered the phones or not :(

THIS is what I get for not checking here first, won't be making that mistake again ...

I rec'd their catalog, with that infamous $25 free, no strings attached that everybody else got. I too decided, I will spend just over that...why not with so much free? On-line the site would not take my coupon code at all. After an hour of messing with it (and I did try and call but couldn't get through), I abandoned the effort. Twenty four hours later I got an email asking why I didn't finish paying for my order. I emailed back and said that their site wouldn't take my coupon code. I was emailed "my coupon code" (which I aleady knew) and I tried again, to no avail. So I gave up, not worth my time. And via another email, I was told, just give us your credit card number, the order will place, and we'll take care of it then. LOL...HAH! I NEVER give out my credit card number if the order isn't exactly right, or if all information and prices are already figured out. Nobody else expects me to give a credit card number without getting proper amounts owed figured out! At that point in time, I threw the catalog out, and figured I was better off not dealing with this idiocracy. And then I went here to tell people this, and look what I found, other people getting hosed by that same coupon! I don't get it, I have had other companies give me that same coupon with no problem! I would do your business elsewhere if I were you!

Let me tell you of my recent order. I ordered around noon on a Wednesday and the next day, Thursday, the UPS guy was getting my order out of his truck. Pretty impressive isn't it? Okay, I'm only one state away, but 24 hours!?!? I was very happy with GA.

Here's the kicker: I had given them the wrong expiration date on my credit card and had a message waiting on the phone from GA when I was finished with the UPS guy. We got all of the billing straightened out and I had my order in my hands before GA had any idea they would be paid.

I've been ordering from GA for years-can't plant a tomato plant without Tomatoes Alive-and have never,ever had a bad product or experience.

I was a bit trepidatious about this company after seeing the reviews, but I had a coupon for $25 toward products, so I decided to give them a try. I have been quite happy with what I ordered.

Although one item I ordered arrived damaged, they immediately sent me a replacement--no questions asked. It arrived without delay and in perfect condition. All other items were very pleasing.

Their customer service is through a handling center that also handles Springhill Nursery, Henry Fields, etc. and I've ordered from all three and ALWAYS received excellent service through them. I've had to contact their service center several times, for reasons ranging from receiving a plant that was dead, having a plant die shortly after planting, to UPS damaging items in transit. No matter what the reason for the concern, the companies always send me a replacement ASAP with no questions asked. I have loved that aspect of service the most about these companies.

Regarding their affiliates, (of those I've ordered from) the only one I've really been absolutely disappointed with is Gurney's. The others have always offered nice plants, decent prices, good specials, and great service!

First shipment of ladybugs was all dead, but I called Customer Service and they shipped out a new batch all of which were healthy and ready to fly!

After finding what I thought to be the perfect ‘unique’ gift for a gardener in the family, I ordered 50 earth worm cocoons from Gardens Alive and was told that they were buy one get one free…oh boy! The estimated ship date came and went, so I checked on the status of the order online. I discovered that the person that took my order over the phone had entered the wrong address…leaving the first two letters of my street name off. I called customer service (not an 800 number) and reported the address error which supposedly was fixed. I also reported that the order only showed 1 package of cocoons and that I had been told that I would be getting one free. The seemingly apologetic representative explained that the person taking my order probably thought that because items purchased showed up as ‘2’; one package of cocoons and one instruction letter and I was out of luck. I was then offered a condolence prize…the chance to fork over more money to them by purchasing items at a ‘special’ discounted rate. I quickly and empathically declined. Two weeks passed and I received my baby earth worms by miracle…my address was still incorrect and had NOT been changed. The package’s ship date was a week prior to its arrival and was supposedly a ‘RUSH’ ship due to refrigeration requirements. I called customer service AGAIN and told the person on the phone the whole story. I received NO apology, ABSOLUTLY NO indication of concern over losing a customer, and frankly speaking NO indication of concern at all. I am convinced at this point that Gardens Alive has no interest in customer satisfaction and product reliability. There is no guarantee that you will get what you order and certainly will not find a company representative willing to stand behind it if you don’t. Any company that is not willing to protect its reputation through good customer service does not earn my respect! I'm taking my business elsewhere!!

