Problems with large nursery

manfred · #1 06/30/11, 10:16 AM

I'll be as concise as possible.
April I placed an order with a large nursery, over $100. When time passed and it didn't arrive I started contacting them. Mostly by e-mail as they don't answer calls in that dept.
They were very polite but could not find a record of me or my order. Could I please send them copy of both sides of canceled check?
OK, I did that, contacted them after awhile and they still didnt know me or anything about my order and could I please send them a copy of both sides of my canceled check?
This time I sent it registered mail with return receipt.
A very nice rep. called me and said they shipped my order to someone else and was processing my refund.
Happy ending? Not! Almost 3 weeks go by and I started contacting them again. They wanted all the details and said they would contact me.
No contact. What should I do now?

Old Vet · #2 06/30/11, 10:22 AM

Get a lawyer and sue them. If you have the check and record who you talked to they will pay you the refund and your lawyer fees. You have done everything to get your money back now it is in their court and if you sue them they will pay for it all.

Kazahleenah · #3 06/30/11, 10:23 AM

I would contact the BBB and sent a return recipt requested letter to the company.

bajiay · #4 06/30/11, 10:34 AM

I would call about every other day or so until something gets resolved. And ask for the supervisor of the department. Contacting the BBB and RRR letter is a great idea as well. Good luck!

manfred · #5 06/30/11, 10:50 AM

Should I contact the BBB in my state or theirs?

Kazahleenah · #6 06/30/11, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by manfred

Should I contact the BBB in my state or theirs?

If you call the one in your state and explain the situation, they will tell you if you need to contact the one in the company's state.

flewism · #7 06/30/11, 11:11 AM

Do you have the names of everybody you talked to at this business? It does sound like you have been dealing with a different person on each contact.
I can't imagine a nursery having anyone who's primary job is customer service so your issue is not on the top of anyone's list except the owner who more than likely has no clue of your issue.
So you might be starting over to some extent.
You need a name, time and notes of conversations.
Always ask for the same person by name, in follow up contacts, but explain you problem to everyone there and get their name.
People will start moving you up the chain of command once they know that they cannot authorize a correction, but you have their name and record of conversation. Quote people's statements from earlier contacts by name.
Talk about the additional cost you occurred, because they failed to deliver they product.
Find out who owns this business. This is easily done online, or though the county or state tax records which are public.

PNP Katahdins · #8 06/30/11, 11:13 AM

Contact the BBB on their end and file a complaint. The info should be online. They will know if it is a problem company. I have done this successfully when my boss got suckered on buying some office products from a phone call.

Also call the company and ask to speak to the president and also whoever is in charge of customer service. Be polite but sound angry. You have been getting a runaround and the owner should want to know they are having problems. Mistakes happen but good companies fix them the first time.

I personally would order replacements from a different company. Insist on a refund plus additional money from the irresponsible company for your time and loss of part of the growing season. Don't settle for a credit.

Good luck.

Peg

manfred · #9 06/30/11, 11:18 AM

I'm trying to be as fair as possible before I contact the BBB. It has been less than 24 hours since my last contact with them and I plan to give them the rest of the day.
I dont have a good record of my contacts with them. Dates, times, names but will start now.

Windy in Kansas · #10 06/30/11, 01:13 PM

I would use a little different approach than many. I would ask to speak with the manager or the owner of the business and ask them to get to the bottom of the fouled up order and not being issued a refund as promised. If they ask for your paperwork tell them to gather their employees and get it from them as you have sent it twice and have proof of that.

Before placing your order did you check the nursery credibility at http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/

Do you know if they belong to a nurseryman's association? If so you may wish to contact them.

Doubt postal inspectors would get involved but this could be considered mail fraud and they certainly frown on that. Might get a little action out of the owner or manager if you mention that.

Best wishes for getting the issue resolved.

manfred · #11 06/30/11, 01:37 PM

I checked with Dave's garden. The complaints have a familiar tone to my problem.

Danaus29 · #12 06/30/11, 01:43 PM

If you ordered from Park Seed you probably will never see your money. From what I read online they started doing that this year.

rambler · #13 06/30/11, 01:50 PM

To put things into perspective, I had a very similar experience several years ago, but it was with a govt bond of $10,000 going through whatever company issued it. Took close to 3 years to get results, and that was _With_ a financial adviser person doing much of the phone calls and leg work and supposedly knowing who to call. We got caught in a large business with 2 divisions that did not talk with each other, so one side would get info, and drop it, the other side never heard of us and could you send in info.... On the third cycle through, we asked that they indeed follow through with their threat to turn the asset over to the state, from which we could recover it after 90 days. We figured that was much quicker than continuing to deal with them. Then the state wanted us to turn in same infoa 4th time to that company so it could be released. at that time I had a long conversation with someone from the comany that actually was able to look at the 'paper trail' from both sides of the comany, and was pretty upset with what had happened to us. Offered to get us our money baqck from the state & clear it up. I said no thanks, we'll work with the state! We had gone through 3 levels of management and gotten nowhere in the past. This musta been the 4th level, fairly high up.

Anyhow, you are dealing with an assortment of 9-5 workers sitting at a keyboard, and they get a forum on screen to fill out. There is no connection to you, and no way to actually do or think of anything other than look at the little boxes on the screen & fill them out.

To get your $100, you need to get the attention of a supervisor, or other higher-up person that can ok this thing and get it to a peon's desk with all the right little boxes checked off. Then the peon can do their thing and fill out the little boxes on the screen.

How you do that depends upon th company you aqre dealing with, but you need to get up the ladder a bit to get someone with autority to think and act. Phone cals in a steady, measured, but firm manner sometimes get you there. Write down names of people you've talked to & what date, have your paperwork in front of you.

--->Paul

oregon woodsmok · #14 06/30/11, 10:41 PM

Be sure to give them a bad review on The Garden Watchdog to warn other consumers in the future.

haypoint · #15 07/01/11, 06:31 AM

If a person at a large nursery wanted me to provide copies of both sides of my check, I'd want to send it directly to that person, so I'd ask for a person's name.

Sue them over a hundred bucks? Pleeeese...

Just let them know you'll take up more of their time until you get your refund than the order was worth. A big nursery is scrambling to get out all the orders right now. Sounds like they don't have a procedure to deal quickly with refunds.

willow_girl · #16 07/01/11, 07:48 AM

Next time, pay by credit card -- you can always ask the CC company to reverse the charges!

manfred · #17 07/01/11, 10:02 AM

They have started to ignore my emails now but I plan to send them a note every day. Maybe for years.

Harry Chickpea · #18 07/01/11, 10:20 AM

Please post the name of the company.

motdaugrnds · #19 07/01/11, 10:36 AM

I would send them "one" more e-mail then stop sending e-mails altogether. This last e-mail would let them know you have contacted an attorney, have given them a bad review on Dave's Garden, that you now only want a complete refund of your money and that they will be hearing from your attorney. If this doesn't get you immediate action, contact an attorney.

Rita · #20 07/01/11, 10:46 AM

Credit card doesn't always work. If you pay the amount while you are waiting for the shipment (which sometimes is sent according to season) you can not get the charge taken off. I contacted Consumer Protection in my state because the nursery was in my state and they said they were investigating but nothing has come of it.