Comments regarding Breck's Bulbs

In April, I tried to order plants, some summer bulbs as wells some Hosta and geraniums. All were supposedly in stock. When the order was confirmed only one was listed as "available for shipping" the others were "backordered"and wouldn't be shipped for a few weeks, in varying times. But this turned out to be a ruse, the time frame when I checked kept being pushed off. If I checked on the 8th it was the9th If checked on the 10th it was the 11th etc. I contacted customer service, it took days for a response which just cut and paste the same notice I'd received. But worse yet the time listed for some of them was June 28.In lower NY which means I'd be planting in July. We get high heat here. I explained that. I only got a we know your disappointed. I'm condensing this but it was galling in the extreme as if they were selling widgets not plants. And clearly they never picked up a phone to see what was going on and answer a question. I've known chatbots with more curiosity. Then when I pressed the last email: tell me what is going on and what you are going to do about it, they cancelled my order and said it was customer directed. They had no problem taking my money (not waiting until they shipped like some) and keeping the interest but actually delivering. Nope. So now I'm too late to get those plants elsewhere. So they've harmed me twice. Don't buy from them.

Breck's will take forever to ship, and in the year 2022 are unable to send a bill through email. Placed an order for hellebores based through a paper order form sent to me in a Breck's catalog. The order was received by Breck's on 1/14/21 with estimated ship date of 5/14/21. Received email on 5/20/21 informing me that shipping date was delayed until 10/21/21. Order finally shipped on 9/22/21. Received email correspondence regarding order status but it never indicated any outstanding balance on the account. Breck's claims they sent bill through mail, which I never received as I'd moved away from the address in question by the time they sent it, and they never many any attempt to send any statement electronically. Instead of ever trying to call or email, they passed the account balance on to a debt collector. Will not be spending another cent with Breck's. They're at best misleading - and at worst it's a total scam that will show up long after promised, with all sorts of nasty surprised attached.

I bought some fern crowns from the site as well as some from a different company. The other comany's ferns were fat and juicy, obviously freshly dug. The ones from Brecks were dessicated and falling apart. I stuck them in the ground, but I will be surprised if any of them come up in the spring. I hadn't spent a lot of money, so I didn't bother contacting Breck's though I did go back and read all of the other reviews of the dead ferns customers had received. I would never order from them again.

I recently placed an order for tree lilies, day lilies and tulips. I did not get any shipping notice. I checked my order status and saw that my order was shipped. Checked with Federal Express and saw that although a label was submitted, no package had been received after two weeks. Part of my order was received three weeks after ordering. The tree lilies part of my order arrived four weeks later, but one package was empty. They would only give me a store credit, but not replace the item. Now I will have to reorder and pay another shipping charge. I think that I know the problem with this company. They are owned by Gardens Alive, with whom I had horrible experiences a few years ago. Gardens Alive is the absolute worst on-line company that I have ever dealt with.

Is Breck’s Bulbs a scam? Read on. You decide.
I ordered 33 tulip bulbs, 4 different varieties, on 1st September 2020. The expected shipping date was 14th September.
I contacted customer support on 1st October and was told they would not be shipped until 22nd October. I asked them if I was supposed to light a fire to thaw the ground.
I live just west of Edmonton Alberta Canada. Latitude 53.5
On 16 October the temperature dropped below freezing, 0 deg C, and stayed there until 25 October. It went as cold as -15.7 C.
I dug 4 gaping holes in my nice white gravel garden after it froze. It looks horrible. Then we got a small break in the weather. End of October and early November. Highs of 10, 12 and 17 C Nights above or slightly below freezing. There was still hope.
It is now the 3rd of November and I just looked and they still have not been shipped yet. From Holland. On a cargo ship that will need to clear customs in Canada before my bulbs get mailed to me by Canada Post.
I am quite tired of looking at the holes in the garden. They will soon be covered with snow. I am tired of looking at the bone meal and Miracle Grow soil in the garage. It will a miracle if my tulips grow. I am copying and pasting the following from their propaganda which I was dumb enough to believe.
“Breck's times its shipments from Holland so that bulbs arrive at the proper planting time (depending on climatic conditions) for each area of Canada.
We take advance reservations, and then just as soon as the crops are harvested, our staff of Dutch Bulb Experts makes an on-the-spot selection of the finest bulbs available to fill those reservations.
Once your order has been packed, it will be loaded on a cargo ship bound for Canada directly from Holland. The shipment will need to clear Customs where it will then be transported to your home. We ship via Canada Post.”
So. Is Breck’s Bulbs a scam? They are defiantly unethical and have misleading business practices. I have also been bombarded with sales e-mail ad’s from them. I am a one and done customer. I will submit this after I receive the bulbs and conclude with the date received. The ponds are frozen over.

