Comments regarding Gurney's Seed & Nursery

Posted on November 9, 2014, updated November 12, 2014
How Gurney's lost a longtime customer with TERRIBLE service and failure to ship items for almost three months:
I have been purchasing from Gurney's for many years and had mostly positive experiences. This year, they lost me. I placed an order for many different bearded iris and clematis in the very beginning of September. I did not receive anything for over a month. Then, one iris at a time would arrive by itself in an envelope about three weeks apart. In November, the majority of my items had still not shipped. When I called customer service, I was told that one of the items was not available and thus, they could not ship the others!!! This is after mailing me one iris at a time for weeks. I agreed to "drop" the so-called unavailable item so that the others could ship. Of course, they had been holding on to my money since Sept. 9 without ever contacting me. Supposedly, now all my items would ship. As I write this, on Nov. 9, several items have still not shipped and each week, the order status on their site pushes back delivery by several weeks. My phone calls to their customer service resulted in nonsensical explanations. My clematis are no where in sight, and we are expecting a hard freeze. The customer service rep told me, don't worry, they are guaranteed! What an absurd explanation. I lost the ability to purchase and plant at the right time, from a company that actually ships what it promises, instead I have only the prospect of some dead plants to request a refund for. I still do not have a complete order with several items missing, and each time I check order status, it now says shipping will be in DECEMBER. What a pathetic joke. I guess they expect me to chip a hole in the ice and plant then. Well, my days as a Gurney's customer are over, and I strongly caution you to buy elsewhere. I have neither my plants nor the money they have been holding since Sept. 9.

Ordered seeds from this company and in the first shipment they got my order wrong. I e-mailed asking for assistance & received no reply. I send the seeds back with a letter & received the correct seeds a few weeks later. I planted the seeds in the spring but found that the seed packets (though properly labelled) contained the wrong seeds. I will not be ordering from Gurneys again.

I have been a satisfied customer of Gurney's for about 15 years. I received a one day e-mail offer from them for 50% off my order. I placed the order for seeds and fruit trees and made sure I was receiving the 50% discount on the $200 plus order when I hit the confirm button. I did not print the order as I assumed they would send an e-mail confirmation. The order confirmation contained no prices or info on the discount given. I received the seeds soon after and the discount shown on the invoice was exactly 50% off the total for the seeds, $22 and change. In March I got my credit card statement showing 2 charges from Gurney's, one correct and one wrong. I immediately phoned Gurney's
about the discreptancy and was informed that my original discount was for only $25. I asked to cancel the 2nd part of the order but was informed that it was too late as it had just been shipped. They told me if I could supply the original discount coupon code they would give me my discount. I did not have it and it was not on the e-mail order confirmation. That is when I rembered that they had made that error before but that time I had the original coupon code and received the correct discount. I will never do business with them again.

I ordered some tomato plants and tomato food in April, they sent the plants, almost dead, lost 4 of them. The tomato food never arrived and Gurney's has changed the delivery date today for the 3rd time for July. I am not sure what good the fertilizer is when half the growing season is over but I guess they ship it when they have some even if they have promised to get it out 3 times now.

Even better, I called about 3 weeks ago to order some pepper and tomato cages, I asked if they had them on hand and how soon they would shoip, the rep stated they are on hand and will shoip within 48 hours of your order. Well, the pepper cages did ship but no tomato cages, called today, now on BO till July. I guess I should have explained to them I wanted them for this years growing season.

The tomato plants took 6 days to ship from Michigan to Mn. They were in very poor shapr when recieved. 5 of the 9 will live and the others died. I did not bother to contact them in regards to a refund as that would be a larger pain that it woiuld be worth.

I ordered some giant radishes from them and they were also BOerd, now it shows will ship at the end of June, third time they have changed that delivery date to a later date.

NEVER again will I order anything from them, they lie about the shipping dates and lie if they have the product on hand.

I would not believe one word they tell you as you have no idea if it is the truth or not.

Very sad when a company has a customer service dept like they do even when they say they have world class CS, boy is that a stretch unless they have the worst CS in the world.

Gurney's does offer some quality product if you can get it and then get it even close to no time.

This was the first and last time we will ever be ordering from Gurney's. Our order was to be shipped on 5/02/2014 and still today 5/26/2014, we have not received the order. When the order status has been checked the shipping date has changed on a daily basis. The flowering bushes that we order have definitely passed the time of our being able to enjoy them this year...that is, if we even receive them this year to plant. Buyer BEWARE!

I ordered 3 blueberry bushes from Gurney's early last fall. they were pathetically small, spindly sticks of "bushes" and they arrived in early December (I live in the Northeast so by early December gardening is really over). The bushes appear to be alive, but I would guesstimate I will be lucky to have berries on them 5 years from now, if then. They are maybe 10" tall at best and have about 3 stems each. I would never buy from them again. Very disappointed, both in the timing of the shipping, and in what I received.