"

Customer was contacted for possible resolution; did not receive any response."

Much like several of the other folks, I too received a catalogue in the mail with a free $25 coupon. While challenging, I was finally able to place my order over the internet and use my coupon code. My order was slightly over the freebie amount so I provided my credit card for the balance. Received my order, all was well in the world, as I won't get into the part where they product was very disappointing at the moment. Imagine my surprise when months later I started getting notes in the mail telling me my account was past due, late fee's had been charged, and I needed to pay up. So, being a good consumer, I called - on my dime - the customer service number. A nice associate told me that there was no balance due showing on my account and it must have been an error. It would be corrected immediately and so sorry for the inconvenience. And when I got the next notice a month later, I called again. And when the next one came in, same thing. I was assured this time I would be receiving no more late notices. Well, partially correct. Instead, months later, I started getting collection calls day and night!! My $32 order - $25 of which was "free" - was now going to cost me $70 with late fees and charges since I was apparently a "dead beat". Arguing with the collection agency was pointless; especially since not a one of them who called could speak English worth a lick. AGAIN I called Garden's Alive. Again I was told there was no balance on my account, it showed paid in full at the time of order, they could not explain to me why I was being hounded in their name by collections and they would send me a letter immediately to rectify the situation. I got the letter, three weeks later, that simply said they were sorry for any inconvience and please be advised the new spring products would be available shortly. No mention of my account being in good standing, no confirming they had called off the dogs. Because they hadn't. The collections people are still calling. I have called Gardens Alive more times than I can count - always to be assured there was no monies due, my account was fine, and they'd take care of it. You cannot get anyone's last name for accountability, and when you call back, no one has heard of the person you talked to the last time. Asking for a manager or the owner has gotten me the same song and dance and no resolution. I no longer have an account with the credit card company I had used, so I have no recourse that way. I'm probably going to just pay the $70 to the vultures so they will quit ringing my phone at 10pm at night. OH, and I just received their Spring catalgue - and another of their $25 coupons - in the mail. Three guesses how long it took me to toss it in the trash!!!!

"

When shipping the order, we could not get the customer's credit card authorized (this could have been because of an incorrect security code, or any other number of reasons) for the $26.40 balance due, after the $25 coupon was deducted, so we sent the order anyway, along with an invoice included in the package. Six more notices are sent out, and if we get no response, we, unfortunately, have to turn the account over to the collection agency. "

I just made my first purchase with Gardens Alive and I couldn't be more pleased. The website worked fine, although initially the confirmation showed an incorrect total. I was charged the correct total, and I received everything 2 days later. Can't ask for better service than that. I just hope the products are as effective as the service.

Although I have ordered in the past with their coupon deals, I'm now done with this company. I'd forgotten about the clunky telephone order from last year, but this year I tried to use their website to order and it was a horror show.

I received an email deal on a product, clicked the link in the email, and was directed to the website page. I read the complete product info and then clicked "add to my shopping basket". I was redirected to a page asking for the special code to get the reduced price, entered the code, and then was redirected to the shopping basket. The shopping basket was empty.

After trying this three times, I gave up and sent an email to the company explaining that I couldn't use their online ordering and perhaps something was wrong with it? The answer I got back was that I didn't have my browser cookies enabled with a long and really worthless explanation of how to enable cookies on Explorer. For the record, my cookies are enabled for daily sessions only. Apparently their system requires 24/7 cookies? Not even my online banking requires that much access. Also for the record, I use Firefox and wouldn't allow Explorer on my computer for any reason.

So I wrote back and explained that I do not allow full cookie access and that perhaps they should contact their sys admin and change the cookie requirement to something a little more real world. Their response was priceless....

