Comments regarding Breck's Bulbs

I ordered three sets of spring bulbs on 11/22/05. Almost two weeks later, I received an email that only one had shipped and the other two would be shipped in January or February, which seemed too late for planting. When I contacted customer service via email, I received an unresponsive preformed email to my first inquiry; no response to my second inquiry; and third, a customer service-written response that answered none of my questions and said the two late bulb sets were sold out. Upon my fourth inquiry, customer service acknowledged that the bulbs were not sold out when I placed my order, but she could not explain how Breck's decided not to fill my order and decided not to ship comparable replacements. When I asked why Brecks failed to notify me of the sellout (I only found out through my customer service inquiries), she said Brecks sent a letter (I received no letter). The next day I received the one shipped set of bulbs, which had been replaced with something else. I will never shop with unreliable Brecks again.

Ordered over $150 worth of bulbs on Sept 3. Two months later, I checked on the order status on the Breck's website, and the projected delivery date was Dec 7. I checked the order status again yesterday (Dec 9) and learned that the entire order had been cancelled. I was never notified of this cancellation, and now I'm trying to figure out if my my credit card has been refunded. A total hassle, and I have completely missed bulb planting season. I will never do business with these folks again.

I ordered bulbs from Breck's because of a $25 coupon that was available this season; they took a long time to arrive and the bulbs were in poor shape. I ordered from Spring Hill, Hirt's and Van Engelen and all of them were better (and faster) than Breck's. Breck's bulbs come from Holland, so the shipping took forever (3+ weeks). I contacted "customer service" via email and received a form letter reply that had nothing to do with my question (this happened twice). When I called about my late order I was told they were unable to cancel it. My tulip bulbs arrived moldy, were mostly missing the onion skin stuff and there was at least one undersized one slipped in with each bag of ten. To be fair, the grape hyacinth bulbs seemed fine. They would have been very expensive without the coupon. The bulbs are in the ground now, so no word yet on the final results!

I ordered online on the Brecks website on September 7 2005. After waiting for a very long a time (10 weeks) the bulbs arrived today November 23rd. I opened the box to discover that Breck's shipped replacement bulbs that do not in any way resemble the bulbs I ordered. I ordered white tulips with blue edges and they sent violet tulips. Could it be that some of the folks at Breck's are color blind? Interestingly enough I went into the Breck's website today and they are still listing the Tulip Sagit Valley (the bulbs I wanted) as available. They are still taking orders on items that they obviously do not have. I called Breck's several times in the past weeks to ascertain the estimated ship date and at no time was I advised of the fact that they did not have the bulbs in stock. I find the practice of taking orders on items which do not exist (which is obviously good for cash flow) to be unethical and unprincipled. I had another order with Breck's which I promptly cancelled. Over the past 8 months I've placed over 30 orders with other internet flower companies. All expereinces have been rather positive. This one stands out as one of the worst expereinces to date because it is so late in the season and I have very few options open at this point to find replacements. I called Breck's and they claim they will credit my account if not in this billing cycle then next billing cycle. I've heard that one before too. I will never do business with Breck's agan! I advise the same to anyone reading this post.

I ordered 3 items on September 21, 2005 (ordering deadline listed on the catalog), using the $25.00 coupon from my Breck's catalog. It is now November 19th, and I still have not received my order. Repeated emails to Breck's have yielded conflicting information. One email indicated that the order had shipped on November 4th; the order status on the website at one point indicated that it had shipped on November 16th (with only 2 items, not 3); then the order status became unavailable. I received an email from Breck's stating that I could plant the bulbs in my area any time up until November 12th. I spoke with a customer service representative at Breck's just moments ago, who said It appears that the order was shipped on November 15th, and that only two items were listed on the order. I had previously emailed Breck's to find out what happened to the missing item because it was no longer listed on my online order summary, and received an email response this morning that the item was no longer available and would not be shipped. The online order status now states that the estimated date of delivery will be sometime next week. This experience has most definitely not been a positive one. The email I received this morning also indicated that the order had been delayed due to a back ordered item. Breck's did not inform me that there was a problem with the order until I inquired about it. I don't plan to order from Breck's again, nor would I recommend them to others.

