Comments regarding Vermont Wildflower Farm

Posted on November 25, 2014, updated November 25, 2014
Posted on November 25, 2014, updated November 25, 2014
I have ordered plants, bulbs, seeds for Many yrs. So my order from Vermont Wildflower was not my first but from them my last. When ordering online you see they're 100% Wild About It guarantee. If you click on it for more details you see a reference to their 100% guarantee. What it doesn't mention in the see more about it is you have 3 days to contact them. My order came while I was out of state due to family death. This company has the shortest contact time I've EVER seen. They don't show this in their initial guarantee info. I have been dealing with an excellent company Dutch Bulb from the Netherlands. So stupidly I felt comfortable with Vermont Wildflower. Dutch Bulbs online catalog gives shipping date right below item your ordering. They also give 14 days to contact them. I had 2 problems I encountered were resolved and received in 3 days from the Netherlands. So be aware Vermont Wildflower's happy bright 100% Wild About it guarantee has the shortest complaint time I've ever come across. Thankfully it was a fairly small order so lesson learned.

"On Nov 25, 2014 2:24 PM, Vermont Wildflower Farm responded with:

We are sorry this customer is disappointed, however, she contacted us 25 days after receiving her Amaryllis bulb order to state that she had intended them to be Christmas gifts and that she didn’t want to take the time or work for them to grow. Our product pages and two prior e-mails to her explained that these are shipped as 1 Large Premium bulb and the product pages give the time they take to grow, planting instructions and expected bloom time. We always work with our customers but her explanation for holding live bulbs for 25 days after receiving them does not qualify for a refund. She stated in her e-mail that she didn’t want a credit or additional plants as a replacement, which we would have been happy to offer had she let that be an option. Concerning our guarantee we believe her statement that we have the shortest contact time in the business is misunderstood by this customer. We have a very extensive guarantee for every item we sell. Our plant guarantee is very lenient giving up to 1 year if a plant fails to grow but if your shipment arrives damaged, you change your mind or any other issue, we like to know within 3 days. It really shouldn’t take you any longer than that after receiving the shipment if it’s damaged, you changed your mind etc. Holding bulbs for 25 days before letting us know ‘that you don’t feel like planting them’ is understandably unacceptable to receive a refund. We have enclosed that portion of our guarantee below for your reference.

Portion of Vermont Wildflower Farm's Plant Guarantee: Any order for live plants or bulbs that you have an issue with, changed your mind about or arrives damaged, you must contact us within 3 business days for a resolution! If your live plant or bulb fails to grow - just contact us within 1 year, we'll replace it or refund it! Live plants and bulbs are non-returnable but if you contact us within the allotted time frames depending on the situation we are more than happy to work something out - always!

(As a Note: Dutch Gardens guarantee isn’t any different other than the fact they allow 14 days for returns)

This customer would not have even met their return time frame.
"

I received a coupon offering 50% off fall bulbs in July. I ordered a few kinds and appreciated the price. One item I was particularly looking forward to were Autumn daffodils. My order arrived in two shipments - one in August and one in MidSeptember. The daffodils arrived in the second shipment.

When I went to plant them I read the packaging and it said for zones 7-11 and to plant them in July or August. I checked their website and it said for zones 5-11. I called and asked and was assured that I could still plant them and they wold germinate in 3 weeks. They said they would speak to the packager about correcting the labelling.

I planted them during this warm fall in late September and they never came up. It is now early November and nothing. I am now concerned that nothing will come up from the other bulbs I purchased and I have wasted money. VT Wildflower never said anything was incorrect on their end and blamed the bulb packager completely. I will probably not order from them again.

"On Nov 4, 2011 1:09 PM, Vermont Wildflower Farm responded with:

This customer e-mailed her concerns this morning 11/4 at 11:00 a.m. She received an acknowledgement e-mail from us at 11:03 am that her complaint would be forwarded to the appropriate person in charge for rectification today. She signed up and left a negative review on Dave's Garden at 11:15 am.

We are very surprised that a negative feedback has been left on Dave's Garden without allowing us a chance to respond. Our company is virtually complaint free and we stand behind everything we sell. We work very hard to insure that every customer we have is a happy customer. As explained to the customer when she originally called in September with her concern, our Dutch supplier had explained to us that they made a package description error in both the planting time and zones. We stood by their explanation and asked that she go ahead and plant. In fact, these did not even arrive from our supplier until the 2nd week of September so their explanation seemed reasonable to us since the packaging stated plant in late July. We also let her know at that time that if they did not grow we would certainly replace or refund as we guarantee all of our products. We sold over 100 packages of Autumn Daffodils and we have not received any other complaints so we are not sure what happened with hers. We planted these at the farm in zone 5 and all have bloomed with the exception of one bulb. We strive to be complaint free and we work very hard in assuring that everything we sell is of superior quality and that every single one of our customers is a happy and satisfied customer. We are sorry this customer felt she needed to go ahead and leave a negative feedback before we had a chance to rectify the situation. We usually respond to any e-mail within a few hours but were not even given 15 minutes. We have e-mailed this customer offering the following resolution: - replace the Autumn Daffodils with any item of equal value of choice - credit on account for later use or a refund of the purchase price of the daffodils. "