About 15 years ago I ordered several items from Breck's and the service and products were great. That is not the case now. They are constantly moving their ship dates back and forth. On their website it says that the corona virus is not affecting their shipments. It also says that In all cases, we choose the fastest, most efficient way to delivery your orders via the USPS or FedEx. They didn't tell me that they were going to ship my orders Fedex Smartpost which is about the slowest possible way. With Smartpost,Fedex picks up the order,then turns it over to the USPS,which adds more delivery time. One of my orders departed the Fedex location in Nothborough Massachusetts on 10/17/20. I live in Connecticut which is one state over. It is now 10/22/20 and there is no more information for this shipment and I cannot track it. When I called customer service the representative didn't even know what Smartpost was. I asked to speak to a representative in the United States and she told me that is not possible. Another representative was arrogant and hung up on me in the middle of the conversation. At one time the information on this shipment said that it would be delivered on 10/19/2020 by the end of the day. Now the information says no scheduled delivery date at this time. On my other order the shipment date was 10/19/20 to 10/29/20.
Now it's 11/02/20 to 11/12/20. The weather is going to get
colder in Connecticut in the next week or so. I'm a senior citizen and cannot handle the cold like I used to. I really expected to have all the items I ordered planted by now.
Very disappointed with Breck's. I should have heeded the reviews on Breck's and not have been so naive. I will not order from them again.

Ordered bulbs July 30th as a new customer from Breck’s Bulbs (Canada) and was very excited about it. I had requested if the bulbs could be sent out earlier than the shipping date and was told an ‘internal rush’ would be placed on my order. Next day, order was pushed back a further 13 days from the estimated shipping date of October 14th when I checked on theIr website. Customer service was inaccurate, antagonistic and complacent. The day after requesting to cancel my order, due to the overall frustration with attempts to resolve things through their customer service and an update that the irises I ordered on July 30th, were now ‘out of stock‘, even though I had received a ‘last chance’ offer for irises a month ago in my inbox, they shipped my order (minus the irises). It was extra frustrating because it was the irises that prompted the order in the first place. There is now snow on the ground and all my other bulbs were planted over a month ago (Zone 3). The Better Business Bureau reports multiple complaints, and I should have researched the company before placing my order.

On June 30, over my better judgement, I ordered an astilbe that I could not find elsewhere from Breck's. In order to make the $10 shipping more palatable, I also ordered some bulbs. I received the bulbs a few weeks ago, but no astilbe. I'm in zone 4, I really need to get a perennial in the ground NOW! I checked the order, and the astilbe is backordered until Nov 17. Anyone living in MN knows that we could have a foot of snow on the ground, and the possibility of frozen ground at that time is very high. I cancelled the order, but still had to pay for the shipping (for the bulbs I didn't really want), and am now stuck with no astilbe. Believe me, in the spring, I will be checking the top 30's websites, this is the last time I try to deal with a company that only ships bareroot. Stay away!

Order for Breck's fall bulb assortment placed on 9/15/20, PayPal paid on 9/16/20; no receipt of or conformation on order or payment received by 9/29/20/ so I sent email to customer service inquiring about status of order. Sent a second email on 10/01/20; still no response. On 10/02/20 I called customer service asked abut order, I was told that it would not ship from Holland until 10/19/20 and would arrive around Nov 1st. I explained that would be after a hard frost and I asker to cancel the order. I was told I could not cancel because it was "over the ocean" and cancelling was not an option. I spoke to customer service supervisor who agreed to refund purchase price but only after order arrived in the States. If this is the best that Brecks can do, it is not good enough to earn my business!

