Comments regarding Bob Smoley's Gardenworld

I ordered some plants last year and after three months, they emailed me and canceled my order.

For some unknown reason, I decided to try again this year. I placed an order in March and have not heard a word after 4 months. I emailed about a month ago just to see if it was still an active order and if the plants were in stock and never recieved a reply.

I don't think the website is being maintained, so there's no way to know what is actually available. And it appears to be pretty random if people ever receive anything.

I'm giving up. Too bad, too, because they used to have such an amazing collection.

Have visited his greenhouses twice and plants are regularly mislabeled. And, despite my email requests to him to cease, he often steals my photos from the web and uses them to portray his website listings. Unethical chap I would submit.

I received my plants in a timely manner (although my email asking for tracking information was ignored). The plants were fine enough and most were labeled, but came with these tiny bugs that I just recently identified as mites. I emailed Bob Smoley letting him know that he sent me bugs and that they had moved onto my other plants. This is the outrageous email that I received in response.

"I am sorry but you are exaggerating greatly.....please do not tell me that ALL the plants had "little bugs".....this is not true and you know this....what are these "little bugs" and they have not infested all your other plants.....I was not born yesterday and I know a messy customer a mile away.....please let me know what "little bug" this is....this would mean that my six thousand square foot nursery is infested and this simply is not true....you may discard the very few that might have a problem and I will refund you for these few....and I do want to know the name of this insect that takes over a greenhouse in one week.....can you ID this "little bug" ?.....can you ID the plant that it arrived on ? I would bet you can't....you sound that you know a lot so please give me the botanical and biological names so I can clear it up in my six thousand foot nursery before it takes over and puts me out of business of which I have been in for 45 years....you approached this minor problem in the wrong way and this is why I am being so silly about it all."

Obviously I am done with ordering from this person. I was so taken off guard by this horribly hostile and offensive message, all I could say in response was "I'm sorry to have bothered you with this issue."

I just ordered for the first time from Bob Smoleys, which by the way is in Florida. I purchased 2 stapelia, a huernia, and a duvalia and got a free plant as a gift. I paid 14.40 for shipping, and the postage on the box was 5.35 from Fl to Wv. I emailed asking if he'd refund the difference, he said no. One stapelia was a un-rooted shriveled up stem, which he said he will refund. Everything else looks pretty good. He never offered to replace the dead one, just refund. His selling practice is rediculous as is his postages. I have decided not to order from him anymore.

I ordered three Viola pedata 'Eco Artist's Pallette." When I didn't receive a response after a week, I e-mailed to inquire about an estimated shipping date. When I didn't receive a response to the e-mail, I called. No answer, but I left a message and his wife responded later that evening. She couldn't explain why I had received no response, so she put Bob on the phone.

He said I couldn't have found that plant on his web site. Impossible! After he looked himself and couldn't find it, he said he hadn't grown it for 10 or 15 years. Apparently when I searched for the plant and found it on his site, it was on an obsolete page that had never been taken down.

OK, that's perfectly reasonable, but he was not. He was extremely rude and overbearing. He said I shouldn't have used Google to find the plant because I could get an out-of-date catalog(!) . He abruptly ended the conversation with, "Have a nice day," and hung up. I called back to inquire about the VISA payment I had included with my order, and got his wife again. She apologized, said he was old and not in the greatest of health, and basically wasn't interested in discussing problems with customers. She said not to worry, that my VISA wouldn't be charged, but if it was they would refund it.

Caveat emptor.

I ordered several Stapeliads from this seller even after being warned his plants are mostly mislabeled, misspelled or dreamed up names. I got the plants in about 3 days and it was just after a recent update. I was surprised by the speed in shipping but when I opened the box, I knew few if any were the correct species by their stem type. After waiting and watching a Huernia urceolata (rare) turn out to be the common Huernia keniensis, I realized that I was warned for a reason. That is why I'm taking this opportunity do warn you. This is not a reputable seller. Spend your money elsewhere. If this seller is the only person that advertises a rare plant, and you don't get the rare plant, it is the same as him not having it. Beware.

The one good thing about this company-- They have a huge selection and the prices are not expensive.
The bad thing-- where they cut the price of your order is where the customer service is.

I had ordered four plants, and the form online apparently showed one plant to have a price of $0.00, I was not aware of this, so when I got my snail mail order conf. and the plant was missing I sent them an email simply asking why It wasn't there. I got a very rude email in return with a very sarcastic tone. Fine if it's an extra three dollars to buy the darn thing or whatever I don't care it's a simple mistake, not really anyone's fault. I would have preferred they email me and notify me of the website's mistake and ask me if I would like to put in the extra dough for the plant, rather than just take it off the list and get rude with me. If they had even replied with respect I would have payed for it, but they didn't. So I said to myself "it's okay, just let it go, they were having a bad day, you don't have to let one bad thing get in the way of plant-romance." But I did not ask to pay for the plant, no one who's rude to me gets any more money than I've already promised them.

