Comments regarding Brent & Becky's Bulbs

After reading all the positive feedback on this site I confidently placed my first order with Brent & Becky's Bulbs for 50 Kissproof Daffodils. Unfortunately, my experience has not been as good as what I've read. My order arrived only a week late, but 32 of the 50 bulbs were completely rotten. I called the company immediately and asked them to credit my card, which they said they would do. However, when my next credit card statement arrived, there was no credit. I called a second time and asked for the credit, and they told me they would do it and would even have someone call me to let me know it was taken care of. No call ever came and my most recent credit card statement shows no sign of a credit. It's been two months since my first call and nothing has been resolved. The combination of rotten bulbs and bad customer service means my first order was probably my last.

This company gets great reviews, but they have not lived up to my expectations when it comes to size of some of their products, particular daylilies and tulips were small. This is the reason for rating 'Neutral'.

Selection is great, and prices reasonable. I was very happy with the size of the lilies they mailed this year. Customer service is very attentive and they certainly do a great job trying to accommodate you. They split a shipment for me so I could get the bulbs early due to travelling schedule. Very positive.

I order tulip bulbs from various vendors and the two years I have ordered tulips from them, the bulbs were small compared to competition. Discussing this on the phone with a representative from the Company, they claim their tulips are minimum the size advertised and that they even swap tulips with other companies. This may be the case, but the bulbs I have received have been smaller than those provided by other companies and I have ordered several varieties of tulips. The daylily divisions were very small, too.

The merchandise has always been good quality, and they have shipped what they promissed to ship and on time. Customer service is flexible and acommodating. Selective merchandise (dutch iris, hyacinths, lilies) are very nice sizes. Their selection is very impressive to say the least.
Their tulips and dayllies are small.

This was my 2nd year (and third order) from B&B, great customer service, awesome product, and they are very receptive to any questions I have asked. This company definately deserves their top rating!

I received my first order from Brent and Becky's last week --- daylilies and Siberian Iris that looked like they'd been plucked form the fields the day they arrived!

I ordered lots of bulbs, too, and they're first-rate. Even the packaging was nicer than that of other mail-order nurseries. Every bulb package includes a descriptive plastic marker, and my order was shipped in a really nice re-usable bulb crate.

I ordered some Lenten roses, and can't wait to get them. I highly recommend Brent and Becky's.

My third year with the company and I am just as pleased as ever. I just love these people and their beautiful bulbs. And they are really great about answering emails. I have another shipment coming and just wish I had tons more money to spend with them.

I've ordered from Brent & Becky's for several years and I've always received bulbs that were healthy and large. I find their prices to be competitive and the selection is very good. The mixes and collections have been, for me, very good deals, the tulips in particular have surprised me. I've also found their customer service to be very good, they certainly go the extra mile (I've received snail-mail, e-mail, and voice mail all in the same day about the same thing!), which is always a good thing. And, of course, I enjoy flipping through the catalogue and marking all over everything as much as I enjoy the web site.

I ordered 50 Star Gazer Lilies from Brent and Becky's in March. All of the bulbs looked fine when I received them. I planted them and all but one came up. Two of the plants mysteriously turned to slime and died, but the other 47 bloomed their little hearts out. They grew on each side of our front walkway and the smell was magnificent, both inside the house and out. People could smell the flowers from 50 feet away. The bulbs were shipped at the perfect time, the price was great, and the flowers were absolutely beautiful. I'll definitely buy from Brent and Becky's again.

I'm not sure what impresses me the most about Brent and Becky's--the bulbs or the customer service. Both are excellent. I have never received better communication from any company. They have a huge selection of bulbs. I have so much fun looking at them. Next year I will place a larger order.

Placed order this fall, rec'd bulbs quickly and in good condition. The fall crocus I rec'd earlier is blooming today, the color is even better than I could have hoped for. Only wish I had ordered more of them.

First time ordering from Brent & Becky's. Bulbs are in excellent condition. The shipment was boxed and labeled the best that I have ever seen which showed me that they care about their product . The invoice had a written note that told me that they care about their customers. The order was complete. I will order from them again in the spring.

I ordered Tulips and Anemones and Crown Imperials from this company about 2 months ago with a group of people from my gardening club. The lady who made the order lives in Texas and I in SC and even though I waited the extra time for my bulbs to be mailed to her then to me I still got them VERY quickly and in GREAT shape!! I highly recommend this company!! I will order again from them--in fact, I already have a new order ready to go when I have the funds!!! KUDOS Brent & Becky's!!

