Comments regarding Growers Exchange (previously The Grower's Exchange)

I have been a 5+ year loyal customer of the Grower’s Exchange and tend to order early when they offer a brief window to use a coupon offer they send out in email and I’m assured to get the herbs I am looking for. Yes, the plants are a little pricier than others (as is shipping) but generally the plants come lush and healthy ...except THIS year. One of my plants was out of the planting container and the other 4 looked like they were in very rough shape. I have a feeling they were shipped in poor condition because I am in NY and they are based in Virginia (not a big shipping distance). But I babied them, taking them in on cold nights and planted when the weather turned perfect. I emailed them within a few weeks to tell them the leaves on my holy basil plants and eucalyptus were brown or falling off and since they request photos, I did that as well. Today, I get an email stating they can refund me for my most recent order (basil) from a few weeks back BUT because the other 2 items were charged to my credit card more than 120 days, they can not refund me. So let me understand, because I purchased these plants early (before they sold out) and because you bill my credit card immediately upon order (and not when they ship like most companies), the customer is penalized??? You are a small company and if your computer system won’t allow you to do this, you need a better system or a new IT person. Lesson learned: don’t buy early from Grower’s Exchange or just find a new source for your herbs and plants.

My order arrived promptly and in great shape. The plants were large and healthy, and the box was easy to unpack. My husband (who isn’t a gardener) helped unpack everything and even he was impressed by the plants and the packaging. Needless to say I ordered more. Thank you for such a great shopping experience!

I’ve ordered from the Growers Exchange many times in the past, and I’m happy with the wide selection and variety of herbs they sell (not to mention the usual health of their plants and quality of shipping). I’m troubled by their lack of responsiveness to their on-line account holders. In spite of getting several e-mailed messages about discounts for ordering now, I’ve been unable to access my account, unable to get a password re-set after several attempts, and there has been no reply to several e-mailed inquiries—and there appears to be no one answering the phone at the business during their stated business hours. If they are closed for the weeks of Christmas and New Years (and perhaps prior weeks), they haven’t made any attempt to let customers know that they will be available to respond after a certain date. So I can’t access my account, can’t get any replies by e-mail, and can’t get a live body to help. To me, this is an unacceptable level of customer care that is leading me to doing business with others who want to take care of their buyers’ needs.

I've been ordering from Growers Exchange since 2012. So happy to have found this company. The best thing I like is that I can get pretty rare herb plants I didn't know about or can't find anywhere else. So I've tried some plants in my garden that I probably never would have grown otherwise, like brahmi, fenugreek and hyssop. I'm always learning more about what to grow. The plants I've received have been healthy, well-rooted and did well after transplanting.

I ordered some culinary herb plants for my balcony to keep in pots and bring inside for the winter. I picked GE because they had GMO free plants and the plants I was looking for in stock. The green fennel, mojito mint, and dill plants arrived looking good and have thrived since I potted them. I’m concerned that the oregano plant may not make it; I may have overwatered it when I potted it. I also got a catnip plant which was on the small side but healthy looking. I plan on clipping some of it and drying it, once the plant is larger. My cat has no complaints.

My first order with Grower's Exchange. The plants showed up, one was completely fallen out of the pot because it had no roots to hold it in. Thankfully that plant is bouncing back after transplant.
But, the Tarragon I received was the same issue, no root system. Despite being sold as a pint size plant, it was nothing more than a tiny, almost seedling sized, plant. It could have been in a 2 inch pot and still not come close to filling it with healthy roots. The plant died shortly after transplant. I contacted Customer Service, described my issue and asked if they could send a replacement. Unfortunately I was told they were out of stock. When asked if they could send me Chervil in it's place just so I can fill the pot for the winter until I can get Tarragon locally next spring, this is the reply I received (without any salutation and yes, with ALL CAPS!):
"The other issue is that our smallest box is designed for a 4 plant minimum, so we can't safely ship a single replacement plant. SORRY"

Buy at your own risk. You likely will not receive the size plant you would expect in a pint size pot and the health of the plant will likely be questionable like me all backed with very poor Customer Support should you have an issue.

