Comments regarding K. Van Bourgondien & Sons, Inc.

I have mixed experience with this company.

THE GOOD THINGS:
(1) In most cases, customer service via email is prompt (within 1-2 business days).

(2) Out of the three different products I received, only one had a quality issue. 1-of-5 mixed peonies didn't have an eye on the root that I received. When I emailed customer service with a photo, they responded within one day that they would send me a replacement. I received shipping confirmation the following day--great service!

(3) You can get quantity of bulbs and peonies for a good price.

THE BAD THINGS:
(1) When placing my order in Sept. 2021, I understood from K. Van's website that if it was possible for me to place an order for a bulb at that time, they would ship it immediately to me. As I live in zone 8, I can plant many things like crocosmia in the fall rather than the spring, so I was excited to see that they were shipping everything immediately. It was only AFTER my credit card was charged that their crocosmia shipping date would be in spring of 2022. I would recommend that K. Van make their shipping dates for different products more transparent to their customers.

(2) The emailed receipt for my order was not itemized. This means I only see a total cost for my order, and don't know how much each bag of bulbs cost. When I emailed their customer service to ask for an itemized receipt, I received no reply.

(3) Three weeks AFTER my credit card was charged, K. Van sent an email and postcard to notify me that one of the items I ordered was out of stock, and they would refund me. Neither of these notifications included the specific dollar amount I would be refunded. I had to email one of their customer service reps in order to receive the dollar amount I would be refunded.

Placed an order (Cinnamon fern and Hostas) in January hoping to get an early shipment to 8a. Shipping schedule indicated mid-February expectation. As of first of March, I am told that items are not available and will not ship for months. In the meantime, I continue to receive emails offering the same items, without mention of lack of availability, AND at a lower price. Cancelled the original order and re-ordered with lower price. Was going to post Negative and opted to wait and see what happens with the order before I do.

Placed order. Then was notified 1/2 was cancelled.This as for hyacinth forcing vases. Since the ground is now frozen, I cancelled the rest of the order for some unusual daffodils. This company needs to upgrade the website. Why is it possible to order on the website, and then be notified it's not available????

Posted on April 5, 2016, updated April 5, 2016
Posted on April 5, 2016, updated April 5, 2016
Being people were posting about other websites, not just Van Bourgondien, I decided I'll leave comments about my experiences too... First I'll say that I haven't ordered from Van yet... I still may try them but these reviews are discouraging. There is 2 other garden websites that I have ordered from before and I'll say that my experiences could have been better, I would post negative feedback but being they were my first times, it may have just been bad luck or something. So anyway, one website I ordered from was Gurney's... it was 2 pink weeping cherry trees, they used to have this thing were if you ordered from them and they were out of stock they'd just ship your order next available season/year. So as you may have guessed they were out of stock... I assumed they were going to ship next season/year... I waited... and waited... nothing... well so a year later I emailed them asking if they were going to ship them or what, and they said they refunded me last year because they were out of stock... but I never received a refund... turns out they sent the money to my mom and not me, we have the same address so somehow they screwed up our cards. Luckily it was her and not some stranger. BTW every time I order something from a nursery they always put my mom's name on the shipping label, that's really goofy. Don't they realize some people live at the same address? Anyway my other negative experience was with Breck's... I made 2 orders... long story short none and I mean NONE of the bulbs I bought grew... I waited and waited... finally I had enough and dug them up to see what was going on, they were all moldy and rotten/squishy. So I emailed them... no response, waited at least a month (I think more then that even), emailed them again. Waited a week or so, no response, emailed again, FINALLY a response... They said they'll issue a refund check through the mail, I received a check with my MOM'S name on it but that's not the worst part... I had made 2 separate orders, one was about $150-200 or something and the other was like $50... the check I got was only for the $50 order... so I emailed them asking about the other half... no response... I may have emailed them again with no response but I had enough of this bogus and contacted them on Facebook... immediately I got a response and they sent a check for the other order, again with mom's name on it... Whoever is responsible for checking/replying to emails is a jerk! This was a few years ago so hopefully whoever was doing that is no longer working there. And I don't know what's going on with them putting my mom's name on everything but they need to fix that!

I ordered 12 wine-colored peonies. After several false starts with shipping/delivery dates the plants arrived and most of the rhizomes were well sized with good eye development. A couple of them were very much on the puny side of things but that type of thing is par for the course. All of them had gray fungus issues which we treated.

We planted everything and were optimistic when things started to grow. The fungus treatment, unfortunately, does not appeared to have been as effective as we had hoped so we are likely going to lose 3 of the 12 plants. Another 2 suffered bloom blast. Again-as far as we are concerned, this is acceptable given the wet weather we have had in Virginia this winter. But the seven remaining peonies all pushed through and presented us with a perfectly formed single form bubble gum pink first year's flower that they could be proud of.