I don't even know where to start. Horrible. I have ordered 3 plants, all arrived dead. Contacted the company, they sent me dead replacements twice.. The flowering crimson arrived with dry dead leaves twice. It is really hard to believe. I am not sure what is going on with this company but I have a feeling they are playing jokes on me. I will not bother to contact them again for a replacement. Please do not buy from this company, it is waste of money.

PLEASE.....ALL AMERICANS.....NEVER BUY FROM GURNEY'S. THEY ARE USING OVERSEAS WORKERS FOR THEIR OVERFLOW CALL CENTER!!!! INDIA TO BE EXACT!!! WE NEED OUR MONEY TO PAY OUR AMERICANS. REFUSE TO DO BUSINESS WITH THEM OR ANY COMPANY THAT WILL NOT PAY AMERICANS. OUR UNEMPLOYMENT RATE IS SKY HIGH BECAUSE OF COMPANIES LIKE THIS!!!! BOYCOTT GURNEY'S SEED AND NURSERY....PLEASE PASS IT ON!!!!

A gift order is shipping to my zone 5 garden NOW, expected to arrive March 20. Our last average frost date is MAY 15.

In contacting Gurney's my question as to why they were shipping out of season was NOT answered, it was ignored - completely unaddressed. Only the boilerplate "put your bare root plants in a bucket of water and plant within 10 days" information was regurgitated at me.

They guarantee their plants will arrive alive. I believe they will freeze on the truck and stay frozen on my porch (it was 2 degrees out there yesterday morning). Gurney's is giving UPS some exercise but that seems to be the only thing they will achieve.

We'll see how effective their plant "guarantee as long as you garden" turns out to be.

Will also be posting this complaint to other social media as a warning against doing business with Gurney's.

Posted on February 25, 2014, updated March 4, 2014
I've purchased seed from Gurneys for a long time. For the last few years I've watched their seed prices go up and up along with the shipping charges. I've tolerated it though as I've always gotten my orders quickly and they've done well in my garden. This year however the shipping is getting so ridiculous that I almost didnt order from them. Unfortunately for me they are the only company I can find that sell a certain sweet corn seed that is a family favorite. I ordered 2 packets and, as always, within 10 days they arrived. These particular seeds were advertised in their catalog to contain 250 seeds and the seed packets themselves also said 250 seeds. When I counted them though I had 177 in one package and 182 in the other. 25% less seed than I bought + the outrageous shipping charges = one very unhappy customer. I emailed them to voice my complaint and the next day received a reply that they would resend 2 additional packets at no charge to me. This response was appreciated, and the only reason this review is neutral instead of negative, but the whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth. Afterall if I hadn't counted the seeds I never would have known I was shorted. Just seemed like a sneaky way for them to make more money. Regardless our family is just going to have to find a new favorite sweet corn variety. I just cant defend paying those ridiculous shipping charges any longer. I've researched alot of other seed companies this year and none of them even come close to what Gurneys charges for shipping. Its unfortunate for them....I've bought a couple hundred dollars worth of seed every year from them. I've recommended them to family and friends. Now I'll stop ordering and will recommend others do as well. There are just too many other good seed companies out there to deal with as opposed to putting up with this silliness.

I have been a Gurney's customer for over 35 years. For the most part have received good service and acceptable plants. I bought some additional acreage late in 2011. That winter I order a bunch (over $1000) or plants and trees. They arrived and were planted withing a few day. That summer it did not rain, but I watered faithfully. The plants did not do well and were very stressed, but I hoped my efforts were enough. That fall I was diagnosed with cancer. The next spring only a handful can back. I was busy fighting for my life, so although I watered as needed, I did not contact the company. Now I feel better and want to garden again. I have missed one full gardening year :-( I was looking through my catalog and filling out my order and saw this "We want you to be satisfied. If not happy with one of our products, we'll replace it, give you a credit or refund your money for the full amount of your purchase price. All nursery stock, trees and plants are guaranteed for as long as you garden. All seeds and merchandise are guaranteed for one full year". So with order in hand I called and explained (not really thinking they would do anything) how excited I was to be back to gardening and the sorrow of all the dead plants. The representative offered to issue a refund and suggested I wait to put in my order until after I receive the refund. I received a check for $16.41 and a letter stating "We will not be able to process any further orders you may have submitted".

So to summarize, if you even talk about their guarantee, they will not allow you to order from them again. Bad form Gurney's.

Posted on February 14, 2014, updated February 17, 2014
Posted on February 1, 2014, updated February 14, 2014
Posted on January 14, 2014, updated February 1, 2014
So far I am not a happy camper. I ordered a number of packets of seeds on Dec 23. We are in zone 10, so I can plant and was hoping to plant the seeds for these plants (carrots, mainly) out immediately. I have strawberry plants ~blooming~ in the ground right now. My order status indicated it'd be here by Dec 27-29th, if memory serves. I got a few order updates, and finally one saying it shipped out Jan 7. Ok, my order from Territorial, placed after this one, has already arrived. I tried to check the tracking on the Gurney's order with UPS and was told UPS couldn't track that shipment, and that if it'd been more than 3 days since the item was shipped, to check with the vendor. I did, and was told it was shipped on Jan 7 and to give the package up to 10 business days (i.e., over two more weeks) to arrive. (They are using smart-post, where UPS hands off to the postal service. This service is notoriously bad.) I just chatted with UPS and was told that the tracking number Gurneys gave me was not a valid number. Thank goodness it was a small, test order. They have another 10 days to deliver my order or I'll be reporting them to my credit card company as a charge back for non-delivered items. Thankfully also, I contacted them in advance to ask if they could ship strawberry plants now, as we are needing to plant them NOW, as our others are in bloom. The response was a canned "we'll send them when it's right for your area." Obviously, reading comprehension isn't something in great supply at Gurneys. How sad, they just lost what could have been repeat business.