"On Oct 8, 2018 2:14 PM, Growers Exchange (previously The Grower's Exchange) responded with:

Hey: Tried to contact you a few times, and just wanted to know if you received your reshipped plants and hoping all is well. Let me know!
Happy Gardening,
Briscoe White"

I ordered 5 sweet woodruff from them. Pint sized. The plants came shipped on their sides, all the dirt had fallen out even though they wrapped them in plastic. None of them have any root system whatsoever and are about 1.5" tall. Looks like the took a clipping and stuck them in a pint sized pot. Won't buy from them again

I buy from growers exchange often and have for 4 or 5 years. I have never been unhappy. the one time a plant arrive damaged they issued a refund, no questions ask. I understand why they can't ship individual plants; it is because of the design of their shipping cartons. I find the negative comments astonishing and hard to believe

I order a LOT of plants online, year round pretty much. I also order trees and fruit trees online- (in most cases) purchasing from different companies depending on what I am looking for. In comparison to my vast experiences with other companies, I was very disappointed by my interactions with the grower's exchange. Most importantly the plants arrived on the verge of death.

I also think they do not offer the best customer service experience in the sense that your order information via email is incomplete- simply stating you have an order or your order is on the way but never listing the plants or the pricing. So too the invoice that comes with the plants does not have pricing information!! thanks because I don't see how that would be extra work to add it on, oh but the case is they don't care! and they certainly don't give specific plant instructions just the general "plant care form."

I have ordered many plants from online vendors. I have never had a shipment of plants arrive in such poor condition as the shipment that I received from Growers Exchange. The plants were yellow and wilted. Dirt and plant labels were out of the containers. One plant was totally disintegrated (rotten). I tried to revive the plants by replacing the dirt and alternately sitting them outside in periods of sunshine and inside during periods of down-pouring rain (waiting on excessive mud due to heavy rains to dry up before trying to plant them in the garden). Three of my plants started to look better; however, all of the rest were not improving, so 3 days after the arrival of my plants, I sent pictures to the company.

They blamed the condition of the plants on me, saying that I did not unpack them when they arrived. They based this on the date of my picture and because my picture showed the containers sitting in the box. (I was using the box to move them in and out of the back porch based on the outside weather.) I had actually unpacked them within an hour of their arrival. I waited to send pictures because I was hoping to revive them.

WARNING: Do not wait to send pictures to this company. Not sure how much good the timing of the pictures will do. They will probably find another way to get out of standing behind their plants.

Don't waste your money ordering from them. There are too many other good vendors out there to waste time and money on a company that does not care about its plants or its customers.

"On May 30, 2018 5:56 PM, Growers Exchange (previously The Grower's Exchange) responded with:

We apologize for any offense taken at what we consider routine questions.

Your order packed and shipped in the afternoon, and arrived at your home within 24 hours. The majority of our orders take 100% longer, therefore we were concerned re: the damages we saw on the photos you provided. We agree; each and every plant was in bad shape, and our first step is to problem solve. What could have caused it, considering the speed of the delivery, as well as the weather in your area on the day of arrival. Weather perfect, shipping time ideal - we need to figure out what occurred in order to both resolve your issue, and prevent any future issue.

Our system has EXIF embedded so that each photo is dated - not when it was sent, but when it was taken. Our email to you simply stated 2 things: we wanted to verify the arrival, as well as state the fact that the photos showed plants still in original containers and covered in plastic days after arrival. We are certainly not blaming anyone, and simply asked if there was a delay in unpacking, as that would explain the wholesale damage. We rarely see an entire order and it usually stems from the plants not getting unpacked right away. No blame and honestly, no chance for step two which is to help resolve the issue.

We stand by our plants, and our customers. In fact, the whole idea of 'exchange' means that we have learned a great deal from the feedback we get from customers; what we grow, how we ship and pack - our customers inform many of our decisions.

Again, we do not want to cause offense or disappointment, and we didn't get the change to move forward with this particular issue. Hopefully, we can and please know that our customers ARE our business. We are not in the business of either offending or disappointing. But, part of our business model is to use good practices in both growing plants, as well as improving upon our methods. Forgive us for any upset, and again, sincere apologies. Providing a resolution is the easy part ~ we are not trying to avoid that piece but again, just trying to figure out what happened to the plants we care very much about, and serve the customers who make our business a success. "

Posted on April 24, 2018, updated April 25, 2018
I placed an order a couple of days ago. Shortly after placing my order, I decided I wanted to order something else too. So, I sent them an e-mail asking if I could add an item to my order. No response.