....I've been removed from their email offers. Whew!

--

Another note: until I read thru these other comments, I'd forgotten that I couldn't order online last year either and ended up using the telephone ordering. Unless you have 45 minutes to speak each letter and number and wait for the auto system to take your order, it's actually faster to fill out the paper form and mail it in.

Not surprising to note the other affiliated companies.. they're all poorly managed.

"

Customer was contacted for possible resolution - no response.

Below is the correspondence I had with this Customer:

Tue, April 15, 2008
9:16 AM
Dear Valued Customer:
I would like to apologize for the inconvenience you encountered while trying to order through our company. Would you please submit your name and address so that I may look into this matter, and into your order? I look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,
Debbie
Customer Service

vtbeachldy
Blanchard, OK
Thu, April 17, 2008
6:42 AM
From your email, I have no idea what company you work for.

Thu, April 17, 2008
9:03 AM
Dear Valued Customer:
I apologize that I did not include that information; I was referring to a posting on Dave's Garden/Garden Watchdog for Gardens Alive!. I look foward to your reply.
Sincerely,
Debbie
Customer Service
"

I used to LOVE Gardens Alive and in the past recommended to lots of fellow gardeners, but something really weird has happened lately, and not only are they not responsive, but they promise things they don't deliver, and then when threatened by my credit card company with a need for action, tell me that they are refunding only a part of what they charged my card for!

I can't imagine what happened to them, but I wanted to WARN as many other gardeners to avoid them in the future. It's a sad thing, as they used to be so good.

"

Customer was emailed on 12/19/07 for possible resolution of problem; there has been no response as of 4/15/08."

So-so on their products. The price makes them worth trying but I find cheap homemade solutions work just as well.
I still look thru the catalog every year and occasionally I'll purchase a sale item.

I'm done with them! Whenever I have a particular question, often associated with what product I can use in combination with another product, I receive a non answer. I've even asked questions of their "master gardener". I very much doubt the "master" aspect. I wonder if they can read these posts!

Very bad experience. Ordered from Gurney's, got confirmation, order included specific shipping instructions, got email from Gardens Alive with no reference to original order number from Gurneys, took forever to piece it all together, and email informed me that, essentially, my shipping instructions were being ignored. They'll never see another order from me.

I love some of Gardens Alive's products such as the soil activator and the Bio Flo drain maintenance. Their turf Alive 3 with rhizomes grass seed comes up a medium green and falls over and mats. Not as expected. It germinates quickly though. I have also used thier insect repellant and the Escargo. Their oirders come promptly and the CS people are always nice. I spoke to a Gloria. I'll continue ordering selectively from them.

I decided to take Gardens Alive! up on its "free $25 worth of products" coupon I received. I spent quite a bit of time looking over everything they offered, finally choosing some liquid kelp spray and another item.

The bottle of kelp arrived shortly, albeit with a broken cap. I was very glad that the seal on the bottle kept it from leaking in shipment. (Of course, now that the seal's removed, the broken cap doesn't keep the contents very airtight.) It did seem to have a positive effect on the plants I sprayed it on.

Disappointingly, I received a postcard from Gardens Alive! telling me that my other item was discontinued and that I "would not be charged" for it. Great, except it was part of my "free" order, so I wasn't charged for it, anyway!

I emailed them and said that it would be nice if they could offer a replacement item, noting that I could hardly complain since everything was free to begin with. They replied that they would send me a $5 gift certificate. That was 2 months ago...I have not yet received any certificate.

Although I do appreciate the free products offer very much and like the one that I received, I feel very "neutral" about the experience overall and am not particularly likely to order from Gardens Alive! in the future.

I have ordered from Gardens Alive numerous times and have always been very satisfied with both the products and the service. I have ordered with a coupon, without a coupon, via telephone, via online, and always good results. I really like the variety of fertilizers they offer but wish with all my heart that they would see fit to list ingredients on all products.