I ordered 3 different kinds of daffodils from this company and was very pleased with the size and quality of the bulbs. They were also sent out in a very timely matter. Overall very positive experience.

I have to say I am so thankful that I have found Brent & Becky's! My passion is lilies, and theirs are the most exqusite bulbs I have seen in a long time.

No one can go wrong purchasing from Brent & Becky's!

On very short notice, (2-3 days from phone to UPS delivery), B+Bs shipped what they had available for me, so visiting family could help me spread the load. ..Everything looked great, I'm sorry that I didn't fill an order of Narcissus that did not grow this year. Even on that account, I was notified in advance, and the voice on the phone sounded the same both times I called. All this attention, of course I haven't seen any charge to my credit card yet, so perhaps it is all too good to be true.

this is my third year with Brent & Becky's, and you get what you pay for--top quality bulbs and top quality service. the only downside is they run out of the bulbs that you decide too late that you have to have more of! Highly recommended.

I have ordered bulbs from this company for several years now and have been very pleased with every order I have received from them. They ship them out when they say they will, package them very well, and they send you the BEST bulbs you will ever receive! I will continue to order from Brent and Becky's Bulbs every year and I know I will continue to receive top quality bulbs from this very reputable company.

I almost ordered bulbs from a nameless company. In the process of verifying if the company was reputable, I stumbled upon Dave's site and discovered a lot of negative experiences with this unnamed company. I then proceeded to examine your top 20 list of companies.

I called Brent & Becky's Bulbs' toll free number and spoke with a representative of the company, and requested a catalog. I expressed my urgency to get a catalog, and was informed that they now have their entire catalog online for download in a .pdf format!! I downloaded it and marked what I wanted, and called back later that day. I was amazed at the knowledge of the phone personnel and their outgoingness to help me with my order.

Thank you for this site, thank you Brent & Becky for your site, and I can't wait to get my bulbs in October! Will post a followup then. Thanks!

I heard about Brent and Becky's via word of mouth plus through the excellent reviews on this site. Shopping online was fast and easy! Prices very good. Realy liked the way the narcissus are grouped by class so that you can quickly find a particular type without clicking through massive lists of alphabetical cultivars very different from one another. Loved the pre-cooling shipment option for us western gardeners. Can't wait to see the order!
Dave

I've ordered from Brent and Becky's for two years now. Have always been impressed with the freshness, "succulence," and size of their bulbs. They had a price increase that was dramatic this past year, esp. on the tulips. Their prices are resonable based on the realization that store-bought material can't compare with the quality received from B&B.

Colorblends is an outfit out of Holland I found on a website that supposedly cuts out the middleman's percent increase on the cost of the stock. I have yet to experience their quality. They demand larger volumes of purchase, but the cost they offer is comparitively phenomenal.

I had a problem with ceratin Fosteriana tulips this spring from stock I'd planted during Fall 2003. The flower buds had blasted--had only about 3 blooms out of 50 bulbs. I called B&B customer service and reported my predicament. Brent was away on business at the time of the call, but don't you know it, when I got home the next afternoon he had left on message, and within a few minutes the phone rang again, before I could even get a chance to return his call. He was totally apologetic, reporting to me the bulbs had blasted simultaneously in their trials as well, and offered any means of replacement to satisfy me.

Now, that's great customer service and serious commitment to your work. This level of personal treatment is not experienced by me often. Well, that's my testimonial as regards Brent & Becky's, with my highest recommendation and regard... Jonathan Wald, Fair Lawn, NJ

Most bulbs are in good conditions, but not cheap. I don't like the fact that took couple of months to get my bulbs.

I have ordered twice from this company.Their prices are reasonable and I'm pleased that this year they are offering smaller quanities for those of us with smaller gardens. I was actually going to try John Scheepers this year for that reason but I don't need to now! B&B offers a wonderful selection of old timers and the bulbs have arrived healthy.So far ,so good.Tamarava

Brent & Becky's is definitely one of my favorite sources! The bulbs they sent were huge--many of them double. Every single thing I ordered from them has come up beautifully this year, including the daffodils that I planted sometime after Christmas (after buying them late in the season during their half-off sale). Also, their amaryllis collection is outstanding, and the blooms were some of the biggest I have seen ("Dancing Queen" and "Blossom Peacock" were amazingly beautiful). Even with the customer service backlog they had due to Hurricane Isabel, I got my orders in a timely fashion and everything was even better than promised. I will definitely order from them every season.

