Comments regarding Gurney's Seed & Nursery

Gurneys practices deceptive billing practices.

My experience with Gurneys was extremely negative. I gave them a nice order upon Gurneys promise that they would honor a discount. But once I ordered Gurneys did not stay true to their word. Gurneys breached their agreement even though I have it from Gurneys in writing. I recommend you never trust Gurneys and what their customer service reps tell you. Their team seems skilled and coordinated in giving the run-around. It is obvious they have practiced this skill. Gurneys mistates their intenttions which is a very deceptive business practice. I know it is Gurneys standard operating procedure because I have dealt with five different customer service employees up to the floor supervisory-level and they all practiced a common deceptive scheme - the same stated intentions and then the run-around. In conclusion, I recomment you never trust what Gurneys employees tell you even if you get it promised in writing. Gurneys personnel are not worthy of trust. From Mike in Downingtown, PA.

"On May 18, 2010 11:01 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for taking the time to post. We appreciate the feedback to better serve our customers. A customer service representative will be contacting you for your account information."

GURNEY'S- I want to start off by saying that Gurney's customer service is, in fact quite good. They replace plants when they die, and send them along at a reasonable time. That being said, some plants I have received from them have been quite bad, with very little chance of ever growing well. I bought some Saskatoons which were great; no problems at all, and loaded with fruit every year. Strawberries (mixed bag) were also fine, not great, but fine. American Plums were also good, but no fruit after three years.
On the flip side I bought ten Manchurian Apricot plants and have thus far been quite disappointed. First of all, I was sent twigs. They were advertised as 1' seedlings- however this measurement must include the roots, because, by my ruler, all were well under the advertised height. The trees are now in their fourth leaf, and have been cared for perfectly. All are still alive, amazingly, but are now only two to three feet tall. (one is about four feet) I do not expect any fruit for about a decade, much much longer than advertised. Also the American Persiommons have been replaced by them twice, each time the replacement plants were worse. I do expect them to grow, yet gurney's they said will not replace them again, which is I feel they should. Bottom line: only order plants from Gurney's that you've heard good things about, or better yet, order from someone else.

"On May 6, 2010 11:22 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

We appreciate you taking the time to post. We are always here to assist in any way we can. I apologize for the the problems with your plants and a customer service representative will be contacting you."

Unbelievable. Customer rep decides to start an argument. I sure hope they taped this one.
Sad to say this is the first time I have had a bad experience with Gurney's. In the past they have always been curtious. I called about a shipment status. I had a apple tree die over the winter. I had originally purchased it in 2009. I waited as long as I could, giving the tree the benefit of the doubt. When I was sure it had died, I called for a replacement. The women was VERY KIND and understanding, she would personally take care of the replacement and get it out ASAP. I felt very bad about even having to call for a replacement, but the woman was so kind and assured me it was no problem. I was very pleased. I waited a week and thought I would just check about the shipment since she had mentioned it would be out in a day or two. I called customer service and a very abrupt man told me 'its on back order, it'll be shipped in 2011'. I told him I wasn't to happy about missing the growing season for 2009, and now also missing another growing season 2010. By 2011 this particular tree will be 2 years behind the rest of the orchard. For some unkown reason, he began to argue with me that it wasn't going to be 2 years, that I had ordered the tree in 2009, it died, and I was going to get it in 2011. I told him, 'exactly right. Two years.' He began to get insistant telling me 'its not two years.... on and on. Yes I got angry with him, as he went on and on. As he became more and more unkind,treating me like I was an idiot, I guess I probably did the same to him. He was extremely unprofessional. All I wanted to ask him if there was something he could do to maybe have the tree shipped this year? There is still time for planting here. Couldn't get that out, he just wanted to argue. Very unusual treatment concidering I have been an exclusive customer for the past several years. I am going to go with Burgess in the future. Sure they don't have a lifetime guarentee, but the prices are half. If it dies I will replace it on my own dime without the HASSLE. Sorry.

"On May 4, 2010 11:27 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

We appreciate you taking the time to post. We are always here to assist in any way we can. I apologize for the trouble you had with one of our agents and a customer service representative will be contacting you to take care of this."

Woah! Reading all the comments above, I understand more. 50 catalogs in my tiny p.o. box, Ugly pink coating of fungicide on the pea seeds. Even as recently as last year, I have had only good things to say about Gurneys. But I don't think I'm going to go there again....

"On Apr 19, 2010 5:14 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your feedback. A customer service representative will be contacting you for more information and will take care of any problems you are having."

Placed order on April 8. Still not shipped. Emailed to customer services but got no answer expect received many junk emails from them that promoting their products . Terrible services.

"On Apr 19, 2010 5:12 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your feedback. We apologize for the trouble you are having with your order. A customer service representative will be contacting you for more information and will take care of any problems you are having."

I have placed 2 orders with Gurney's this spring, the 1st order still has not been shipped complete and the 2nd (Larger order) has not had one single item shipped against the order placed over 2 weeks ago. Their customer service is horribly deficient, there is no phone number to call other than an automated system and all e-mails to customer service go unanswered. To sum it up - You cannot check on an order on the web-site. You cannot call and talk to a person and all e-mails to customer service will go unanswered. I saved a few dollars but have nothing to show for it (Plants) other than aggravation.