I have a shady front lawn that seems to be a magnet for every white tailed deer in the state of Ohio. I’ve tried every type of grass seed but it would always get trampled and look sparse. I enjoy watching the Deer so I figured that I would have to accept a sad looking lawn. This year I seeded my lawn with Self-repairing Turf Alive! III with Rhizomes early this spring. It is October now and my lawn looks great! Thank You Gardens Alive for coming up with a grass that can hold its own under heavy Deer traffic. Your coupons are Great also! Please keep them coming!

I placed an order by phone for eight bags of compost and a two year subscription for their gardening club. I asked the lady to read my order back to me giving me the price for each item that I ordered and the $20 coupon and discounts. It was correct so I gave her my credit card number.

When I received an e-mail confirmation for my order, it didn't include the $20 coupon and my subscription was only renewed for one year (there is a savings when you renew for two years instead of only one). I immediately e-mailed their customer service and was told that the order was already shipped so they wouldn't honor their coupon. They apologized for my inconvenience. They couldn't verify how long my renewal was for their gardening club. It scares me that my order was changed after I gave them my credit card information.

It took another week to finally get them to tell me that my membership was renewed for only one year at the higher rate. They apologized for the "miscommunication". At NO time did they show any interest in making things right.

They keep e-mailing me advertisements that I haven't used my $20 coupon. I'm not going to fall for that again. Although I like their expensive products, they have shown me that they really don't care about their customers. So I will no longer be one of their customers. There are too many companies that want to please their customers that I don't need to waste my time on those who don't.

I have never had any ordering problems with Gardens Alive. The only products I have used are Turf Alive III and Turf Alive III with Rhizomes grass seeds.

In 2002, I made the mistake of using Turf Alive III grass seed to seed new lawns at two properties in Albuquerque. The grass initially came in beautifully, rich and thick. By the second season, no amount of chemical control could stem the invasion of weeds. Every spot where weeds had initially gotten a foothold, the grass was wiped out. Third season I attempted overseeding with Turf Alive III with rhizomes, thinking this variety might provide at least some competition for the weeds. Preparation involved heavy watering and thorough lawn aeration. The seed came up unevenly despite diligent light watering. After four seasons, the lawn still looks green, but even weeds can look good from a distance, if kept closely mowed.

I have sold the larger of the two properties. The smaller lawn is a carpet of the various undesirable grasses. Not much of the original Turfs Alive grass remains. We will be rototilling and replanting this month with bluegrass.

Five years ago, the old hands around town told me that bluegrass was the only way to go for a nice lawn. I didn't listen, choosing to believe the Gardens Alive hype. Bluegrass certainly couldn't take any more water than I expended trying to keep the Turfs Alive stuff alive. In the few spots that did survive, the Turfs Alive lawn turns very coarse. I think it might make a good field grass.

The coddling moth traps were useless. The scent cap did not stay in place, the traps did not catch 1 moth. Did catch a couple of houseflies. The rest of the order was junk. They did refund my money. So that is positive in a way.

Gardens Alive. I love their $25 coupon (if your purchase is less than $25, your entire purchase is FREE). Can't beat the FREE price. Went throught the entire catalog looking for items that total $19.95. When you include shipping cost the total was $24.95. So what did I get... I purchase some organic compost starter for green matter, an bird netting. ALL FOR FREE

I was able to convince my neighbor (he was about to throw away the catalog and valuable $25 coupon), he placed an order on my behalf and I was able to get 2 super light insect barrier. ALL FOR FREE.

FREE FREE FREE

I got a real deal by using one of their first timer coupons. The info on the site said several business days for shipping, so I wasn't expecting the order for a week or two, and it came FAST. I ordered on a Friday and it was here on Tuesday.

What I LOVE were the starch-based shipping peanuts they use as packing. They mentioned on the shipping form that they were made of starch and could be added to your compost pile.

One of my cats thought they were delicious, so I quickly put them in the pile.

