Comments regarding Gardens Alive!

I ordered several items from Gardens Alive and had a very difficult time getting their order software to enter items and charges correctly. Finally I sent my order even though the shipping charges were incorrect and the final charges were even higher ($8.00 + higher). So I sent their customer service a request: to correct the charges and adding that they cancel the order if they did not correct the charges. They canceled the order. I suppose that is for the best, since I did not want to pay the extra incorrect amount, but, it seems to me that they could have instead corrected their mistakes. Gardens Alive used to state in their literature that if you telephoned your order to them before noon they would ship your order out the same day. Twice I telephoned my order in before eight a.m. and twice they sent my order more than twentyfour hours later. They routinely provide an incentive to buy: $25. off any $50. order which helps since their prices are quite high. However, when you add higher incorrect charges and the difficulty in getting them to honor their printed charges, you begin questioning why bother.

I have ordered Grub-Away Nematodes North which seemed to reduce grubs around my 2 old blue spruces, and also Soap-Shield & Pyola combo which again, seems to be effective on disease and insects. They advertise "all-natural" products and that matters to me!
Their catalog always has a large section illustrated with plant problems -- but, since they recommend a lot of products, try the Soap-Shield and Pyola first (works most of the time).

I found the products (plus shipping) were quite a bit more expensive than buying them at a large, locally-owned garden center an hour away -- but they are price-comparable if you use the $20 or $25 "gift coupons" they send. I would consider trying additional products, but only with coupons because of the price. I would definitely order the nematodes again, since they aren't available from local nurseries.

I had trouble trying to order online. So sent an order by mail with a form and the prices entered as found. They had my phone number but I never heard anything from them. Then one box arrived and a week later the second. In the mail with the second was an envelope saying I owed them more money. I called to see why. Never got a real good answer except that it could be the prices in my book and the code assigned to me could be different. And they have to go by that code. They never bothered to call to see if I wanted to pay the extra. I now have to send it all back and pay shipping again. I spent at least 10 minutes probably longer on the phone long distance talking to three different ladies and still never got a satisfactory answer. And basically got the feeling it didn't matter if I was happy or not. I consider it a form of bait and switch. If it was a dollar or so it would of been different. I have done business in the past with them and was going to try some products to see about using considerable more but now I probably won't be doing anymore business with them.

Very good experience with Gardens Alive. Ordering was quick and easy online, shipping not expensive and order was received in 4 days.

I have ordered only intermittently from Gardens Alive but have always been pleased. Items were promptly shipped and in good conditions, order was complete, and items performed as described. I've purchased ladybugs, praying mantis cocoons (twice on these), non-toxic slug repellant, Safer insecticidal soap that I can recall.

if i would of written this last year it would of been positive as that have always had a great experiance with them. once my order was lost, a few years ago, and they replaced it asap. was wonderful. have used and loved there products.
then there was last year. i place two orders. one for a friend and one for my self. i ordered hers first. arived no problems. then there was mine.
i ordered it with a money order, as i do most of my orders from any one.
i never recieved my order when i called they said that they would check and call me
no call. when i called back. they said that they was looking for my order, and asked me what it was. they couldnt find it, but just said that they would replace it. never recieved. when i asked them about they asked for my reciet on my money order. sent it once and never heard. caled back and still never got a answer as to if was recieved. and so they asked if i could resend reciet and order. i was gonna resend and then i discovered that i had lost m.o. receite. and so just lost over 70.00, pluss shipping.
they have really good products and i hate to loose them but cant afford to give a way money. i have recomended them several times and sent many new coustomers there way, now i will be a bit more consirtive who i tell about them. if i tell about them.

First off the compost aerator I ordered was of good quality and does a great job just as advertised. However, it took 7 days longer than promised to arrive and when I called to check on it's status I was told to "call my local post office". It did finally arrive but a week after the promised date. I chose neutral because I may order from them again to give them a chance to redeem themselves.

