Gardening Express

Damaged plant and couldnt care less this company, avoid at all costs. They even packed the broken bits in the box!

I ordered a snake plant on the 8th of Feb and received it via Hermes courier around 12 today. Compared to the photo online, regardless of whether or not the plant shown there is "at its peak", the quality of the plant I received is absolutely shocking.

Expecting a beautiful Sansevieria, I was dismayed upon seeing a battered, roots-upturned mess of a plant. The box it was delivered in was of a ridiculous size compared to the relatively small plant and pot. No care was taken in protecting the roots and soil, apart from the use of a plastic bag wrapped around it that had come open. Soil was all over the box, all over the outside of the pot and the roots were visible. Not only this, the leaves of the plant were near enough shredded and very dull in colour. The soil itself was soggy, almost dripping wet, also and the plant itself was hanging on a slant because of its poor health.

Upset by the fact I now have to return this plant, I've called customer service around 8 times, only to be put on hold and never be answered.

Calling yourselves the 'No 1' in the UK is laughable. Your customer service is sub-standard, and the way in which you care for your plants is a shambles. Sort yourselves out before anyone else has to deal with a mess like this! I expect a full refund.

Not yet received items worth almost £40. Wrote to company yesterday but today all I got was a request for feedback. Very poor. Please either send items or refund money.

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Items that have shipped

Salvia patens Dark Blue
x3

Some orders may have been split and could arrive in multiple packages over different days.

When you receive your order, please ensure you unpack the boxes in full and water your plants immediately upon receipt, they can be a little thirsty after their transit and this will help them flourish.

Please note, the notches often cut into our cartons are intentional and are to prevent the movement of plant pots in transit. On the rare occasion your package has sustained the odd dent with the couriers - your plants will be fine. The cartons are designed to protect your plants and will ensure your plants arrive with you in much the same good condition as they left us.

Should you need any assistance once your plants have been delivered, please click HERE to view our FAQs or connect with our care team

The WORST plants e-shop in UK.

My order took 5 days to arrive (after waiting for ~weeks for it to be shipped). So, it was tossed around in dark box w/o water by a courier for 5 days.

As a result I've received 100% DEAD clematis and wisteria twig with broken top.

Wisteria was advertised as beautiful ~1m tall plant spread nicely on a trellis with multiple flowers. What I've received was a tiny bent dry twig with 3 broken little green leaves that tried to grow on top of that twig.

Hydrangeas (advertised as a 50% off from £18 each) were a few ~20cm green branches with leaves and a bunch of broken/cut dry branches at the base. They are 5 times smaller than £12 Sainsbury's Hydrangeas I've bought in my local supermarket and have no flowers at all - despite being in season (while my Sainsbury's Hydrangeas got 15 mopheads per plant).

When I've submitted an on-line ticket via Gardening Express web-site demanding a Refund for the "s. T I've received" (which to me was the utmost accurate description of what they've delivered) the Customer Support guy decided that I was insulting him personally and told me off closing my ticket without a Refund.

As plants - as service.

A drastic contrast with 2 other e-shops I've ordered from on the same day as they do have phone support (unlike Gardening Express that hides from unhappy customers), and in both Customer Service instantly apologised and issued refund for the plants that were not in tip-top shape or not as described.

Possibly the worst company I have
Ever had to deal with. Ordered a pair of
Evergreen Photonia Red Robin Tree's which were pictured to have a ball shaped
Foliage and described as having ball shaped foliage (similar style to a bay
Tree) What arrived where a couple of
Miss shaped bushes with no form or structure resembling a ball. Not to mention Yodel just dumped them on the
Door step and ignored instructions to deliver to neighbour. Gardening Express don't accept phone calls,
They don't accept emails, they don't communicate on Facebook or Twitter, they
Make it virtually impossible to communicate with them other to log a support
Ticket. Which when they answer they
Simply close instantly unless you respond.
Their excuse was that with careful pruning the trees could be trained
Into a ball shape, but I am not Alan Titchmarsh, I ordered something based on a
Description and a picture. My advice is
Not to use them, in 2019 a company should show more customer service, also when
They close your support ticket just keep replying with additional messages,
Least it wastes their time as lets face it they didn't' waste any time dealing
With my request. The most annoying thing
Is you pay for postage, they deliver rubbish and they expect you to return it
At your own expense.