Today, I tried to call them up. They make it EXTREMELY difficult to talk to someone—I pressed several options, and merely got a recording. Then I finally realized that the option to speak to someone is buried way down in option #5. I hit that option, only to get another recording saying they are "in and out because it's the busy season." Sorry, but don't you dare try that flimsy excuse with me. It's obvious that TGE needs to hire MORE people.

I left a message, and if they don't get back with me and allow me to add something to my order, then I will: a) be changing this rating to "negative"; and b) not be ordering from them again.

Posted on May 11, 2016, updated April 11, 2018
When I first got my herb plants, they didn't look so hot. They were well packaged, but pretty tiny and kinda feeble looking. The included information said they might be dormant, so rather than contact the company, I figured I'd stick them in my garden and give them a chance.

It's been about a month and the plants look so so much better! They have grown a ton, and look pretty robust. Most of the plants are probably at least five times the size they were on arrival.The two comfrey plants, which barely had a leaf between them when I got them, are now hardy looking rosettes. It's been overly hot and dry here and my soil is pretty cruddy and sandy, so they must have been pretty strong plants. If they die now, it's on me!

I wasn't so happy with the way the plants looked when they arrived, but I am very happy with them now. I would definitely order from Grower's Exchange again, especially since they carry so many very hard to find herbs.

Posted on May 8, 2017, updated June 5, 2017
Posted on May 8, 2017, updated May 8, 2017
I've been using this vendor for the past couple of years and truly enjoy the customer service and very healthy plants received. A high positive for all things plant related from May 2015 to April 2017. This current month I'm feeling aome kind of way about the customer service. Maybe I'm in my feelings over my plant but I recieved a damaged plant -1 of 21 in my order. Sent pics and all that was needed, only to be told they have a 4 plant minimun to re ship. Resolution: buy more plants to get this one plant replaced, accept a credit, or refund to original payment. So not only would I have to spend more money to get one plant replaced, I'd have to pay for them to ne shipped again. I don't know how I should be feeling but I do know I do not feel appreciated at all right at this moment. I waited 4/5 months for this order as it was after my rosemary, the Vicks plant was very high on my list of must haves. I requested my refund as this left a bad taste in my mouth but I'm still not pleased.

"On May 15, 2017 10:57 AM, The Growers Exchange (aka The Grower's Exchange) responded with:

We totally understand your disappointment, but as of right now, our smallest box holds 4 plants. We just don't have the right sized box to ship a single replacement, and we know that if we send it partially filled, damages are going to happen. Our only option is to offer a full refund or a store credit to be used on a future order. Again, we can only offer our apologies but the cost of creating a single plant box is prohibitive for us. Sorry to have disappointed you; we are NOT in the business of disappointing customers as we want you to have success with our plants.

Regards,

K. White
Co-Founder
The Growers Exchange"

I understand the 2 month wait for my Moonflower Vines, due to temperature. However, when I did receive the little vines, they were small and were eaten up. Every leaf had chew holes in them, made by an unseen invader. Even the tiny new leaves! The plants were sent to me with this damage. The vines are still small with some branches completely void of all foliage, and are still struggling to make it even now. I can only speak of my own experience, but as a new customer ordering for the first time, I would have thought that my order would have been looked after much better than it was, to at least insure further orders. And the minimum for orders was $20. I don't see throwing away good money by placing another order with this company, as they don't care much for their plants or their customers who order from them. And looking after sick plants, just received, is not my idea of a good experience. So I can't in good faith recommend this company to others, sadly.
Sincerely,
Hortonwho

"On Jun 4, 2017 11:34 AM, The Growers Exchange (aka The Grower's Exchange) responded with:

Hello: Again, we are really unclear as to what occurred, and we appreciated the photos. We are a small shop, and all plants are checked prior to shipping and as we said in our email, it is very hard to say what occurred but again, we are just waiting to hear back from you as to how you would like to proceed - this message was sent yesterday but haven't heard back.
Best to all,

Kenan White
Co Founder
The Growers Exchange

yesterday(23hr, 49min ago) [06/03/2017 01:34PM] by Kenan White Public Note
-- hide quoted text --

Thanks for the photos; unfortunately, they really are not helpful figuring out what occurred. We apologize for any issues, and at this point, can't say for sure what affected them but we are happy to resolve with the offer of a Store Credit or Refund.