I have never ordered from this company, and never will based on recent ratings. I would suggest the best way to possibly make a change is to find someplace else to buy the same or similar products where customer service is more important than the bottom line. "Demanding" that the co "hire Americans" is not our place; we do our demanding by shunning companies that do not live up to our standards. There are many out there that do a great job; support these companies and hope that companies like Gardens Alive! get the picture. If not, they will feel the impact of our "demands" in their bank account.

I have used them for regular orders as well as multi delivery order [ladybugs] and was quite pleased. The order was filled correctly and promptly. I will continue to use this company.

Gardens alive has been a great company but with e-mail, mail, and overflow calls being sent across seas its just a matter of time till our loved "american company" will join the ranks as many other companys that dont care about the employee's. I feel the only way to keep this company is to call and not place orders but to let them know that they should stay and that we WILL only buy from a company whos first language is english

Have ordered from them in the past, wasps arrived and never hatched. Never got the compost tea kit. Now I have discovered why. They are affiliated with Brecks. They do not honor your money back or life time warranty. They do not respond to emails. Please refer to comments in Brecks. Try Brent and Becky's. They were GREAT>

In response to a general question to Gardens Alive Website, I received a response from Donna in customer service saying I had a "bad account" and I should call right away.
I did so immediately. The number given was to the credit department.
I explained I had one complete order from over a year ago (spring of 2005) and it was recieved in good condition and paid for.
Oh, no, I was told I had two orders shipped and only paid for one. I explained I didn't recall two orders, and only received one shipment. I was surprised when the response back to me was "we show it in our system". Therefore I ordered it I received it and I didn't pay for it. Who would ever question "the system???"
I was told my credit card was declined. And they didn't call or ??

I was given a phone number for a collection agency (!!) that supposedly had my account at this time. By now I am freaking out in my head but remain calm as this mistake will work out.
I called the new phone number at once and found (thank goodness) this collection agency had no record of me, my husband or anyone else in this household ever being in their files. I can't make my debt good with them as they have never heard of me.
Back I go to Gardens Alive. Same Story. The guy doesn't believe me, tells me I must have been written off by the collection agency and his system shows I have this mysterious order. I explained how I had never recieved one letter, one phone call, nothing from either Gardens Alive or a collection agency. Also my credit record is clean as a whistle. Nope. His records show an order so there must have been one, and I am the deadbeat who didn't pay for it!

read the complaints from Whisperkey and Ibwankenobi - my problem is like a combination of those two.

I gave my CC number to the credit department at Gardens Alive to satisfy this imaginary debt. Worth 38.00 to keep my credit clean, I guess.
I hope they spend that $38.00 wisely as it will be the last dime I ever spend with that company.

my shopping experiences with gardens alive were positive in the past. but, this summer something changed and i have had to put much time and energy and worry over orders that come and are incorrect (i ordered 1 bag of gardeners gold, not 5!) and items that are missing from orders, not to mention back ordered lady bugs. i am still waiting anxiously to find out whether the charges have been straightened out correctly or not.

it saddens me to hear that profit has become more important that employing Americans or quality of service. gardens alive use to have a special place on my list of garden sources, but now i must research looking for a new source. BOO!!!

I have been a customer of Gardens Alive! for several years and generally like their organic products. However, in the last 6 months, the quality of their customer service has seriously deteriorated. Phone calls are not returned, e-mails are unanswered. It is particularly distressing because they do not have a toll free number, so you must call at your own expense when e-mails are ignored. When you do get a live person on the phone, he or she doesn't seem to care very much that you have been inconvenienced in any way. I am now looking for another source for organic products.

This is a local company in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. The owner of the company has decided to hire a company in India to start taking sales calls. This upsets me that another American company is using American dollars to fund foreign companies because the labor costs are much cheaper. I will never spend another dollar with this company and this includes many members of the garden club I am active in. I urge anyone reading this to send emails to Gardens Alive, demanding they keep our fellow Americans employed.

Picked neutral as though I love the products and find them helpful, I am worried that my future experiences may not be so good. Heard they are moving Customer Services offshore.

I ordered a bottle of condensed neem oil for natural insect repellant. It arrived exactly as I expected when I expected. Its just really nice when something is completely hassle free.

