Comments regarding Nature Hills Nursery

My children bought me a cherry tree from Nature Hills which cost over $40 and did not survive despite following all their instructions and watering for 60 days. According to Nature Hills, trees can be in dormancy for 60 days or so even in the summer and they would not consider replacement during this period. I think you should know what their policy is on replacement. You are at their mercy on what they charge for shipping!! even if you go through the hassels of all the documentations.

This is their replacement policy.

Copy of the warranty:
As with all living plants, containerized or bare root, you can expect a death loss. It is virtually impossible to achieve a 100% survival rate. When you have properly cared for (as posted on our site) your newly purchased plants, and you experience an excessive loss (40% or more of your order) in the first year, just write to Nature Hills Nursery, Inc., 3334 North 88th Plaza, Omaha, NE 68134 detailing your loss and include a picture of the plants you are seeking replacements on and we will ship you replacement plants of your loss. All warranty claims must be received by Nature Hills Nursery, Inc. within one year from the delivery of your plants to the address specified on the order. Claims received by Nature Hills Nursery, Inc. after one year of delivery will not be honored. Product replacement will only be sent to the original shipping address. Claims will not be accepted if the shipping address is different than the original shipping address. If we are currently out of stock of that item we will gladly offer a substitute or you can choose to wait until the next shipping season for your area. You will be responsible for standard shipping and handling for the replacements as posted on our web site.


Replacement order information
Please read carefully

Dear Valued Nature Hills Customer,
 
Thank you for your order. We are working each day to make our products better for you the customer. We ask that you follow the steps we have provided so that we can learn more about the products we are providing. The Quality Control department will review this information to determine what may have happened. This will aid in the plant failure process to our customers in the future. Thank you so much for your important help in this matter.
 
1.)   You will need to take a picture of the items that failed.
 
 
2.)   Send the pictures of the failed item(s) with a short letter telling us what happened.
 
 
3.)   Make sure you include your full name and a phone number.
 

4.)   Warranty will not cover the shipping cost of your new items so we will need to collect your credit card information. You can send it with you letter or feel free to give us a call at 402/934-8116 we would be happy to take it over the phone. We cannot deviate from this policy.
 
 
5.)   If you have received a gift item, we will need the name and phone number of the person whom purchased the plant. This will help us to access the account.
 

6.)   The claim processing time is about three weeks. We will send you an email to let you know we have received your claim.
 
 
7.)   All items be planted in the ground for no less then 6 weeks before a claim can be submitted. Any claim that maybe received before this is subject to being denied.
 

8.)   Be sure to make a list of each item that failed and include this in your letter.
 
 
9.)   Please be sure that you give us a good email address to contact you at.
 
10.) We will need the full name of the person whose credit card is being used for the billing.
 
11.) Please refer to the website terms of the sale for all information.
 
 Please note we do not have a money back Guarantee so the only thing that we can do is replace the items the next planting time for your zone.
 
Please send your claim via the United States Postal Service.
 
Nature Hills Nursery
3334 North 88th plaza
Omaha, Ne 68134

Original order was placed on 5/18 for a japanese willow. The only e-mail I received was an "order receipt" e-mail containing a confirmation number. Four weeks later, I called about my order (after receiving everything I had ordered from other online nurseries). They couldn't give me any kind of status and didn't know where it was in the process (told me they had no way of checking on it).

With that, and not knowing if I would ever receive the order, I requested that it be canceled and sent them my official e-mail request. On 6/13, several days later, I received an e-mail from Cindy notifying me that my request had been received and "if we are able to get the order stopped it will take about 10 to 15 business days for the credit to show on your statement."

After 15 days, there was still no credit, so I again sent an e-mail to Cindy. No response, so I called. It happened to be the week of the July 4 holiday and the "entire accounting department was on vacation." Whoever I spoke to told me she wouldn't be able to tell me anything until the following week.

