Comments regarding Black Jungle Terrarium Supply

the prices are outrageous for the microscopic size of the plants. i ordered previously, spent lots of money and received almost nothing for it. i decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. i ordered again - a nepenthes, begonia foliosa and a couple others. the nepenthes arrived looking sickly and the begonia was missing. i practically needed a magnifying glass to see the others. i called them and they did ship the begonia. it was two inched tall, had three leaves, and barely a root (all for the bargain price of $6.99). it was almost comical, but what was really funny was the size of the pot it arrived in. it's size made the "plant" look even smaller.
well, the nepenthes continued to shrivel up to nothing so after three weeks i called them (i should have called sooner). they blamed me for it's death and made several excuses.
i have ordered from several companies and this is the only company i've been disappointed in. i fact, companies like cloud jungle and peace of the tropics actually sell some cuttings that average about two dollars, which are larger than potted plants from black jungle that sell for $6.99 and more.
i don't know how black jungle got positive comments, but i won't waste my money there anymore when there are many better quality and lower priced companies.

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Hi Todd,

I was the one you spoke to this morning and I am quite surprised and disappointed to see this review. I would also like to clarify a few things. First, you never mentioned any concerns with plant size or overall quality at all during the conversation. All of our Nepenthes have their sizes listed in the product description so you know what to expect upon their arrival. Second, the three sundews you were sent were mature or close to mature and so I am confused about the need for a "magnifying glass" to see them. Third, this morning you ephasized that the plant was NOT dead but had browning leaf edges with leaf curling and that you would watch it for a while longer. Now, you are posting that I blamed you for the death of the plant. Is the plant dead or not? I did not blame you for the condition of the plant but rather explained how the plants need specialized care upon arrival, especially thin-leaved species such as N. ampullaria. You told me that you put it with all of your other Nepenthes after you received it and I explained that those conditions, while fine for established plants, may not be approriate for a recently shipped plant that could benefit from additional humidity. You could not tell me what the humidity level in your terrariums is but stated that you knew it was high enough due to condensation on the glass. I explained that condensation does not indicate a specific humidity level, but rather only indicates that the temperature is warmer inside the tank than outside of it. The plant was shipped wrapped with shredded wax paper, sealed in a plastic bag to help ensure a safe delivery. You stated that there was probably not enough humidity in the bag because there was no condensation on the bag. I then explained that we would not want moisture on the bag as that could cause the plant to rot. You also transplanted the plant after receiving it into a different media than what it was originally growing in. These are not "excuses" but simply things that will affect how the plant establishes when growing conditions are changed suddenly from what ours are. I also told you that even though we did not hear anything about the condition of the N. ampullaria for three weeks that I would provide you with a store credit if the plant did die. That was never mentioned here either. We normally never do such a thing because we have no way to know if the plant was cared for properly during that time period or not. You never complained about the plant when you received it, nor did you mention it when contacting us about the B. foliosa that was left out of your order. Out of all of the N. ampullaria that we have shipped over the past several weeks you were the only one that had a problem. Even though it goes against our policy we still agreed to offer you the store credit and you said that you would be happy with that. As far as our pleased customers go, in addition to their satisfaction with our products, they are probably also happy due to the fact that we will even break the rules and offer credit to them, even when it goes against our policy. Lastly, if we sold unrooted cuttings we would perhaps be able to sell them for a few dollars. The fact that we sell potted plants that require more time, effort and care does not allow us to do that.

Sicerely,
Richard Revis
Black Jungle Terrarium Supply"

I placed a web order with Black Jungle for carnivorous plants. All the plants were reasonably priced. They arrived well packaged and without damage. I was especially happy with the 3 pitcher plants regarding size for the price. The two sundews were fine. The 2 venus flytraps were small plants though (young, not winter dormancy small) and they did substitute one with the dente variety which I would have preferred they ask before doing so. Their website has a lot of great information regarding terrariums which is how I found them.