I have been ordering from GA for over 2 years. Once, when I ordered WeedBeGone, it was at regular price. The next week it went on sale. I emailed and requested the sale price and the difference credited on my visa ... NO PROBLEM! They were great.

I have never had a problem with phone calls, service, web site or any other.

Great company.

I have had very good experience with Gardens Alive. I like any of the products I have ordered from them, and especially like their grass seed. My order always arrives promptly, and the quality of the packaging is excellent.

I've found their customer service also to be excellent. Last year, I ordered a couple of big bags of grass to reseed part of the yard. Some of it didn't come back up this year. I e-mailed the company and they immediately sent me another big bag of grass seed at no charge! Can't ask for better customer service than that!!

I'm very pleased with their hi-vitality grub cakes in my suet feeders. The birds love them and they don't melt in the heat or the rain. They are a bit pricey (3 cakes for $19.95) but they last about 4-6 weeks and they really draw the birds. Also, the squirrels avoid them (due to the cayenne pepper ingredient). I've also used their Shrub's Alive for Acid Loving plants with much success and I just received their Pyola insect spray, which I havent tried yet. I also like the fact that their website has a lot of useful organic gardening information.

I ordered beneficial nematodes (Grub-Away South) and Sting Free insect repellent. The repellent works very well indeed, and has a nice baby-powder scent... I've used many botanical repellents, and this one works the best for me (I'm a bug magnet). The nematodes, however, smelled dead when they arrived. I e-mailed Gardens Alive and told them that I wasn't sure the nematodes made it. They emailed me back the same day, saying that a new batch of nematodes was being sent. I had the new batch within the week. That's not bad business practice, and it's won them repeat business from this customer.

I have ordered from Gardens Alive! several times now, and can say I have on the whole been pleased with their products. If only their shipping dept. were of the same quality! My most recent order was for Escar-Go, which I find effective against snails and slugs without risk of poisoning my dogs and the local wildlife. The order was placed on May 5 and still had not arrived on June 1. When I notified them, I was told that my order was "lost in transit" and that they would reship--no mention of just when this would happen. They were "sorry." In the meantime, the weather has turned hot and the snails and slugs are feasting like there's no tomorrow. "Sorry" has little meaning to leafless Hostas, folks! IF I order from them again, I will try to give them at least a two-month leeway. Given their steep shipping charges, I would think they could send things by supersonic personal courrier!

I had a good experience with Garden's Alive.
Ordered the Live lady bugs...and when they arrived, a lot were dead. I emailed Garden's Alive, and I recieved an email right back saying they would ship me out another order. I got that order a few days later, and the bugs were fine. The customer service is very good.

I placed an order with this company, utlizing the buy $50 and get $25 off coupon in order to give them a try without spending much money. My plants arrived as scheduled and in good condition. The seed starting kit that I ordered was on back order, and the company contacted me to see if I wanted to cancel it because it was getting late in the season. I told them that I still wanted it and I did receive it last week. Their shipping is on the slow side--I guess they ship ground. So far, my only gripe with this company is that they do not include growing instructions with their plants and products. I guess I will dig through my gardening books to refresh myself on how to not lose my little seedlings while they are in their peat pots! All in all, so far, so good.

I just got the same call and I am on such a list as well. However, I am a customer of Garden's Alive, and do get regular e-mails. So, I was pleased with the offer and passed it on to DGers (and also that I didn't hang up too quickly).

I have not had any bad experiences with this company and have been acquainted with them for about a decade. In the last year I've had three successful orders and just placed another.

Despite the fact that we are listed on do not call lists, Gardens Alive uses automatic dailers and recorded telephone solicitations without straightforwarded authority. If you do not want to be bothered with recorded sales calls, do not use them.

Placed an on-line order 3/11/06. By 4/10/06 had not received my order ( delivery promised in 7-10 working days). Customer rep replaced my order, received it within 2-3 days. On 4/21/06 received the same products again. Turns out the first shippment was my orginal, the second one was the make-up order. Called to report and pay for the second order (we will use the product, it is a pet supplement) and was told the seond shippment was no charge. Although there was a problem, this company has my support for it's good business practices.

