Comments regarding Busse Gardens

Background: After my recent order with Busse Gardens, I discovered (for the first time) that UPS cannot leave packages at my home address without a signature. After waiting 1 week for the package and finally having to go to the UPS center, two of the four plant I had ordered died. At this point, I had no complaints with Busse. My negative rating derives from the rudeness of the staff person with whom I spoke regarding this problem. Here is what happened:

Conversation #1: Staff person blamed me for the plants' dying and for the delivery problems. He interrupted me twice and after asking me to "explain myself" said "No, I don't particulary want to hear it..." Resolution: Busse agreed to look into problem and replace the plants.

Outcome: Both replacements were canceled because one of two replacement plants were not in stock.

Conversation #2: When I called to ask why I could not get the replacements, the staff person explained it was not worth it to the company (i.e. the shipping cost exceeded the cost of the plant) to replace the one plant. He advised me to order back in the spring, to which I replied, "Well, I don't think I will be ordering from Busse again." He then retorted, "Well, you give us an address that UPS doesn't even ship to. We'd be happy to not ship to your address!"

Whatever happened to common courtesy?! I had no problems with Busse's plants or shipment. However, I would recommend not speaking with Gary.

"On Jun 19, 2010 9:47 AM, Busse Gardens responded with:

This customer ordered plants shipped to a secure building in a metropolitan area with no staff on site to accept deliveries. She should have known that UPS cannot leave packages on the front steps outside of a metropolitan apartment building. No signature is ever required for our orders, but for a multi-unit building, access to the inside of the building is required. She blamed us and UPS for the problems and I wasn't willing to accept that blame. We ship so that plants arrive the same week we ship them. This customer's plants were in the box for 10 days. We intended to ship replacements for the two plants that died, but by that time only one plant was available. Due to the problems shipping to this customer, we elected to refund the cost of the two plants that died, including the shipping charge, even though it was not our fault or UPS's fault that the plants did not arrive in good condition. All we ask is that if you order mail order plants, you be sure that they can be delivered. If you do, you will get healthy plants and we will be happy to replace them if they don't arrive in good condition. ."

I had my husband pick up a certain grass when he was near Busse about 3-4 years ago. They were not very helpful to me over the phone, or with him when he was there. Later that summer we discovered it was not the right grass (as labeled), in fact appeared to be a common marsh sort. Then it did not survive the Winter. This is my only experience with them, but obviously I was not impressed.

"We're sorry to see a negative comment, posted in 2003 about an experience that happened 3-4 years before that. We want to point out that this customer's experience occurred with the former owners of Busse Gardens, who sold to us in December, 1999. Since then, our entire emphasis has been on quality plants and excellent customer service. We think we've been successful, as evidenced by other customer comments and our own feedback from customers.

Additionally, all of our plants are guaranteed to be true to name. They are what we say they are. If there is ever a labeling problem, and that can occur for various reasons, we replace the plant or offer a refund. Our goal is to make your perennial gardening experience exciting and successful. Please let us know how we can serve you better.

Gary Goldsmith,
co-owner, Busse Gardens"