I called again the next week. As before, Cindy had to check on it and get back to me--which meant by e-mail, never a phone call. (Too personal, I guess.) Yet another week later, I was informed (by e-mail) that the credit had been run on 7/17. It was for $39.90. The original charge was $49.90. On 7/24 I e-mailed Cindy about the other $10.

After a-n-o-t-h-e-r week, I'm now informed via e-mail that a $10 cancellation fee was deducted from the credit. (Are you kidding me?) This company had my money for nearly three months, could not give me any information about my order, and I'm being penalized?! Completely unacceptable. I didn't decide on a whim that I didn't want this plant or go buy it somewhere else cheaper. I hung in there waiting and waiting, and only canceled when it seemed inevitable that I would never receive it and that no one there could answer my questions.

Thank you to Dave's Garden for a place to vent. I have requested a credit of the $10 cancellation fee (via e-mail to Cindy--who I think is the entire accounting department). I hope a resolution comes soon, but I suspect it'll take another week--and I'll be the one calling them. And no, I would never attempt to do business with this company again. If you're that busy, hire more employees to handle customer service concerns. I'm sure other nurseries are just as busy, and they seem to handle it just fine. I don't get it.

Similar to another users reply on here, I placed an order for several items in late March. I began contacting them about a month later when nothing showed up. I have received a few pieces of my order( I was happy with what did show up), but I am still waiting for the lavender that I ordered. Their website shows out of stock if someone tries to order. That's understandable this late in the year, but according to their shipping/purchasing policies once an item is ordered and paid for, then they "reserve" one. I have recieved communication from them 3 times and each time I am told it will be 7-14 business days. I'm in my 3rd month of waiting 7-14 business days. I have NEVER been told the delay is due to them not having the item. It is always that they are behind and another 7-14 business days comes and goes with no delivery . To be fair, I have ordered in previous years and have had good luck. I just would like an honest, dependable, realistic shipping time frame or a 100% credit for my money that has been tied up for 3 months.

"

Thank you for your post. This forum is a great way to judge a company such as ours. While we strive to never receive a negative post we do learn from them and in this case we did not respond quickly to your requests. We continually strive to meet our customer’s expectations and will continue to do so. As indicated via an email sent to you the plants were not shipped due to a crop failure and while we were assured a second crop would be ready to ship soon that never did materialize. We have credited your account and have also issued you an in-store credit, which is available now for your use, which hopefully will take some of sting out of not receiving the plants, you ordered. "

I ordered 2 lavender bushes and, on a whim, 4 prairie dusks in late April. They took my money immediately. Unless, I contacted them, I never heard from them.

I did inform them that it's the law in Maryland that you cannot charge the consumer until you ship. It took threatening to cancel the transaction or having the Attorney General look into their charging practices to get them to ship - at the end of May.

And then, it wasn't even the lavender bushes... I just demanded my money for what wasn't shipped. We'll see what happens.

"

We are sorry you encountered problems with your order. There are rare cases when plants are backordered and we try our very best to fulfill each order completely. We have refunded your credit card for the backordered plants. Our customer service department has been overloaded this spring with an unprecedented amount of phone calls from customers inquiring to the status of their orders, as the weather did not permit us to ship plants for a couple of weeks due to extreme cold temperatures. To be honest, our fulfillment department was backlogged. We did email all of our customers of the circumstances but that did little to relieve the call volume. Fortunately, the majority of our customers understood the circumstances. So, we have been catching up all spring with the orders. I assure you we are a reputable company and try our best to satisfy each and every customer. We would like to offer you an in-store credit for the exact dollar amount of the plants that were backordered, in addition to the full refund we have already applied. All you would need to do is call in your order; a note has been placed in your account for the credit. We trust you will find this an acceptable solution and we look forward to assisting you in the future. "

