Comments regarding Petflytrap.com

Placed an order for a rather expensive Utricularia beaugleholei
for $159.99, along with some other plants. The order arrived and all the other plants were great, but when I unpacked the Utricularia there was nothing. Bare growing medium, no sign of it. I checked the packing materials, the box, everything.


I emailed them and the owner responded and said perhaps it had died down and would pop up eventually. So to watch the pot and let him know. Well I waited 9 months, nothing. I responded to his email and said it had never materialized, he never replied.

So I'm just out $159.00 for a plant that apparently never made it in the box.

I've been growing Utrics and CP's in general for decades so I know what I was looking for. It's not a case of just not realizing it was a Utricularia. I even sent a photo of the pot and packing.

I'd been buying plants from PFT for years, but after that I go elsewhere.

Posted on January 26, 2014, updated January 30, 2014
I have ordered twice with this person and had two bad experiences. My story is similar to the ones below. Bad customer service, slow shipping, sick plants and atrocious communication. Though my orders were from 1-2 years ago people need to know that this is a bad company. I think too many people are keeping quiet about their bad experiences.

I ordered two nepenthes back in 2011 and the guy took forever to ship despite them being regular inventory plants after I asked to replace one with another because I realized I could not care for it because it was not right for my climate. Here are the full details with emails and unprofessional excuses he made.

//thagirion.livejournal.com/542530.html

Stupidly I decided to give him a second chance the second year because I really wanted another nepenthes no one else had. I have learned that no matter how much I want a plant to never deal with this guy again. It's not worth it. Here is the break down of those emails and how it's always someone else's fault but not his.

//thagirion.livejournal.com/611591.html

I got the idea to file the complaint with BBB from the person below me. I find it interesting that she had negative then changed it to I think neutral. Makes me wonder if she was forced to change her response somehow because what she went through also is no excuse and worthy of a negative review. He finally sent me my plants after the BBB complaint. I found it fascinating how fast he suddenly was though I didn't want the plants anymore and was so stingy to want to keep my $39.

This thread shows the types of sick plants that you get in the mail and you can see how many others have been burned by this company
//www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php/130433-Am-I-crazy

Here are the plants I received
//www.terraforums.com/forums/showthread.php/130339-Sick-plants

They died no matter what and you see that the other experienced growers said it was not good and had also had bad service from this place. This place should not be in business and care better for its products and for its customers. I recommend to all to stay away and look somewhere else. My story is not the only horror story out there.
Let me state that I am an experience grower of nepenthes and have botanical garden quality specimens of difficult species such as N. bicalcarata, N. albomarginata and many others. I did all that could be done but these poor things were too far gone to be saved.

"On Jan 27, 2014 10:46 PM, petflytrap.com (aka Exotic Gardens, formerly Predator-Plants.com) responded with:

While I don't agree with posting personal information to justify problems, it seems there is little else to do here, as the issue occurred years ago. At the time of these orders, the owner of the company (me) was going through a VERY messy divorce, and both of my parents died within five weeks of each other. Couple all of that with holding down a full time job and the more typical issues that we all deal with. It was a very difficult time, and our customer service suffered at the time because of it. As the owner of the company, I will take the heat for that, no matter what the reason (which I would think most people would understand). However, I think it very unfair to post a review for an order that was placed years ago, and hope that anyone reading this will take the time to look at the customer comments section of our home page, where we occasionally post some of the POSITIVE comments we regularly receive. These are people who are not keeping quiet about their GOOD experiences with PetFlyTrap.com.

I will also mention that as a government employee, I realize that for every person who voices a negative comment, there are usually dozens of people who have positive comments, but don't take the time to voice them. I think it's unfortunate that someone would feel the need to post a negative review based on a two-year old complaint. We have almost 10,000 plants in stock, more diversity of carnivorous plants than any other online nursery in the country, and ship out hundreds if not thousands of plants monthly. We would not be in business if we didn't ship healthy plants that do well for our customers."

My first experience with this company was not good. There was a delay
in sending the plants due to a backlog. No problem there, but I got the shipping notice on the Thursday before Labor Day. That meant that the plants would be in the box at least until Tuesday. I did not get the plants on Tuesday. They arrived at our local sort facility which sent them to another city. The package was sent to a third city, back to the second city, out for delivery and finally back to our city. They were delivered on Thursday.

