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Comments regarding Classy Groundcovers

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255 positives
6 neutrals
4 negatives

Comments:

RatingAuthorContent
Negative Wanieta
(2 reviews)
On May 14, 2022, Wanieta Pleasant Mount, PA wrote:

Last year I placed an order for Veronica 'Georgia Blue', Deer Mix and a Phlox Mix which included 'Drummond's Pink', 'Candy Stripe' and 'Snowflake'. They were all planted at the same time in the same bed under the same conditions. The Phlox were planted in drifts of colors. This spring almost every plant survived with the notable exception of the 'Drummond's Pink' Phlox. Not one of those plants returned - nil, zilch - leaving a large bare space in the planting. All of the other plants surrounding them came back, but none of the "Drummond's Pink'. I contacted Classy Groundcovers who advised me that 1. They do not guarantee nor replace plants. 2. There was nothing wrong with the plants. 3. It must have been something I did, or a fungus, or some other reason that the plants did not survive. I was offered a 40% discount if I wish to reorder them, but this I declined. It makes no sense to me that these would be the only plants that did not survive under this set of circumstances unless the problem was with the plants themselves and I am very disappointed that this company will not make good on my loss.


On May 14, 2022, Classy Groundcovers responded with:

"On May 14, 2022 12:08 PM, Classy Groundcovers responded with:

I am sorry that you were unhappy that we would not replace your plants for free, our low pricing does not permit that. The plants were delivered a year ago. If there had been something wrong with the plants it would have shown up sooner than this. We received no other complaints about that plant. "


Negative paula2007
(1 review)
On Jun 13, 2021, paula2007 Silver Spring, MD wrote:

I bought over a hundred dollars of late blooming daylilles from this company and they sent me common roadside dayliles which I couldn't know until a year later when they bloomed. I have hundreds of the common day lilies and specifically bought the late blooming doubles to extend the color in the garden after the common daylilies were done blooming. This was no mistake on their part, they knew that they were sending something that I had not ordered. The late bloomers are distinct from the common roadside daylily and were shown by the Kwansa name and photo by the company on their website. I don't know how they got these high ratings that lead me to buy them based on the Dave's Garden reviews. I wonder if these are real customers or company planted reviews. This is a dishonest company.


On Jun 13, 2021, Classy Groundcovers responded with:

"On Jun 13, 2021 4:16 PM, Classy Groundcovers responded with:

If you believe that we sent you the wrong daylilies, why didn't you contact us? We would never send the wrong daylilies on purpose. It is not too late to contact us to resolve this matter. I found your order and you did order Kwansos, but you are mistaken that they are late-season bloomers. Even Dave's page ([HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com]) lists them as mid-season bloomers (regular ditch daylilies are early-season, reblooming into mid-season). The blooms differ, not the bloom time. If you believe that the blooms on the ones we sent do not match the blooms of Kwanso you should contact us and we can refund or replace them.
Compare the Kwanso blooms at the link above to the ditch daylily blooms at [HYPERLINK@davesgarden.com] - they are similar but have distinctions, you should be able to tell what you have.
"


Negative MinnSheila
(1 review)
On May 28, 2015, MinnSheila Minneapolis, MN wrote:

Posted on May 28, 2015, updated May 28, 2015
Posted on May 28, 2015, updated May 28, 2015
Posted on October 4, 2014, updated May 28, 2015
This is my first order with Classy Ground Covers and I have been ordering plants online for many years. I cannot begin to compare this experience because other companies cannot compare to the Service, Speed, Condition of plants, Size and health of plants that arrived at my door yesterday! The website is AWESOME and each offering is lovingly described as to what makes it happy and how to best succeed with the new additions. The communication from the moment I placed the order to 5 days later when they arrived was beyond anything I've experienced before. I opened the box to find the bushy, green, HEALTHY plantlings - super moist and surrounded in wet newspaper to keep them so. I am so excited to see what next Spring brings to this neglected area of my yard... SnowCone Candy Tuft was recommended as a plant for this specific area and I have to say - it may be hard to ignore these lovely little plants! I have all 24 plants in the ground and not a one in the bunch looked peaked or suffering! I am pending the in-stock notification for the Elfin Thyme I want to get- and can only say - Classy Ground Covers has a new life time customer!


On May 28th, 2015, MinnSheila changed the rating from positive to negative and added the following:

Sadly, I must revise my experience rating for this company. I have contacted Catherine regarding my concerns for the plants received last fall and have been treated with nothing but disrespect and an basically told I am a moron to think that a human being actually is involved in the process of customer service. She told me I got what I paid for, but this is not a discounted price..... I can buy this plant for the SAME price I paid CGC... I was so enamoured with the web site and felt that I was in good hands purchasing from this company. The emails received from Catherine are shockingly contemptuous. She does not even hide her disdain with a 'bless your heart' for thinking we give a damn, with 10's of thousands of orders - we don't need you measly few hundred bucks. So, buying from this company should be restricted to those with the entire Dave's Garden library fully memorized - real 'smart folk' that don't just read the specs and descriptions.

Read more at: [HYPERLINK@classygroundcovers.com]
Classy Groundcovers offers free shipping on quality groundcovers.
On May 28th, 2015, MinnSheila added the following:

This mornings email.... please bear in mind I was not asking for a refund, I was asking for a reply to my concern.