I ordered several types of cannas, elephant ears,and banana
and was very happy and pleasantly suprised to get the order
in a couple of weeks. I got a very healthy plant and big
quality bulbs. I am finally glad I have found a trustworthy bulb company that has a huge and unusual catalogue to pick
from. I will order again, and thanks for the quality again.

Having bought bulbs from Brent and Becky before, I was again thrilled to receive bulbs in pristine condition, exactly as ordered, and exactly when I asked for them to be delivered. As I sit here I can see the camassia and eremerus that I planted several years ago emerging from their winter sleep with the promise of good things to come. Last year I bought several varieties late in the season at deep discount, and they were absolutely beautiful, all thriving as usual.

I bought bulbs from Brent & Becky's for the first time this season. They arrived in pristine condition, and were well-packed, plump, and healthy. The daffodils were fabulous; I bought several types for Christmas gifts for forcing and others for garden display. Every one grew, prospered, and gave a lovely show of colour this spring. I will definitely order again.

I ordered bulbs from Brent and Becky's last year to plant in the fall. Their customer service was great. I had ordered from one address and moved across country in the mean time - bulbs to be planted in the new place. When the bulbs shipped accidentally to my old address, I called them and they responded courteously and promptly, making sure the bulbs got to me right away. My bulbs arrived beautifully packed and they were enormous.
Now the daffodils are starting to bloom and they are spectacular.
I will definitely order from Brent and Becky's Bulbs again.

I got a recommendation for B&B from a local arboretum, which buys bulbs from them in huge quantities. I placed several orders with them two years in a row ('01 and '02), and was very happy with the results. They have great selection and prices, and a very informative catalog. I was also impressed with their customer service; I was able to contact them by email and make some last minute changes to an order I'd already placed.

I looked for their web-based catalog last fall, but didn't see it online or I would have placed another order. Sounds like other customers were having trouble contacting them around the same time. Hopefully this was only a temporary problem. Given my past experiences, I'd be more than willing to order from them again. I'm looking forward to their '04 summer catalog!

I had no problems with my first order with B&B this fall - I'll definitely order again. Of course it's too soon to tell what will come up this spring. Prices seemed great for the species I ordered.

I ordered some Space Shuttle daffodils this fall, never had heard of them!! Their catalogue prices are a bit high but a lot if the bulbs aren't available anywhere else that i have found, but if you buy they offer most their bulbs in qnty of 25 or more (but thats cool if you want lots of them lol) great company!! :)

I received my order later than I expected as well. Mother Nature, aka Hurrican Isabell was not kind to their shipping schedule. Probably a miracle that they got everything out. The bulbs, all 350 of them, looked fantastic! I can't wait to see them in the spring, and plan on making B&B's my sole bulb source.

I have placed substantial orders from Brent & Becky's for the past three years. They are my only bulb supplier because I have found their prices very reasonable and the quality and selection good. My only complaint is that this fall they were very slow to fill my order, and it proved impossible to contact them about the problem.

I placed the order on Sept. 7 and finally received the bulbs on Nov. 7, which was an inconvenience because I was hoping to get them in the ground before the weather got very cold and the resulting weekend-long task, unpleasant. Sometime in October they posted a short message on their Web site indicating that they were hit by the hurricane and were trying to catch up on filling orders. The message indicated that orders placed were being shipped two weeks later and that an email message would be sent as soon as the bulbs were shipped. My order had been placed several weeks earlier, and more than two weeks after I saw the message, still no message indicating shipment.

Meanwhile, I tried to contact them repeatedly to determine whether they might even have lost my order, but the phone was always busy. I also emailed them about my order (including the emailed receipt) but never received a response. Finally, on Nov. 6, I received an automated email message indicating my bulbs had been shipped -- although the tracking number and link provided no information other than a "notification of shipping" had been received by the carrier. To my surprise, however, the bulbs arrived on our doorstep the very next day.