I'm very pleased with the speed in which my order arrived, and LOVE those peanuts. I'm thrilled to see a company carry out their environmental efforts into shipping too. Bravo.

My first thought was to rate Gardens Alive as "Neutral", but decided on "Negative" because of the ludicrous reaction to my recent issue. First of all, I ordered and received Pyola, and it really seems to work well. I had also ordered Nematodes to solve a problem with squash vine borers. The nematodes arrived in early June - too early to be used because my squash had just started to grow. The package said to keep them cool, so I refrigerated them. Upon opening the package, the detailed instructions noted that the nematodes must be used immediately or refrigerated no more than a couple of days.

NOW HERE'S WHERE IT GETS DOWNRIGHT FUNNY:
I e-mailed them to explain that there was no way I could have used the nematodes when they were received.
Priyanka responded "Nematodes are living microscopic ellworms,
and they need to be used within two weeks of receiving them, or they will die (of starvation). If I can be of further assistance please feel free to contact me."
I responded that they should have stated this in their catalog and that I wasted my money.
Raj responded: "I can offer you a reship or a replacement certificate for the nematodes."
I chose a re-ship.
Kawal gave me a re-ship order number, saying it would ship in the fall.
I e-mailed back saying the fall will be too late -- I need to defeat the squash vine borers during the peak growing season.
Mandeep responded: "We ship items according to the proper
planting time in your area. The items in this order are the fall
items, so these can be shipped in the fall only."
I laughed out loud when I read this. Apparently, they don't understand the concept of growing seasons in India!!!

I have mixed feelings about GardensAlive! They have some high quality products, albeit often over priced if you don't get one of their occasional special offers. On the other hand, their product info is often incomplete and their marketing is often either questionable or very ecologically irresponsible.

On the questionable marketing, they will often show "test" results that imply that their product produces great results, but then if you look they are comparing a plant with fertilizer to one without, rather than their product compared to brand X. Any fertilizer would get short term growth results like they show, and they usually don't back up any claims of enhanced results over an alternative product.

On the irresponsible marketing, they portray themselves as environmentally responsible, but they are mainly out to get you to use a lot of their products in your gardening even though some are far from benign. The metals in some of their insecticides, herbicides, and fungicides can cause problems for your soils, wildlife, and water systems and should not be used unless absolutely necessary, yet they market them as if they are benign. They also make claims about some of their products not harming beneficial insects, when they are well known to harm many beneficial insects. For instance, they sell a BT-based spray insecticide with the claim that it doesn't harm beneficials, but the indiscriminate use of BT can cause a lot of problems for important pollinators like butterflies (several of which are threatened and have had recent population collapses) which is why organic advocates have such a problem with BT-corn. We don't know what the impacts on soil organisms and other beneficials of many of the ingredients in many products that are listed as acceptable for use in organic gardening and which GardensAlive sells, which is why they are used as a last resort after taking steps like physical removal and changes in cultural practices. Even then, some levels of "harmful" species is a good thing and much better than the often not-fully-known consequences of applying a strong chemical like copper or organisms like BT and nematatodes. After all, what will the beneficial populations live off of if you try to wipe out their food supply? A bit of aphid, grub, or fungus damage does not justify applying any chemicals or other substances, be they certified for organic gardening or not.

I've done business with them for many years, and they still are a good source for some products. I just worry that they are encouraging unsound practices in the name of environmentally-friendly gardening, and wish they would be more responsible in how they describe and market products.

Tried to place an order for Pyola and a couple of other products that came highly recommended. Their price was expensive, but I thought if it works it's worth a try. What a mistake.

I tried to place an order, it vanished into their system. So I called them up to verify the order, no order could be found. No big deal, maybe I made a mistake. I entered a new order and this time I got a confirmation email and all seemed fine. After a week of no news I logged into their system to see if they had lost the order again, or if it was back ordered. Their website says they normally ship same day or next day, not within a few weeks.