"On Apr 15, 2010 11:35 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your feedback. We apologize for the trouble you are having with your orders. A customer service representative will be contacting you for more information and will take care of any problems you are having with your orders."

First, they don't tell you that certain items won't be shipped for many months. You have to call and check on your order to find out that an item you ordered in March won't be shipped until October. Then, the items that are due to ship right away take 3-4 weeks before they actually ship. And then they don't arrive for 5-7 days after that because they ship by UPS ground, so be prepared to wait at least a month for your order to come. (How come Amazon can get me my books, with standard shipping, in as little as two days?)

"On Apr 15, 2010 10:07 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for you feedback. We apologize for the inconvenience. We do ship our items in a timeframe as recognized by the USDA, however as it is zip code specific certain elevations and microclimates are not recognized. Feel free to tell the agent when ordering the next time to adjust your ship date to accommodate your needs, and as long as we are shipping that item somewhere in the US, we can ship it to you earlier or later than we suggest.
"

Yet again when ordering their Sugar Pearls apricot it was not delivered. I never received a call or email stating that it was sold out even though I ordered it in November of 2009. The other plants I ordered arrived after being diverted to the post office by UPS even though I am constantly getting packages delivered to my house by UPS. The trees were small and of mediocre quality. All were alive this time unlike a few previous orders where some were obviously dead or damaged before being sent. I'm done with the whole Gardens Alive operation and their poor quality. I will give my business to a company that cares about its quality and customer service more in the future.

"On Mar 31, 2010 2:14 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience we may have caused. We will be contacting you for your account information and take care of any concens that you have."

Part of my order was sent in a large bag. It contained bushes, raspberries, onion sets, potatoes, and some other items. The large nature of the bag allowed items to move around during shipping to the point that the bushes were all broken off to where I am uncertain if they will survive. Also, the potatoes I ordered contained two pieces that were rotten, wet puddles of slime. I'm currently waiting for the rest of the pieces to dry out to see if any others are begininng to rot or just covered with the crud from the other ones.
Yes, I know that they have a guarantee, but I don't want to send in my original receipt to get replacements on these items until I know if the other things in the order are going to grow or not. So, it looks like I will lose a growing season on the damaged items.
I've order from Gurney's for years and been satisfied. However, after receiving this shipment, I doubt that I will be their customer any longer. Poor packaging and rotten products are not what I look for in a company.

"On Mar 31, 2010 11:44 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. We will be contacting you for your account information so we can take care of this for you."

Forget about customer service unless you can understand India call center english! I placed my order 12 days ago and recieved 2 different emails with tracking numbers. 1 for USPS with my blue palm and seeds on it but missing my goji berry. The next day the 2nd tracking number came from UPS with a direct link through Gurney missing both my palm and my goji berry but had my seeds on it! Now even though the palm showed on the 1st order as shipped, and not on the 2nd doesnt matter because both tracking numbers were invalid numbers!!!! I had a business untill the economy went bust. I shipped parts out everyday, so I know how shipping works. It was never shipped or scaned anywhere other than in their system. So I called the "to place an order line" at Gurney after I failed to understand the guy in India. I talked to a flunkie at Gurney and then a so-called manager. The rude unhelpful so called manager/employee could not explain to me where or why he didnt have a valid tracking number let alone any helpful info or attiude! He pretty much blew me off and I exploded in unbecoming language. I talked to a total of 3 people who were all as evasive as possible by directly not answering my questions! (They were running me in circles! ) So I said I wanted to cancel my order. He said, "I can't cancel your order because it was already shipped"! I had to wait and see if it shows. The manager and every other person I talked to could not provide me with a valid tracking number, or tell me where it was shipped from or when. In my opinion buyer beware! This can not be the same company my family and I have ordered off of for years! I have spent maybe $2,000 with them over the years. This is it for me, I will never again buy from them! I have had minor problems before but never like this! Good luck to all maybe I slipped through the cracks (more than likely), but I wont support India call centers and take the risk to be treated this way again!

"On Mar 19, 2010 11:06 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience we may have caused. We will be contacting you for your account information and to make sure you have received your order. We will also and take care of the other concens that you have."

Posted on January 14, 2010, updated March 10, 2010
Posted on December 24, 2009, updated January 13, 2010
A couple of years ago I began scouring the web for plants that my local nurseries could not provide. Gurneys was the 1st online nursery that I used. Initially I thought that some of their idiosyncracies were common of all online nurseries, but I've since found that that is definitely not the case.

I've placed many order with Gurneys & in some cases things have gone well. But there are far too many negatives for me to consider ordering from them ever again.