Then I got my order (after wondering for two-three weeks when it was going to be shipped as there's no communication from this company whatsoever). All was good until I realized that they had "substituted" a totally different genus of plant from the one on my list, stating on the plant marker that it was unavailable. Since they seem, from the other comments I've read, to rely SO HEAVILY on their policies. They mention shipping being delayed in their policies due to unavailability, they do NOT mention substitution. This plant was the only reason I was buying from this company, I would have bought nothing else if it wasn't for this plant. I understand when running a business that things go out of stock, I run out of stuff all the time just trading non-commercially. But do you think maybe they could have shot me a quick email and said, "Hey by the way, we're out of this or that, do you want this or that instead?" I would have said, "No I'd rather wait until you get it back in stock and then be sent the order" But they didn't give this customer a choice. But I'm not even going to bother sending them an email, because it's just going to be rude and their policies will be a crutch as what seems usual.

I'm not the kind of person who starts beef anyways. I try to give people the benefit of the doubt, I have much to much doubt here though.

I was sent a cutting of another plant as a "bonus" though, which shows they at least acknowledge there is something wrong about the transaction, assuming that not everyone gets one.

I would say over-all that my experience was not good. But seeing as how a majority of the comments are positive, I'm going to assume plant-season is pressing on them and I happened to be the unlucky customer. But they really do need to revise their business a bit and work on communication. It's imperative, regardless of how many plants they carry, that they work WITH the customer. I will only be shopping here again if it's something that's really rare, and even then I'll be clear to let them know that I want notification of every little decision they make concerning my order, and if they still do not do this then it will be my last shopping experience with them.

I ordered from this company a few times before...they lost my oder for two months....fair enough...I like honesty....I
the order did finally come...the plants seemed healthy...I ordered from them a few years later...the oder once again took a LONG time...and I had more substitutes than the original plants I had requested....the 3rd & this is the final time I will EVER order from this company...they took my money up front...and by 2months I had heard nothing about my order....if it was ever coming...or if they even had the plants started...so..I requested a refund...I got back a very snotty e-mail from the owner...saying that my threat WORKED....they would send a refund...nothing helpful..like the plants were ready to go, but they were waiting for warmer weather...or they appreciated me as a returning customer....nothing kind...& said they were sure I had read their policy of taking the money upfront & sending the plants whenever....well...no...I hadn't read that....How do people like this stay in business??? I don't need anyone talking to me this way...or treating me like an irate customer...with NO REASON to be upset!!!! Get REAL BOB...would you want to pay for something & then never have ANY idea when or if it was coming??? I doubt it...& would you want to receive mostly substitutes for what you wanted??? Once again, I doubt it....I don't deal with mean, crabby, arrogant owners...you'll receive no more of my money....I deserve better than this.....

Bob may have a good selection of plants, but his processing of orders is the worst out of all the cacti nurseries I order from; this is my last order from him. I ordered plants in February and here it is April 23 and still no plants. I hope to receive them before I am too old to enjoy them.
Louis

Bob Smoley certainly does have an impressive list of plants at his web site, but I've never seen one so I don't know how healthy they are. I did try to order about $125 worth of plants plus a few other odds and ends. Although he lists oak leaf mold as one product he carries, he has apparently been out of it for a year or more. I wanted to try his Bob Smoley cactus soil, and added that to my plant order on an impulse. I had placed two other plant orders from other companies on the same day, and they arrived in about a week. I continued to wait, and received a snail mail order confirmation from Smoley in another week. The soil sold for about $7.00 a cubic foot plus $12 a cubic foot for shipping (I ordered 2), plus the $16 shipping on the rest of the order. I hadn't realized the shipping would be so high on the soil, so I emailed Mr. Smoley that I would like to cancel that item. is reply was that if I had read his catalog I would have seen that there were extra charges for shipping the soil, and since I 'obviously did not understand the conditions of the sale' he would refund my money for the entire order. I emailed back asking that he substitute plants of equal value (his choice) for the soil, since I had indeed not realized that the 'extra' charges would amount to $24, and I was fearful of running out of weather warm enough for shipping. In about a week I received the refund check along with a sheet of paper on which he had taped cut out sections of his catalog detailing his shipping policies. Now anyone would think that for a vendor to behave in this way, the customer must have been really rude first. I can only assure you that was not the case. I simply requested in my first message that the soil be deleted from the order, and in the second message that he substitute plants for the soil. So my review is not 'mixed' as another that I read here, it is entirely negative.