Let us know~

________________________________________________

To All of our Friends on Dave's: we are in the business of helping you grow a great herb garden. We are not here to disappoint or frustrate. We stand by our plants, but we have just shipped over 100K plants all over the continental US and sometimes, because they are plants, we encounter an issue. We stand by our product, but if there are issues, we are always here to resolve. Your success with our plants is our mission.

Regards,

Kenan White
Co Founder
The Growers Exchanbe"

ALL of my local shops continued to be out of lemon grass and I knew this is what I wanted for our deck. This was my first time ordering from Grower's Exchange. I purchased 9 lemon grass herb plants. Upon arrival, they were packaged well and per the enclosed directions, I emptied the box to give my delightful looking herbs the necessary water and light. I planted them within two days of receiving and they are continuing to do well. I'm extremely pleased with my purchase from Dave's Garden at the Grower's Exchange. I only wish I had discovered ya'll earlier. I could have ordered sooner, planted earlier and my lemon grass would be growing more than it already is.

I ordered some herbs I couldn't find in the local nurseries at the time - Sweet Woodruff, and rosemary arp+hardy hill and they arrived relatively quickly, packaging was superb and plants were in really good condition, will buy from them again

The Growers Exchange is the best garden to purchase from. They take great care in ensuring plants are packaged safely and answered all questions I had even months after my order arrived. The plants were so beautiful when they arrived, even after being in a box for 3 days. I highly recommend the Growers Exchange.

This was the first time I have used this company. Upon arrival the artemisia was NOT healthy, it had too much rot on it. It died quickly. The white sage was also in bad shape and I'm certain it will not survive. The bay plant had some damaged leaves, but I think it will be okay. I will definitely not use this company again.

"On May 23, 2017 3:29 PM, The Growers Exchange (aka The Grower's Exchange) responded with:

Hello: You didn't mention whether or not we've been contacted, and if so, I hope that your issue was resolved. If not, please contact us at info@thegrowers-exchange.com. We really work hard to make sure that any issue is addressed in a timely manner, so hopefully we can get to the bottom of the issue. Our mission is to help our customers grow great gardens with our plants. If we have failed you, we apologize but again, need to make sure that any problems have been taken care of ... we'd love 100% success, but not sure that we can do that considering we are shipping 1,000's of herbs each week! But, we do our best.

Regards,

K. White
CoFounder
The Growers Exchange"

Small but nice plants, with quite a few varieties that can be difficult to find. Sign up for an account so you're not at the mercy of the cryptic emails to know when your plants are shipping.

I plan on ordering from them again. :)

I ordered twice from The Grower's Exchange and am about to place my third order. I did not have a green thumb, but I wanted to grow herbs. Mr. White is fantastic with his advice for growing his plants. The packages arrive quickly from the shipment date, and every plant I ordered is still alive and doing extremely well. He obviously takes excellent care of his plants because they grow amazingly. None of my plants died. I grew them inside my sunroom and outside. He offers a fair return policy if your plants arrive damaged. He also sends tips for the best way to grow them. Since finding The Grower's Exchange, I will not purchase anywhere else. They are excellent and I plan to purchase many more plants and herbs from them in the future. I highly recommend using The Grower's Exchange.

I am a new customer, and have recently received several herb plants for my herb garden, along with some flowering plants to attract butterflies. I found the packaging to be incredibly good...each plant was well separated from the others, and was easy to extract from the box. I followed the directions, and allowed each of the plants to sit on our covered patio for a couple of days before I planted each of them. They're now about 6 weeks old and all are healthy and growing like crazy. We've already enjoyed using the basil and chives for some of my cooking, and will soon use the rosemary and dill, too. Love being able to use herbs from our
own garden!!!

I'm very happy with the plants and the great website to provide me with knowledge.