Good Products . . . Bad Business Practices

My order for two in-stock fertilizer items shipped on March 15. While the shipment indicated being shipped US Postal, it was instead put on trailer 746933 and sent to the APX Logistics Regional Sortation Center in Franklin Park, IL.

When I called Gardens Alive 3 days after their estimated delivery period expired, their representative informed me "Once it leaves our building, we have no control over how long it takes the Postal service to deliver packages". Not true; their carrier, APX Logistics took over 2 weeks to deliver the order as part of a bulk shipment to my regional Postal facility in Philadelphia on April 1. NOW the clock starts with the Postal service. They took an additional 9 days and delivered my order on April 10.

I paid $9.95 for shipping which could have afforded UPS or FedEx ground service in 3 days.

Bottom Line: Shipping time should be measured in days -- not weeks.

Overall I've been very pleased with the items and customer service I've received over the last couple of years. The fertilizers work well, and products are shipped reasonably quickly. This company provides good coupons, too. I primarily order Gardens Alive! items because the stock is mostly organic, of course. The only problem I ever encountered was with the pet supplement. I fed it to my dog with his regular food for a while, and, over a period of time, I noticed that he began scratching himself twice as much as he ever did.

This year was my second order from Gardens Alive. Last year I had an order for seed starting mix that worked out well. This year I ordered a lot of growth items for root crop, tomatoes, corn, bio boost, and houseplants. Of course its too early to give you any info on the items. Most of them I won't have any results until late summer. I just wanted to post that they sent them quickly, and so far I'm pleased.

I've been ordering from Gardens Alive for 4 years and except for the price, have been nothing but pleased with them and their products. My vegetable garden does great! Prices are a bit steep, so I ordered very little this year due to loss of income.

I placed an order nineteen days ago, and received shipping notification seventeen days ago. My order has still not arrived. Moreover, the tracking site says only that it has received notification from Gardensalive, not that the package has been sent. Considering how much I paid for shipping ($10) they could have sent it by UPS ground service and it would be here by now. I've tried contacting customer service but get no reply. I will NOT be shopping here again.

I have used prducts from Garden Alive before, and was pleased, but I feel they charge way too much for something that could have been shipped for $2.00 or less instead of charging $6.00 plus.

Even if you call Gardens Alive to specifically request that your name and address not be rented or sold, it can still happen. And the flood of gardening catalogs will start pouring in.

I once had my husband receive an order at work. (Mind you, I am the gardener, not he, so he is not at all interested in the gardening catalogs.) The box contained seed starting mix, which was in a paper bag, which had ripped during shipping. The box that arrived at my husband's office was leaking soil. A lot of soil. It was a mess. I didn't bother to contact Gardens Alive, because I understand their commitment to recycled and recyclable materials. I apologized to my husband for the mess in his office and in his car.

That was the least of our problems.

This spring, my husband received the latest Gardens Alive catalog at his office. I told him I'd get him off the list. So I called. The person I spoke with seemed to be writing down the address, because s/he had me spell out the entire address. I always get suspicious of that, because little pieces of paper have a way of getting lost.

After a while, my husband started to get catalogs from the Gardens Alive family of companies. I called more than one of those companies to ask that he not receive ANY catalogs, and that his name not be given out to anyone.

Then my husband started to get catalogs from the Jung Seeds family of companies. I called, and his name was in the Jung Seeds database. So I had that removed, and made sure that it was removed from marketing for all companies related to Jung Seeds.

In the meantime, I had e-mailed Gardens Alive to have the name removed, in case my phone call hadn't worked. The person who replied to my e-mail tried to reassure me that the address would never be given away.

I wrote back with my evidence: My husband had started receiving catalogs from companies outside of the Gardens Alive family of companies, and the only source could be Gardens Alive itself, because the address in question is that of a computer engineering firm. I never got a reply to that one.

So the catalogs keep arriving. Yesterday, he got one from the Mantis Tiller people. He wasn't in that database, at least, so it was just a rental.