They delivered a dead Acer Maple tree to us and refuse to help with getting a refund. I would avoid this company at all costs.

The 2 bamboo plants the were supposed to be 60-80cmc and £29! Were no more than 10cms and really scraggy plants at that. Impossible to get hold of the company.

Received my plants 2 days ago which i ordered from Groupon, which were from gardening express,
11 red robin plants, all were infected and leaves eaten from vine weevil,
Is a disgrace how this company can even send them to customers, they are in an appalling state and could have contaminated my other plants,
Also i must mention the plants were supposed to be 60-90cm,
They were 10-30cm,
Vine weevil is a very difficult to control as their lavae eat all the roots and the bugs eat all the leaves,
I have them in a sealed place to keep as evidence and photos also and have asked pay pal to step in and help with refund

Ordered 4 bamboo plants and they arrived quickly and healthy, well packaged too. Reading all the negative reviews was worrying, but not my experience

Just had delivery of 6 plants in such poor condition, if not actually dead, that it made me laugh - I don't often get caught out like this. DO NOT BUY FROM THIS COMPANY!

I have spent over £100 on plants in early April and so far I have received one half dead plant without a delivery note or return policy. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY

A very poor experience, made worse by appalling customer service. Over £180 spent on plants after carefully comparing websites and plant descriptions. Hebes advertised in 1 litre pot were sent as tiny plants in 500ml pots. A palm advertised as 1-1.5m arrived in poor condition with many dead leaves, viable plant around 70cm tall. Several grasses delivered in correct pot sizes were nothing more than the odd shoot of grass when compared to others delivered that were healthy. These show no signs of improvement despite the promises offered. I requested outstanding items were cancelled and refunded but these were delivered anyway and left outside insecure by Hermes. One of the four phatsias has shrivelled up and died.

Numerous emails to customer service have been met with stock and often repetitive replies that show no sign of addressing the matter, they are simply cutting and pasting replies from a template which is how the repetition occurs. There is no telephone number, neither does escalating the latter make any difference. The same stock answer is returned by email.

I have ended up with no option but to dispute the purchase with my credit card company and come to the internet to leave an honest review of my purchase.

Avoid this company and shop elsewhere, just look at the Trustpilot stats. Nearly 50% give one star, don't be fooled by the recent good reviews.

I ordered some plants for my wife using Groupon (a fairly good priced deal). She's very happy with the plants received :)

Honestly, i wish i checked google reviews beforehand, all 12 reviews gave a 1 star! I can see why now... I puchased 3 plants, stating they were between 2-3 litres (bare in mind they are £20 each). I waited a looong time for them to be delivered, i get there can be delays but this was a bit much. 2 of them were presents for my auntie who was staying with me and she had left by the time they came! I tried calling them many times to amend my order, possibly change the plants. Nothing. On one occasion, i was on hold for 1 HOUR! Like a mug! Plants finally arrived. I found them, thrown over my fence, upside down and all bashed up. I open the box, some pots are damaged. I didnt mind to much as i was looking to replant them. It was the size of them that i was shocked at. THEY WERE tiny. When you shop for plants, pot size makes a difference in price. The bigger the pot, the bigger the plant. No way were tgese plants worth £20! False advertising. Customer service afterwards continued to be frustrating, ignoring most my issues with tge product, saying "we can only apologise for the couriers" and "make sure you water your plants..." There is nothing express about this company. I promise there are loads of people that are dissatisfied with their service. I am honestly not one to complain and leave reviews but had to make the exception in this instance. If you want to save yourself time, money and aggravation?... Avoid Gardening Express. I'm off to return the plants. At my own expense of course. Take care

Still waiting for order - over a month now. Avoid this company! Really disappointing particularly as plant centres are now open!