"On Jan 22, 2014 11:47 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for letting us know about the problems with your order. I would be happy to check into this for you. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information."

After being sold out from the old s.d. co. Its not the same operation anymore. Very high prices and of all anti American OUT SOURCING JOBS in ordering dept to India.I will not do buz with them anymore. For all we know they may be doing china thing later.No thank you gurneys any more.There catalogs will go in the garbage.With other junk mail.

Posted on January 22, 2014, updated January 25, 2014
thenatomasfarm.blog
Our Gurney's Account Number: 50392550
Our Order Number: 40100319000
Order Date: 01/10/14

I spent an hour at this site.....liking what I was seeing...and adding to my shopping cart.

I found this site with an 50% coupon that was mailed to us ...attached to their catalog's front page.

We order vast amount of needs from the web. Cab Cadet parts to hundreds of fruits trees from Cooke Company. All have reasonable handling and postage fees. This "joint" Gurney's had the gall to charge us a straight up fee of $25.00 for "shipping" from In. to Ca. A two pound box for $25.00!!!! I'll add that it took nearly 9 days to get here.

My gripe is this.....I spent an hour of my life at their site....and then they rip me for $25.00 as I check out. That coupon....50% off......smells of a scam.

Yes...I did email the company that same day to let them know that a USPS or UPS charges only $5.00 and that I felt ripped off. THERE WAS ZERO RESPONSE.

Over priced on their so called postage (there was no handling fees expressed), 9 days to ship that should had been only 4 days. The package was not delayed due to the blizzards going on. Our tracking showed that the box was in a West Sacramento UPS for four days....our farm is 7 miles from their warehouse.

I strongly suggest NOT to use this company.

Posted on November 12, 2013, updated November 12, 2013
NEGATIVE TO THE MAX!
My Names Cathy Guzman! I am furious at Gurneys. I honestly think they shouldn't have a website up. I was excited at first, always wanted to order from them but now I see how much [expletive deleted] they tell you. I waited two ina half months for my plants ( WHICH THEY SAID THEY HAVE AND ARE IN STOCK) Its ridiculous. Obviously they don't care about your garden blooms as much as you do.

Their customer service lies to you a [expletive deleted] load! They will always tell you.." You'll get what you ordered on the 6 or 10 of November." Never showed, so I called them!" I asked when will they be coming...I need them. They said " Oh, Nov 28!" WOW ( SWITCHED DATES ON ME!!!!" I have to wait till the end of the month after I been waiting for almost 3 months! Complete [expletive deleted]. Now I have to sound likea [expletive deleted] bcuz they wont take me seriously if I dont. ITS CALLED RESPECT, They dont have it for the customers! Just Fake comments.

Please do not order from them no matter what. They treat you like nothing and what your paying for nothing!! I Love my flowers and they do not give you what you paid for. That company only cares for getting their payment! I WILL NEVER BE ORDERING FROM THEM AGAIN!!! AND YOU SHOULDN'T EITHER. I don't want anybody to be bummed as I was when I recieved my plants. =( Packaging is so bad too! Now I have to call and [expletive deleted] at them. Yes it makes me look bad, but not as bad as their company does! I deserve to get what I paid for to garden.

P.S. I thought some people on here were over exaggerating, but now I see what they ment by, DO NOT ORDER FROM THEM B/C OF MY BAD EXPERIENCE! I totally agree.

GURNEYS Can say sorry but whats the use. They still [expletive deleted] me for my money. And all I wanted were flowers and vegetables. Couldnt even give me what they sponser on their website. SO I HAVE NOTHING POSITIVE TO SAY ABOUT GURNEYS!!!! AT ALL!
Cathrine Guzman (Phoenix AZ)

"On Nov 15, 2013 2:44 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your feedback. I apologize for the problems you had with your order. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information."

It is clear that Gurney's is an Online Fulfillment company with perhaps overseas customer service reps. ALL orders are delayed. All orders are misrepresented. Like others, I ordered mid-sized trees and shrubs and received saplings and seedlings of poor vitality. I am guessing that they out source orders to foreign and domestic wholesalers. They actually charge your credit card months after taking the order just before they ship and without any notice. I had to force them to ship as their understanding of planting time is bogus and their business model is dubious.

"On Oct 8, 2013 11:48 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

We appreciate you letting us know and apologize for any inconvenience. We so ship according to the USDA and try to make sure our orders ship on time. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information."