Turns out I now had 2 orders in the system, the one they "lost" and the current order. The date on the "lost" order was one week after I had tried to place it. I sent them an email asking what was going on. Overnight they shipped parts of the "lost" order. A reply to email came back that was a useless form email saying they ship within 2-3 days, they had never read my email. So I called to cancel what they had yet to ship. They said no problem it's canceled.

12 hours latter I get an email saying they have shipped what I had canceled. Of course the card has been billed. Trying to call them appears to be futile on Friday, their hold systems waits for a bit then says "our call load is very heavy, please call back later "

Between their customer service and the prices I couldn't recommend Gardens Alive.

Ouch,
I REALLY DISLIKE their new automated phone ordering system. It immediately mis-identified my name & said "I'm sorry..." a lot. I quickly got disgusted and simply said nothing until a real person *finally* came on the phone (had it on speaker phone while I did other stuff). We really like some of their products and are a big fan of the organic "W.O.W." lawn weed&feed products and their micronized copper fungicide "Soap Shield" for roses. Another disappointment is that the latter product is only available in quart sizes instead of gallons as in the past. It's too bad that they are now affiliated with companies with bad reputations. Overall we have been satisfied with the products purchased from them (including pantry moth traps). I just hope they ditch the AWFUL automated phone system.

I received a catalog with a $25.00 free no strings attached coupon. I ordered a pint of pyola and the total was less than $25 including shipping. Tried to order online but it would not accept my coupon so I mailed it instead.

A week later I received a letter stating that my order was ready to ship but was being held due to a problem authorizing my credit card# (I had never provided a credit card#). The bill was for $0.00. I called the company (at my expense - no 800#) and a lady said she could not help me without the key code from my catalog. The next day I called again at my expense and I provided the key code. I spoke to Katie who told me there was zero due and she would have it shipped today. The next day I called again at my expense and spoke to Debby who said it shipped that morning. A week later I received the product.

Another week passed and I receive a "Late Notice" bill for $13.77. It was marked "$10.00 late fee waived until 6/8/07". The bill was for the pint of pyola although this amount was not the actual cost of the item or the shipping. I called again at my expense and spoke to Alicia. She said I had placed two orders on the web. I explained I only placed and received one order via mail since their website would not accept my coupon. She said she would remove the second order and take the charge off. I asked for her last name to keep track of who I spoke to and she said she could not give me that information. When I asked why not, she said it was "company policy".

Apparently their "company policy" is a lack of accountability. I'm considering reporting them to the BBB because I think it's illegal to offer something free and then try to get your credit card# and send you a bill. A free coupon is just not worth dealing with this mess.

I have rather mixed feelings about this company. They do have some very nice products but a lot of them seem to be very much overpriced. A few years ago I purchased a windowsill greenhouse. For the price that they were charging I expected something that would be quite sturdy and reusable for many years. What I got was the thin cheap plastic that's meant to be used once and thrown away. I saw the identical thing in a hardware store at about one quarter the price. When I called to complain they gave me a refund and didn't ask that I send the item back. So I came out ahead but would rather have had a decent greenhouse.

I've purchased their pantry moth traps several times and they work very well. The last time I used the $25 coupon and ordered 3 traps by mail. With shipping it only cost me a dollar or so -- no complaints about that transaction.

I would order from them again but only if I can't find what I want at a cheaper price someplace else.

I've ordered from this company for the past four years...mostly moth traps and a few chemicals. I've had nothing but a positive experience each time. No complaints from me!

Excellent ! Used their $25.00 for new customers I only had to pay little over $4.00 . So free items, ordered had them 4 days later . Could not ask for better .

Dead Ladybugs anyone??? I now realize I shouldn't have bought them mail-order, but figured Gardens Alive wouldn't sell them if they couldn't deliver them alive. Was I ever wrong.

