Comments regarding American Greenhouses (HostaGardens Of Burr Ridge)

This is the rudest and most awful customer service I have had. I ordered 2 tree peonies - a japanese and chinese. The chinese peony did terribly, it put out a shoot and got all yellow and died within 3 weeks of planting them in the peat soil mixture while the japanese one did well and has brached out. I potted and watered them in exactly the same way. I was told that this was because i had overwatered the chinese peony. I only water them once daily.They are out in the sun and I cannot understand how one would do well and the other would not.I was told that this was my mistake and they would not replace the dead plant.


Nowhere in the catalog did it say that they only needed water once in 3 days. The guy in customer service at the other end had to be the most obnoxious and RUDE salesman ever and informed me that they were not going to give me "free" plant.
Every nursery I know has some sort of guarantee atleast for 2 weeks. HOSTA GARDENS OR AMERICAN GREEN HOUSES ARE A BIG SCAM. STAY OUT OF THEIR WAY IF YOU CAN!!!!

I ordered daylilies from them a few years ago. I was waiting for the order for a few weeks. Then a man called me, got my husband on the phone, and got real irritated with him because he didn't know what I had ordered. I came on the phone and gave him the information he was looking for, including the address which they lost. I then ordered another daylily, "Man on Fire". When the daylily blossomed it wasn't even the right color. I emailed them about the lily. They told me it was impossible to have the wrong one because they plant a couple bulbs out of each shipment to make sure they are correct and said it would be the right color next year. (LOL) So I emailed them a photo of the lily. They said they weren't allowed to open an attachment. So I put the picture in the body of the email. They said they couldn't look at it. So, I sent a photo by snail mail, and never heard anything since. I still get irritated when that lily blooms. Very poor customer relations.

An order was placed on 2/15/07 and the order arrived on 4/28/07. On the invoice, they said three of the Daylilies were on backorder until mid-May. When the three Daylilies did not arrive by June 1st, I contacted them. They said there was a crop failure and I could pick something else or get a refund. I opted for a refund since the Daylilies I had received were single-fans.

When I did not get a refund by the 13th of June, I contacted them and on the 15th, they said "We'll make arrangements to have a refund issued early next week".

When I did not get a refund by the 25th of June, I contacted them and they said "I'm sorry for the delay in replying to your request. We recently had a hard drive crash & no longer have a record of this order. If you can email us copy of the order we'll be happy to issue your credit". I immediately sent an email with the information about my order and I also said "I hope we can get this taken care of today." They quickly replied "Thank you for sending the order copy. We'll have your refund issued this week."

My credit card company opened a dispute for the refund amount after I contacted them. On July 23rd, I received a permanent refund on my credit card (have not heard anything from the company since they said they would issue a refund this week, which was on June 25th).

The Hostas I received were all single-eye, except for one, and the Daylilies single-fan. Though they are small, they are all growing.

Their NEGATIVE rating is the result of their not contacting me in regard to my refund and making me contact them and making me work to get my refund, which took waaaay too long.

I think it is safe to say I will never, ever order from them again.

ps - I doubt if this rating is coming from the same source as some of the other ratings.

I won five different auctions on ebay of hostagardens during a 7 day period. Because I wanted to bid on a few more auctions that were ending in the next couple of days I emailed them that I would like to delay payment a couple more days so that I could bid on their other auctions. I was told in no uncertain terms what their policy states in their auctions so I sent them an immediate payment via pay pal and decided to forget bidding on any more of their items. That was the one lucky break I got. After not hearing a word from them for three weeks after payment I emailed them to inquire about my order. Received an email back from them on a Sunday that my order would be packed on Monday and shipped on Tuesday. Well when I had not received it by the end of the week I began to email them again but could get no reply for the next week. It was not until I filed a dispute with paypal and emailed to cancel my order that I received my plants more then five weeks after they had received payment. It seems as strict as they are on receiving payment that they would be just as diligent on sending them. The worst their customer service was on sending them the more worried I became on the quality I would receive and I was right. I have ordered from 14 different sellers of daylilies on ebay and what hostagardens sent was hands down the worst looking things I have ever received. The fan size looked about the same as a 6 month old seedling and they were so dried up and puny looking if they survive they will take several years of growing before I can even see if what they sent was even close to being like the pictures they showed. I have a sick feeling after dealing with people like this if what they send is even close to what they say they are selling. All of the auctions I won were multiple winners and I contacted all 5 of the buys that won the same auctions that I won and all of them have had similar results as mine. Not ONE of the others winners had one good thing to say of hostagardens. They all wished they had never heard of them. The negative comments against hosta gardens are adding up but sadly most people are afraid of retaliation feedback to leave them the negative feedback they deserve. The biggest telling indicator of the type of company they are is that no matter the complaint they always blame if off as the customers fault. I would just like to know how they are going to blame me for them taking over 5 weeks to send my plants or for them never once communicating to me there would be any delays with the shipment. I didn't even receive an apology let alone a bonus for the extended delays. If you choose to deal with hostagardens be prepared for your worst experience

"

This buyer has a great imitation. First of all, buyer claims she contacted Ebay buyers who were supposedly dissatisfied with some of the same plants she ordered. She did contact several buyers (some emailed us & advised what she was doing) who also purchased similar plants & states that all were not happy. WRONG!! We received POSITIVE feedbacks from many of the buyers she contacted & no feedback from one other. None issued negative feedbacks about these plants except this buyer. We have many repeat customers who come back each year to purchase.

This buyer complained several times, about various issues, after the bidding & before we shipped. At NO time did we tell her she had to pay at once. We do ask that payments be made within 7 days after auctions end UNLESS other arrangements are made. Why would we be so foolish to discourage additional bidding? Let's face it - - - we're in business to sell plants.

She states she filed a claim with PAYPAL. Yes, she did and they rejected her complaint. This is a matter of record.

Additionally, she states that the daylilies shipped looked like "a 6 month old seedling and that they were so dried up & puny looking" - - - Well the facts are that these were advertised, sold and shipped as BARE ROOT plants, not growing fans - - - and are shipped as such. Bare root plants are dry and shipped in peat. They are far from 6 month old seedlings. All are shipped with mature root systems. Our instruction sheets packed with plants state that they should be soaked 1 to 6 hours before planting. It works every time.

Our Ebay record speaks for itself - 1600 positive feedbacks with 12 negative. Hundreds of people have stated that HostaGardens is a fast shipper of high quality plants. We try very hard but I guess you can't please everyone. "

When I received my hostas and daylilies, they looked beyond redemption...I contacted the seller and she said to soak them in warm water and mild fertiziler for a couple days. I did this and after a week, they still don't look like they
will make it. When I left my first negative EVER, they wrote back and said basically, "funny, no one else had trouble out of this same auction." I refuse to believe that and think I should have been given new plants or a refund.

"

This was an EBAY sale. Buyer complained about EVERY plant. We NEVER stated: "funny, no one else had trouble out of this same auction." but did advised that we contacted other buyers of same plants & were told that there were no problems with them. In fact we received several positive feedbacks with glowing comments covering the same plants. Had there been a problem we would take responsibility for any defective product sold. It seems strange that both hosta & daylilies would be bad. These were bare root plants which often take a couple of weeks to establish after planting.

Additionally, I believe this complaint is not based upon fact. We NEVER told buyer "to soak them in warm water and mild fertiziler for a couple days." We do however, pack a planting instruction sheet with every order that suggests soaking for 1 to 6 hours in water - NOT FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS!

I believe this buyer is responsible for any poor performance she may have experienced with the plants sold on this order and is simply looking for replacements at no charge or a refund.

Hostagardens"