Same experience as most of the other negative reviews here... twigs (not trees) half their advertised size that arrived dead or near dead which didn't flourish!

"On Oct 8, 2013 11:42 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

We appreciate you letting us know and we will be happy to reship to you. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information."

In April 2013 I ordered 20 roots of asparagus from Gurney's, Jersey Supreme Giant Grade at a cost of $49, supposed to be extra-large at least 2 year roots all-male hybrid. Although all were planted in a prepared raised bed in the same way on the same day, they emerged weeks apart, and appeared to be at least three distinct varieties. Most plants are quite small and frail, some are three times larger and huge - my heart sank when a third of the plants began flowering and producing berries, obviously female plants. At least two different kinds of berries! I don't know what plants I have, but they are obviously not the extra-large all-male hybrid asparagus roots I ordered. Anyone who plants asparagus knows that this is a long term investment, with significant prep and devotion. I called Gurney's Customer Service and was connected to a very pleasant man in India at a call center who had no idea what I was talking about. He offered to mail me a company credit voucher after confirming what I had ordered ...this has not been a satisfying response to an extremely maddening and frustrating experience given all of the effort I have put into this asparagus bed this year. I ordered from Gurney's because I believed them to be trustworthy. Now I realize they are not reputable and I recommend that NO ONE order from them. I plan to pull out my entire bed of mystery asparagus and try again next year with roots from a more dependable source, delaying any harvest now for another entire season at least.

"On Jul 12, 2013 3:25 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

I apologize you were sent the wrong asparagus. I would be happy to reship the correct asparagus to you. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and take care of this."

Posted on May 23, 2013, updated July 3, 2013
Posted on May 20, 2013, updated May 23, 2013
I am a patient gardener. I bought a Primrose Lilac from Gurneys about 8 years ago. I waited 4 years for it to bloom and instead of yellow flowers, I got light purple! So they sent me a replacement in 2009. Again, I have waited 4 years and again it has finally bloomed and again it is light purple!
At this point I am wondering if they actually have yellow lilacs. When I went to their website to post a negative review, it never showed up! So I am posting here to warn people Buyer Beware! The other reviews about the lilac only talk about a healthy looking plant that is growing well, none mention how lovely the flowers look and smell. [I wonder if any one actually has a blooming yellow lilac and if so, can I get a sucker off of it? :) ]
I called the company to complain last week on Wednesday and was told that they could see that I was shipped a replacement in 2009, but since they did not have record of the orginal order, they could not ship me a new one!
I asked them why they couldn't follow the train of logic that if I was shipped a replacement, there had to have been an orignal order. I was told that I would get a telephone call within 24 hours from someone who could resolve the problem. Now it's Monday and I finally called them myself.
Ending up in the same conversation loop with maybe the same person and finally demanded to talk to someone else.
He said he would send me a refund and asked me how much I paid for the bush 8 years ago. I don't know, so I guess he is going to send me a check for the current price of the bush. Though after reading all these reviews, I can't say I have a lot of confidence in this company.

"On May 21, 2013 1:27 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your post. I apologize for the problem with your lilac. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and take care of this for you."

I ordered Blueberry Chippewa and Dwarf Northsky Blueberry on April 10. The confirmation email I received said the plants would come between 4/24 - 5/15. If I would have known when I placed my order that I might not receive my plants for over a month, I never would have ordered them...I would have bought them locally.

THEN, the delivery window was pushed back 5/15 - 6/5.

THEN, 5/19 - 6/09.

THEN, 6/5 - 6/26.

It is now over two months since I placed my order, and I have no blueberries.

When I checked the order status today, it says the Blueberry Chippewa was cancelled and the Northsky delivered back on May 11!!

I never received any blueberries from them. I received some dead mixed columbines on May 11 that were part of a free promotion. I WILL NEVER use Gurney's again....ever.

"On Jun 28, 2013 9:55 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

I apologize for the problems you had with your order. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and take care of this for you."

I wish I would have read customer reviews before ordering live plants from Gurney's. I planned my garden and ordered heirloom seeds and plants from gurney's in February of 2013. I got the seeds but had to wait for the plants. My experience was much like others that have posted in the reviews. My heirloom tomatoes came later that the latest date on the delivery table and when they came, they were pretty much dead. Wilted leaves, yellow... and what's worse is that my over 12" plants were packed bent over in a box less than half they're height. Needless to say, the branches and stocks were broken. I was so discouraged, and disappointed. I had saved space in my garden anxiously waiting for these heirloom tomatoes. In calling customer service and explaining, they said this is not the norm, which I see is not true by other reviews, but they kindly granted me reimbursement on my credit card, as they were out of stock on those tomatoes and could not replace them. Now, mid-June, I am sure that I will not be able to find the same heirloom plants that I had ordered from Gurney's. We live in a rural area and nurseries run out of tomatoes by the end of May, and usually don't carry heirloom plants. I will never order from Gurney's again.

