Comments regarding EarthBox

After an excellent experience with Spray-n-Grow (all companies should be run like this!), I have attempted to contact Earthbox twice. I own 7 Earth Boxes and love the product. Shipping should have cost me $3-$4 at the most (it's like sending air as they don't weigh much) and they wanted to charge me over $12.00! That's what the rep on the phone told me. I declined the order and this rep didn't seem to care.

This is the worst customer service I have EVER had. I ordered a plant kit on-line and they first charged my credit card for two instead of one. I have been waiting over two weeks for delivery, but the website indicates it is awaiting credit approval. The item was charged and debited to my credit card the day I paid for it - almost three weeks ago. I have written FOUR emails and I have left two voice messages with regard to shipment - none of which have been returned.

The company obviously has no leadership, much less customer service. LOUSY SERVICE.

Beware!!

Ordered two twelve box watering systems. Upon receipt of the watering system was shorted parts to complete both systems. Since Aug 2007 have called 4 x's emailed a total of 6 x's. I have spent thousands of dollars with earthbox. This is the first time I have needed assistance and am a very unhappy with the customer service. Each time I have called they say items will be shipped, as of date shorted items have not arrive.

Thank you for any help you can provide.... SKC

Facts. I emailed EB for quantity prices. After not receiving a reply I phoned. A man gave me prices for delivery of 5 boxes. I checked that the price included shipping which he said it did - £28 each for 5 boxes delivered.
Later that day an email arrived; in that the price for 5 worked out at £31.90 each delivered, a difference of £14.50 on 5 ! My husband rang to see how long delivery would be and asked for a price as I had been given two different ones. He was told 4 EBs would be £26 delivered. So the next day I rang to order 8 EBs expecting to pay £208. I was told the price was £208 for 8 and the order would come to £208 + 8x£4.95 = £247.60. The assistant hotly denied having said to my husband that delivery was included.
I was then told to hold on (10 minutes had passed by this time) and she came back to say there had been a mistake and I wouldn't like it but I would have to pay even more. I explained that I had now had 4 quotes and asked to speak to the supervisor. The supervisor kept saying the email price was the correct one and I had been misquoted on the other occasions. I pointed out that two people had misquoted, one even confirming her quote the next day. I was prepared to give them the benefit of the doubt about not saying delivery was included and would pay £26 plus £4.95 each for 8 but she was adamant the price would be £159.50. She accepted I had been misinformed several times. I will never deal with such an inefficient inflexible firm again. They seem to not want business so I will make my own EBs. Some-one needs to go into competition to shake them up. In fact I have just found Bora (phone 01730 301340) who have something similar, larger, in green or white and works out cheaper per sq ft of growing area.

Earthbox Customer Service charged me twice for one Earthbox. I contacted Earthbox, according to their records, they charged me only once. After explaining that their name was on my bank statement once on 6/20 and once on 6/7 for 44.90 each, they still denied it and requested a fax of my bank statement. I replied that for my privacy protection I would not be sending them my bank statement and customer service replied with "that is the only way you will get your money back ma'am." I took the issue up with my bank.

The EB product is great. Their customer service isn't.

Instead of 3 they sent me 6 boxes and charged me for that- when I called them customer service people were the rudest on earth as if it was my mistake... they improperly scheduled the fedex pick- luck fedex had my no and they were able to come down and pick up-
product may be good but customer service too too bad- their call center should be outsourced ---

I recently ordered 3 complete Earthbox Ready to grow kits. They arrived after a lengthy wait and 2 of the 3 kits were not complete kits. Earthbox left out the dolomite and fertilizer. I tried to get them to send the missing pieces, but they have not. At the same time I ordered the earthboxes, I ordered the castors to go with the earthboxes. They were on back order, so, after months of waiting, I cancelled my order for the castors. They sent the castors to me 4 days after I cancelled the order. I would never do business with this company again.

I just received my second earthbox order - I have enjoyed my first earthbox for years. I am however, major unhappy with the shipping prices which are unreasonable. I understand that companies like to pad their profit with 'handling charges' instead of increasing the price of their products. However, charging $6.95 per earthbox on the already high $29 price for recycled plastic is outrageous. What is MUCH WORSE is that I ordered three earthboxes. You guessed it, all three shipped in the same container but the shipping cost was over $20. Nothing wholesome about this companies business practices.

I've had nothing but success with my 10 EB's, so much so that I just placed an order for more of them. I've grown well over 50 varieties of different tomatoes, most of them heirlooms, and I have found the interior growing space of an EB to be very adequate for growing tomatoes, as well as other crops. (BTW, I do also garden conventionally, in the ground.) I did not have to fill my EB water reservoirs but every other day at the most, and this was during the hottest part of my summer here on the GA coast. If you are a seed saver, this is a great system to use to isolate any variety you're planning to save seeds from. I'll be ordering from this company again and again. I find them to be a great company with a great product. I give them an A+.

I bought 3 earthboxes, and while they are ok they certainly are not worth what they cost. The resoviour is not large enough, and needs more water every day. Also the box is not deep enough. My tomatoes in the earth box are not producing nearly as well the ones grown in my other plastic container.

As another gardener said, they might be good for smaller tomatoes and plants, but not for full-size. In our hot summer days, the box would use three gallons of water, and had to be filled twice per day, then it ran out of fertilizer, and stopped growing. Ok, but certainly not worth what they cost.

The earthbox isn't a bad planter at all. But it's heavily advertised for tomatoes, and it does not work for average size tomato plants - might be OK for patio. I have one earthbox , adjacent to plants in the ground and the plants in the earthbox have lagged far behind the others in growth.

My tomato expert friends say the earthbox is just not big enough - the plants are rootbound. The earthbox plants have had problems with aphids and early blight which the nearby garden-planted tomatoes have not.

I think the earthbox might work fine for smaller plants that don't mind being pretty well-watered. However, I don't think I'll buy another one.

With respect to delivery and so on, the company was fine. They just advertise their product for something it won't do. I followed all their instructions very precisely. The earthbox is not usable for ordinary tomatoes.
Anne