My husband insists that I don't have to stop doing business with Gardens Alive over this, but all along, I received identical catalogs at home to the ones he received at work. I also received a catalog from Wayside Gardens, and that family of companies sends tons of catalogs. Fortunately, I wasn't in the database, so it was only a list rental. Whew! That was close.

I can only suspect Gardens Alive. I am always very careful to request AT THE TIME OF ORDERING THE CATALOG, mind you, that my address not be given away. All those unwanted catalogs resulted from a couple of orders from a company that doesn't have a clear idea of what its own marketing department is doing. My compost pile overfloweth with garden catalogs.

I just called today, and my husband's name was in the Gardens Alive database. The lady I spoke with couldn't tell me whether the name was or was not going to be sent any more catalogs. She WROTE DOWN the account number in order to have him removed--later. I verified with her that she was actually writing it down, not clicking a box in the databse. Another little piece of paper that could get lost. The database isn't very good if it won't allow a simple function like that.

I'm just gonna hafta wait a few more months, and see if the number of catalogs decreases. I know address are sold/rented months before they are actually used.

I have been ordering from them for a couple of years now and have always been pleased with the products and the shipping time. I have ordered the kelp meal, kelp liquid concentrate, compost tea kit(which works wonders), tomatoes alive plus and others. Last year (2005) my tomato plants grew 8 ft. tall and produced a LOT of huge HUGE! tomatoes.

WARNING: coupon amounts can be changed, and you will not be notified!!

I ordered from this company last year as a new gardener,knowing nothing about this site or the company, and was satisfied, it went smoothly. So, when I got the $25 off coupon again this year I ordered some seed starting supplies. I never received email confirmation and have been wondering if the order even went through...until today when my credit card was charged for MORE than the total of my order. I checked the website and saw that my order has already been shipped, so I called customer service.

The rep was very nice and apologetic, but she told me that they changed the value of my coupon to $20.50 because I did not order over $50. That was NOT Stated on my coupon, and when I ordered it showed my total with the coupon and everything. RIGHT NOW, THE WEBSITE STILL SAYS MY TOTAL ORDER IS LESS THAN WHAT THEY CHARGED. She said I should have been notified when the amount changed and I said NO, I was never notified of anything AT ALL. Her only reply was "well, sorry."

Sorry doesn't cut it with shady business practices. Reel 'em in with coupons then charge them for more without explanation or warning. Shady, I will never do business with them again. We are on a tight budget and just cannot afford them! I am telling everyone I know about this, and I know lots of gardening people in a few states.

I haven't received my stuff yet, but can only give them a big thumbs down for ripping me off. The coupon was the only reason I ordered from them...could have gone locally and gotten it cheaper now that they've changed the value of my coupon.

I have purchased from Garden's Alive! a few times using their coupons. So far no problems, and as I need products, I will purchase from them again.

NOT ORGANIC!!! BEWARE!!

I ordered the liquid rotenone/pyrethrum mix, part number 8659. When it arrived, the box smelled like gasoline! I opened it up and the bottle was on its side. The bottle said that the solvent was "aromatic petroleum solvents". This is not an organic ingredient. It also said it must be stored and transported upright, hence the foul smell. Would you spray something on food plants that smells of gasoline? I won't. I contacted the company by phone and email. They had no idea why the product would smell like gasoline. They also told me that their products were not all organic. How can you tell from their catalog? Very few items are specified organic. The others are anybody's guess. I've learned to look more closely. As for their Stay Organic Club, I decided to stick with my own Make Sure It's Organic Club. On the bright side, their products are probably less harmful than a lot of other products out there.

Last spring I received the GARDENS ALIVE Catalog and ordered their TOMATO ALIVES PLUS. WOW! I used the small bag that I ordered and ordered 2 more times. I also used this organic fantabulous vitamin fertilizer on my peppers and eggplants. I had HUGE tomatoes, peppers etc.
I am definetly going to order form them again. Their products arrive in a timely manner, packed well and what is most important, I had incredible results.Gardens Alive products are a MUST!
In today's mail was this year's 2006 GARDENS ALIVE CATALOG! YEA! I am one happy camper!

deb