1). You simply cannot rely on your order being fulfilled. I've gotten many postcards stating that my order for "x" cannot be fulfilled & has been cancelled. If you are planning for the following spring then this type of situation is very undesirable.
2). The timing info on the website is notoriously unreliable.
3). Their stock is quite inferior to the competitors that I've used (smaller, in other words).
4). If you call to get the status of "x", getting the true story is quite difficult. I'll give an example. I called in September to confirm whether any of my orders would ship in the 3rd week of October while I was on a Caribbean cruise. Gurneys said "No, nothing will ship until November at the earliest". Alright then, no worries. On the 2nd day of my cruise I checked my email & found a shipment notification from Gurneys. So - I had to beg a friend to come to the house & take care of the plants that had arrived. The plants cost $40 or so. Out of guilt I gave the guy a bottle of Grey Goose vodka for his trouble.
5). The status of refunds for cancelled orders is very fuzzy. I've seen other people post reviews of a similar nature, so I won't elaborate. I can't prove it because I haven't done the required credit card statement research, but I'm quite certain that I've paid for many things that I've never received.
6). They don't clearly define what they ship sometimes. For example, I ordered the Gurneys choice special for strawberries. I called to determine exactly what type they were. Didn't know. Weren't labelled. Other nurseries label EVERYTHING, I've since come to find.

Gurneys isn't terrible. But without a doubt they are way behind their competition.

"On Jan 5, 2010 11:46 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience we may have caused. We will be contacting you to see what we can do to help rectify the problems you have had.

I was sooooo disappointed.
I purchased several trees, starts, bare root bushes, and some plants. The plants did quite well overall, but that's about where it ended. I spent quite a bit on trees and bushes, only to have (1) tree survive. The starts were 50/50 with the asparagus doing alright...but the rhubarb did not survive. None of the bushes have thrived. With about a 30% loss on the bushes, the survivors simply have not thrived.
I've done the "due diligence" with the soil, moisture, mulch...you name it, but it did not seem to matter. About 70% loss.
I can't in good conscience recommend them...but, I may give them another shot at a later date. But not this year.

"On Feb 26, 2010 11:26 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

We always do our best to strive for customer satisfaction. Your feedback is greatly appreciated to help us improve our products and service to our customers. A customer service representative will be contacting you personally and we will be happy to reship the items that did not survive."

Like so many others, I used Gurney's when they were still in South Dakota, but since the ownership change and after reading all the comments here, I would not dare use them again. Money is too hard to come by to gamble it on a company that may or may not perform and doesn't properly respond customer's complaints. The "Boilerplate" comments left by the company in response to each Negative comment, doesn't help. I have the Gurney Catalog on my desk right now, but I think I am going elsewhere. All I can say is I miss the old company and say Goodbye.

"On Jan 18, 2010 5:58 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

We always do our best to strive for customer satisfaction. We are always here to answer any question you may have. Your feedback is greatly appreciated to help us improve our products and service to our customers. A customer service representative will be contacting you personally."

Many years ago, in our first home, we magically received a Gurney's catalog -- and it was one of the best things that happened to our family -- 30 years ago. We ordered seeds, plants, and even chicks and all was wonderful.
Now, we guess 32 years later, nothing is wonderful about Gurneys. Having been living in England, then in Utah, we returned to the east coast. We were starting a new garden. So we went to Gurney's web-site. Our order -- designed to meet our new planting schedule came to our post office box so out of phase that we had to pot blueberry plants in our garage -- just to keep them alive until our ground was frost-free. Many items on our order became "Not Available" or were shipped at the wrong time. Finally, their customer support is based in India -- an American Seed Company who cannot find a housewife or two in North Dakota to talk to me?
But, the worst thing was Gurney's sold our name. There was a typo in our address -- a little thing, but enough to know when we got another seed catalog or other offering that we knew who had "sold us". Now we get offerings from not only seed and plant companies, but from "The Classic Composers" who sent us a CD for "free".
It seems that Gurney's sells seeds and plants as a side-line, but it's real business is selling lists of names.
So, if you are silly enough, as we were, to order from the current "Gurney's" be prepared to have your mailbox stuffed with offers from any company who buys lists.
We, by choice, read our chosen newspapers on line, receive no printed bank statements or credit card statements -- all our transactions are paperless. Now, thanks to Gurney's whole forests of trees are being destroyed to send us catalogs we did not request and do not want. This really makes us very angry. If you do not want to be covered in excess paper, avoid!

"On Jan 11, 2010 2:17 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience we may have caused. We will be contacting you to see what we can do to help rectify the problems you have had"

I will NEVER order from Gurney's again! On 02/07/09, I placed a phone order for 8 bunches of Candy onion plants to be sent the week of 05/18/09. When I didn't have them that week, I called on 05/29/09 and talked to a Rachel, who said they don't ship past 06/11/09 and it didn't show they were out of stock, so I could expect them the week of 06/19 to 06/23. I mentioned that Gurney's had charged my credit card on 02/09/09, and she said they (and more companies) are doing this now. I told her I had never had a co. do this to me and I won't do business with any companies that do.

When I didn't receive the order by 6/17/09, I called the co. again, and a Shawn (who had a definite dialect) said the order was shipped on 06/05/09 and that the delay was by the carrier, that it was in Illinois in transit.