I am very disappointed in the plants I received from Black Jungle. All told our order came to nearly $200 for anthuriums, philodendrons, ferns, and miscellaneous. While the shipping was timely and the packaging good, the size of the plants for the price was laughable. Here is the letter I sent to them complaining of the problem:

After scanning the internet for indications about your company and the kind of plants you ship (and reading and rereading the comments on Garden Watchdog), I and my friends felt confident in placing a fairly large order (for them) with your company. The plants arrived Thursday, well-packed and in good condition. The issue we have is the size of the starts. While the King anthurium was very well rooted, the other plants were barely rooted into their small pots. Particularly disturbing were the crocodile and heart ferns. These had apparently just been shifted up into the 3" pot from the plug tray -- as each was removed from the pot the soil fell away from the plug. This same thing happened with one A. clarinervium and two P. gloriosum, and for the ones that didn't lose their soil, there were only one or two roots that had reached the sidewall of the container.

I own and operate a retail perennial nursery here in southern Illinois. We grow our own from cuttings and seed, so I am very familiar with shifting up and rooting times. I can tell you that selling material that has not developed enough of a root system to hold the soil mass together will lose you customers. No matter how good the plant looks on top or how badly that cash flow is needed, it is just bad business. And when a customer has to pay extra shipping for the weight of that worthless soil....

If I wanted plugs, I'd just order a tray of 72 from Agri-Starts.

Sincerely,

***** *****
______________________________________________

I received a reply from them in about a week:

Dear **** ****,

Thanks for recently shopping with Black Jungle Terrarium Supply! We appreciate
your business and would like to express our thanks to those repeat customers for
their continued patronage. In doing so, we are offering you this discount on
your next purchase. Save 10 percent off our entire website while supplies last.
To Redeem this Coupon, just enter the coupon code that is shown below, where
prompted on the checkout page of our online catalog and 10 percent of the
purchase price will be deducted automatically.

Coupon Code: *******

Valid for online orders only. Don't forget...Expires 8/31/2006.

Shop now at http://www.blackjungle.com

Thanks again,
Mike and Richard
______________________________________________

Is this supposed to be customer service?!?! An offer of 10% off my next order really doesn’t help much since I don’t intend to order from them again.

Two plants ordered and two beautiful, healthy, and extremely well-packaged plants arrived in a timely manner. Two of the best looking plants I've received via mail order.

Purchased a Jewel Orchid and Cytosperma johnstonii from this company. Great plants, great shipping and excellent customer communication. Great prices too! Would definitely recommend this company.

Just received my plants and they were the best packed and healthiest have received online YET.......shipping a tad slow but worth it for the quality of plants received! Thanks SO much! I will be ordering from them again in the near future! :0) oh, and their prices beat 98% of the sites I have visited!!

Order arrived very quickly - all plants ordered arrived in good health, well packed, and as described in their online catalog.
An email question regarding one of the plants that I received was answered very quickly and curteously.
I would recommend this company.

I ordered several plants from Black Jungle, and was impressed with the fast shipment and the wonderful condition of the plants when I received them. I found the customer service to be very knowledgeable and accomodating to my requests. Their catalog is great - they have so many interesting plants I can find nowhere else. Their selection of pitchers is wonderful! I will definitely order from them again.

I've ordered carnivorous plants from right around 20 different nurseries. I too, hesitated to place an order in February being that I'm from the Chicago land area. Much to my surprise, I received a box from them that was not only insulated but outfitted with heat packs. The box sat outside in 31F weather until I got home from work and the heatpacks were still radiating. Black Jungle refers to this as their "winter shipping". Incredible. Add to this that each plant was painstakingly prepared for shipment then individually wrapped and I have to say that if this nursery has what I want in the future, I will order from them over others who might be cheaper. The plants arrived perfectly healthy and not even one trap was so much as even bruised. Incidentally, their prices were beyond competitive. Impressive, very impressive.

Oh yes, upon placement of the order, they e-mailed a confirmation. They later followed up to let me know when the plants were shipping and provided me with tracking information. They then followed up a third time to inquire as to my satisfaction with the plants upon receipt and provided me with contact information in the event that I was dissatisfied for any reason. It doesn't get better than this folks.

When got an email letting me know some great-looking plants were on sale, I had to take a chance, even though February is not the best tme to have plants shipped to Minnesota. The plants were healthy, and packaged very carefully so they made it in fine shape! It has been over a week, and they're all doing very well. I'd recommend Black Jungle as a good source of some unusual, hard-to-find plants.

Have ordered numerous times.

Small plants, but very reasonably priced, always beautifully packaged and in perfect health.

Website is very informative if you keep both 'critter's and plants' in terrariums.