Comments regarding ABP Nursery, A Surf & Sierra LLC Co. (formerly A Better Plant Grower)

I ordered 4 roses bushes in middle of August. I had to call 8-10 times and send numerous emails. After a while my phone calls where going to an answering machine. Granted the response is polite but geez I paid money for a product and I wanted it delivered!

The last interesting excuse was "The weather is hot and we do not ship when it is hot". I actually bought this bogus argument. When the weather cooled dramatically, I asked again. After a week or more got a response apologizing and saying item was on it's way. More delay tactics.

I should point out I did receive 1 rose bush. It wasn't in the best of shape but I think it will survive.

I do not expect to get any more. I have just filed a dispute with paypal. It is very unfortunate this happened. Let's see if I get my money back. If I don't I will file fraud charges and a police report.

How interesting that he blames his ex-wife on his A Better Plant website, a business that was started after Growquest shut down and his "family crisis". How interesting that customers from his new business complain about being charged for merchandise and not receiving it. How interesting that he excuses all of his business problems with Growquest by his own descriptions of the beginning, middle, and end of his family crisis, yet the same type of complaints go back several years, and then continued with A Better Plant customers. Isn't there a consistent pattern that is present here? The reason why Chris is complained about by so many customers is because he is the one these customers had personal contact with. He is the one that personally made so many false promises. Yet, it's always somebody else's fault. One of the excuses given by Chris to customers on here a while back, was not being able to get good help in the area. One of the charges from his arrest was hiring employees without paying employee taxes and insurance. Well, he was right. It is difficult to hire good help when you are offering to pay workers illegally. Most "good" workers want to work for an honest employer. But I bet he would claim that was somebody else's fault too.
There is something to be said for what goes around comes around. And you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people all of the time. And, you made your bed now lye in it.

Ordered some citrus trees in January and waited. I only saw the website update yesterday. The site claims that trees will still be shipped. Has anyone received a shipment in the last 2-3 weeks?

Willing to take the "letter to customers" on the website at face value and see if I get my order within a few weeks.

It would be helpful to know what type of timeframe should be expected. If they are out of plants or not shipping, just let us know

Thanks

For information only - Growquest appears to be back in business as of 2/11/06:
//growquest.com/growquest%20refunds.htm

At the beginning of last summer I ordered parasitic nematodes from this company. Months passed and they didn't arrive - so I called and talked to Chris. Chris said he'd send them out as soon as the weather was suitable for sending them. Months again passed - so I called him again. He explained the gist of his circumstance, apologized profusely, and volunteered to refund my money if I could produce a receipt.

I don't know this guy and maybe I'm naive, but it is clear to me that he wasn't running from his responsibilities and had every intention of putting things right. So much time had passed that I had misplaced my receipt and I wasn't about to move heaven and earth to get a $28 refund - but I have no doubt that, had I found it, I would have received a refund.

I will admit that I'll be waiting to see a positive customer commentary before I order again, though.

I had a difficult time deciding whether to post a positive or a neutral feedback since my experience was both good and bad. I would say this is a marginally neutral feedback. I found the owner, Chris, to be concerned about providing good customer service (positive) but, in the end, he was unresponsive (negative). I ordered a tree from this company about six weeks ago. One problem I had was that my credit card was charged before the company ever acquired the plant from the grower. My card was not supposed to be charged until after the tree was boxed and ready for shipment. I was told shipment was delayed due to cold weather, but now it appears that the tree was never in his possession to send. Now I'm not saying he even could have sent the tree if he did have it, because I do believe the weather was a prohibitive factor. The problem I had was that my card was charged prematurely. On the positive side, when I asked for a refund, I got one immediately. In my opinion, and I may be wrong, the owner is overwhelmed with personal problems that are affecting the way he runs his business. I feel for him, I have been through the tough times too. But that's not what this review is about. It is supposed to reflect my business experience with this company. I was not pleased with the outcome, I would love to have received the tree, but at least I did not lose any money, just a lot of time. As far as communications with the owner, he was always polite and courteous. He always answered my emails and he even sent me his cell phone number so that I could reach him more easily. He seemed genuinely concerned about treating me as a valuable customer. Unfortunately he just did not come through with the tree in the end.