I placed an order and was billed on March 30th. I recieved a fifth of my order two weeks later, but not the rest. I called, was told the rest of my order would be there "in 10 to 14 days". When it was not, I called again and was told AGAIN that the rest of my order would arrive "in 10 to 14 days". 14 days later the rest of my order (about 75 dollars worth) was STILL not on my doorstep, and I called again and spoke with someone named Cindy who offered me a handful of excuses as to why the plants hadn't shipped yet "... its been a really bad season... we're swamped..... my computer isn't working right... my software isn't working right... i only have so many shipping slots available any given day" etc. She ASSURED me that my plants would ship no later than the following tuesday (we spoke the friday before) and that I would have a tracking code through UPS before monday was over. Wednesday, I didn't have an email, and called her directly. She told me at that point that the order had shipped a week ago. I asked her why she had told me friday that it wouldn't ship til tuesday and why she had assured me I'd have a tracking number by monday. More excuses, NO taking of responsibility, NO compensation for my inconvenience. I asked her for her supervisor's contact information. She said that she was in charge and that the only entity above her was the better business bureau. This is so frustrating. I'm sure that most of the time, Nature Hills Nursery doesn't have a problem following through with what they're being paid to do. But when there are problems, seems they can't get their act together and see the customer as an advesary rather than an investment. I won't be doing business with them again.

"

We are very sorry you received less than great service from our Company. While this has been a trying spring for us with the erratic weather patterns and the start and stop shipping we had been experiencing that is no excuse for poor customer relations. I have read your email and I want to apologize for the entire staff at Nature Hills Nursery. One of our goals is to never receive a response such as yours. I truly hope you will allow us to amend the prior actions by accepting a Gift Certificate from us. Please email sales@naturehills.com your order number and we will send you a Gift Certificate in hopes you will give us another opportunity to impress you not disappoint you."

I would love to order from this company but they won't send me anything. I really wanted some Hardy Hibiscus so I called and asked why they won't send to Montana.

The answer was that Montana will not allow foreign soil to enter.

If that is the case, then why are many other nurseries able to send plants to me. This is the only nursery that has refused to send plants to me. This is ridiculous. And I was told that in a rather rude manner.

"

We understand your disappointment but we have to comply with all rules and regulations regarding shipping plants into each state. Nature Hills Nursery growing facilities are located in Sarpy County NE and the state of Montana agricultural department will not allow plants grown in our county to enter the state due to a Japanese Beetle concern. We have since entered into a compliance agreement with the state and we are happy to report that we now can ship containerized materials to the state of Montana. We are sorry we were not able to service your request earlier. "

I ordered from this company in spite of the negative reviews, hoping for the best. My credit card was charged immediately, but six weeks later my plants had not been shipped. (This was late spring, and I was getting plants from other companies without delay.) I called the company and cancelled the order, my credit card was refunded, and all is well. Except that I never did get the plants!

I placed an order for a single tree for $4.00. With shipping the order came to $13. I could not find information on when it would ship, but I placed the order anyway. As soon as the order was confirmed, I was informed that it would ship much later than I needed it. The tree (needles) was actually being used in a recipe so I wasn't ordering it to plant. I immediately cancelled my order (within about 2 minutes of placing the order). I was notified the next day that they would cancel my order less a $10 fee. This is absurd on an order for a $4.00 plant. I then replied for them to send the tree. I'd rather have something than have nothing and lose $10. They replied that they had already cancelled the order and that was that. The email correspondence from them was very condescending and curt. They have no customer service at all. The fact that they are willing to lose a customer and future sales over a $10 fee speaks volumes to what kind of company they are. I do not recommend them to anyone. There are too many good vendors out there to waste your time or money on Nature Hills.

I ordered five trees and four plants from this company in the late spring. Only two out of the trees survived. Talking about the trees they shipped, I feel shamed to call them trees, they are actually sticks, very thin sticks. Those are bare-root trees but still much worse than I thought. The plants I received were potted plants and they were so tiny. There is no comparison between the plants I purchased from Nature Hills and the ones that you can buy from local store. Both from price stand point and health/size of the plants, the ones that you can buy from local store are much much better. As far as the refunds for the dead trees, they only refund you the store credits. I had to buy another two potted plants and some garden suppliers just to get over with it.

