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Comments regarding Koi Garden Club

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  Feedback History and Summary  
17 positives
5 neutrals
19 negatives

Comments:

RatingAuthorContent
Neutral Chills
(20 reviews)		 On Nov 21, 2009, Chills Saint Clair Shores, MI (Zone 6b) wrote:

Posted on June 17, 2009, updated November 21, 2009
I, too, am among those still waiting for an order of clematis varieties ordered earlier in the year. I am not ready to post a negative comment yet (as I have faith in human kindness and hope that Jerome will learn from his current difficulties and make good on all of his committments in due time). I do think that he should post an ongoing blog or comment on the Koi Garden Club site keeping those of us with outstanding orders informed about his progress and offer the option of making changes to our orders to varieties he does have currently in stock (if we choose to do so) in order to help his customers feel better about their choice to purchase from him.

I know that one of the varieties I ordered from him is probably a difficult one to get, and there is a more common one that I would take in exchange if it were to mean my order would be expedited.

Food for thought....

~Chills

On July 6th, 2009, Chills added the following:

****************************JULY 6TH***********************************

No delivery, no response to emails (4 so far), no clue what is going on with my order.


If KGC is having problems as has been said in reviews and in garden forums, they need to email people who have outstanding orders and explain the difficulties. Even if the reasons are common knowledge among people who frequent garden forums.

Still waiting.....

~Chills
On November 21st, 2009, Chills added the following:

Received plants in August (which was agreed to during an email exchange). The plants are small, but appear healthy and while I wish the transaction had been smoother I wish Koi Garden Club no ill will.

I do not plan on ordering more clematis this next season (out of space more than anything else and I dare not add more til I know how much space these plants I already got will use), but I cannot say that I wouldn't consider ordering from KGC next time. I just know I wouldn't bother ordering in February next time. I will also leave my rating as neutral because of the problems KGC had in supplying product this year.

I hope that Jerome is able to salvage his company's reputation in time as I know he really wanted this to work and being a gardener I respect people who try to deliver good plants for a reasonable price (that and because I also know that there are not many clematis nurseries with unusual varieties, not since Chalk Hill closed at least)

~Chills
On Nov 21, 2009, Koi Garden Club responded with:

"On Aug 3, 2009 2:19 PM, Koi Garden Club responded with:

Hello everybody and thank you for your orders. Hopefully your garden season is going well.

I owe all of you an apology, plants, or refunds. My apologies, I screwed up severely this season by spreading myself too thin. There was concern that I wasn't going to be
able to survive on the plant sales alone so I took a part time job. In the process I lost control of my inventory and operations. I ended up selling plants I no longer had, and
lost time to keep in communications. New plants were ordered in, and are in stock, but I have spent all my reserve shipping funds mailing out back orders. Things have been
spiraling out of control so this is an email to let you all know what is happening on this end.

I have every desire to honor your orders/refunds, but am completely out of funds at the moment. I am shipping new orders as they come in and working my way backwords in the back order pile.

I am offering a 50% additional items out of any items listed on my updated website, http://KoiGardenClub.com for those of you folks who don't mind waiting for your plants to be shipped sometime between now and the end of the season. If you have 4 items on back order, pick out an additional 2. If you have 2 items, pick out an additional 1, etc. My goal is to buy some more time while I get back on my feet.

If you are in need of your refund instead of extra plants, I simply don't have it right now. Please know that I am trying to ship and refund ALL back orders and will continue to whittle away at these pending issues as funds become available. If you need to file complaints with whatever organizations you feel necessary, I fully understand. It was my lack of planning and poor organization that put us in this hole. Also know that I am not retalitory. If you file complaints and post negative reviews I will still get your refund to you, but I just don't have the money right now.

As stated above, all new orders are shipping out right away in an effort to reverse this trend.

Again, my apologies for allowing it to get this bad.
Respectfully,
Perry Jerome Post

"
Neutral mamajack
(17 reviews)		 On Jun 10, 2009, mamajack Fate, TX (Zone 8a) wrote:

overwhelmed with orders? he is still advertising these clematis on daves marketplace. i got a refund which is the only reason i am giving him a neutral. however, when he finally dmailed me and asked if i wanted a refund i told him no. that i wanted the plants. but perry refunded paypal anyway without telling me. just discovered it tonight.

Neutral starrmasonlake
(1 review)		 On Jun 6, 2009, starrmasonlake Grapeview, WA wrote:

placed an order 3 weeks ago and still nothing. emailed perry@plantkingdom twice and got no response. filed a claim with PayPal and then actually got someone on the Koi Garden website in a live chat, who told me they were out of stock for the choice I had made. when I asked if I could just cancel the order and get a refund, he signed off! who knows whether he'll cancel it, or refund the $, or just never send me my clematis. I do know that I'll never do business with them again...

On June 9th, 2009, starrmasonlake changed the rating from negative to neutral and added the following:

changed to "neutral" when they graciously refunded my money and apologized, stating they were overwhelmed with orders.
Neutral wha
(5 reviews)		 On Jun 1, 2009, wha Pepperell, MA (Zone 6a) wrote:

i also had trouble with follow-up with Jerome. I did manage to get him on the phone and he explained that he has been very busy and behind in shipments. Today I received the last of my order and I am happy with the quality and size of the plants. I just wish the follow up had been better.
Neutral carolrees
(28 reviews)		 On May 29, 2009, carolrees Arlington, VA (Zone 7a) wrote:

I placed an order for $156 worth of clematis on 5/8/2009 & paid through Plantkingdom.com via Paypal. Since then although I emailed the paypal address & the email on Dave's Garden I have received no response. The PlantKingdom.com web site has no email address to contact. I am worried since I can get no email response from them and since I placed my order, the negative ratings on Garden Watchdog seem to be adding up.

However, checking today on Paypal it states that my order is ready to ship on May 29th. If it does and I receive it by the end of the 1st week in June and the plants are OK, I will change my rating to positive. Otherwise, I will enter a dispute on Paypal after 30 days has passed from my date of purchase.

On June 2nd, 2009, carolrees added the following:

I received 8 of the 26 clematis from order today in the mail. The plants that I received are all healthy looking and I'm pleased with their size. However, I'm still waiting for 14 others & there was just a note for those that didn't ship "Next Shipment" but not a date as to when they'll be shipped.
On June 16th, 2009, carolrees added the following:

Today, I filed a dispute with Paypal for the 18 plants that I have not yet received. I still have not had any contact from the seller on when, if at all, that I may receive the rest of my order.
On August 23rd, 2009, carolrees added the following:

The vendor refunded all of my money via paypal. Since I had received 8 of the 26 clematis I ordered in good condition, I sent him via Paypal the amount for those.

It's unfortunate that things degenerated so badly since I was very satisfied with the quality of those I did receive for the amount that I had paid. However, after not being able to get in contact at all with the vendor as to when the others would be shipped, I had no alternative but to have filed that claim on Paypal; otherwise, I would have had no recourse after the 45 days were up.