Comments regarding Almost Eden Plants

Ordered 2/2, shipped to me (FEDEX) on 2/20 received five plants on 2/27 looking bedraggled at best; a lesson about ordering at this time of year, perhaps; cannot recommend them.

I bought a Osmanthus fragrans 'Aurantiacus'.
Shipping cost is very good.
A plant looks good but it is twisted.
[HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com]
If you say "What is the problem? It's not big deal." That's fine by me.
I sent 5 e-mails with this picuter and URL of web album because he never seen and didn't reply.
I asked if his spam filter is blocking my e-mail with picture and URL.
He wrote "I dunno !!"
Well, should I buy plants in person from now on?

I hate doing this.

I specifically chose this company due to the great reviews I found right here in the Garden Watchdog.

I've been wanting a patchouli plant for YEARS now, I finally talked myself into ordering one. I'm hippie-nouveau, the spawn of real hippies with a generous dash of techie. Being techie, I'm used to ordering sensitive materials.

I left specific instructions in case I wasn't home/didn't hear the door for delivery. I work nights and wanted to make sure the delivery made it to my doorstep. Let me add I'm an extremely light sleeper. As in the neighbor's cat can sneeze and I'll hear it.

The poor plant...

It was delivered straight to the complex office. Even though my address was clearly on the box. That one was the fault of the USPS. However, the note stating that it should be delivered to the balcony by my door was INSIDE the box, where it was clearly not doing any good.

Let me state I live in Alaska, and this company is in Louisiana, so the little plant went from LA to AK and then sat in a box from Friday to Monday unnecessarily.

It is, of course, very wilted and abused looking. I'm curious as to how it looked before it spent the weekend inside a hot cardboard box (AK businesses don't seem to believe in A/C,) as it is very, very root-bound.

I think half of what bothered me is the response I got when I emailed the company about my concern. It was sorta just "oh well."

It would take a great deal of coaxing before I'd order from this company again, as there are too many other companies from which to order. :/

"

Monday, June 9th...Yes, I missed putting note on box about the balcony. I apologized for that But, after our conversation by phone, I did put a note on the box ,to the post office, to call her, as they are closed on Saturdays. We shipped, via priority mail,on June 2nd, and actually spent more on the postage than we charged her, it went on Monday, and got there on Friday. 'Track & Confirm FAQs
Status: Delivered Your item was delivered at 12:57 PM on June 6, 2008 in FAIRBANKS, AK 99701. ' The patchouli was a fully rooted, nice sized plant. They are quite tough, generally, and I felt like it would likely recover, ergo 'ho-hum'...but we will either send another, or refund her invoice, I just think this complaint was hurried and unfair, and she expected it to be perfect after a weekend w/o A/c in AK !!
I hope others will be more understanding, and not so hasty to negate a good try to please a customer. John McMillian

Now I wish I had just said 'Just give it a couple of days, I have seen plants wilted from stress and still recover', but you had called me, we talked about your PO being closed on Saturdays, and I agreed to put your # on box so PO would call you, remember? How would I have known that if you had not called? I'm sorry I got angry, I just thought you would know to see if it lived, or died, then we would make adjustment accordingly. I was really astonished that you shot a negative message to Dave's the same day you got the plant, with no more messages than the one.!! I will not be in business long if I do not stand behind the product, but 30+ years in nursery retail have shown me that the customer is not always right, either. I apologize again for missing note about the balcony, I hope the plant lives, but I still want to refund your money. John"

I was surfing for certain tropicals, and found that Almost Eden had them for the cheapest. I understand that sometimes, you get what you pay for, but I shopped there anyways. The plants were exactly worth what I paid for, in the size department, but they were horribly rootbound. I was afraid they'd not survive the shock of shipping then the repotting, taking care of the roots......but they did and have grown well, after just sulking a short while. I would probably buy from them again, but I will be prepared for seriously rootbound plants.