In case you did not catch that, the double form dark wine-colored petals we had waited for months to see had been swapped out/mislabeled for a cheaper single petal bubble gum pink flower that we had no use for in our gardens.

I called KvB and spoke with a couple of their phone support team members last Friday. I sent an email showing the difference in the flowers as well as the product number of the peony we thought that suspected had been substituted. The customer service agent first informed us that KvB only warranted their product for 10-days after the producted arrived. After discussing with this representative that it was impossible for us to know the color was incorrect until it bloomed, I was finally told that he could replace them but that the peonies were out of stock until next year. I requested my money back and was finally offered a check that would take 4-6 weeks to arrive.

I spoke with my wife about what had happened and we decided that we would see if they could pull stock from one of their sister catalogs who offers the same product but with a different name. Fortunately, it seems that in the six hours since my first call, the second rep was able to identify 12 available peonies and guaranteed arrival in two weeks.

Ultimately, there are a couple of take away messages here:

-The customer service agents were friendly though limited by a very tight script that did not seem to take common sense into account
-The order fulfillment division has some systemic issues with packaging
-The answer you will get to questions on inventory and delivery will change with the agent you speak with and, bless their hearts, I think that each just told me what I wanted to hear in order to get me off of the phone

The reason that I am giving this company a neutral and not a negative rating is because their customer service team did their best to correct the situation. Granted, they took no heroic measures to save the day (i.e., expedite ship/ship mature plants/etc.) and I am not holding my breath that they will keep their commitments. But if I take them at face value, they attempted to correct the issue in the best manner that they had available to them. Sadly, it will be another year before I know whether or not they succeeded. We will certainly not place another order though until they have.

Happy gardening!

Last summer 2012 I ordered several Peonies from this Company.
I did not realize nor was I told that the order would not ship until fall. After waiting for my order for what I considered reasonable time and after noticing my credit card had been charged I tried to check on my order through their website. I was never able to locate my order. I finally contacted them and was told they would notify me when the order shipped. I did finally receive the order.

My biggest complaint is that they charged me several months before my order shipped, no notification of an estimated ship date, and not being able to find my order on their website. I was beginning to wonder if I was ever going to see my order.

I'm giving them a neutral because I did receive the Peonies but would like to give a negative because of the worry they caused.

"On Apr 17, 2013 2:31 PM, K. Van Bourgondien & Sons, Inc. responded with:

Thank you for taking the time to let us know about the problems you had with your order. I truly apologize for the worry we caused you. We took over ownership of the company in late June and this is probably why there was confusion about your order."

Today 2/15 I can't get onto the van Bourgondien website by computer or iPad; it defaults to the GoDaddy.com site, saying that their domain name expired 2/14. Is anyone else having trouble? I can't get through by the email address on their catalog, either -- it bounces back. Are they going out of business?

I usually buy a lot from them, and a girl answered the phone willing to take my order, but if their sites are down that is worrying, so I am holding off till I hear what is going on.

"On Feb 19, 2013 11:49 AM, K. Van Bourgondien & Sons, Inc. responded with:

Thank you for letting us know. We were having site problems but everything is back up and running fine. I apologize for the inconvenience."

Posted on July 11, 2012, updated July 11, 2012
Not suprised they are having difficulty sending the correct items to customers....look at their website right now 7-11-12 @ 11:40pm, They have tulips labeled daylilies, daylilies labeled muscari, dutch iris labeled as Hyacinths,daffodils as astilbe!! And that's on their home page! No wonder they can't find my account information to issue me a credit or replacement! It's probably under pizza delivery!!!

"On Jul 19, 2012 11:05 AM, K. Van Bourgondien & Sons, Inc. responded with:

Thank you for your posting and we apologize for any inconvenience. We are now under new ownership and a customer service representative will contact you for more information. Or if you prefer you can call us at 800-552-9916 and of our of customer service representatives will be happy to help.

"

I entered a neutral rating as historically I have been very pleased with the business transactions I have had with K Van B, however; I too recently placed orders totally $350 that I fear I may never receive. I heard they are back on line and taking new orders but am skeptical. It's a shame as they have great prices, selection and fantastic Dahlia bulbs. I wish they would issue a statement of their status but I suppose that would be not advised by their attorney.

I am sorry to hear of the financial trouble; however, as it is garden planning time more should be posted as to if they will be able to fulfill orders this year. I have been trying to place an order for summer bulbs, with no success. Now I will have to order from another company as one can not keep waiting due to limited supplies. Previous orders have been great, it would be sad to no longer have this plant source as I have had great success with my previous plant orders from them.