Ordered 3 plants. Got 3 bags of soil without plants. Asked for a refund. Said they would only give me a merchandise credit.
Very bad customer service.

I placed a order with Brecks on May 4th . I ordered 4 plants and a tool sharpener I called them after 2weeks because I didn't receive my order. They said it would ship the end of May. I called again the beginning of June. Then they said it was on back order and only some of the items will ship. They still had it for sale after I bought it and had even lowered the price. So I call again and now they say it's all out of stock .It wasn't out of stock when I bought mine and they still had it listed for sale after. So now after waiting on them I can't even order it somewhere else because it's all sold out everywhere.I would not recommend anyone to buy from Brecks. Calling there customer service is a waste of time got a different excuse each time.

Breck’s mailed me a bill for $5.35 more for a $60 purchase I made online months ago. The bill was marked past due and had no explanation why the additional amount was being charged.

I emailed an inquiry. Weeks later I received a response saying there was a technical glitch and they should have charged me $5.35 more.

When I made the online purchase I paid what the website said the cost was. In my humble opinion, if a company makes this type of mistake, it is their loss. They shouldn’t send “past due” bills with no explanation to their customers.

Then I got an email saying they would turn the amount due over to collections.

Unbelievable!

Brecks did not bother to properly wrap their plants so they wouldn't dry out in transit. They also sent me very small weak plants which did not survive the mailing.

The postman handed my box to me on my porch, so there was no time that it sat out in the heat. However the box he handed me was quite warm from his truck, as it was a warm spring day in April of this year. When I opened the box the plants were very small, the dirt they put in the "baggies" was not around the roots at all. Big bags, small plants, about 1/4 cup of dirt which was on the other side of the bags because of shifting. What else did they expect, for the dirt to magically stay around the roots with nothing to contain it?

I called immediately because of the poor quality of the plants and they told me to wait six to eight weeks before they would give me a refund. I carefully planted them in a nursery flat and now after over a month only two of the 18 plants I have planted in my little plant nursery have come up. They are still making me wait another two weeks before refunding me. Six weeks to wait for puny weak plants mailed with no dirt around their roots to suddenly start growing because I planted them? I will never order from Brecks again.

1. It took forever to get my order.
2. No one would answer when I called to find out about when my order was going to get to me.
3. When I got the order it was not want I ordered but apparently Breck's doesn't really care about my returning to buy from them again.

I have been ordering from Breck's for decades, and was absolutely delighted with their product and their customer service. A few years ago, things changed. As of now, I will never order from them again. Last year, I ordered reblooming iris corms. When they arrived, they were shriveled and dead. Of the twelve I ordered, two grew. I called Breck's and they gave me credit. This year, I tried to place orders beginning in April. Finally, I was able to place an order in early June by talking with one of their agents. I asked when the items would ship, as my time frame is tight, and in Minnesota, I plant in early September. The agent told me that I would be getting my bulbs and roots in mid September. I checked on my order several times, and found they were not going to ship until October. This is too late in our agricultural zone. I called them and they told me that what I ordered would not arrive at their facility until October 1. They said the weather here (wherever that is) was not good enough to get their bulbs earlier than that. If the items had arrived when I was first told they would, there would have been no problem, but I had surgery late September, and could not walk for a few weeks. I had to have them shipped to my daughter. Again, the plants were shriveled and dried looking. I am not going to deal with Breck's again. What was once a great place to get my garden stocked is now a rip off company that pays no attention to the customer's wants or needs. I will not go into the numerous problems I've had with them, only that there were many and this year was the straw that broke the camel's back.

Breck's clearly puts a lot of money into advertising. Don't be fooled. I ordered four Bearded Iris this fall. In the end I received none. Two were out of stock. The packing slip I eventually received claimed that the other two were enclosed. Instead--and with no word of explanation--I received two Asiatic Lilies. Company has offered me a certificate good for future orders, but I have requested a refund on the credit card. We'll see what happens.