On 06/20/09, I talked to a Debbie, who said it didn't show any tracking other than vendor shipped it 06/05/09 by U.S. Mail, so she didn't see how the person I talked to on 06/17 could have tracked it to Illinois. I asked if they outsourced, and she said, "Sometimes, if it is busy." She suggesed I wait a few more days, and if I didn't have the order by then or if it was in bad shape, to call back. She said they could give me a credit for next year for more since they aren't available anymore this year.

I told her I wasn't going to call back as I had already spent too much on phone calls since they don't have an 800 number and that they have had my money for over 4 months now, so she had me hold until she talked to a supervisor. She came back on the line and said they would credit my account, and if I did receive the onion plants, then "Merry Christmas."

When I told our Postmistress about it supposedly being sent U.S.PS., she had me fill out a "Mail Recovery Center Search Request" and sent it for me, but nothing was found (nor did I expect that it would).

Not only did I not have any plants to give to my grandchildren to plant for a 4-H project for their fair, but I won't have any through the winter like I always count on as no one in our area stores had any onion sets or plants left by the time I found out I wouldn't be getting my order. I wish I had checked your ratings earlier to see that Gurney's have more negative than positive feedback.

"On Aug 18, 2009 10:16 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. Our company is based on 100% Customer Service. I will be contacting you for more details to help rectify the problem."

I can almost echo the same complaints of other posted negative comments. I placed an order in March 2009 through US mail with check enclosed for a dwarf pomegranate. The check cleared the bank. Near the end of the shipping schedule for my zone, I had not received my order. Sent an e-mail to customer service, received an apology for the inconvenience and was told a re-ship would arrive in 2-3 weeks. Didn't receive the re-ship near the 3rd week, send 2nd e-mail and was told the delivery date would be March 2010! Requested refund, was informed to expect refund in 30 days. After reading the posted comments, I am not very hopeful that I'll actually receive a refund.

"On Jul 1, 2009 10:12 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience we may have caused. Our Customer Service Team is checking into the issue you had with your order and will do our best to rectify the problem in a timely manner. We will be contacting you directly with a resolution. "

I had planned to do quite a bit of ordering online this year, collected catalogs and decided to order from Gurneys. Long story short.. I order a cherry tree, blueberry and some raspberries.
Did not get the cherry tree shipped notice and called to find out. They happily told me that it would not ship until fall. In Colorado that is the worst time to plant a tree, we are too dry during the winter, we have irrigation now!! Confirmed this via my local nursery. Was told by Gurnerys that I could not get a refund until the rest of the ordered arrived....waited...waited and then called with plans of exchanging the tree for some blackberries.Told the person that, and 45 minutes later was told that a check would be in the mail, what, I asked to exchange for berrys?? opps she messed up and canceled the order...no going back.. Was not able to get the berries unless I did a "new" transaction to buy them with my credit card..
BTW I paid originally with a CC....6 weeks later, still waiting for the "Check" and 10.00 we are sorry coupon was promised....contacted them again and smuggly told that they had refunded my cc weeks ago? Ok..great communication here!
My thoughts....
1) Henry Fields, Gurneys, Springhill Nursey are all owned by the same mother company a Scarlett something or other.
2) Customer service is terrible!
3) Website sucks... does not really tell you the RIGHT date item will ship... so only THEY know... Also the website does not let you know that items are OUT OF STOCK,,and will sell them to you. Am ecommerce web developer and these 2 options are easy peasy to fix! No excuse there unless you want to get peoples money and fix it later, in my mind
I order alot of items online, not just gardening stuff and this experience was bar none, the most unpleasant and a bit maddening!
If you do order, I would recommend calling to make sure you are informed of shipping dates and stock levels... not the website

"On Jul 1, 2009 10:14 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

I apologize for not replying sooner as I have been out of the office. Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience we may have caused. Our Customer Service Team is checking into the issue you had with your order and will do our best to rectify the problem in a timely manner. We will be contacting you directly with a resolution. "

I ordered sweet potato plants from this company back in December of 2008. Product, according to the invoice, was packaged on May 5th. However, it was not shipped until June 5th. Obviously, the plants were completely dead and moldy when they arrived.
After several failed attempts to contact the company over the phone, I was able to reach customer service over email. The company did agree to a full refund, however the amount of the refund was almost half of what I had been charged for the product.
I have yet to see any refund at all, much less the paid price for the dead plant material.
I had been a loyal customer of this company for many years prior to this bad experience with their customer service.

"On Jun 19, 2009 10:09 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience we may have caused. Our Customer Service Team is checking into the issue you had with your order and will do our best to rectify the problem in a timely manner. We will be contacting you directly with a resolution. "

My advise is don't do business with Gurney's.

However if you do decide to do business with Gurney's don't order online, instead order over the phone. The website does not reflect actual inventory. If Gurneys is out of a product and you order online you will not be notified. Also they send out their refund as a check in the mail. Example I ordered two apple trees among other items and they were out of stock on the apple trees and I was not notified. I was told I would not get my refund for the apple trees until the last item in the order is shipped. My order was placed on 4/26/09 and I did not start receiving my order until 5/17/09. I did not receive all of the items in my order until 6/10/09. Today is 6/12/09 and they have not mailed out my refund check yet.