"On Jun 18, 2013 4:28 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

We appreciate you taking the time to post. I apologize for the problems you had with the plants. I will have one of our customer service representatives contact you for your account information.
"

I ordered compost pail bags and filters and 9 tomato plants from gurneys on May 1 2013. The bags and filters arrived 2-3 days later but not the plants. The order status guide listed I would get the plants in between 5/18 and 06/08. This order status was updated 4 times by email from gurneys. I was later told by a rep that 3 of the 9 plants were out of stock,I was disappointed but figured at least I'll get 6 plants. Well after waiting and waiting and calling and calling finally the 6 plants arrived on 06/11/13. But they were all long, leggy, stems snapped, had bugs in them, were tangled in the box AND the shipping list included in the box had what appeared to be blood on it. I took pictures and called gurneys I had to speak to 3 people Cindy,Sonia and Tracy in order to get a refund. Tracy then told me they were having trouble with the tomato supplier this year. I will NEVER again waste my time and money on this company. They could have told me when I first inquired that they had problems with the supplier on tomatoes this year and maybe I could have done business elsewhere. Poor customer service.

"On Jun 14, 2013 11:04 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for letting us know about the problems you had. I apologize for all the inconvenience. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information."

I took advantage of the winter discount at Gurney's to order a full garden worth of tomato and pepper plants, then waited patiently. I received one packet of seeds then I received several emails saying my plants would be sent when the zone/weather permitted. Now it is June 10 and my garden is tilled and ready to go - I had to send an inquiry to the customer service department asking where my plants are. I received a polite email indicating that none of the plants are in stock and my credit card is being refunded. But I waited for my special plants more than a month past planting time! Now I have to go to Lowe's and buy the plants.

I will never order anything from Gurney's again and I will never believe the hype when they offer a winter sale and discounts on plants. This has totally soured my relationship with the company and I've been ordering from Gurney's for more than 20 years. Next year I will order from Henry Fields.

"On Jun 11, 2013 1:30 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your posting and I apologize for the problem with receiving your plants. One of our customer service representatives will be contacting you for your account information."

Posted on May 28, 2013, updated May 29, 2013
Posted on May 22, 2013, updated May 28, 2013
We ordered strawberries, asparagus and 2 bi color butterfly bushes on 4/17. While we received the strawberries and asparagus we are still awaiting the butterfly bushes. No communication from gurneys other than the 2 times that I have called and been told that I will have them soon. It really seems like poor customer service to not relay to the customers when there is going to be a long delay in shipping.

"On May 23, 2013 10:48 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your feedback. I apologize for the delay with your order. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information so we can have your order shipped right away."

I ordered 2 pea fences (item # 12826) from these clowns on April 29, 2013. As of today, May 23, they have STILL not shipped. When I called their customer service line, I was huffily told that *perhaps* they had run out while placing the orders. Did I ever receive a phone call, and e-mail, ANYTHING informing me that my item was delayed? NO. I skeptically told them that a true BUSINESS would ensure that they invested in an inventory control system that would keep amounts on hand aligned with what is being sold through the website. I was unable to get any update, or even a firm ETA on shipping the fences, so I cancelled. This was my 1st and last experience with these people. No other seed company I've ever dealt with has been this bad....Gurney's deserves to go out of business, and they probably will, if it keeps up the shoddy and dishonest business practices that I've experienced and that I've been reading about on here. Buyer Beware!!!!

Got half my order and then waited for the remainder, finally I called to find out what was going on. Was bluntly almost rudely told that they had sold out. Saying "what"? Was told that when it came time to fill my order they were sold out, I turned my order in back in Feb, but because of my climate they would not ship till much later so thus they are sold out because I am not an early ship to. So then I asked why I was not notified about this. Again, bluntly almost rudely was told that is not Gurney's policy. So now would you like to guess what my policy is towards Gurney. Too bad I can not rate them worse than negative.

"On May 18, 2013 9:43 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for letting us know about the problem with your order. I apologize you were not notified that we were out of stock and for all your inconvenience. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and see what we can do.."

I ordered over $50 worth of plants and very common gardening supplies on April 27. I finally received my two blackberry plants on May 8 but I have yet to receive the normal gardening supplies! Poor, poor service! Apparently they do not stock all of the items that they advertise for sale. After ordering from this company numerous times prior to 2000 I have decided to scratch this company off of my list of sources and I would very highly recommend that everyone duplicate that procedure unless you want to be disappointed. After contacting their customer service they supposedly have put a rush on my order. Unfortunately the items will not arrive in time to help me this year! Maybe I can save the items for next year's garden.

"On May 9, 2013 1:03 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

We appreciate your posting. I apologize for the problems you are having with your order. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and check on your order.

"

After contacting customer service several times over the past few weeks I still have yet to receive all the seeds ordered. They have offered no explanation to why they have not shipped. I am now over 3 weeks behind on where I should be with seedlings in my greenhouse for my gardens. I am so frustrated with the service at this point I will never use them again .

"On May 8, 2013 12:11 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

We appreciate your posting. I apologize for the problems you are having with your order. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and check on your order.