I ordered 3 plant collections from them. One collection each of
Dahlia ,Phlox, and Monarda. The dahlia was the only one that lived. The phlox and monarda was DOA on arrival. The replacement that were sent the monarda was dead and only half
of the phlox lived.I have not paid my bill yet to see how these plants would do.Considering how they did am going to pay my bill
which is past due under protest so I won't ever have to do business with Breck's again

I sent 3 emails this week to "service@brecks.com" and haven't even received the courtesy of an auto-reply! I also tried calling them by phone but couldn't get through their menu to a live human. P.S.-I have to agree with one of the recent reviewers that Breck's substitution practice is awful.

I ordered the Batik Iris Collection July 15, 2018. Contacted Breck's multiple times after shipment delays. Now, mid November with winter starting to set in in California, they canceled this part of my order entirely -- after previously telling me things would ship soon. I'm beyond frustrated at their service and extremely frustrated as this was the part of that order I was most interested in adding to my garden. I will only order from more professional growers in the future and there are many who offer a far more superior product at similar rates to Breck's. I'm just disgusted at this experience. They never had the courtesy to even let me know the order was canceled. I just happened to be checking my email on Thanksgiving and saw I had a random refund from them. Not worth the time or frustration at all. And, in my experience, the bulbs they do send are crud.

I placed an order for hundreds of dollars in Irises, peonies, dahlias, begonias, hardy gladioli and poppies. My credit card was immediately debited. The order was split into ship dates according to planting time.
Shipping dates were postponed several times. One by one, all but 2 my orders eventually cancelled as out of Stock. One of the 5 irises was molded and 1 of the 10 poppy roots was dried, shriveled and clearly dead. 7 months after placing orders, I had no fall flowers, will have no spring flowers, and still no refunds.

Posted on September 9, 2018, updated September 16, 2018
I am a first time customer. I was wary because I've seen other negative reviews about delayed deliveries, but I decided to give them a chance. I placed a small order on 8/21/18 for three on sale iris bulbs. On my order confirmation, in the "Ship Date Estimate" column for each bulb the item number was listed instead of a date. This was suspicious, so I logged in to the website to check my order status and it said the delivery estimate for all three bulbs was 8/24/18-9/5/18.
On 8/28/18 I logged in again and the delivery estimate for all three had changed to 8/31/18-9/12/18. I began checking every day and noticed that delivery estimate always increased by one day. It always said my items had not shipped.
On 9/3/18 the delivery estimate was 9/6/18-9/18/18. I called customer service. They said they had not started shipping of fall bulbs yet because of the prime planting times. When I pointed out that the website states that shipping for iris in my zone starts on 8/13/18, they said they have to fill orders as they are received, and they were working as fast as they can. When I expressed concern over the shifting date estimates and shrinking planting window, they suddenly mentioned that my items were due for delivery on 9/10 (that date is not anywhere in my order status), and that they could put a "rush" on them, but that they still could not guarantee a date.
On 9/8 (a Saturday) the delivery estimate was 9/11/18-9/23/18. I called again, this time I asked to cancel my order, which still had not shipped, according to the website. I cited the shifty delivery estimates and the increasingly late date. They said they were unable to cancel because my order was "processing" but that they would pass my request to the shipping department. I asked if I would get an email confirmation when my order was cancelled, and they repeated that they could not cancel my order because it is "in processing". They said the shipping department would come in Monday, and if they cancelled my order I would know because I'd see a refund on my account. IF.
At this point I don't know how it will play out, but I do know I won't be ordering from them again.

I absolutely detest this company. Ordered 3 times. NEVER got what I ordered. Sometimes replacements were sent, for something I didn't really want ("we're sure you will love this since we are out of that"). Hey, how about an email asking me instead of willy nilly sending something? Sometimes given credit toward future orders, which I do not care to use. STEER CLEAR!