I couldn't pass up the first timer's deal, even though there seemed to be a lot of negative feedback on this website.

My tulip bulbs arrived in a timely fashion and they are some of the biggest, healthiest bulbs I have ever received from any company. I will be happy to do business with Brecks in the future.

BEWARE, HORRIBLE, inflexible customer service. I was unable to get the $25 coupon to work. I just wish I hadnt wasted my time in their catalog and placing an order which I had to cancel. I'll go back to White Flower Farm----their service and product descriptions and instructions are excellent. Everyone I have called there is extremely knowledgeable.

I received a catalog today and they offered a $25.00 gift coupon. If your order was less than $25.00 then it was free. I figured I had nothing to lose so I placed an order that was less than the $25.00 even with shipping. Gave them all my info but when it came time to checkout they hadn't taken anything off from my coupon. This was online and I'm sure if you phoned you'd never get the free offer either. The catalog is now in the recycling bin.

I'm afraid I actually first contemplated subscribing to GardenWatchdog for the purpose of saving other gardeners the hassle of having to spend money to find out that Brecks is to be skipped over for better companies.
It is clear that they are pricey, and their bulbs are rather small. A few of mine receied looked fine but never grew. (How very odd.) Perhaps I Iost track of who's who in my bulb garden, but more likely is that some bulbs from Breck's were mislabeled.

My simple suggestion is to enjoy their colorful brochures, then promptly enjoy the heat they produce in a woodstove.

COMPLETE scammers - I ordered astilbe in JANUARY, and when they hadn't arrived by the time Chicago was hitting the 90s, it took a solid half dozen phone calls for me to FINALLY get an answer that they had run out, and wouldn't be shipping them at all - after that, I got a STRING of e-mails asking me over and over for "my information" so they can "investigate". GEESH! With all the reputable companies out there, and great exchange programs like the one at gardenweb, there is NO reason to GUARANTEE throwing your money away with Breck's - argh!

I was considering calling Breck's this weekend to let them know that the 2 Begonia's that I bought have never grown. Since it wasn't a large purchase, I decided to let it be. But yesterday I received a letter regarding an order that is to ship this fall. It said:

" Your credit limit is $137.50. You have $5.99 on account (no I don't). Now with your order of $65.94 you have exceeded your credit limit."

I absolutely won't be doing any more business with a company who can't even add and subtract!

My Brecks experience was bad. It's important for me to get my lily bulbs growing early-it gets hot early in the season here in Tucson. My order took a month to arrive during peak shipping period (March-April). I got 3 conflicting reports of when my order shipped from 3 different sources. A man I spoke to, the website order status page, and e-mails from customer service. I e-mailed Brecks several times. On average, a response took 3 days-which I think is too long, but I wanted e-mail because it's in writing. Brecks kept telling me that the bulbs come from Holland, so it takes time. After I told them I got 2 seperate shipping times from 2 seperate e-mails from customer service, they apologized and sent me a coupon for $25-no strings attached. I made an order with it on May 10 and got an order confirmation. A week later I checked my order status and it said "canceled". I got no notification of my order cancelation until I e-mailed and asked what happened. So now I can't use my coupon! Very long story short, I am unhappy with their customer service. I don't have complaints about the bulbs themselves, but dealing with Brecks was such a headache I won't order from them again. I'm glad I can find what I want elsewhere!

I ordered several "special offer" hyacinth bulb collectionc in March. The ad said that the bulbs were pre chilled and ready to bloom within a couple weeks. I got my order confirmation on March 31, 2005. After two weeks and no order I inquired with their customer service On April 14th. They said they'd ship in two weeks. They didn't! Six weeks after ordering I still haven't received the order. Their customer service just keeps saying that things are delayed because of a cold winter in the upper Midwest. We always have cold winters. The hyacinths were pre-chilled bulbs from Holland which would not even be affected by cold winters in Indiana! Yesterday I cancelled the order and asked for an email confirmation, which, 24 hours later, I have not received. I ordered glad bulbs from another company yesterday, and they said they would ship them the same day.
I think Brecks is advertising merchandise they don't have.