It was not just a bad experience for me to purchase from Nature Hills, it was totally a joke. Even now, when my friends come over, they still laught at me for making such a stupid mistake. Well, I just consider this as paying a tuition to learn something. I hope you won't make the same mistake after reading this.

On 06/14/05 and 08/17/05, respectively, I emailed Nature Hills; both messages referenced my order and customer numbers and the latter was flagged High Priority. I told them that although the three Heavenly Bamboo I'd purchased last fall were planted simultaneously and in identical conditions, only one had survived. I asked them to send me replacements whenever convenient, and offered to provide my credit card information again if they needed it for shipping charges. To date, I have had no response whatsoever.

Conversely, Spring Hill Nursey immediately replied to my email, saying they'd send me replacement plants this fall.
And in the past, both Wayside Gardens and White Flower Farm have provided replacements for plants I lost; moreover, they did so graciously and in a timely way.

In my view, the only thing poorer than the quality of Nature Hills' plants is their (apparently non-existent) customer service.

Ordered trees in the spring of 2004. They said they would be sent in late fall. Little did I know late fall meant spring of 2005.

When the trees arrived they were DEAD. They had started to bud out, but the buds were dead and brown.

I sent an email to which there was no response. I called customer service and was told new trees would be sent next spring.

Here is the real kicker: you pay for the trees immediately. So, I paid for trees in May of 2004 that I may or may not receive in the Spring of 2006.

I will never order from this place again. I have never ordered any product where they charge you immediately. Some of my order was sent in the fall of 2004, the rest in the spring of 2005. And, of course, I was promised replacement trees in the spring of 2006.

Very bad experience.......wish I knew then what I know now. I should have run far, far away.

This my second order to this nursery this season. The first arrived "on time" but the tree was already in leaf and had a very small trunk diameter. It broke in two while being removed from the shipping box. Fortununately I was able to clip off the top section and other buds are now taking over. There was a 10%-off offer for subsequent orders this season and I ordered two plants. It has been over a month and I have not received the plants or anything to indicate if or when they are to be sent. My receipt says "early spring". As indicated previously e-mails are not answered and I am going to intitiate a merchand dispute with my credit card.

Wow. I wish I had found your site before ordering from Nature Hills!

I placed an order nearly TWO MONTHS AGO and have yet to receive it.

Since the order, I have emailed Nature Hills four times, each time getting an automatic response indicating I would receive a reply within 24 hours. I've also left three voicemail messages.

I'm now going to contact the Better Business Bureau and my credit card company.

Nature Hills is the worst online experience I've ever had. Spread the word!

Nearly two months have passed from the time I placed my order with this company and I have no plants. The plants were to populate a conspicuous area in the garden in my front yard so their absence is an eyesore.

I've tried contacting the customer support center of this company by phone several times. I never get a person; just a voice message telling me to leave my name & number and they will return my call. I have left information twice and never received a follow-up call.

About 3 weeks ago, I tried to contact them by e-mail. A 24-hour response is guaranteed. I got no response after 3 days, so I sent another e-mail. By then their website said the plants I'd ordered were unavailable. I noted this in my inquiry and asked would I get my plants and when. After 3 more days I got a polite form e-mail saying something about everyone being "anxious for their plants now that planting season is here" and that orders are "first come first served". None of my specific questions were addressed despite the fact my e-mail provided all the details of my order. This same form e-mail brightly advIsed me expect an e-mail "soon" telling me my order was on its way. I suppose their "soon" is as prompt as their 3-day delay in answering an e-mail guaranteed a 24 hour response.