I ordered fourteen dinnerplate dahlias. Three of the bulbs , or what there was of them were missing all the "fingers" and had no central stem. What I discovered I received once they began blooming were these little 4" blooms and this was true of all the dinnerplate dahlias I ordered!!! I called Brecks and was told I should just cut off all but one bloom to force it into dinnerplate size. I've grown dinnerplate dahlias before and knew ( unless I was entering a flower competition) this was not true. None of the plants that I ordered were anything other than regular dahlias that I could have picked up at my local nursery. I have had trouble in the past with Breck's and will NEVER order from them again. Don't waste your money or your gardening time with them!

Worst Customer Service EVER! I placed an order on 3/19. waited 1 month and checked the order status it showed a Fedex label had been generated but nothing was shipped. I checked their on-line catalog and it showed both items Out of Stock. I sent an email inquiring about my order and immediately received a canned response stating that a CS rep. would contact me. I waited until after the stated delivery date (the order still had not shipped) and sent another email inquiry and received the same canned response, waited a couple more days and called them to cancel that order and asked for a refund. If there are have 500 customers they have collected payments from of, let's say $50. each. that's $25,000 they have sitting in an account earning interest. I called them canceled my order and requested my money refunded. I will be boycotting this company.

I ordered 7 daylilies October, 2017. I received very small specimens, bare root. Planted them in a newly prepared bed last fall.
None survived the winter, they all rotted out.
Refund given, no hassle there. But I’m still out the shipping fee of $12.95 which is not refundable.
I won’t order from them again. I noticed the colors in their catalog are very deceptive and are not true to what the blooms really are.

hellebore collection paid $54.99 for 7 plants - received tiny seedlings with less than 1 inch roots. Paid $79 for one Itoh
Bartzella peony--advertised as 3 eyes-- received a root segment 4 inches long with one eye. o
Paid $32 for a bare root Radiant Perfume rose-- one stick 5 inch rooted . Total order $450! NO MORE! Order received before frost out of the ground.

Posted on October 19, 2017, updated November 16, 2017
Posted on October 13, 2017, updated October 19, 2017
Posted on May 14, 2017, updated October 13, 2017
Posted on June 13, 2015, updated May 14, 2017
I was apprehensive about ordering from a Gardens Alive! affiliate. But the combination of clearance price and additional discount was too much to resist. I ordered a lot of plants.

They were shipped in a reasonable time, not quickly but respectably soon after I placed my order.

The plants I received were a respectable size, healthy, well-packed, well-marked. A very good value, if the actual blooms are true to the cultivars described and pictured online.

No complaints. Everything appears as it should be.

Their products are very undependable in condition. I have received many great items but also dried up items and a root that was completely rotten. The last shipment irritated me. It was a rather large order of fall bulbs that I pre-ordered in May. They had a "sale" of fall planting bulbs and being May I was able to plan to fill spaces with specific colors in specific areas of my gardens.
The shipment came at a good planting fall time but when I opened the boxes I was surprised that three of five of my orders were substituted because they were out of stock. Now how could that be when I ordered in May! Nowhere do they ask you ahead of time May They Substitute. I was furious!

Beware of "free plants" as an enticement. I ordered three types of bulbs on Sept. 11, and 3 weeks later received a shriveled tiny iris as my 'free plant.' Six weeks later I received a box with 2 flashlights (which I didn't order) and no bulbs. When I called Customer Service in India, I was treated politely, but informed that they would refund my money and unfortunately there were no bulbs available for reshipment. Breck's, you have seriously slipped in the customer service area and I will be ordering from American-based companies in the future.