Also their after hours phone support is in India. Need I say more.

As far as their product goes the strawberry's that were shipped to me were in a descent condition but not the greatest. I had about a 75% success ratio. The bare root trees that I ordered were no more than a twig. I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping they sprout and survive.

"On Jun 19, 2009 10:07 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our sincere apology for any inconvenience we may have caused. Our Customer Service Team is checking into the issue you had with your order and will do our best to rectify the problem in a timely manner. We will be contacting you directly with a resolution. "

I ordered from them over the past 2 years. Overall, only the strawberries grew well. Everything else was subpar for the price they were charging. The almond tree was promised to be 2-4' and all I got was a 1' stick which was dead. Money-back guarantee is FAKE. While they are pretty good at sending replacements, if you ask for your money back, they'll only offer a replacement certificate (or plant replacement). This happened when I asked for a refund. Instead, they send me a replacement cert! I advise sticking with your local garden centers. I've found much bigger/healthier plants usually lower prices at places like Home Depot and Costco.

"On Jun 8, 2009 1:40 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your inquiry. Please accept our apology for any inconvenience we may have caused you, and we ask that you consider giving us one more opportunity to provide you with world class service. Please understand that our company is based on 100% Customer Service. We are trained and qualified to answer any questions you may have or assist you with any problems that may arise."

Never never never again.

I ordered three items about two weeks ago. I got an email with a link to check the status of my order. I was not too happy to see that two of the items were going to be shipped in the fall -- not the best time for planting here in cold New England (indeed, now, June 1 is ideal,,,,,)

Wondering where the other item was I went to the web site using the link. It only showed one item, and back ordered till fall. I could not see if other items had been shipped or not.

I called, and went through auto attendant hell, till I got a human (likely not in the US) who could not have cared less. He informed me that the other two items were now out of stock and been cancelled. I asked why I had not been sent an email to that effect. He mildly apologized, but said that is how their system works.

I cancelled the rest of the order, made sure I am off their mailing list, and will never consider them again. I would rather pay a bit extra for good service to a company that cares about its customers.

I have been a long time Gurney's customer. Last April, I ordered 6 raspberry plants. 3 were dead upon arrival. I scheduled a replacement that was supposed to be shipped this spring. I called to check its progress in April and was told that it would ship out at the end of April. I called again in the middle of May to find that they had cancelled the order. They said that they had sold out---- apparently it is company policy to ship new orders before reshipments. They said they could send me the plants next spring- ?!?!?!

I requested a reimbursement, tried to cancel another order I had going with them (they suspiciously said that it had shipped out already that day- fine- I will refuse delivery), cancelled all catalogues, and removed my email address from their mailing list. I am finished with Gurney's and, because they are a sister company, with Henry Field's as well. They didn't even apologize! Terrible customer service.

We just sent a letter to Gurney's:

WE ORDERED FROM YOUR COMPANY (USING A DIFFERENT NAME) ABOUT 4 YEARS AGO AND YOUR SERVICE WAS BAD, SO WE UTILIZED OTHER ONLINE COMPANIES. WE OWN OUR OWN LANDSCAPING COMPANY AND TRIED A SMALL ORDER FOR OUR HOME GARDENING FROM YOU THIS TIME AND YOU HAVE VERY BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE.

DO YOU KNOW THAT THE TIME IT TOOK YOU TO SHIP OUR ORDER, WAS TOTALLY UNACCEPTIBLE AND UNBELIEVABLE. IF I PROVIDED THAT SAME SERVICE, I WOULD NOT HAVE A CONTRACT AT ALL.

YOU ALLOWED US TO ORDER ALL THAT MERCHANDISE; WHILE YOU KNOW YOUR INVENTORY AND DID NOT SAY THAT MUCH OF IT WAS NOT IN STOCK.

I HAVE MY OWN CALENDAR/FREE TIME AND SCHEDULE, BUT YOU SHIPPED WHEN IT WAS BEST FOR YOU AND WHEN MY BUSINESS DID NOT ALLOW TIME TO BARELY GET MY OWN PLANTING DONE.

YOU SHIPPED THE ORDER IN PARTS; REMINDING ME THE OTHERS WOULD FOLLOW OR YOU (FINALLY) DID NOT HAVE IT AT ALL!

BUSINESS IS BUSINESS AND YOU JUST SHOULD NOT ALLOW THE ORDER TO GO THRU IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE PRODUCT; AS THERE ARE MANY OTHER GREAT SUCH SERVICES ONLINE TO CHOOSE FROM.

YOUR SERVICE SUCKS!!!

This company cannot get an order shipped to the correct address. A month and a half and and 6 phone calls later I have no seeds yet, and they should be in the ground by now. The one thing they did get to me was yellow onions. The problem is , I wanted red onions. Seems they were out of those so they decided yellow would be okay. WRONG .... When you call, they cannot help because COMPANY POLICY , prohibits them from giving a refund or sending another shipment because the order they shipped to the wrong address has not gotten back to them. UPS tracking numbers don"t work and they give me phone numbers to call to try and locate the package.Why should I do their work, I made no mistake. Then they get rude and say I'm going to put you on hold, and leave you there, never to return. AVOID THIS COMPANY . THERE ARE COMPANIES OUT THERE THAT ARE REPUTABLE, AND HAVE CUSTOMER SERVICE DEPARTMENTS THAT WILL HELP YOU WHEN THERE IS A PROBLEM. This company is an internet / mail order company that only exists on paper. It is afiliated with several other questionable entities which also have more negative reviews than positive reviews. You can do much better, stay away from this company.