When I got the plants, they looked terrible. The leaves were shriveled and most were turning brown. I immediately notified the seller. I sent a total of three e-mails and left a phone message. The Drosera is dead. I think the Nepenthes is too, but I keep hoping that something will reemerge.

Now obviously the seller is not entirely to blame for the condition of the plants. Though sending them over a long weekend was not a good start. What has me upset is that I have received no response from any of my
attempts to contact the seller. I will not deal with this vendor again.

I haven't received my plants yet but...I ordered 3 nepanthes from a company called Houston Herp. supply because I thought it was more " local". I did not know my order was through petflytrap.com until I got a paypal notification in my email. This is unethical in my opinion. I rechecked and this name does not appear anywhere when you are checking out through paypal. I would have ordered from someone else if I had known. Has anyone else had this issue? The plants better be in good condition. I feel mislead and am angry about it.

I wish I would have seen the reviews for this company before I gave them my money. I ordered a flytrap for my kids, they were sooo excited and kept waiting for it everyday. I received it in a timely manner,however, it was wilted and didn't last long. I read the paper enclosed stating the hot weather may affect it and also what to do if you have a complaint. I sent an email the very next day with the picture they requested on their insert!! It has now been 9 days, three emails, two voicemails and I have yet to hear ONE word back. I will be reporting this company to BBB you can believe. I haven't ever been treated like this from a company and I am just astounded that they would not even return my calls or emails. What terrible business practices this company has. I would not suggest this company to anyone at anytime and I hope they are happy they got our money and sent us a flytrap that is now dead already. That isn't really what I was going for with my kids.

"On Aug 20, 2011 3:29 PM, petflytrap.com (aka Exotic Gardens, formerly Predator-Plants.com) responded with:

We have sent Ms. Mattingly two e-mails at this point; however, it appears that the first e-mail was not received. We have placed the picture Ms. Mattingly sent us here: http://www.petflytrap.com/catalog/Mattinglyflytrap.jpg for reference.

The cultivar of Venus Flytrap that was purchased is called 'Big Jaws'. One of the characteristics of this clone is that it produces lots of leaves that spread out at or near the ground and form a rosette of leaves and traps. It is quite a spectacular plant when full-grown, and can produce traps almost two inches long. The plant in the picture is producing traps that are close to an inch long already, and the new leaves coming up in the center of the plant show that the plant is in good health. The leaves are laying flat out from the growth point because this is typical for this cultivar, not because of any health issue.

We have offered Ms. Mattingly a full refund if the plant is returned to us in the same condition in which it was received."

Posted on August 6, 2011, updated August 6, 2011
Posted on August 5, 2011, updated August 6, 2011
Very upset with this company. I could have gone to Walmart but I thought I would order from the little guys. Well the little guy screwed me. I ordered on the 12th of July. Did not get my plant for TWO (2) Weeks. The plant arrived way smaller than shown in the pictures.... ABOUT THE SIZE OF A PENNY. The plant was almost dead. I tried to bring it back but it died. The owner stated the following:


Mr. Morgan –



We have researched your shipment through the USPS.com tracking system, with the following results:







Label/Receipt number: 9405 5036 9930 0164 0441 78



Detailed Results:

//trkcnfrm1.smi.usps.com/PTSInternetWeb/images/spacer.gif


//trkcnfrm1.smi.usps.com/PTSInternetWeb/images/spacer.gif

Bullet


Delivered, July 21, 2011, 1:21 pm, BOISE, ID 83706

Bullet


Out for Delivery, July 21, 2011, 9:48 am, BOISE, ID 83708

Bullet


Sorting Complete, July 21, 2011, 9:38 am, BOISE, ID 83708

Bullet


Arrival at Unit, July 21, 2011, 5:15 am, BOISE, ID 83708

Bullet


Processed through Sort Facility, July 20, 2011, 10:53 pm, BOISE, ID 83708

Bullet


Processed through Sort Facility, July 19, 2011, 7:14 pm, HOUSTON, TX 77201

Bullet


Shipment Accepted, July 18, 2011, 9:50 pm, HUMBLE, TX 77338

Bullet


Electronic Shipping Info Received, July 18, 2011





While we try to allow time for our customers to notify us of any problems that may have occurred during shipment, both the Shipment Confirmation e-mail and the packing slip that was included with your shipment stated that we needed to be notified of any issues immediately upon receipt of your order. Since your order was delivered on July 21, this means it was almost two weeks between when your order was received and when you notified us. Unfortunately, after this amount of time, we can no longer honor our guarantee of live delivery.