Bought 3 Hibiscus, showed up after first snow fall, not 1 grew.
Complained, had to beg for replacement order, was to be recv'd this month. There's 1 week left & still hasn't ship'd.
Definate waste of time, energy & $$$,
They advertise nice plants,, but haven't seen them yet, wouldn't waste my time again

We moved to Talent three years ago, and the neglected garden needs a LOT of work, and a lot of new plants. I was lured in by one of Breck's frequent "sales." I ordered columbines, daylilies, hardy geraniums, a bottle bush, a canna lily, and some phlox.
I see that others have had the same experience: My order was correctly filled... with dried up, shriveled roots in bags of wood shavings. I soaked everything for 24 hours, and planted all in a newly prepared [critter-proofed!] bed. I want to emphasize that growing conditions are identical for all these plants:
The phlox sent up a few tendrils and promptly expired. Three of the five columbines look like they'll make it. One never sprouted, and one other looks iffy.
Four out of six geraniums sprouted, of which two died within a week. Of the two that are left, one looks healthy, the other not so much.
The daylilies are scrawny, but living, and the bottle bush seems to be happy, as is the canna. It works out that 1/2 of my order died.
I have not taken this up with so-called customer service because I got a huge run-around on another order [ironically not mine!] and won't deal with them again.
This time I wrote snail mail, and asked them to remove my name from their mailing list because I do not wish to do business with them again.
This is especially in regard to their pricing, which seems to me an extroadinarily moving target. I do lots of comparison shopping because we are vets on SS. Using iris as an example, I directly compared their last "as much as 75% off!!" sale with an Oregon-based company which sent me beautiful fans. In every single case, Oregon's REGULAR cost was LESS than the "sale" at Breck's. I prefer to deal with companies who are no so volatile in the $ale front. I would suggest to those whose bulb experience is positive-- shop around a little. You may be surprised at what you find...

Been ordering from Brecks for a while now, and lately have had nothing but problems.

First, ordered a lily collection, planted the bulbs in a new garden, and when they sprouted, one of them was a gladiolus. Of the 5 colors in the collection, I only got two.

Next, ordered a toad lily. Received a bag of dirt with a one inch long root not much thicker than a hair. It never grew.

Finally (one last chance), ordered 5 Odessa Calla (supposed to be black). What I got was mid-range purple (think Prince purple) on all of them.

I'm done ordering from Brecks. Quality control has all but vanished. I'll now only buy plants from my local nurseries.

Worse customer service ever. Placed 2 orders with them in the last 2 months. First order they substituted items. Second order they just sent an e-mail stating item not available and they altered the order and refunded the $ amount for the item. Sent an e-mail back telling them to cancel the total order and refund my money and confirm receipt of the request. No response. Called and talked to someone not in the United States. They hung up on me. Called back and finally got someone who could do something. Cancelled the order - waiting on my refund. DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY - you will be totally disappointed.

I ordered the warm Clematis Collection in early spring. After waiting 7 weeks, I called the cs department. I was told the collection was on backorder and would be shipped within 7-10 business days. 3 weeks later, I again contacted customer service, only to be told this time that the order had been sent to shipping and should arrive within 7-10 business days. I waited a full 14 days, contacted customer service yet again, this time by email, and received a response that the order was still backordered but they would refund my shipping charges. I waited another 14 days, and contacted cs again. This time I was told the order had been cancelled. No refund was issued. Don't order from them. Take your business to your local nursery.

I was searching the web for bearded Iris and an ad showed up for Breakers (a bearded Iris) for $3.74 which is a good price. It also showed a $25.00 coupon for an order over $50.00. I clicked on the ad for $3.74 and added 14 Breakers to my cart. The total for Breakers was 52.36. So far so good. I added the coupon for $25.00 off and the total for Breakers changed to 69.86 or 4.99 for each of the 14 Breakers. It did show the $25.00 off of $69.86.

I started a chat with them and after 15 min. of chat they offered me a $5.00 coupon which I declined as I was being overcharged $17.50 for the product. They told me that they do not allow more than one coupon per order even though I did not use a coupon when I ordered the Iris. I told the person on the chat that I considered this a Scam and would not order from them.

A few years ago, I did order from them and what I received was very small and did not have the increases that US growers send. Half of the plant did grow, but took an extra year to be large enough to flower.

In this case, I thought that the price was low enough to make it possibly worthwhile to live with the small plants.

Posted on January 28, 2007, updated February 9, 2017
Breck's advertises "Direct to You From Holland Since 1818." That is a lie. The current "Breck's" has only been in business for 4 years. I placed a $170 order with Breck's 5 years ago. That Breck's went belly up and I got nothing. Just be aware that this company has no long term history.