I have ordered from The Growers Exchange for several years due to their large selection of lantana. With the exception of Ham and Eggs, my zone is too cold to overwinter the rest. This company always promptly ships nice plants that grow well for me and are well packaged for shipment. I asked a question through the website and was contacted with the answer the same day. I will continue to order from this company.

I've ordered from you for several years now and have always been pleased with my plants! Can't wait to order early next year to be at the the head of the pack! The plants are ingeniously packaged to arrive in optimal condition. What fun to unpack them!

Sometimes I wish mailing to my zone would happen sooner ;-) so I can get the plants into the ground.. Lucky for me I have a covered raised bed with heat for the cold spells.

One time I had a poor plant that didn't weather the transit, but the solution was quick and easily accomplished. Great customer service.

Thank you for making my herb garden a yearly success!

Grower's Exchange is my favorite, number one place to find the herbs I want!!! The plants are always much better - bigger, healthier - than any I could ever buy in a nursery! I have been ordering my herbs from GE for several years now and have always had great success with their plants. Highly recommended!!!!!

kat

This was my first order from this company, and it will definitely be my last. Out of the five plants I ordered, only two, the butterfly bush and the lemongrass, looked good and healthy when they arrived. The lime-scented geranium has wilting, brown leaves with grey mold, possibly botrytis blight, and I had to dispose of it. The heliotrope was tall and leggy, and had whooly aphids and ants on it. I removed the bugs, cut the plant back by a third, and it's in a pot and doing well. The feverfew had a lot of yellow foilage, which I removed and planted it. The butterfly bush, black knight, although very small, did look healthy and I have planted it also.
I was very disappointed with the condition of the plants I purchased, and cannot recommend this company.

"On May 15, 2017 11:07 AM, The Growers Exchange (aka The Grower's Exchange) responded with:

We would very much like for you to contact us via info@thegrowers-exchange.com so that we can figure out what has gone wrong. I am in charge of all customer issues, and any mention of a pest or disease would send us right to the growers. I can honestly say, with one exception, we have not had any customer report a pest issue and we are shipping 1,000's of plants each day. We are a small company, and our quality control is tight ~ so this is a concern for us, but we can't problem solve without knowing a few things about the order. We'd like to resolve in a way that works for you, and at the same time, allows us to figure out what went wrong. Disappointing customers is not acceptable for us, so please help us help you! "

I just found the Grower's Exchange and was so excited to find the wonderful selection of plants. I placed my first order for four plants and was wonderfully surprised when they arrived in great condition. I got an email offering a discount with my first order after I had placed it. I contacted them and asked if I could apply it to my second order and they immediately applied to my current order. The plants were well packaged and healthy and are growing beautifully. My experience with this company is that they have excellent customer service, wonderful products and I will be ordering again. I highly recommend them.

Very happy with this company.....friendly and helpful customer service! I had an issue with an order and they resolved it to my complete satisfaction....highly recommend!

Great plants, arrived healthy, well packed, good price and shipping reasonable. Will buy from again.

I ordered 5 different plants and every one of them were beautiful when I opened the box. I was very happy! They were good size and healthy. After being in a box I was expecting them to be a little sad but they looked great.They are all thriving in my garden. I will definitely be buying more from them, it was a great experience.

I have made 2 orders this year and the plants were in great shape. They offer many herb plants that are hard to find elsewhere.

I have made several orders from Growers exchange and I Love them. The plants are shipped very well so they arrive in excellent condition and I get what I order .

The plants are fresh looking and ready to go. I have been super impressed.

I ordered two white sage plants, and one lavender. Upon arrival the lavender was mostly fine for having been shipped, if not a bit dried out on a few ends, but both white sage plants were so tiny, with little to no real root system. The smallest white sage plant was dead and desiccated; beyond hope. The larger of the two only had a few small leaves near the center that appeared alive, as they were not dried out, curled up, & crumbling like the rest of the leaves & the other plant. Within a day both plants were undeniably dead. The lavender is doing ok.

Upon reading the returns section of the paperwork that came with the order; It was very negative language, and I did not feel confident my purchase would be honored, so rather than deal with what could potentially be a bad experience with no solution, I simply took the loss and will now shop locally, as we've plenty of very friendly nurseries nearby. I initially did not intend to give feedback; I took a chance with an online store, found it lacking, and didn't feel my feedback would be taken well, so I saved myself the time and grief and skipped it.