"

I found this website during an online search for comments about Gurney's and when I read the negative comments, I felt a thud in my gut of buyer's remorse of wondering if I made the right choice to order from them. I have placed two orders with Gurney's, and have only received some of the seed packets I requested. I have gone online to their website several times to enter my order numbers to get a status on the remaining items, and there are no changes to the order pages. After several weeks, I decided to call the customer service today and spoke to someone name Leticia, who answered the phone, 'Leticia speaking.' What happened to identifying the company you work for and then stating your name?

I asked her to provide a shipping update on the items I have been expecting, and she told me that one of the them is out of stock, another one won't ship until later this Fall, and the others can be expected to arrive towards the end of May. I asked her why I didn't receive any email updates from Gurney's about the out of stock and late arrival items, and she stated that there didn't appear to be an email address on file. I asked her how was it possible then for me to get order confirmations to my email address after I pay for an order through the website, but couldn't get email confirmations about changes to my order unless I call the customer service number? There was no answer from her to that question, yet I provided my email address to her to update whatever screen she saw was missing it.

She stated that when an order is cancelled or out of stock, they just 'submit the credit' and the customer isn't notified beforehand. I was stunned. After having gone to the website to check on my remaining order items for several weeks, I wasn't going to get any updates through Gurneys website at all, and I was wasting my time. So, what I got from the call was, if you haven't gotten what you ordered, don't expect Gurneys to email, write, or call you about what happened. You will have to call them and be told that your items, that you've been waiting to plant, won't be delivered to you at all, or will be shipped out several weeks to months after you were expecting them to arrive.

One more thing, one of the items I ordered were a couple of lavender plants, and she told me that I wouldn't expect to receive those until October. I told her that I went to Orchard Supply recently and they have lavender plants in pots available for purchase. She told me that she isn't aware of what other merchants have available. I asked her to cancel the lavender plants from my order, process the credit for these and another plant that was out of stock that I was suppose to get this month, and please communicate to her customer service management to improve their order status communications to their customers.

By the way, I'm still waiting on the broccoli, cauliflower, watermelon, corn, squash, and spinach seeds that I planted weeks ago to germinate, and I really hope that I didn't get bad seeds from Gurneys as well. If anything, I feel more inclined to support my local gardening merchants and just buy directly from them.

I am a first time customer with this company and so far, I'm more displeased than pleased, but patience is a virtue and I'm holding out hope that things work out.

"On May 8, 2013 12:09 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your posting. I apologize for the problems you are having with your order. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and make sure things are taken care of for you."

I am really disappointed with this company. I have been a customer for a few years now, but what happened to my order this year has changed my opinion of them completely. When I received my confirmation e-mail, all things looked correct... correct billing, correct shipping, etc. All things looked good, as I kept getting updates for order processing and shipment notifications as my zone came up for shipping.

I noticed my strawberries were taking an exceptionally long time to ship, so I checked the tracking info, only to find that 12 days ago, they had been returned by my local Post Office (I had it shipped to my house address and NOT my PO) sent it back because of an incorrect address. I e-mailed Gurney's as soon as I noticed this, and heard nothing back, so I decided to call them. The woman whom I spoke with was pleasant enough, and even accepted fault on behalf of Gurney's. I don't know how, with today's technology, and the fact that my confirmation e-mails had the correct shipping address, they messed this up... But she was able to determine that my stuff went to a completely different town and zipcode.

Was hoping for an easy fix, but noooooo. Everything in that shipment was now out of stock. In fact, there was only ONE type of strawberry plant left on their whole site. I asked for my money back, which she assured would happen in 3-5 days. I still can't help but wonder when they were going to fix this, since 12 days seems like more than enough time for them to receive the returned items, and somehow reach out to me or refund my money.

And wait, there's more... My order was two shipments, and the second one has yet to go out. Of course this also has the incorrect address on it, but she claims she can't stop it in this part of the process to correct it, and all three of the items are also out of stock. So basically I have to wait for it to ship to the address they made up out of thin air, get returned, and THEN I can get my refund. At this time of year, EVERY site is out of the stuff I initially ordered in March, so there goes my entire fruit portion of my garden.

This mistake cost me a lot, and is so baffling as to how it even happened... I could NEVER recommend this company to anyone, let alone ever give them my business again.

"On May 8, 2013 12:01 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

We appreciate your post and I apologize for the problems you had with your order. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and find out what is happening with your order and refund."

I wish I would have found DG before I ordered from this company. I ordered a bunch of stuff that was delivered in the fall, mostly small bushes, a cool hosta, and some smaller little perrenial items. I planted as instructed (I garden a lot, so I know it's not my fault), and every single bush is dead, with no signs of node growth or anything. Completely dry and petrified. I'm so dissapointed, I had to at least warn others of this problem. Even my hosta died. Which I believe because it was one little leaf of a piece. My Periwinkle and a little perrenials seem okay though.

You cannot get a replacement without keeping your shipping label. I doubt I still have that. But I'll check, cause this is BS!

"On May 2, 2013 1:45 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for the feedback, this is not accurate. We can locate your account with your last name and zip code to reship to you. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and take care of this for you."