It is at least 3 weeks past optimum planting season in my area; anything sent now is most likely to burn to a crisp. Of course, when I tried to cancel my order this afternoon, all I got was voice mail. And, of course, my credit card was charged for the full amount the day of my order, again, nearly 2 months ago.

This company does not know the meaning of effective customer service. I would certainly never order with them again, and would strongly advise that other consumers beware.

The short story: Horrendous, rude, and inappropriate customer service. I purchase a plant as a Mother's Day present and when she called to report it was damaged, she spoke to several people. The third (and last so far) customer service person she spoke to yelled at her and called her a liar.

The longer story: I ordered a mangnolia bush for my mother for Mother's Day. I was excited to have found an online nursery that I could so easily purchase and ship plants.

The plant arrived a week later at my mom's house. It was larger than we had expected (about 22" when they had said to expect 18"). But half of the bush was obviously in poor health. Nature Hills had warnings in the package that said that shipped plants will sometimes have dead leaves or look sickly and to plant it and wait to see if it recovers.

So that's exactly what my mom did. When the magnolia's condition continued to worsen, they examined it closely and discovered that half of the main stem was cracked, which was causing that half of the plant to die.

She called customer service. After a great to-do, the second customer service person agreed to ship a new plant. A few hours later, the head of customer service called my mom and she had to start over explaining what was going on. By the end of the conversation, the man had yelled repeatedly at my mother, called her a liar, and acted in a completely inappropriate way toward a customer. My mother called me afterward to explain what had happened. She was incredibly upset, and understandably so.

Three weeks later, they have yet to ship a replacement tree and the magnolia tree, despite my mom's considerable efforts to save it, is not doing well.

"

I have read your email and I want to apologize for the entire staff at Nature Hills Nursery. One of our goals is to never receive an email such as yours. Please contact me directly and I will see that a replacement is sent right away. I truly hope you will allow us to amend the prior actions by accepting a Gift Certificate from us. We strive for excellent service and it appears we failed in this event.
888-846-7663 x 101"

I ordered 6 "Minuet" weigelas on April 16. On May 10, I called the nursery to enquire about my plants. I was told, as was another reviewer, to be patient with mother nature, the plants would ship within two weeks. My plants were shipped on May 13, received on May 18. I am furious. These plants are seedlings, not what you would expect for $17 each! The diagram on their website indicates that they supply much larger plants than other companies. I wouldn't mind more established plants that have been pruned for shipment, but these plants are tiny, fragile things. The plants consist of 2-3 tiny stems, with only one plant having older growth. The leaves are curled and one stem is broken.

For the price of these weigelas, I truly believed these plants would be more established. I have called the customer service department three times today, and was told each time that a supervisor would call me back but I have not heard from anyone. Very discouraged. I will not order from this company again.

"

I apologize for the lack of communication. We truly do strive to answer all questions, comments and concerns within 24 hours. Pease contact me at 888.864.7663 x 101 or send me an email and I will personally discuss your concerns. I’m sorry we failed to meet you expectations. Please be assured our goal is to make sure you are happy with your purchase. "

I had bought from them this spring and the ones I selected were sent as sticks, poor root systems. I spoke to them and was told to wait until fall if I was still unhappy!

I am about to call them now,and I will see what the wait period is now as they refused to refund as I was more than willing to send the sticks back! Poor roots isnt the word! All are dead as I expected I bought the bigger plants also and all were very small sticks! Over $100 is nothing to throw away. I will not buy again, and I see why they did change there name also! I feel they are very unproffesional and will not see me again!
Cindy

"We just found this great website and your feedback. We will be monitoring all posts frequently and responding on a more timely basis. As to your specific post, admittedly we did experience some unforeseen growing pains this last year. I’m sorry you did not receive the service you had expected. As evidenced by our Positive posts, we strive to offer excellent customer service and quality plants. May we have a chance to prove our company once again? May I send you a gift certificate at our expense? We truly believe we can meet your expectations! We await your decision. Thank you for the opportunity to address your concerns. "

I ordered from them last Fall. I did not see the no- cancellation policy either. They shipped my trees way later than they had indicated that they would. When it got later and later in the year I became frustrated and wanted to cancel the order, which I was not allowed to do. They were also rude about this. When I got the trees they had poor root systems. I did a search on them here last yeat but they were then 2shoptrees.com and I did'nt see them listed. I looked them up tonight and realized that they had changed their name. Little wonder with their crappy customer service!

