Comments regarding Empire National Nursery, LLC

Ordered a PawPaw tree. Was not an easy process to get to order it, but I persisted.
When it came it was in a USPO mailing triangle, smashed in the middle, no plant damage.
But, the "tree" was a stick with dying small leaves. These promptly turned brown and died. I contacted the company by the only means provided, email, and got their auto reply. I waited a week and tried again for a reply. Still nothing from them.
I feel that this company is a formal joke on you. They take your money just fine, but what you get is aggravation.
Glad I only bought 1 tree as my loss is contained.
Doing business with this company is not recommended by me.

Posted on February 11, 2016, updated February 17, 2016
I ordered a large aspen tree for my wife for Valentine's day. Paid 20.90. The tree arrived today. Its not the tree I ordered, and is small. There is a note on the packaging that they were out, so they "adjusted the price,refunded to paypal" Well there is a plant here that I didn't need for the gift due to the size, which is why I didn't order this size in the first place. AND THERE IS NO REFUND TO PAYPAL. Thanks and happy valentines day to all of you. Now I have to go to a local nursery and pay whatever before the 14th!

I sent them a check for two plants. The first one came nice & healthy. The second never came. Wrote to them by snail mail & e-mailed about 6 times for a plant or refund. I'm being totally ignored. They sure didn't hesitate cashing the check.

This company reminds me of other scam companies like burgess. They don't care about the customer, they only care about getting money, even if it involves dishonest means.

I asked This nursery what were the parents of their particular hybrid, Ameriwillow. They said it was a hybrid of a black willow and the other parent was a company secret(which means they didn't have a clue). After seeing my ameriwillow grow this summer, it showed the exact same characteristics of the other common hybrid willows, such as the Austree(which is a hybrid between salix alba x matsudana). When I questioned them on this issue and wanted a refund, they stuck to their make believed delusions that it was in fact a different hybrid.

So watch out for this company, they make up tree names, such as "ameriwillow' to set themselves apart from other nurseries, but that willow can be bought for less than a dollar somewhere else. They also sell many species that are on invasive species lists.

"

Sorry to say a business can not please everybody all of the time. To this customer, we do apologize for her unhappiness.

We would like to say that we have been in the nursery business for nearly 40 years, and for the most part, people have been satisfied with our trees. We do have a Policies webpage, and links to it on every order form page, and, we do urge everyone to read the policies first before purchasing. That makes good sense for everyone no matter where you shop... Our policies are updated and have changed, but its the customers option to do so.

Our Ameri-Willow is different than the Rocky Mountain Aus-Tree, but like the many hybrid willows on the market, they all have very similar characterisitics. By visual means, it can easily look the same as many of the willows out there. The Ameri-Willow has a patent pending, and until that process is complete, we are not able to reveal the hybrids parent.

And very true, there are many mail-order plant suppliers that can offer below-cost plant deals. We run discount promotions as well, like any grocery chain, but we are growers and have cost structures associated with our products. We grow an ever-changing list of trees (primarily), some people like them, others may not. Yes, some species may be considered an "invasive" tree according to the National Plant Board, but every tree has a niche, and every tree can be of worth when planted in the right place.

As a nursery, we are interested in trees and the promoting of tree planting nationwide. The money we earn goes back into the nursery. We rather have friends interested in the same, than customers.

Happy planting.

Empire National Nursery, LLC"

I ordered live trees from them on their on-line Internet site and most were received dead or dying on arrival.
I contacted them several times by e-mail because this is the only type of correspondence they will receive. They are slow on getting back to me and will not acknowledge my complaint. When someone does get back with a response nothing is resolved and they end it with, (exact words) “we are very busy and will get back to you, Hope this helps” Very frustrating to get this type of a reply for a response to a customer service complaint. I want to just hear, will send out replacements right away. I purchase trees and plants from several other on-line plant nurseries and never had this much problems with getting replacements and issues with someone not getting back to me with a positive response. If you get plants from this nursery and they live, you are lucky. If you order then and they are dead, It’s a crapshoot and you will most likely get burned.

I ordered some trees from them through their eBay store. Shortly thereafter I received an email from them explaining that, due to crop failure, they were unable to fill my order. They further stated that they were refunding my money--not directly to me, but to a PayPal account in my name. I don't use PayPal, and I don't want to use PayPal!

I object to not getting a direct refund. I have attempted to use this balance to purchase several items since, but have been prevented from doing so unless I offer a credit card # or bank account number to PayPal (which is why I don't use PayPal in the first place). In any event, I stood to lose money on the deal because I would have to purchase something for less money, leaving a small balance in the PayPal account. I finally threw up my hands and ordered some similarly priced items from Empire National. I'm still having difficulty paying for these using the PayPal account!

I would rather have had the money refunded directly to myself, to use as I wish. Barring that, Empire National did not offer substitutions to the plants that I had ordered. All-in-all, I still do not have my plants, or the money I have paid for them.

"

Sorry to say, the tracking information for the package did suggest the plants were delivered. We did refund the customer using by the same payment method used when ordering. If payment was made by PayPal, it would also be returned by PayPal. For PayPal account problems, they should contacted, not us, since we are one of their customers as well.

Overall, we tried our best to help the customer, even refunding the purchase. "