This company is a joke. I ordered from them years ago. I bought some honeysuckle. The plant was fine, but the company is just the worst to deal with. After all the years, I don't remember what my problem was, just that they were very unhelpful, and rude. I tried to get myself removed from their mailing lists, and spam lists, but to no avail. So I got a catalogue in the mail this year from them with a "free $25" coupon, with "no catch" right next to it, so I was thinking I would give this a shot, to see what happens.

I call in, tell the lady I have this coupon on my catalogue, and she said she would have to talk to a supervisor about it since she had no knowledge of this deal. After about 5 minutes on hold, she said ok, and I ordered a dogwood. I did not have high hopes, and I have yet to see the bush. Planting here in Montana has started, and I know they've been shipping their plants for awhile.

This company is a joke, if you want to risk it with them, go ahead. Buy local, not from some mail order customer service nightmare like Gurneys.

"On May 8, 2013 11:32 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for letting us know about the problem you had with our company. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and check into when you should receive your order."

I have never ordered anything from Gurney's and never will after receiving the Spring 2013 catalog with the threat on the cover:

"WARNING! (In huge letters)
If you don't order something now, this could be your last Gurney's catalog"

Since when does a seed company think they need to bully their customers into buying from them???

I've never had this treatment from any independent seed company. I'll be sending back the WARNING cover with my address to remove me immediately from their mailing list and to never, ever, ever, ever, try to threaten me again if I don't buy from them!

"On May 2, 2013 1:24 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for the feedback. I apologize, the catalog was not intended to be a warning not to order, more like "don't open till Christmas". I apologize for the way the catalog statement came across. I will make sure and bring this to our marketing attention."

How does this company stay in business? I placed an order in Febuary and have received portions of it in sporadic deliveries. Other portions of that order seem to have been ignored. Received a bean tower with missing parts and no instructions. Saw that strawberry plants were supposedly delivered but did not receive them. Received an eMail that replacements were being shipped. When no shipping information was received I checked the website on April 11, 2013 and saw that they were sold out. In response to an April 13, 2013 inquiry re shipping date I received a reply: the strawberry plants would be shipped in March 2014! I've requested a refund but will have to see it to believe it. I've ordered plants and garden supplies from other companies over the years with great satisfaction. My one order with Gurney's has been fraught with errors and frustration. I'll never deal with this company again!

"On Apr 17, 2013 2:06 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for letting me know of the problems you had with your order. I apologize for the inconvenience. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and we can check and make sure your refund is issued."

Posted on May 20, 2012, updated March 22, 2013
Hello All,

I'm new to Dave's Garden and really happy to be here. In fact, it's a shame that I wasn't on here to read about gurney's before even placing an order with them.

I found it odd that a company would give steep discounts and play advertisement tricks like "claim your $100 free gift" only to have it actually be a 50% discount in reality.

Anyway, let me cut to the chase. I placed two orders with Gurney's and called back once to reduce an order. An employee decided to combine two orders or give an improper discount, I don't know...the point was, I was basically given a full refund and still had the plants shipped out to me.

I called back immediately after seeing that a full refund was issued and had them correct it (or I suppose) only to go through 3 different workers who were all lost?

They told me to purchase more items to correct discount rate and they did that by applying an over-ride refund.

So, I get my plants and seeds (strawberries, raspberries, trees etc and so many seeds I can't count) and half my strawberries are dying.. some are missing, but I thought w/e I have like 100 strawberries who cares if 10-20 go missing.

Then I got a shipment of grapes and some of those were missing.

Then I got a letter from gurney's telling me to pay some 45-50 dollars within 14 or 30 days or else I'd be reported promptly to collections.

????????????

I call and ask why this letter was sent to me. The same person who "corrected" the original issue turned out to be the supervisor and she told me that I had to pay it because they "over refunded me".

I'm not a guy to take anything for free, proof in the fact that I called and told them I'm getting over 100dollars back plus 200dollars worth of plants.

If I wanted, I could've ignored it and let it be, but I didn't.

The story doesn't seem to end does it? No.. there's more.

Gurney's then sends me a $6.40 check for "over charging me" and I haven't cashed it.

Now, 90% or more of my strawberries are dead and what's left is in the process of dying for some reason.

One of my raspberries didn't even want to grow a new cane or a leaf.

most of my seeds died after sprouting having a maximum 3 week life period.

The only things living are basically my trees and my canes and my grapes.

I've emailed them multiple times to get my things replaced and no response.

Due to all this, I was forced to go out and buy plants from a greenhouse and fork out more money and guess what, none of them were gurney's it was another popular company that I wont adv for free here, but all those are doing good.

Why gurney's, do you send out bad products, lie to your customers, and have bad customer service?

"On May 22, 2012 9:06 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

We appreciate your post. We apologize for the problems and that no one has gotten back to you. One of our customer service representative will contact you for your account information and have this taken care of."