Oh, where do I start with this horrible experience? When we started getting catalogs this Winter, we began the long process of careful planning for our garden this Spring and for future harvests of nuts, fruits and berries. Gurney's use to be in South Dakota so we decided to place our order with them. That was our FIRST mistake! I had an original order for over $350.00 but when I phoned in the order on 30 March 2009, many of the items on my list were not available. [I am on my knees saying prayers for Divine intervention for that!] I placed an order that came to $264.70 on 30 March 2009. That amount was charged to my credit card on 30 March 2009. I waited, waited and waited. Finally I got #69937 Watermelon seeds and #69948 Gotta Have it Sweet corn seeds. I planted the watermelon seeds in peat pots and placed them under my grow table to germinate. [We start all of our seeds and the Burpee tomato and Cucmbers were already 4 inches tall. My $4.95 packet of 12 watermelon seeds germinated one plant. I waited for the rest of my order and I finally got #15300 Candy Onion plants for $14.95. If it wasn't so awful I would be lol. They were no bigger than the eraser of a pencil! The Butternut Trees #13323 that were $9.50 each should have been listed as twigs. They were 8" tall and the diameter of a toothpick. The Contender Peach tree #65837 at the price of $31.95 was 24 inches tall and about 1/4 inch in diameter. The Heritage Raspberries #084732 cost of $10.95 at least had some size but they still have not had one leaf. I was still waiting for #65808 Honey Sweet Pear Tree for $28.95...I called Gurney's to ask about the Pear tree to find out that it was NO LONGER available. hmmmm..it was available when I placed my order and I paid for it. I asked to have the $28.95 refunded to my charge card immediately. Guess what? Gurney's has a policy of NOT REFUNDING your money to a credit card. They will issue you a refund check that you will recieve 4 to 6 weeks after YOUR FINAL order is shipped! This was 30 April 2009 and I was still waiting for shipment of 3 different potatoes, Asparagus [3 orders], Honey Berry bushes [2 orders], Sweet Potatoes [1 order], Pioneer Soft Neck Garlic [1 order] and 2 orders of their Shady Places Hosta. I was speaking to someone in the call center, three times I requested to speak to the Supervisor. Three times I was put on hold and this man would come back on the line and NO SUPERVISOR. Finally after paying for 30 minutes of long distance charges, I get to speak to "Brad". No employee id #. He was rude and abrupt. Again, I explain my concern and he said that it was the Company Policy to not refund to credit cards. I asked to Please speak to his supervisor and he told me that there was no one else to speak to-he was it. I requested a mailing address and phone number to the headquarters of Gurney's and he told me that there wasn't any mailing address or phone number. He was in charge of Customer Service. He told me that he would cancel the rest of my order and that a refund check would be sent. I requested that he send me an email with a reference number so that I could track the refund and he said that he would send me an email. I have never received an email from "Brad" as promised. On 1 May 2009 I called Gurney's Customer service again. This time I spoke to a "Crystal" who seemed to be helpful. She agreed that I should get a refund of $228.50 for the canceled order. I requested that she send me an email with a reference number and she agreed to email me. I have not received the promised email. Today, 5 May 2009 I once again phoned "Customer Service" to ask about my refund check-again put on hold, again spent 30 minutes on the phone that I paid for only to be disconnected after 30 minutes. I called back immediately and asked to be reconnected to this person only to be told that they couldn't do that and I would have to speak to the person that answered. aaarrrggg
So....I am still waiting to have my money returned to me and it comes as several checks-not one and MAYBE I might get it before July?! Oh, and the final blow is that I paid 15.95 shipping for my 2 packets of seeds and that is not refundable. This is for the $4.95 watermelon seeds that only one germinated! so, I paid $26.35 for two packets of seeds!
If I didn't need my money, If I hadn't spent hours on the phone and paying for long distance charges, If I wasn't a year behind on the growth of the trees and shrubs, etc...this would almost be funny! You couldn't make this up it is so bizarre.
Here is my advice;
NEVER consider buying anything from Gurney's or compaines owned by them. You will be very sorry and lose your money. Does anyone have a phone number or mailing address for the company Headquarters? I really need my $228.50 returned. I would also like to turn them into Better Business but I don't know which state to do it in. Should I complain to my state or who?
Happy Gardener but a shafted Gurney's EX customer,
indigosd

"On Jun 8, 2009 1:00 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

For this customer the entire matter was taken care of and she was fully refunded for her order."

I have ordered from Gurney's fairly often over the last few years, but will find another supplier next season.