Hi Sheila,

I apologize that you are disappointed that we did not somehow anticipate your problem.
We process many tens of thousands of these discounted orders each year,
your expectation that a human on our side review your order and somehow interpret the "appropriateness" of your order is unreasonable.
Do you honestly blame us that we did not have a human look at your order, interpret all of the things we discussed, and ask you before filling your order?
Such a manual service would cost 2-3 times as much...
Be reasonable... you bought from a discount place that expected you to know what you were buying.
It is not our fault that you made a mistake.

(no signature so can only assume this is from Catherine )
On May 28th, 2015, MinnSheila added the following:

Catherine:


1- I stand by my comments on your lack of ability to communicate with 'customer service' even in your thought process. I contacted you with the hope that I would hear that this is not unusual and or 'don't give up on them yet'. Not that it was my fault and so sad too bad.

2- Your company's self description should include the following -

A- order at your own risk - the description and specs do not specify actual planting times for the zones we state they are hardy to. We are not responsible for any novice gardeners or dumb asses who expect any human interaction once your card is processed.

B- We will sell anything at any time - You are expected to NOT to anticipate any sage advice, cautions or anything other than what our computer generated system will provide.

The fact of the matter is NOT the dead plants - but rather your poor communication skills (you obviously did not write the copy on the website as that person had a soul). This is not my first rodeo. I was quick to praise CGC and did so gladly.

I found your attitude towards my concerns abrasive and not worthy of positive promotion that I provided when I received my purchase. I support companies that deserve my loyalty and continued patronage. You should be ashamed of the 'bully behind the keyboard' mentality that you chose as your mode of killing that loyalty and future sales.

My only fault would be if I ever purchased from CGC again, or allowed my original post to remain as a glowing testimonial to a Woman/Company that is as unprofessional as you have shown yourself to be.
On May 28, 2015, Classy Groundcovers responded with:

"On May 28, 2015 11:04 AM, Classy Groundcovers responded with:

Sheila, I am sorry that you took our comments to be derogatory. I was simply trying to explain why it is not reasonable to expect us to study everyone's purchase and consider whether they they might be making a mistake because of their zone or the time of the year. Some people plant indoors, where such factors would be irrelevant.

Below is the email exchange prior to the email quoted above, so people can read the context in which those comments were made.
===

On 5/27/2015 8:27 PM, Sheila _______ wrote:
> Wow Catherine.... I really studied your site to find what would be best for this area -
>
> If I had seen anything to suggest that this plant needed to wait for spring.... I certainly would have done so. In fact, there is nothing in my notes that would point to this 'need to establish'... all my notes from info on your site show nothing but hardy, ignorable plants.
>
> I guess your site is really more for the professional gardener / landscaper - who would know that regardless of the description and specs of a plant - that it was a waste of time and money to order them. Curious that no one involved in the shipping of the order thought it would be a good customer service move to alert the customer that based on the mailing address - these would not survive the rated zone if not planted 4-5 months prior to the delivery date. If I had purchased at the local Bachmann's - that would have been the case.
>
> As I already paid over $100 for this order I will pass on your offer to buy more from CG.
>
> Thanks for your note.
>
> Sheila _______
>
>
>
> From: Catherine _______
> To: Sheila _______
> Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2015 4:02 PM
> Subject: Re: Fw: Classy Groundcovers order _______
>
> Hi Shelia,
>
> Iberis generally survives winters down to -35F, but it needs to be well established to survive winters at the northern limits of its hardiness range.
> You transplanted those in October, which gave them no time to become established before being forced to go dormant and challenged to survive your cold season.
>
> The ones you recently planted will have all summer to settle in, develop deep root structures, and get acclimated before facing your harsh northern winters.
> I strongly suggest that you restrict your plantings to spring.
>
> If you want to plant more Iberis this spring I can give you a 20% discount code.
>
>
> On 5/27/2015 9:10 AM, Sheila _______ wrote:
>>
>> ----- Forwarded Message -----
>> From: Sheila _______
>> To: "cg_______
>> Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2015 8:06 AM
>> Subject: Re: Classy Groundcovers order _______
>>
>> Good Morning,
>>
>> I am writing to tell you that of the 24 plants received last fall - all planted in the same area- and all that looked super fantastic upon delivery ... only 4 seem to have survived.
>>
>> The four plants are small but have green leaves and a few blossoms - they look happy. All the other plants have zero evidence of any green and appear just as dried sticks.
>>
>> I am super concerned as I just spent the weekend planting 48 Lemon Ball sedum and 24 Firewitch that I received from you this month.
>>
>> If you would like photos of the Candy Tuft I can take some and attach to an email.
>>
>> Please contact me via cell phone _______ or by response to this email.
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Sheila _______
"


Negative johnandrewjames
(1 review)
On Jan 25, 2015, johnandrewjames San Francisco, CA wrote:

I wrote a simple email asking for some suggestions about planting Lily of the Valley in San Francisco. There are many differing opinions on line and being that this company was on the Watchlist, assumed they would at least have something to add.

I received a very smart ass answer from the nursery, something along the lines of "what suggestions? You plant, they grow". Then he proceeded to say he could not ship to California. Ugh, I despise a smart ass gardener.


On Jan 25, 2015, Classy Groundcovers responded with:

"On Jan 25, 2015 1:36 PM, Classy Groundcovers responded with:

As we said, we do not ship to CA. There is no way for us to advise you about the specifics of using a plant in an area that we do not ship it to, we have no experience with how it grows there. I apologize if you feel that we phrased our response improperly, it was not at all clear what advice you sought."