"We just found this great website and your feedback. We will be monitoring all posts frequently and responding on a more timely basis. As to your specific post, admittedly we did experience some unforeseen growing pains this last year. I’m sorry you did not receive the service you had expected. As evidenced by our Positive posts, we strive to offer excellent customer service and quality plants. May we have a chance to prove our company once again? May I send you a gift certificate at our expense? We truly believe we can meet your expectations! We await your decision. Thank you for the opportunity to address your concerns. "

I ordered 3 trees and 6 nandina shrubs from these people. I expected potted plants, but I received them bare-root. Only one of the trees had a good root system. But that one had the top cut out of it! It will never have a good shape. The others appeared to have been yanked from their growing medium and were too frail to plant in the landscape. We potted them. The dogwood promptly died, but we able to plant the bald cypress after 2 1/2 months being nurtured in the pot.

The nandinas were match sticks about 8" long. Only one had a leaf. Three survived. Eventually they may be of quality to plant in the landscape. (These sticks were more expensive than one gallon size nandinas at our local nurseries.)

The first time I called they refused to even talk about it until a month after delivery. When I called back the customer service person had to refer me to someone else, who called back. Then they had no authority to refund any money. (I don't want any more rootless sick plants from them.) They had to talk to the "boss." Days or weeks later we got a message on the answering machine that they were going to send some nandinas in November.

The whole experience was an expensive mistake. Local nurseries would have provided the same varities potted and larger for the same or a lesser price.

"We just found this great website and your feedback. We will be monitoring all posts frequently and responding on a more timely basis. As to your specific post, admittedly we did experience some unforeseen growing pains this last year. I’m sorry you did not receive the service you had expected. As evidenced by our Positive posts, we strive to offer excellent customer service and quality plants. May we have a chance to prove our company once again? May I send you a gift certificate at our expense? We truly believe we can meet your expectations! We await your decision. Thank you for the opportunity to address your concerns. "

I received my plant material shortly after placed an order with Nature Hills.
The packing materials used were difficult to disentangle from some of the plants. Within two weeks of planting two thirds of the plants were dead.
Correspondence with Nature Hills was prompt and pleasant. My money was returned within a reasonable amount of time.

"We just found this great website and your feedback. We will be monitoring all posts frequently and responding on a more timely basis. As to your specific post, admittedly we did experience some unforeseen growing pains this last year. I’m sorry you did not receive the service you had expected. As evidenced by our Positive posts, we strive to offer excellent customer service and quality plants. May we have a chance to prove our company once again? May I send you a gift certificate at our expense? We truly believe we can meet your expectations! We await your decision. Thank you for the opportunity to address your concerns. "

I have been around and around with this company in regard to a rather large order. They were unable to tell me when the order would be shipped - even what YEAR all the plants would be shipped! So I told them I wanted to cancel. It was only then that I was told about a "no cancellations" policy. This policy is indeed in the fine print which you only see during the check-out process, but I hadn't seen it. (The fact that all the plants are bare-root is similarly difficult to find.)

Since I had paid by American Express, I told them I would be asking them to handle the refund. Finally, the person at 2shop trees said I could have 75% of my money back, but no more because Amex charges him 3% for refunds. He did refund 75% of my order price (after about 25 e-mails from both myself and my husband) and I am now pursuing the remaining refund through Amex.

I have yet to discover another garden company which refuses flat-out to give refunds. The 2shoptrees site is all over the web, and it makes me sick to think that other people might have to go through the same thing I did.