Anybody else have hassles with Heirloom Acres Seed company?

HermitJohn · #1 03/24/09, 01:50 PM

I made an order on Feb 20 cause frankly they had best price on larger quantities of seed.

Month goes by, nothing, so I email last week get response that they have no record of my order. I immediately email back with info on the paypal transaction and nothing. Today I filed a paypal dispute to be sure I get it done during 45 day window.

I mean you either want to be in buisiness and pay attention to whats going on or you will go bankrupt. These people apparently dont give a rats hind end. Maybe they will actually "find" my order after paypal withdraws money from their account to refund to me.

mylala · #2 03/24/09, 02:05 PM

I bought seeds from them in later part of '08 (Oct. maybe?), and it took about a month to receive anything. When I did it was only some of what I ordered...the rest was on back order (which was fine). Jan. rolls around and still nothing on my back order so I emailed them about it and they said thanks for reminding them about it, and sent the rest of my order. I suspect had I not contacted them I would still be waiting for the rest of my seeds. My experience was not as bad as yours, but with as many seed places that are out there I most likely won't use them again.

avandris · #3 03/24/09, 03:28 PM

Thank you!

I am really glad that you posted about this. I was going to order from them next pay day. I am glad that I put off my order to them and ordered from Tomato Bob first.

Elsa

SquashNut · #4 03/24/09, 03:47 PM

I ordered from them 2 or 3 years ago and the seeds were terrible. They didn't germinate and some of the seeds were mixed.
The 1/2 pound of peas grew both Alaskan and lincoln peas. i had ordered lincoln shell peas. Looked to me like they cleaned out their seed bins to fill my order.
I had over ordered the year before and used those seeds to make up my garden that year. The following year I ordered from Mountain Valley seeds. Yhey have just as good of prices. As does Morgan County seeds.
i wish some thing could be done about Heirllom Acres, they have ripped off way too many people and now when people need their gardens more than ever it's just not right. Not right at all.
I hope you have better luck than I did.

uyk7 · #5 03/24/09, 06:40 PM

I ordered strawberry plants from them a couple of years ago and had to email them, they had forgotten my order. While the strawberry plants grew, I will never order from them again. I order my seeds from victoryseeds.com now. They have open pollinated and heirloom seeds. This was my third year with them.

.

hintonlady · #6 03/24/09, 06:50 PM

This is a link for a garden watchdog area of a gardening site:

http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/

You can read or leave reviews on seed dealers. Covers a lot of other categories like hatcheries etc. Now everytime I get a garden catalogue from an unknown source I look it up before window shopping. Thrown out all of them as a result.

Also has a search by reviews so you can pop up seed dealers with the best customer feedback. They have links which are great for ease of use, especially if you want a catalogue from the better places.

Site has saved me bushels of cash.

VERN in IL · #7 03/24/09, 08:38 PM

Wow, that is NOT the place to get seed!

Is it like a side buisness or what? IMO "forgeting" about orders?!

homesteadforty · #8 03/24/09, 10:19 PM

The problem with Heirloom Acres is follow up and consistancy. I've ordered from them 9 times and had serious problems on 2 orders (incomplete, wrong items, delayed shipment, etc.)... the other 7 times they were great. On the 2 really bad times it took multiple contacts to get things right. One 1 occasion there were problems but they fixed them promptly.

I've given them a little leeway because they are the quintesential small family business but it is difficult to deal with problems on 25% of your orders.

homesteadforty · #9 03/24/09, 10:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by VERN in IL

Wow, that is NOT the place to get seed!

Is it like a side buisness or what? IMO "forgeting" about orders?!

Yes... as I understand it they run the business off the family farm with parents, kids and a few other relatives. If they could get their act together a little more I thing they would be a great place, but...