They sent 'alive' ladybugs (2 orders), by PARCEL POST!!! Of course, all were dead when they arrived (spring 2006). I called and after somewhat of an ordeal (they must have thought I was trying to get more for free), they did agree to send me two more orders. Of course these were also all dead when they were delivered. Smelled awful!!!

I just dropped it there, didn't bother to try and get a refund.

I've ordered from this company in the past and have had no problems.

This year I wanted to order before my $25 coupon expired, but I couldn't find my catalog. I emailed them and was told to just make a note in the online comment box about that and they would deduct it from the order.

When I placed my order, I was a little worried, because I never received any notification that they HAD given me the discount. Today I received my credit card billing, and they DID give me the discount.

I'm very happy with that service, and will be ordering some more products soon.

This spring, using their $25 off any order coupon, I ordered some of their cupboard moth traps and additional refills. I didn't realize the refills were just the pheromone lures and didn't include the sticky traps.

I wrote to customer service and explained this, asking if I could use the lures in a yellow jacket trap, or if they had any suggestions about what to do with them - it seemed silly to spend the postage to send them back when the order was free to begin with. Within a day, one of their master gardeners wrote back with a polite e-mail and said two more moth traps were on the way, at no charge. They arrived within three days of the e-mail.

Considering the order was a free one to begin with, the misunderstanding was on my part, and I didn't expect them to send anything, I was very pleased by their service! I've ordered their red plastic mulch in the past and it arrived quickly and held up well.

Neutral due to customer service experience, otherwise good products. Ordered 3 bags of gardener's gold compost by mail. One bag arrived 3/15. Called c/s and was told the order was at a postal facility not far from me. 8 days later and the other two bags have not arrived. I e-mailed c/s this time and was told to wait 7-10 days after shipping to notify them. I e'd back and advised them it was already over 10 days. They are resending the "lost" items.

The kicker? I am being charged the postage even though they owe me a refund from postage for the previous shipment.

I doubt I will order from them again because anything they sell is pretty much available elsewhere on the web .

I am extremely dissapointed in GardensAlive's service this year. I ordered from them last year with no problem, but this year it is a nightmare so far. I placed an order for WOW supreme online on 3/4/07 and used a $25 coupon with no problems. It shipped on 3/5/07 and the tracking information said it would be in my home between 3/10/07-3/12/07. I called on 3/15/07 to see if they could track it further because I still had not received it. I talked with a very pleasant woman who said that they cannot reship the item until it has left their facility for 14 days, so she suggested I call back the following week if I still had not received it. So I called this morning, 3/20/07 because I still haven't received the package and the tracking information is the same as it was the day it shipped. I spoke with a pleasant woman (Gloria) this morning, but she was no help at all. It was obvious that she had no idea where my package was and just kept repeating that it will arrive this week. I pressed her further and she put me on hold and then came back on the phone and said that her supervisor said that they would ship another one today and that I should have it in 10 days exactly. They are using the postal service again, so I hope this doesn't keep happening. As of right now, I do not have an e-mail confirmation of the new shipment. I will return in 10 days and update this review....hopefully I can change it to a positive.

Last year I got a 25$ free coupon. I went online and ordered a bunch of seeds. They arrived in no time at all and germinated and grew successfully. This year I received another coupon so I tried again to go online and order. I could not it would not take my codes so I called. I must admit I was on hold for a very long time and it did take a few minutes to get my info. (the U0 on my acct # on my catalog was a temporary one so that was why it did not work) The last time I ordered apparently someone did not type in the - between the zip code ie432231603 instead of properly 43223-1603) and the girl had a hard time understanding how to spell my last name. Anyway after about 10min of finding my real acct number and getting my order placed she took my credit card number (they don't do the discount until the card number is given) sure enough the discount came off and I got my confirmation in the email within a few hours of the proper charge amt (I ordered more then the 25$)

This is neutral because it was inconvient but since it is free/freeish I will not overly complain.I like the idea that they are no longer going to be selling plants just seeds and organic care products. Will post again once I get results.