had Breck's recommended to me by a "friend" - ordered their "astilbe collection" which IS overpriced, but has a color I don't have. Planting time came and went - no astilbes - nothing - their customer service STINKS - lots of whining about how hard the winter was and how everything is "running late" this year - I asked for my money back, but honestly don't expect to get it - not if their performance to date is any indication. E-mail me if you have suggestions for better, more reliable bulb vendors, please! (niwahito@gmail.com)

I recently received a catalog from Brecks. The catalog had "instant blooms" flowering bulbs. It said they can grow in winter inside on a windowsill. I thought this sounded like a great way to brighten up my house. I ordered on Saturday and got a confirmation back with a ship date of late April. I wrote customer service right away on Saturday asking if I could get them any earlier. I recieved an e-mail reply Wednesday (3 days later) saying " no, you can get them even later, but not any earlier". I wrote back to cancel my order and am still awaiting confirmation of cancellation. Very disappointed.

I just finished calling (on my dime-no toll free customer number for this company) to Brecks in regards to an order I placed last fall and never received. They don't seem to have any working computers at this place, the girl that answered the phone said that they had lots of calls about problems, I wasn't the only one. I order LOTS of stuff online and rarely have a problem. I gave her my confirmation number and she could not find my order or anything about it. I politely told her at the end of probably 8 minutes of her trying to pull up any information, that I would not be ordering from this company ever again. I should have known better but the coupon was tempting.I will never make that mistake again! BEWARE!!!

My experience with Brecks customer service has been miserable. I ordered about $80 worth of bulbs for forcing this past fall and they sent me a couple of wrong items. I followed their procedure and mailed it back to them at my expense. In what took 3 weeks time, they shipped me the correct item....a bit damaged, but at least I got it. I asked for a refund of the $7 it cost me to ship back the bulbs and they said it wasn't their policy to refund shipping on product returned to them. Out of principle, I kept complaining how silly their policy was, and one guy agreed to send me the refund. Still nothing....so I followed up again, only to be told by somebody else that they had no record of receiving my bulbs back and that I would have to prove that I sent them.

So, it cost me $7 to correct an error they made in shipping my product. I will never order anything from Brecks again.

I placed order using $25 coupon first week of November. I was not notified about shipping dates. I waited couple months. Weather was getting more and more cold even here in California. We were having almost ice on the roof and grass. I called Customer Service and was told that my order was backordered and when it will arrive they didn't know. I cancelled my order because i simply lost patience... Won't "buy" any discount coupons anymore in the near future. I was lucky to plant some tulips from Lowe's back in October. I was amaized how huge bulbs they sell and Home Depot too.

On August 14, 2004, I ordered using the $25 off coupon they sent me. I ordered several daylilies and cannas. I kept waiting and nothing. I sent them an email asking where they were. The email arrived on Dec. 11 saying my order would be shipped in late February or early March. Had I known of a 5 to 6 month delay, I would never have ordered from these bozos. I'm in Southern California and you can plant these at any time. August is a hot month so there was no reason for THEIR delay in sending these. Live and learn and I did. Never again.

I ordered bulbs from this company in June and again in August. Here it is, the end of the year, and neither order has shown up even though they were due months ago. The e-mail response from Breck's when I inquired about the orders in mid December was identical both times: there was an error in the order process and the order was lost. When I then tried to re-order the same items, which were supposedly still available, the customer service representative told me the discount coupons I had used on the original orders would not be applicable because I had used them already and they had also since expired! It seems you cannot win with Breck's. These were my very first orders from this company and I will never try them again. :-(

I placed my first trial-run order in early August, using the $25 coupon. September 30th, I sent an email wondering when I'd receive my order. They replied back (promptly) that I'd have it by October 31st. On November 18th, I sent another email. This is what they had to say:
"Thank you for your email. We have reviewed our records and found an error occurred while placing your order and it never reached our processing system. Please accept our apology for this inconvenience, but we would like you to phone your order to 513-354-1511. We are currently checking our system and feel this error may occur again, so we would like to extend a $5.00 coupon. Please just let our phone representative know we have extend this offer to you. If we can be of further assistance please feel free to contact us."
Yeah right, I don't think so...