We still value you as a customer though, and would like to offer you a one-time Promotional Code that you can use to receive $7.00 off of your next order from PetFlyTrap.com. Please use the one-time Promotional Code of JerMorCred (case sensitive) to receive this credit on your next order.



Regards,



Mike Howlett

"On Aug 5, 2011 11:03 PM, petflytrap.com (aka Exotic Gardens, formerly Predator-Plants.com) responded with:

We ship out literally hundreds of orders monthly, and take great care to ensure that the plants are healthy when shipped, packaged well for shipment, include basic care instructions upon arrival, and tell our customers where to get more detailed care information (from our PetFlytrap.com web site for free). In addition, the packing slip clearly states that we require notification of any problems immediately upon receipt of the order to honor our live delivery guarantee; many factors can affect the health of a plant once it is in the care of someone who may or may not know how to care for these wonderful little plants. Mr. Morgan did not do so for 13 days after the plant was received. Why?

The plant in question is a carnivorous sundew plant Drosera spatulata 'Frasier Island'. The pots we ship out contain multiple plants (typically 15 to 20 plants) in a clump about 1.5 inches in diameter. Each plant is fairly small, but this is typical for this cultivar of plant. If the pot Mr. Morgan received is now down to a single plant, then perhaps this 'penny-sized' estimate is correct; however, this is certainly not what we shipped to him.

Mr. Morgan notified us for the first time 13 days after he had received his plant; yet we still offered him a store credit for the full cost of the plant. Mr. Morgan's response to this offer was to post this negative comment here on Dave's Garden. He has since replied and asked us to be reasonable; our stance is that we have done so, and more.

His last e-mail also makes mention of "The plant that I have..." Yet his first e-mail to us (very belligerent at the least, and which just happens to not have been included here) stated that the plant arrived almost dead and had since died. The e-mails contradict each other; which is it?

It is extremely unfortunate to carry this matter to this extent, and quite frankly, this has me very upset; but as a business owner who ships hundreds of orders monthly and takes great pride in offering the most diverse online selection of quality carnivorous plants in the U.S., I cannot understand how our offer was anything less than reasonable, given the extended time between receipt of the order and notification of the plant's supposed demise...or not. I'm not sure what has caused Mr. Morgan to become so upset so long after he received his order; but we feel we have done our part to try and resolve the matter amicably.

I ordered three "red dragon" venus flytraps from them. They arrived in a timely manner, but were tiny almost useless specimens. I have purchased much better flytraps from a picked through display at walmart. I think it will take these plants at least a year to grow large enough to catch a housefly, if they survive that long. More likely, i will lose interest in them, and leave them to dry up in the texas sun. I sent them an email explaining my dissatisfaction, but, haven't heard anything back. I couldn't be more dissapointed in the product. If you're looking for venus flytraps, you'll have better luck at walmart.

I ordered my plants about a month ago, they were delivered to TX. and I'm in virginia. I have sent numerous e-mails and there response is slow and always the same thing "I thought this was taken care of I'll look into it" and then a few days later nothing happens. Also there phone numbers posted on there website do not work so there is no other way to contact them. This is a terrible place to deal with and would not reccomend them to anyone.

"The last comment by SUPERLS92 should be put into proper context. petflytrap.com was in transition moveing offices from Austin to Houston during the time the customer ordered. Our sales representative left the company at the same time and we were locked out of the [e-mail:sales@petflytrap.com] account.

The package was shipped to the customer, however USPS returned the package as undeliverable. The customer attempted contacting us during the phone switchover. Once we got the package back we contacted the customer about the address.

For those of you who know about USPS returned mail.. it does not go DIRECTLY back to the sender.. hence there was further delay on the customers side. Since we could not get our 1800 number released from the Austin carrier, we had to get a new contact number.

I apologized multiple times that the customer managed to be right at the center of mulitple transition items, and then a poor attempt by USPS to deliver. We had hundreds of other customers during that time that had no problems.

So, if you want to view SUPERLS92's feedback as negative, please be assured that our move and transition are taken care of and the events that occurred are highly unlikely to happen again.

Thanks,
[e-mail:sales@petflytrap.com]"