I think I will still order from B&B's because this was a one-time glitch, and ultimately they did deliver good bulbs at a good price. But I hope that they will improve their customer-service operation so that, in the event of a catastrophe (and I'm taking their word it was indeed that), they communicate promptly with their customers -- at least through bulk email messages -- and have some sort of phone answering service where, when lines are busy, the caller is directed to an automated message where at the very least, some information about what's going on with the slow order fulfillment would be dispensed. They can also, for less than $100, set up an email autoresponse system so that, even if they can't personally reply to customer-service email, there is something that goes back to the customer acknowledging receipt of the message and providing information on what is being done to expedite the backlog of orders.

This is Customer Service 101 and they are too good of a company to flunk that kind of stuff.

I ordered daffodils from B&B this year as well as two other companies. I received an e-mail confirmation at the time of my order and also got an e-mail at the time the order was shipped. My order consisted of some fairly common daffodils and some that were a little more expensive. The more common ones were, on average large, double-nosed bulbs. The more expensive bulbs were mostly single-nosed. I do rate the company highly, but thought the quality of the bulbs I received from WFF and John Scheepers to be a little higher.

I placed an order for the first time this year (discounted canna tubers, ordered in late spring). The tubers were good-sized, healthy, and grew well. Shipping was timely. Good experience.

Not sure what Miss Amy's problem is.....I have had a great experience with Brent and Becky's. I think you have to have realistic expectations in terms of prices and performance of plants, especially at end of season runs when they're probably not going to perform at optimum level no matter where you buy them. They have the biggest selection of bulbs I have seen from anyone online, and among the lowest prices around. I've always been able to find on their site items I wanted but couldn't find anywhere else, especially among daffodils and Dutch irises, as well as lilies. I was a little worried in fact what the bulb quality would be like because of the low prices, but it was excellent. I don't know what she means by complaining that they're expensive. Certainly the only retailers I've seen who can even compete in terms of price are Van Engelen (somewhat lower than B&B) and Tulipworld (competitive on tulips). Usually B&B offers sales like the one she described at end of season, and any retailer reserves the right to change prices. I sent B&B a letter about accommodating me regarding bulb storage, since I travel a lot and might not be home when they come, and Becky wrote back with avery friendly letter to just let her know and they'd keep the bulbs for me until I'd be back home.

I ordered 5 Colchicum album and 5 Colchicum "Waterlily" bulbs from Brent & Becky's bulbs in June. In July, I recieved a notice that the bulbs would be shipped the last week in August, and they arrived on schedule. I found that I had only 4 Colchicum album bulbs, so I contacted Brent & Becky's Bulbs the first week in September. The person I spoke with on the phone was helpful, courteous and professional, said the problem was a pick/sort mistake, and the bulb would be sent out as soon as possible. I recieved it within a week. All the bulbs, including the last one, were very large and clean. I am very pleased with the quality of the bulbs, and with the service I recieved, and would order from this company again.

I have ordered from Brent & Becky's both of the last two years. I also took a tour of their nursery when the daffodils were in full bloom. This company is GREAT!

I'ved ordered from Brent and Becky's the last two years and they are extreemly nice. Unfortunately the product I received was not very good. The first year I'm convinced I got undersized bulbs...but let it pass. Last year I ordered 200 narcissi as a gift. I inspected them before planting and found 1/4 of them to be rotted and moldy! I called the company and, while they were surprised about this particular variety being rotted, they said they had been having a problem with their shipments from Europe. With such information you would think they would be more careful about what was sent from their warehouse. Although a refund/credit was offered I never received it. I would suppose that if I called them again this year they may remember. However, after reading similar accounts in this venue, I'm afraid it appears as a standard (bad) business practice. Still haven't determined if I will give them another chance.

I placed an order for a number of different items-dahlias, astilbe, trumpet lilium, alstroemeria, canna's and some others. Everything came lightning fast,packed and labeled beautifully, with extremely detailed instructions. The emails I recieved after placing the order were informative and friendly. Everything seems strong, healthy and viable..I will definately be ordering from them in the future.

I ordered several items from the website this spring. The order was delivered in the time frame promised. The plants were true to the pictures and literature found on their website. Every part of my order was healthy, of good size and has surpassed expectations. Gardening in the desert area of West Texas is challenging, I was concerned that the lillies ordered might be a bit delicate for the extremes of weather we experience - not the case at all. I will continue ordering from this site. Better by far than the Burpee site.