I ordered 2 plants. They arrived badly packaged & broken. I have emailed my complaint 3 times & got no response. O will never buy from them again

This is my email to GE after waiting 61 days for delivery. Report your issues to Trading Standards.
I placed my order 61 days ago on the 11/04/20 and received my plants only yesterday which is both extraordinary & unbelievable. All this time waiting, only to receive plants that are in poor condition, were badly packed & their ongoing survival is in doubt. The difficulty in getting someone to respond on a general inquiry is impossible, so making a claim against these poor quality goods is a non starter & the 5 year warranty, utter nonsense.
I've previously used GE & the service has been at best, average but with very poor, almost non existent customer service.
With this order, I've sent emails requesting information and updates on my order but received nothing more, than heavily embellished, automatic replies containing glossy waffle which GE thinks is cleaver marketing but it's nothing more than a veil, attempting to cover bad selling practices.
Good plant suppliers will inform you prior to placing an order whether a particular plant is in stock or not, allowing the prospective purchaser the opportunity to either buy & wait or not to buy but GE doesn't offer a choice, it just takes your money, knowing full well you'll have to wait because if they don't have the plant you want in stock, they really don't care.
Sending out thousands and thousands of plants each day, training more staff to cope with demand, working day & night, REALLY?
Words like commitment, founding values, we're only a phone call away & we're the No 1 online UK supplier, utter tosh! You only have to read the many negative reviews which clearly bear out your dismal customer service.
All this & head office apparently is The Estuary Private Members Club.
I've raised a formal complaint with Trading Standards against your business practices and will also be posting negative reviews, adding to the many already posted.

I have had the same terrible experience of this company reported by other reviewers.
The plants supplied to me were nothing like the photos and descriptions on their website and the returns process is such a nightmare that most people just give up, which is exactly what Gardening Express is counting on. They are not remotely interested in customer satisfaction, just getting your money.
I have been gardening for over 50 years and know what healthy plants look like! I returned the pathetic specimens which I had been sent and after numerous emails, did manage to get my money back but they refused to refund the return postage.
Trading Standards state that if goods supplied are NOT AS DESCRIBED, you are entitled to a full refund INCLUDING the cost of return, regardless of what the company's T&Cs say.
They are also required by law to provide a link on their website to the ODR (Online Dispute Resolution) service, which they do not.
I wrote to their CEO to escalate my complaint and point out the missing ODR link. After a week, I was sent an email saying that he would not be replying because he was too busy!
I have given Gardening Express every opportunity to do the right thing but as they have not, I have reported them to Trading Standards, Watchdog and BBC 5 Live. I will be looking for other avenues to expose this appalling company but unless other people report them as well, they will continue to get away with it.
CONTACT WATCHDOG, TRADING STANDARDS and any other organisation which can do something to prevent other people from being ripped off.

Read all the reviews here before you part with your hard earned money!
The description of the plants on their website doesn't live up to what you actually receive. I'll give you an example of what happened to me!
I ordered the following plants...
Pair of Cordyline Pink Passion - Stunning Hardy Torbay Palms Normally £59.95... LOL Now £29.95. I ordered them on the 3rd June and they turned up on the 24th June.

The description on the website reads as follows.

Pack of two individual plants, each supplied in approx 2-3 Litre containers at an overall height of around 50-60cms tall, these are great value for the size and will make an instant dramatic impact in your garden.

They are in fact 38cm and 40cm. Now this may not seem a lot of difference but they are very small and DEFIANTLY don't make an instant impact.

I contacted their "customer service" team on the same day by raising a ticket. Antony advised me he will pass this on to their Head of Horticulture for comment. Two days later and no reply from Antony despite me sending him another email.

I will be reporting this to Trading Standards as they are clearly deceiving people by false descriptions on their website. My advice to you is AVOID these scammers and go to your local Garden Center.

Plants arrived in very poor condition and are beyond saving. Seems to be a battle to get a refund from them. Don't waste your time or money

I never got my delivery and the company were not interested and impossible to get in contact with them

Bought a cycad advertised as 'HUGE…
Bought a cycad advertised as 'HUGE GIANT Cycad'- EXTRA LARGE 80cm-100cm. Barely reached 80cm in height including pot and will be considerably smaller when the leaves drop lower, as the they were held upright in the packaging. Unhelpful and uninterested customer service. Scam overselling of products, definitely won't use again

I have spent £30 with this company and received nothing!
There is no number to call.
Absolutely disgusting to take advantage of people at this time