First, UPS Basic is unacceptable. Tracking OFTEN shows that my items have wandered all over, literally passing through my town before landing at a distribution site three counties away. THEN they're to us sent via USPS, adding nearly a week of additional transit time. And considering the long delivery time, very expensive!

It takes them FOREVER to ship, and the estimated ship dates change almost daily. I have an order in now that will ship more than three weeks after ordering (if we're lucky!), which means that it will arrive more than a month after my order (maybe). Don't solicit business if you can't fill the orders in reasonable time!

A CSR I spoke with this week was unable to understand a word I said. He finally just said "computers down call back later."

I have (reasonably and pleasantly) expressed my problems with UPS Basic to the company when the service was begun. No use, a lot of "we're not responsible for shipping time" stuff.

Maybe if you didn't take weeks to fill the order, THEN use the worst way of shipping, your customers would be satisfied!

"On May 15, 2009 11:46 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Replies were sent to the customer on May 7,13 and 15th. A rush was applied to her order and it is shipping, gooseberries included."

Well, here we go again...
Last year I posted a negative review for Wayside Gardens. After being a loyal customer for 5 years I had a terrible experience with them (so much so that the VP of the company emailed me and apologized). I vowed to never use them again. It's a shame too, because their catalogs still come to the house and everything looks so beautiful.
This year, I decided to give Gurney's a try. I placed my order online on April 1, '09. My 13 items were supposed to ship on April 21. I thought 3 weeks was a long time, but I live in Zone 5, so I trusted them on the ship date.
Then on April 20, my order status was updated and everything was set to either ship on April 28 or May 1. That was disappointing, but I was fairly understanding about it. It was only one week later.
Today, my order status was changed again. Now some of my items are not expected to ship until May 24, while the others are not expected to ship until June 18. June???? What is going on here? I'm starting to think I am better off giving Home Depot and Lowes my money instead of these smaller internet-based companies... I'm very worried that I am going to get burned again. So far I am pretty disatisfied. 10-11 weeks for delivery is unacceptable.

Bought seeds with free root. Received root but no seeds. Customer service told me I ordered roots only. I pointed out what my order was. Rep told me they would give me a voucher. Didn't want a voucher or anything to do with Gurney Seed. Now promised a refund, but haven't received a refund. Lousy company with liars as customer reps.

Ordered 2 year asparagus heads on March 11th. Saw nothing about ship date after a few weeks so checked back the estimated shipping date awas early November. I wanted to plant in April, not store the roots through winter to plant a year later. I'm disappointed that they did not send me a note saying they were out of stock and I would have to wait 8 months for my order.

I canceled the order, crossing my fingers that they credit my card. As mentioned before, customer service was obviously over-seas. Guy could not even pronounce asparagus. I'd prefer using a company that has home grown customer service. Not using Gurney's again.

Mrch 25th 2009
We recently purchased from Gurney's, Most of the plants arrived DOA.
After several attempts by email to request a refund or replacement plants, I was finally dissapointed so bad with their Overseas customer service and couldn't understand their English, We requested a Full refund not by Check but by credit card refund.
We will not buy from company's that place american workers and american clients this low on their satisfaction list.

In January 2009, I ordered some Nanking Cherry Trees, Hanson Cherry Trees, Sweet Cherry tree and was told that they would be shipped on March 19, 2009. Well, I never did receive an email saying they were shipped so I wrote an email to Gurney's on 3/23 to see if they were shipped. I did not get a response to my inquiry so I called on the phone number on the first email confirming my order, on 3/24.

I spoke with a representative that answers the phone after you have to listen to a robot phone, and I was told that the trees were shipped on March 6 th and that they were delivered on March 20th...lol , well, I am home everyday and no-one came to deliver anything on March 20th at 8:23 AM. If they were on the truck since the 6th (bareroot) they are probably dead by now, I don't know where they were delivered to.

I was promised a new shipment that would go out on 3/24. I will post any news of my wandering cherry bushes/trees.

I did read the negative remarks before I ordered but thought they should be given a chance. Well, I was wrong.

At the beginning of January I ordered the famous apricot sugar pearls from Gurney's. On March 13th I received an e-mail that my order has shipped. Today, March 17th, when I got home, a little before sunset, I opened the carton and noticed, to my dissapointment, that the bare roots of the tree were dry. The tree had not been packaged properly - the few pages of the newspaper that were supposed to keep the roots moist were floating all over the carton. I did plant the tree immediately and watered it thoroughly, but I am not sure it will survive. I called Gurney's right away and initially they said they would send me a new tree, but later they backtracked, and said they were out of stock. You can imagine my disappointment. I hope my tree will live, but I doubt I will order from them again...