I was then sent an email requesting my feedback, which I was leery to do, so I've held off, but eventually I figured they need to know about the issues I've had with the two plants, so I signed up, logged on, and was directed to the feedback page which had several paragraphs similar to the negative return / replacement policy, only this seemed a bit threatening; below is a direct quote from the feedback page.

.."If your experience was negative, you should try to resolve the matter privately before posting your comments. Use good judgment when leaving feedback, and be certain it is constructive and factual; inflammatory language is strongly discouraged. Under federal law, the Garden Watchdog is not legally responsible for your comments; however if a court finds your remarks constitute libel, you could be held responsible for damages to the company's reputation..."

What company threatens customers with libel damages for a review they requested? -! I can understand reminding customers to respond responsibly, but threatening them with libel damages due to a bad review is disquieting.

This type of language is exactly why I did not contact the company for replacements / a refund for the dead plants they shipped in the first place.

My experience as a customer was not satisfactory. I can confidently say I will not be a return customer. .. and hopefully I don't get an email with similar threatening wording regarding a review THEY requested.

And no, I haven't contacted the company directly to resolve the matter privately, because based on the language they use for "customer satisfaction" within the paperwork sent with the order, I didn't want to deal with the negativity in person, I will simply shop somewhere else; there ARE other options.

"On Nov 27, 2016 10:14 AM, The Growers Exchange (aka The Grower's Exchange) responded with:

We are very sorry that you experienced an issue and we are always here to help, but honestly, we have no way of assisting customers unless they get in touch.

There seems to be a misunderstanding, as the negative language you are quoting is from the Dave's Garden policy, not The Growers Exchange. We don't threaten folks with libel damages, but I'm guessing that this is the forum's way of protecting themselves and their company. Maybe the good people from Dave's can help us out here, as we are members in good standing!

We have a guarantee, and include lots of information regarding how to proceed with us if you have an issue. We are here to HELP and if you read the language carefully, that is it's essence. Please contact us within 48 hours if you have an issue upon arrival. If you had, we'd be shipping new plants, refunding you or providing credit for a new order.

We apologize for all of the misunderstanding on this issue, but please know that we can't address issues unless we know about issues. So, if you would like, please contact us at any point and we'll can provide a remedy. We'd at least like a chance to prove ourselves worthy!"

Best customer service EVER!

Unlike other online purchases, my plants from The Grower's Exchange arrived well-packaged, hydrated, and healthy. I had to plant them immediately as I was leaving town the next day. When I got back, they were all in beautiful condition and have continued to grow very nicely. The Grower's Exchange will now be my go-to place for online purchases!

I have ordered twice. One was mint plants and the last one was Sweet Woodruff. Absolutely beautiful plants. Packaged extremely well. The plants were large and healthy. After planting, all are doing well. This is the best experience I have had ordering plants online.
I'll be back in the future.

I ordered plants I could find no where else, they were shipped in great condition and the price was very reasonable. I highly recommend this company.

I have purchased multiple lavender plants over the past year. They arrive looking great but many (half of the most recent order) die, despite every careful care.

"On Oct 8, 2016 10:37 AM, The Growers Exchange (aka The Grower's Exchange) responded with:

We are sorry to hear that you have experienced issues with our lavenders, and are anxious to figure out what is happening AND resolve the issues. Could you please send us an email and include the order number, we'll get right on this ~ again, we are not in the business of upsetting customers and we want you to have SUCCESS with our plants!!

info@thegrowers-exchange.com

Regards,

K. White
Co-Founder, The Growers Exchange"

I just received my first order from this company today.
Our temps are already in the 90's so I was concerned that I'd receive cooked or dead plants.
I did pay extra for faster shipping which is something I always do when ordering live plants.
I ordered 2 lovage plants and 2 yarrow plants.
They were delivered in great condition!
They were very easy to remove from the box and all of the plants had substantial roots.
I gave them a quick soak in the sink before planting the 2 yarrow plants and one of the lovage plants. The other lovage plant is a gift for a friend.
It wasn't easy to find lovage plants which is how I found this company, but I will order from them again in the future.

good selection of herbs and native stuff especially for bees and butterflies. plants arrive in good condintion- nice packaging.