Comments regarding Milaeger's Gardens

I have used Milaeger's for my lawn care applications many years in the past. I have not used a lawn service for two years, but this year I was hosting a large party and wanted the lawn to look good. I got the first application of fertilizer and then on May 24, 2011, I was given the herbicide to kill the weeds. Within weeks our 11 huge white pines and 6 other spruce trees were showing signs of growth regulator damage (herbicide). We have the UW Extension and an Arborist confirm that the trees were damaged by chemicals and not bugs or fungus. On June 16th I talked to Kevin who agreed to my request to refund my entire pre-paid application and aeration payment. He said they have been receiving lots of calls and understood that I did not want them back on my property. Two weeks later, no money. He told me on the 26th that the payment has been processed. Today is July 2nd and no money received. I have left two messages for him to call me. Nothing. Now considering legal action. Why is it so difficult for a company to show some respect? I was going to make the trip to the garden center this year because of their wonderful commercials, but reading all the comments here, I'm glad I didn't. I guess Steins isn't so bad.....

Milaeger's is a local family-owned business in Racine. They have mostly high quality products, but this is often overshadowed by their in-store staff. The check-outs are generally staffed by young high school or college-aged girls, and they must receive little to no customer service training. I say this because I've been shopping at Milaeger's for many years and the poor service has been quite consistent. You'll find the occasional check-out girl who is naturally friendly and needs no training, but others can't even muster a "hello". I find that you can usually assess the quality of a company's management by how the employees interact with customers. The older women who work in the other areas of the store are just as "detached" from their customers. It's really quite remarkable considering that Milaeger's is considered a higher end garden store (although I've found the pricing of the plants/trees to be lower than some of the chain stores in our area). I imagine they lose customers because of this, but they probably don't care as much about how they treat customers because they make so much money anyway. If I were Kristine R. or Kevin Milaeger (who I'm sure care very much about customer service), I would be looking seriously at the managers I've hired, and then try to remedy the problem. I do have to make a distinction between the employees inside the store and the guys who work outside and help load your garden supplies - those guys are always very friendly and helpful so kudos to them and/or whoever trains them.

I'm a native Racinian and have shopped at Mileager's for many years. I shop the local, family-owned businesses to support Racine's economy - I strongly believe in our community and have a geniune concern for its well-being. While Mileager's plant offering is expansive and I find merchandise there that I don't find elsewhere, without fail every visit to either the Milaeger's Racine or Sturtevant store is not a pleasant one. If the employees don't know a customer or the customer doesn't appear wealthy, one is ignored and the cashiers can barely muster up a hello or a thank you upon purchasing merchandise. I experienced this personally and have observed the treatment of other customers. Many of my friends and co-workers have had the same negative experience as well. Heaven forbid one asks for assistance while shopping at the Sturtevant store; that would be an interuption in the employees' socializing with one another. It has become obvious with the expansion of their Sturtevant store that Milaeger's doesn't need to be concerned with providing good customer service.........and it shows.

I made the 70-mile drive up to Milaeger's this spring to buy some plants. I had read on your web page that they had good quality perennials and had received a large catalog last year.I spent $20 for a rose bush that turned out to be stone cold dead. Not even one bud came out. About half of the annuals I planted died. The $4 rose bushes I've bought locally show more life.I sent them an email seeing if they would refund at least the cost of the rose bush and they never responded.I was basically ripped off by them and want to warn people not to make the same mistake by buying from Milaegers.

After five or six years of ordering from Milaegers, I quit! Five years ago, this was a great company. I think the problem now is twofold: they got big and stopped caring, and tissue culture became one of their primary methods to propagate some of the more popular offerings. I have still not received half of my order for '97 and have no word from them on it. Of the plants they sent, one, Eupatorium Rugosum'Chocolate' was incredibly dinky - a single stem with 3-4 leaves. This plant was $5.95 and I am really offended. Now I don't want the rest of my plants - I just want a refund.[Update Fall 1997]After many years of being a Milaeger mail order customer, I am quitting. They no longer seem to care about sending good plants in good condition, correctly labeled as to variety. I ordered 5 items for spring of 1997, paid $12 shipping and have only received 2 of those 5 plants. That's a lot of shipping per plant!One of the plants I did get was tiny - a grass in a 1.5 in pot with about 5 leaves - and this was $6.00. By July I realized that it was in fact not the variety I had ordered but the species - this is not satisfactory. By my method of calculation, I have now paid $12 in shipping for ONE plant. Milaeger's finally sent me a letter to inform me that they were not going to be able to supply the remaining three plants from my original order. They offered credit, refund, whatever, but no mention of all that shipping I paid.Had I listed substitute plants, I might be happier today, but there were no other plants I wanted. I would expect a company with theirgood reputation to not list plants unless they have a large stock available.[2nd update]Just wanted to post an update on my experience with Milaeger so that those destined to receive a copy of their tantalizing catalog in the next few weeks will go into this this with their eyes wide open.I ordered 5 plants for Spring of 1997 and only received two of those. Mid-summer I realized that the grass that was sent was not the variety I ordered. In fact, if anyone at the nursery had looked at it they would have seen this. It is supposed to develop red leaves in Fall, but even the immature leaves will have a red cast to them, according to an expert friend. I asked them to add the credit for this plant to my credit from the undelivered spring order. Got a post card telling me they would be glad to do this - they did apologize for the error. I was still pretty steamed that they didn't offerany of my $12 postage back - I have now paid them that much in postage for one good plant! About three weeks after their card arrived, I got a refund check for the balance from Spring.I now have a $6 credit with them - hardly worth using and I am really leery of ordering from them at all at this point.[3rd Update]I guess we should define what it means to be a satisfied customer. If you are a gardener willing to pay top prices for plants even if they are incorrectly labeled, then you may well be content to order from places like Milaegers. Thus far they are 0/3 in correct identification of the three Tricyrtis cultivars I have ordered over the years. Of course it took me a while to figure out just what I had as Tricyrtis are not well known and for years I gave the incorrect names to many other gardeners around here who were interested in the identity of plants in my garden. As for the shipping which should have been refunded to me - if they cannot fill my order and have to issue a credit or refund, the shipping should be reduced automatically. I shouldn't have to ask.

I ordered some perennials from Milaeger earlier this year. It was not a happy experience. They were out of stock on several of the items, one was not shipped at all, and with the remainder, all but one didn't make it, despite 35 years of gardening expertise. I shall not repeat the experiment.