I ordered $362.39 from this company based on their beautiful catalog. Because I had so many different product numbers I filled out the order from their web site. Printed it out and mailed it with a check. A few weeks later I received a bill for $3.01. Since I had used their information, their prices and the total from their order sheet I felt this $3.01 was an error. After 5 emails over a period of 6 weeks trying to clear this matter, I gave up and just told them to cancel my order and send a refund. The last response from them was to refuse the order and a refund would be issued. To date they still owe me about $100.00. Their excuse was they had a large Customer Service staff and could not keep track of my complaints. When I said either forget the $3.01 since it was their total, or send me a refund...I do not see what there was not to keep track of. Gardening is not a cheap hobby, and this turned into a "principle of the thing" issue.

I ordered about $25 worth of a combination of alliums and daffodils through Breck's Bulbs. Boy was that a mistake!!!! When the bulbs arrived, half of the alliums were missing in the sealed package and the daffodils were much smaller than I would have expected. The alliums that did arrive were of sub-par quality. Some have rotted and totally dried out. So I was left with 15 good alliums to plant. Mind you, I ordered 50 of them. ANYONE ORDERING FROM BRECK'S SHOULD BE CAUTIONED. You will do so much better by going to a local Home Depot or Lowe's and buy better quality bulbs than ordering from Breck's.

Be aware that this company does not refund postage even if the product they send is unusable. I received some bearded Iris and they arrived completely dessicated. I called the company and they immediately said that, of course, they would send replacements right away. Unfortunately, the Iris were not sent and it is too late to plant them now. I wrote them again and asked for a refund, which they were willing to give me, BUT they were NOT willing to refund postage even though the plants had not been usable from the beginning. The policy should be more clearly stated since it seems unusual and not in the interest of the consumer.

Is this the worst experience with Breck's yet? They OVER charged my credit card by $155.09! I ordered $50.83 in merchandise then used a $25 online coupon. My total should've been $25.82 - I was charged $180.91. My e-mail order confirmation states this total. I am waiting to see a positive resoloution to this. (Luckily, I have a good credit card company that I should be able to work out a charge back with.)

The bulbs take a really long time to arrive. This time around, they seem small. I've been able to find most of the bulbs I am interested in at local stores around me and for less money. (Tulips don't grow well in my area, so I like to stick to the Daffs, Crocuses, and Irises.)

I ordered Anemones, Tulips and Crocuses using their enticing coupon for free goodies (Buy $25 and get $25 worth free). I ordered in May, they cashed my check and mailed me a card saying to expect my bulbs Sept 8-Oct 8. Today is Oct 15 and I have seen neither hide nor hair of my order. I emailed them and they said they have to come from Holland and pass through customs, blah, blah, blah. They added that they have til Oct 31st to deliver my order. Seeing how they KNEW all this PRIOR to accepting my order and cashing my check, WHY did they wait sooooooo long to send for my order!!! I will NEVER order from this company again. It is yet to be seen if I will actually get my order or not and/or how much difficulty I will have getting a refund for my non-received order!! This is to me the same as Direct Gardening--they offer and promise a LOT and deliver very LITTLE!! I recently ordered with a group of people all over the nation from Brent & Becky's Bulbs and even though I had to wait for the person who ordered (lives in Tx-I in SC) to ship[ them on to me I have received those and planted them!! I am VERY happy with Brent & Becky's Bulbs and WILL order again!! In fact, I have a new order all ready to go when I have the funds!!!

I received a catalog from Brecks this past April, and thinking I was ordering bulbs that I would receive within a couple of weeks, put in about a $40 order for bulbs. Well, it wasn't until well into spring I realized that the order wasn't going to get here until AFTER August - so much for the lilies I wanted to plant this summer.

In mid September, I emailed their customer service asking where my order was, they replied that I could expect my shipment anytime between mid October and mid December. Here in zone 5 I like to get bulbs in no later than mid October because you never know when you're going to get snow. I emailed customer service back and said that if I didn't receive the shipment by mid October, then they could cancel it.