I ordered seed starting supplies, 2 lilacs and a set of hybrid tomato plants two months ago. Seed supplies shipped promptly. One lilac showed up yesterday & was 10 1/2" tall, below their 12-18" claim. It also is just one stick with no branches.
I checked to see the status of my other two items and saw the tomatoes ship in 3-4 more weeks which is fine, and the other lilac was missing from my order.
I emailed customer service and got a response saying it was "out of stock" and I should "check back on the website" to see if it was ever available. I was very unhappy because they didn't notify me of this until I asked, and there was no mention of a refund or replacement, or even a customer service # to call.
I hunted down the number here and called to ask for a substitution of a same priced lilac. They seemed clueless and had to ask me if I'd been charged, and told me they did not do substitutions. I was also told that I should get a refund but they had no record that I'd been refunded and didn't offer to give me one. After that I was a bit of a bully to my chagrin and demanded another lilac be sent. Supposedly it's on its way.
I'll keep my fingers crossed that the rest of the items I paid for arrive, but I won't be taking a chance on them again.

I used the email link to take advantage of the spend $25 - get $25 offer. The link directed me to the site and allowed me to order the items I wanted. The total met the requirement so I place the order. I did not get the discounted price. I contacted customer service and after three weekdays received a reply that because one item was given at a sale price, the whole order didn't qualify. This is deceptive and has caused me to decide not to order from Gurney's again. I picked up ordering from Gurney's when growing up and my parents ordered from them twenty plus years ago. I am, however, going to hold them to the satisfaction guarantee. I have also typically had 70% success with their products, not the 100% they boast.

I have been shopping with Gurney's for years and have had very little trouble with them untill recently. Last year when I ordered and look online or called to see when my items would be shipped they would tell me a date thru a date and then my items wouldn't show up. I would call or go online again and a diffrent date would be said for shipping. This year when I ordred ,my first order was taken then about a month later I wanted to order some more things that I forgot to order the first time . My first order showed up as ordred and my second one did not. When I called customer service I got a person that had a bad accent ,like from India ,and I could not understand her. I asked to speak to someone who spoke english and got a supervisor that was no better to understand. I hug up and emailed them to cancle my order. I refuse to do business with a conpany that is here in America and outsources American jobs and My money that I spend with them goes to a forgin country. I ordered from Farmerseed.com the things that I was going to get from Gurney's and when I asked them if they outsource thier work they said no. So my money will go to the American workers.

We placed an Internet order on 1/18/2009 for $200 of garden seeds, as well as various bushes. Today, 2/1/2009, I called Gurney's customer service to find out the status of our order. I gave the woman our Account # (found on the back of our catalog), as well as the 8-digit order number from our order confirmation. There is no record of our order nor do they have our updated address information (which I updated when I placed the order). I was told that our order number should start with a 9 and be many digits long. When I stated that this was from the order confirmation page, she told me that she had no idea what this number was for. She said that many times the Internet orders will not go through. She stated that she "hated when that happens" and she tells customers that if they don't get an order beginning with a "9" followed by a bunch of other numbers, the order didn't go "take". What???? I've now written to Gurney's customer service, so we'll see what story I get. We won't be reordering from Gurney's at any time. We'll be getting our product from local nurseries and Home Depot.

This is my first time ordering from Gurney's, and so far, I have no issues. I ordered during an email sale on 1/13/09, and got shipping confirmation on 1/15/09. The seed portion of my order arrived on 1/20/09.

I have cancelled the other (plant) portion of my order due to incorrect ordering for my garden spaces, but within minutes of emailing to cancel, I received confirmation from "Karen" that it was cancelled. They said to allow 30 days for the refund, but that's typical, and I truly expect that it won't take near that long. I will assume this is 'case closed' and a textbook positive transaction all around. Hopefully, I will remember to come back and follow up with actual refund time for DG feedback records.

Recently I ordered some blueberry plants and strawberry plants over the Internet expecting to receive the coupon rate. I made a mistake and failed to see that my order didn't total what it needed to in order to qualify for the coupon. I called their office the next day and added some corn seeds to my order. When I was quoted a price over the phone it reflected the coupon savings and was correct. However when I checked my bank account I saw that I had been billed for an additional $11.95. I called that evening and tried to find out why. The person I talked to just insisted that I hadn't been billed that much. This person did not speak very good English and so I was unable to make my concerns understood. I waited until the next day to talk to someone. They assured me there was a mistake on their part and they would send me a refund. I then got an email saying my refund would come with the rest of my order (a month later). I was really upset by this time because they took no time at all taking extra money from my account and now I had to wait a month to get it returned in the form of a check. I called again and the lady said she would make sure I would get a check the next week. I did not. I am hoping I get one. This company used to have good customer service but beware. They have changed their policies. No longer do they wait to ship the product before they bill you. They take your money immediately and if there is any mistake you are going to be the one paying for it! I urge caution when dealing with them. I am going to find another seed company to do business with.

I have ordered seeds from Gurney's several times in the past and never had issues. However, 2008 was different. I ordered twice (I forgot not to order from them again).

The customer service was fine and my seeds were fine. The shipping was awfull! It took a lot longer than I expected to get my seeds. What was really annoying was that my order was shipped via UPS in an untrackable format. Not only did the seeds not come when expected, no one knew where they were.

What was worse: they shipped a plant that way. I was expecting the plant to come UPS but it came USPS. By the time the plant got to the post office, I received the pick-up slip, and managed to get to the post office for some unexpected package the plant was on its last leg. It died.

Oh well. I am gaining a lot of experience and have found other seed companies that I am extremely pleased with.