My grandmother has used Breck's bulbs in her garden for many years and recommends them, so when a friend wanted garden gifts for her birthday, I ordered her a gift certificate from the website. I ordered many weeks in advance and had it shipped to my house so that I could include it in a package with other gifts and a card. Breck's turned out to be incapable of providing a simple gift certificate, or answering any inquiry about it.

The website promises that certificates will ship immediately, and my confirmation email promised that it would arrive in 10-14 days, which was still plenty of time to include in the gift. At 13 days I checked the order status on the website and the gift certificate had still not shipped. I emailed customer service requesting immediate shipment with expedited mail or an email copy, and 4 days later, I received a form letter indicating that the shipment would happen in another 3-5 business days and take 5-7 business days to ship. With the holidays coming up, this would put the order well past the birthday and perhaps not before Christmas.

I emailed again, asking more urgently for expedited service or at least an email copy I could include in the gift. Receiving no reply, I called customer service two days later. After keeping me on hold for 10 minutes, the rep promised to have the certificate information emailed to me the next day so that I could include it in the gift.

The next day came and went, and the only email I received from Breck's was a marketing promotion advertising that there was still time to order for the holidays. Insulting irony!

I received another form email the following morning, offering me no help or real information and saying that the certificate should ship in time for Christmas. I spent my lunch break calling customer service again, and spent 20 minutes on the phone with a nice man who tried to help me. After putting me on hold numerous times to call various other departments and managers, he managed to find out the status of my order, and admitted that there was nothing he or any person in sales and service could do to help me.

He indicated that they could only generate gift certificates from one paper printing machine that had been broken down for weeks and they were helpless to generate even email copies without it. He said that he would try to get me the certificate before Christmas, but that they were trying to cram in the several weeks of backlog in the next few days as the machine was expected to be fixed. There was nothing else he could do for me.

For a company that advertises so heavily regarding gifts, it is inconceivable to me that they would handicap their ability to generate gift certificates through such an insane process, allowing it to be delayed for weeks just before the holidays. The total inability of four different customer service reps to do anything about it, and the huge delays in getting an honest answer, were awful. Why even bother to have customer service when they can't actually achieve anything, and they don't even answer promptly or honestly?

Please take your money to a better catalog company. I'll go back to buying my family dahlias and gift certificates from a company we can trust.

Beware! It's worth noting that Breck's is listed on BBB under a few company names. I feel like this is probably a company that concentrates more on volume and turnover than customer service or quality, so just keep that in mind when you order and have a back up plan.

This was my first time ordering from an online plant website and I probably won't do it again. I ordered the daylily collection 3 months ago and got a confirmation it shipped, but then never got it. The fedex tracking never left the warehouse. I waited because I thought maybe they were coming from Holland (obviously I don't know much about plants) and their website said they were in the middle of moving and to be patient. Advice: Don't be patient. :) Finally, I emailed...twice. Nothing. I called...the rep had an accent and I couldn't understand her. I'm usually pretty good at listening. I asked to be transferred to a supervisor 3 times. She kept avoiding it, then finally told me the supervisor was not there.

She kept trying to give me the money back (which at least was offered), but I explained I didn't want the money...I wanted the flowers I ordered and was promised. I asked if they could just send any daylilies. I didn't care which ones at that point. Just something to put in the ground for my mother. Nope. Everything was out of stock. "Why?" I asked. "The website still shows they are there." More putting me on hold and this time came back and said supervisor (who mysteriously appeared) said he gave his apologies and they would just issue a refund. I did an online chat just to see if it was someone who could understand and send SOMETHING. But, nope. Same thing. I'm done. Very disappointing experience. Why sell something you don't have? Why not try to substitute SOMETHING...ANYTHING for customers? I may have never received anything if I hadn't kept track and check in.

I have ordered peony bulbs from Breck's, Very poor quality small bulbs with no eyes, Planted it and nothing ever came up. So disappointed!