Well, I received the shipment of bulbs the first week in October. The bulbs were packaged OK, but I many were small and I noticed a number of bulbs with bruises and with the paperskin falling off - they certainly didn't live up to the advertised description. I planted all of them immediately. Well see if they come up next year.

Would I order from Brecks again? Probably not - unless they had something I REALLY had to have and couldn't find it anywhere else. I don't feel the product lives up to it's advertisement, and having been in business for myself - their customer service needs a lot of work.

I ordered this year with a $20-off coupon, and received my bulbs (allium and ipheion) on October 6. The bulbs look fine, and are the size advertised. However, I consider Breck's to be severely overpriced without the coupon - I can get bulbs of this size/quality or better from at least two other bulb companies, at a much lower price.

Like another member I too ordered OL with a credit card, ordering in early August with expected ship date of Sept 20th 2004 to coincide with other plants coming in- with bulbs to be underplanted. Lo and behold, after 2 e-mails, find out that the bulbs haven't even shipped and now it's October 1st and being told cannot cancel order and will be 3-8 weeks before delivery! No where do they warn "customers" of the delivery calendar. I will NEVER order from these people again and strongly encourage others NOT to BUY from them. In seeing their opening statement- kinda fits the pattern- had terrible response to e-mails, poor shipments (some plants arrived out of their pots; others arrived not as advertised) and now have dead plantings from Springhill and Michigan Bulb- so much for their customer service and of course they can offer 100% guarantee on their plants- they don't respond to compliants!

About 15 years ago I dealt with this company when I lived in another state and received satisfactory service. Boy, have they changed. I order some bulbs for fall planting on August 29, 2004. I ordered online using a credit card. I figured I would get them faster that way. So this week I emailed them and asked when to expect delivery. Well, they said not for 8 to 10 weeks. That puts the bulbs here sometime mid-November. Too late to plant. Ground will be frozen by them. No luck with customer service. I told Customer service they should tell their customers that it will take FOREVER to get the bulbs. I am on a fixed income and have little money to spend on bulbs and now won't have any for spring flowering.

I place two orders with Breck's this spring and experienced difficulty with both of them. They were having problems pulling orders off of the internet and processing them, so my bulbs came late after I made a phone call. They were polite and gave me a discount after we figured out what was going wrong.
I gave them the benefit of the doubt and place another order for summer bulbs. That was a mistake. Half of the begonias I ordered turned out to be duds, they sent me the wrong dahlias, and two dinnerplate dahlia bulbs were shriveled upon arrival. They quickly refunded some of my money after I placed a call and customer service was polite, but I won't be placing orders with them following these inconveniences.

Beware! Does not honor coupons listed on Web site. Ordered plants on 5/10 with a "$20 off coupon on any order" as listed on Web site. All the information was filled and order was confirmed. After several emails they tell me the coupon is not valid and I will have to reorder at full price and expect shipment next Spring. Never had the courtesy to contact me.

I wish I had found this website last year!! I first tried a grab bag of bulbs advertised on Gardens Alive, almost none of the tulips came - I thought maybe it was b/c it was a discount bag. So I gave them a second chance and placed a large order of dahlias, begonias & the geranium & mum collections this spring....it took weeks and weeks! It was a disaster keeping the spots weeded for the bulbs and mulching around everything. Like other people here I called (3 times) for information and was told they were shipped from Holland, but could get no information/confirmation. I never got an email that things were back-ordered. As a result many of the bulbs won't make it, it is mid-June and I am missing color in large parts of my garden. In fact they just shipped the mums in JUNE, >2 months after I ordered! Customer service was also not helpful and clearly doesn't know a thing about gardening!