SquashNut · #10 03/24/09, 11:59 PM

When they hit your credit card then don't send the product for 60 days and then it doesn't germinate, they won't get any more of my business.

timfromohio · #11 03/25/09, 06:48 AM

We ordered from them for the first time this year. They shipped most of our order, but we had to remind them about some seeds that were on backorder. So far, I'm very disappointed with the germination rate. In the past we've ordered from Baker Creek and been happy.

ceresone · #12 03/25/09, 07:36 AM

Hey, I've posted everywhere about this company. Poorest service I've ever had, seeds DID NOT even germinate--and I didnt even get a "sorry about that"
All the info about a struggling family trying to survive just dont cut it with me, I'm poor, and struggling to survive too--but at least I'm honest.
Everyone, go to Dave's World, and post your service from them, might help some other poor sucker!

Mutti · #13 03/25/09, 08:56 AM

Ordered once from them....had to call three times before I ever got part of my order and finally after another call the rest came. And this was very early in the season when they should have had plenty of seed as I always order in Dec/Jan. Most things did grow and my Glaskin's Rhubard was a HUGE sucess but there are far too many better companies like Baker Creek, Jungs,Territorial that send your order promptly and completely to waste my time with them again. I originally ordered because I do like to support family businesses but growing food is a serious business for me ...can't do it without good seeds. DEE

mommagoose_99 · #14 03/25/09, 10:43 AM

Definitly, go to WWW>davesgarden.com and tell them about it. Save someone else a hassle. I believe you need to click on the resources button at Dave's garden.
Linda

HermitJohn · #15 03/25/09, 10:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SquashNut

I ordered from them 2 or 3 years ago and the seeds were terrible. They didn't germinate and some of the seeds were mixed.
The 1/2 pound of peas grew both Alaskan and lincoln peas. i had ordered lincoln shell peas. Looked to me like they cleaned out their seed bins to fill my order.
I had over ordered the year before and used those seeds to make up my garden that year. The following year I ordered from Mountain Valley seeds. Yhey have just as good of prices. As does Morgan County seeds.
i wish some thing could be done about Heirllom Acres, they have ripped off way too many people and now when people need their gardens more than ever it's just not right. Not right at all.
I hope you have better luck than I did.

Thanks, looks like Morgan County has most of what I want though they are more into commercial varieties. And alas no sorghum, H.A. had bulk sorghum seed. Its hard to find somebody that will sell in quantities bigger than a pkt. Doesnt work out if you are wanting to plant more than couple hills of corn. But I guess most people that have garden anymore have postage stamp size garden and no real room for bigger stuff like sweet corn.

MoonShine · #16 03/25/09, 09:51 PM

Yes, I had a terrible time with them and I won't deal with them again.

I placed a big order with them last spring and the seeds didn't show up for like a month or two. I called several times and got nothing but run around from them. At first, they couldn't even find my order, said someone must have misplaced it. They said they would email me as soon as they got it straightened out. They never emailed. I had to call again and again and finally, the seeds came. And to beat all, the germination rate was horrible.

I can't understand why a company would go through the trouble of advertising and sending out print catalogs..and then run things so poorly. Don't they realize that people won't do business with them again? Don't they realize we tell other people about our bad experiences? I just don't understand why they don't invest in some other system than the one they're using (or not using, actually).

HermitJohn · #17 03/26/09, 07:31 AM

Ok, got my refund from H.A.

I then make an order to Morgan County Seeds. This morning I get email from them that they are way behind on orders and there will be a big delay.

Excuse me, but why are they taking new orders if they cant deal with them. Or at least put big disclaimer on their website that any order will be greatly delayed.

Now I have to hassle extracting my money from them. Jeesh... I dont need seeds arriving in June, just wait until next year.

HermitJohn · #18 03/26/09, 05:29 PM

Maybe third time the charm. Ended up ordering from Shumways. Yea I know its now just shell company owned by that group that bought up lot of the old name garden seed companies. Horrible reputation when they first took over but looking on net seems they do pretty good with quality of the seed and getting orders filled quickly the last few years.

If I have any kind of decent garden this year, will save my own seed.

DMD Farms · #19 03/26/09, 05:32 PM

This is bit off the subject, but at least it's about Heirloom seeds....
I'm a bit new to this all, and I'm not able to ask questions or reply in the political forums.

I was told the other day that the government is trying to outlaw Heirloom seeds and butchering our own animals..... anyone heard about this???

Thanks