I also received the email for the $4.99 Goldrush apples trees. Even though we ended up placing our order online we actually spoke with a customer service rep. who never mentioned that the deal was only for one tree, this also did not some up as we placed our order online for 4 trees and paid the $20.00 for the trees. A few weeks later we received a postcard stating that our order was cancelled because of a lack of inventory and that we were to be reimbursed. Although I was disappointed and a little miffed that I wasn't able to get the trees it wasn't until the next day when I received a email stating that one Goldrush apple tree was shipping that things started to go down hill. At this point I didn't want any of the trees since I needed more than one apple tree and didn't want to order anything else from Gurney's so I called to cancel the one apple tree I was still scheduled to get, I was told that I could not cancel because it was already being processed. When I asked how it was possible that the other three trees in my order were out of stock but they happened to have one left to send me I was told that there was a limit on this special and I should've only been able to order one tree. I expressed my feeling of frustration that if the special was only for one tree then I sould've only been able to order one tree at this price and that this information was not clearly presented on the email that advertised the offer. The representative was not sympathetic or even apologetic over the "fluke" in their software. I again asked to have the order cancel and was again denied. I then was transferred to a supervisor in India and he finally agreed to refund all my money although it will have to be after the tree has shipped. I'm not holding my breath that this will really be refunded but hnestly I don't have the energy to go another round with this company, they can have my five dollars but I will never give them a penny more. Horrible customer service with no quality control or intergrity!

"On Mar 21, 2013 12:05 PM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for letting us know about the problem with your order. One of our customer service representatives will contact you and check on your account and make sure everything is taken care of. I apologize for the inconvenience."

My partner and I are excited to be having a garden this year, our first :-)
I have used this company before. It was years ago and very satisfactory.
Not this time. From the moment they answered the phone things went wrong.
The agent was hard to understand. Apparently we were also hard to understand. After giving our name and spelling it (5 times), she decided that Emily Stevens was really
Larry Stewart.
We ordered three kinds of potatoes, asparagus and some grass seed. Our agent did not verify any of this. We did. We did her job not knowing that our order was going to Larry Stewart.
When we received our confirmation email telling us our order had shipped to Larry we contacted the company and asked for a supervisor. Richard the supervisor was very nice. He apologized profusely for the mistake his agent made and also for the fact that our order, now shipped to the wrong person, could not be rerouted.
Richard the supervisor replaced our order and assured us over and over that we would not be re-billed, having already paid for the order messed up by the initial agent.

That was on 3/13/13

Last night, 3/17, we wanted to check the progress of or order.

It was on hold for payment due...

Again we called customer service and asked for a supervisor. By some sort of coincidence, we got Richard. He remembered speaking to us and was again very apologetic for dropping the ball. We subsequently have canceled our our order and requested a refund for our original order that is still on it's way to Larry Stewart.

We have decided not to deal with Gurney's. The biggest reason is because the company is based in the United States (a good thing) but their customer service is outsourced. We believe this whole problem could have been avoided had the original agent been more fluent or better trained. It just seemed that she either couldn't understand that we were Emily Stevens. Not Larry Stewart. The only similarity in those two names is the corresponding zip code.

Posted on March 6, 2013, updated March 15, 2013
About 10 days ago I received an email special from Gurney's offering Gold Rush apple trees at $4.99 each. There was no limit in the email & when I went to the site to check it out there was no limit posted online either. I ordered two & was so happy.

This was my first order with Gurney's so before I ordered everything for my garden I wanted to see how this purchase panned out. I am SO glad I waited.

One week later I received an email telling me that I had ordered more than the limit of one tree. I sent an email back because there was never a limit shown. They responded - to my long dead father in law, who has never been on my account or lived at my address. They apologized & stated that they would fix my account & send me a credit - which was nice. I was still irritated, but at least I was getting one tree.

The next day I received an email that they are out of stock & I will not be receiving anything. That email was also directed to my dead father in law. When I responded I got an automatically generated email (again) stating that I was limited to one tree.... except that I am not getting ANY trees because they cancelled my whole order - which was what my email was about. Clearly they didn't bother to read it - again.

I am disgusted with their business practices & don't have any idea how they stay in business if this is how they treat their customers.

"On Mar 14, 2013 10:41 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

Thank you for your feedback and I apologize for the misunderstanding. One of our customer service representatives will contact you for your account information and take care of this for you."

My wife and have been receiving emails from Gurneys for over two years, three days ago we wrote our first order...........do we regret it now.

We received an email right after we ordered saying there was a problem processing the card, no big deal there is more protection online now with some cards. I checked my bank account and the money was taken out of my bank. I waited until the next day when they "open for business", their call center overseas is always open, silly me. I spoke to some man, gave him my credit card info again, he said it was all set.

Since this phone call I have received five emails saying there was a problem, one email from "Charlie" in customer service saying everything was ok followed an hour later with a phone call saying there was a problem processing my credit card and the order was on hold. I HAD TO CANCEL MY ORDER before I exploded. I can't imagine trying to receive an order or doing warranty issues with Gurneys, STAY AWAY FROM THIS BUSINESS.

"On Mar 14, 2013 10:27 AM, Gurney's Seed & Nursery responded with:

We appreciate you taking the time to let us know about the problems you had with your order. One of our customer service representatives will contact you so they can check into what exactly happened and let you know."