I have read several of the other reviews for this company written by gardeners who also ordered bulbs around February 2004. I want to state that my experience with Brecks has been completely similar to the last reviewer's, in that the bulbs never arrived in the time frame specified, and the customer service people kept telling me that the bulbs were in transit from the Netherlands. I was corresponding with them via e-mail, as they do not have a toll-free customer service number, and the e-mails took over a week, and never seemed to clearly answer the questions I asked. I would then write back to clarify what they had told me, and wait another week for an answer almost as bad as the first e-mail. I finally received a phone call two weeks into May (too late to be receiving the bulbs), stating that they had misaddressed my package of Glads, and the post office had been unable to deliver them. I was very upset, and asked them if they could trace the package. I was told that I had only two option: a credit, or I could wait until 2005 for my Gladiola bulbs. I told the rep that neither of these was satisfatory, and that I wanted the bulbs I ordered now. I asked if there was a supervisor that I could speak to, but I was told there was not. I called back later to see if anyone else might provide better customer service. I spoke to a much more understanding rep, but she could do no more than tell me that there was no USPS tracking #, but she gave me the Brecks tracking # for the package, which of course did me no good. Brecks did not even know where my package was, and was not willing to re-ship it if it came back to them. A week later I received 1/2 of an order of iris which was supposed to have arrived in mid March. The bulbs had all sprouted, and there was no notification as to why only half the order was shipped. I sent an e-mail inquiring and two weeks later got half a reply. I will also never order from Brecks Bulbs after these experiences. And, when I told them so, they did not seemed very concerned.

I never ordered from Breck's, but just looking at the catalog warns me. Some of the pictures are obviously messed with. Who has ever seen a pure pink, not salmon, daffodil? If you want good bulbs, try sellsonic, I work for the company that supplies to them

I ordered Parrot Tulips from this company last summer with a "20 Dollars off your order" coupon I received with the catalog. The catalog was beautiful and they really bragged about the size and quality of the bulbs so I decided to use the coupon and since the bulbs and the shipping were under 20 dollars I got them for free. I still feel ripped off. The bulbs were okay when received but to be honest I was a little dissappointed, I have gotten better bulbs at a discount chain. But again they were free so I figured maybe they would dazzle me come Spring. Wrong again. Out of the 15 bulbs only 4 have come up and they are about 6 inches tall with no signs of the other 10 following suit. I have made multiple attempts to contact Breck's with no response. They claim to have a "refund or replacement" policy but I don't seem to be privy to that. I wouldn't mind a replacement but at this point I wouldn't ever spend actual money with them. This was the first time I had purchased any bulbs or plants through the mail. I am a little jaded now. Maybe I should just stick with the garden centers and feed stores in my area.

In the summer of 2002 I ordered a variety of bulbs from Breck's. They arrived well after our ground was too frozen to plant and under 2' of snow. There was a problem with the order, and they sent an unacceptable substitute for one of the requests, which they admittedly compensated me for. However, the remaining bulbs were unable to be planted until the spring. Only 2 of about 100 bulbs came up, and only 1 flowered which turned out to be the wrong type. I contacted the company repeatedly and they sent gift certificates to use for the fall of 2003, which I did, making sure to send in the order very early. Above and beyond the certificates I owed them 58 cents, so I sent a check for that amount. They sent back a check for 58 cents and cancelled the order without telling me. After several attempts to contact them, they sent the complaint to Henry Fields, a company which has yet to respond to my last email in November 2003 explaining that I want a full refund for the certificates that got cancelled out of hand, not bulbs which would obviously arrive way beyond too late for planting another year.

In the past, both my mother and myself have ordered from Breck's Bulbs and been quite satisfied; however, I placed an order this fall over the internet that was NOT successful. I received bulbs from Van Bourgondien ordered on the same day, but not Breck's. About six weeks after placing my order & not receiving any bulbs, I contacted them by email, asking the status of my order. I gave them my name and order number. Several days later, I received a reply that said they needed my address with zip code. At this point, I told them I was considering the order cancelled(it was too late to plant by this time), & giving them all my information. I received a reply that said that they had made an error and my order had not been placed in their processing system. Since I can get bubls cheaper elsewhere, I probably won't order again from Breck's.

Ordered in August, website stated the order would be shipped for an appropriate planting for my zone. It was "in processing" as of Sept 2. It was never received. When I emailed to question why, I was told 4 to 6 weeks for shipping. Mid October, still "in processing", and I sent another email. They replied that my credit card had been declined. Funny, I have a "Brecks Bulbs" charge on the statement. When I advised them of that, they haven't answered. In December I received a postcard stating that one of the bulbs I ordered was out of stock and here was a $5 off coupon. I filed it in the trash. Never again.