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Gardening Express has a rating of 1.1 stars from 589 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Gardening Express most frequently mention customer service, trading standards, and phone number problems. Gardening Express ranks 98th among Plants sites.
This company does not typically respond to reviews
Through Groupon, Gardening Express were offering Japanese Maples, Peonies and Palms on offer. Out of 4 Maples, 3 exhibit nutrient burns on their tips, 2 of which have little to no foilage and the remaining few leaves are about to drop dead from necrosis. Out of 4 Peonies, 3 are virtually dead. None had any labeling as to the species of maple acer or peony. My palms were ordered on the 15th but have not been delivered. I can only assume that they are dead somewhere.
Truely disappointed. As an experienced gardener im hoping to try and keep them going, but as the summer is drawing to the end, it's likely that most of the stock will die off. I was essentially sent very expensive twigs.
I've sent a support message to GE via their website about the Palms, will give the Maples and Peonies a few more days to pick up otherwise I'll be chasing a refund through my bank and solicitors.
*UPDATE* 03/09/16
Gardening Express have replied back to my email regarding the missing palms. Hoping action is taken to either find or replace them.
In the meantime, I've had avid horticultural expert have a look at my peonies that arrived. They are 100% affected by Powdery Mildew, which is a fungal infection bourne from humid and wet conditions. The best thing to do is treat them with horticultural oil or neem oil, and soap. Cut back all affected leaves and also look into taking preventative action with any other plants you may have as Mildew spreads via spores.
See google for what Powdery Mildew looks like on the Paeonia variety of peonies
UPDATE 07/01/2017
Garden Express have tried to remove my review.
I have forwarded the relevent correspondence to TrustPilot as Gardening Express act in a completely negligent manner and trying to get bad reviews removed. All of the plants died due to infection. I have also contacted trading standards.
Date of experience: August 4, 2017
I ordered 8 plants on the 4th May and based on their web site information, allowing for busy times, I was under the impression I would receive them after 10 working days max. ( although their web site says they aim for 3-5 days). I e-mailed them on the 17th May having heard nothing as regards despatch or otherwise. As I was going away for a week's holiday the following week, given the delay, I requested they deferred the despatch until I returned the week after. Two days later they e-mailed me to say once an order had been allocated for despatch, it could not be deferred or cancelled. They suggested I re-arranged the delivery requirements with the carrier - Yodel - when they contacted me. Yodel messaged me two days later and gave me a date for delivery - during the week I was away on holiday. They also explained this order could not be delayed or diverted. Very helpful! I managed to get my daughter to spend the day at our house and accept the delivery - which she did. She noticed that one of the boxes was crushed and broken open.The driver said she had to correspond with the office and was not interested in any discussion. She took photographs and a video. She then opened them up to discover the plants were crammed in two per box. One of the bamboo plants was bent & broken. One of the Ilex plants was bone dry and already brown. She looked after them as best she could, watering them every day unto my return 4 days later. I then reviewed all the plants. The dry Ilex was now dead, ( the others were ok but very small.) The broken bamboo was also very ' sick' and I was shocked at the quality of the spindly weedy hydrangea plants they had supplied. They were a special offer at 3 for £30 so I was not really surprised and decided to put those in my greenhouse and nurse them to better health. On checking their website, Gardening Express do everything to prevent you contacting them directly. No direct contact e-mail, no contact number, no live chat facility, just a convoluted online form under FAQs. ( I used this for my earlier query on despatch). I duly sent them a respectful online communication with the facts and photos, requesting a replacement Bamboo and Ilex plant. I have now since sent two more as they have not replied to any. ( I notice they say not to send more than one as their system might consider it Spam - very convenient) I give up - all I can do is now spread the word on Social Media about my experience - which I have started to do. I would suggest they contact a professional online supplier instead who actually cares about their customers and service. Unfortunately I am unable to give them no stars so I have given them the next best.
Date of experience: June 19,2023
Tip for consumers:
There is no way to contact them directly by phone or e-mail - good luck!
Products used:
Plants
Date of experience: June 20, 2023
9 wYour order #*******
Placed on 23 April 2020 10:04:31 BST
Item Sku Qty Subtotal
Phyllostachys Bissetii - Green Bamboo B******* 1 £24.99
Subtotal £24.99
Shipping & Handling £5.99
Grand Total £30.98
BILL TO:
Mr Randal Foster
16 Castle Gardens,
Wood Street
Geddington, Northamptonshire, NN14 1AE
United Kingdom
T: *******7828
SHIP TO:
Mr Randal Foster
16 Castle Gardens,
Wood Street
Geddington, Northamptonshire, NN14 1AE
United Kingdom
T: *******7828
SHIPPING METHOD:
Standard Delivery - Standard Delivery
PAYMENT METHOD:
Debit / Credit Card
Dispatch is 3-5 working days for all items in stock/season, in busy periods this may extend up to 10-15 working days. Please refer to our delivery information page for more information. Eeks and still no delivery. No way to det hold of them except by Snail Mail or a Ticket System that does not work.
Date of experience: June 23, 2020
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. THEY ARE COWBOYS. THEY SHOULD BE FORCED TO CEASE TRADING. WMAIL SENT WITH PHOTO OF DEAD PLANT.NO RESPONSE
Date of experience: July 29, 2021
Shocking company, bad customer service, missing plants, dead, tatty plants, arrived 3 weeks late...
Products used:
None
Date of experience: August 25, 2021
Plant didn`t turn up, emails to chase were ignored - no phone number to contact them... disgusting
Date of experience: July 17, 2018
I haven't had my order ship yet and I've already decided I will NEVER use this company again. I wanted to cancel my order to amend it and re-order. This company is operated by a young chap, David, who would rather avoid direct contact with customers. He hides behind emails via his online contact method. This is "so he can keep employment costs down in order to offer the best prices". After emailing to request an order cancellation since it's the bank holiday weekend and they shouldn't be picking and packing my order until it the day it should be shipped (you would think), David has said this,
"We're actually picking, packing, and dispatching over the whole of this bank holiday weekend.
If your order was placed less than 24 hours ago and when you login to your account there is a cancel' link next to your order then you are best to cancel it and start afresh order excluding the items you do not want from the basket.
If however the order is over 24 hours old and there is no cancel link then it is now not possible to stop or intercept your order. We are processing 10,000+ orders a week which have to be hand picked, hand cleaned, and hand packed which makes intercepting orders impractical on our time and resources to do.
Hope this helps.
Kind regards
David
Gardening Express IT & Web Dept
Well maybe it's just me, but that reply felt a bit snarky. I honestly thought ecommerce selling laws state we have 14 days to cancel an order without any reason from the moment an order is placed. He is intentionally NOT cancelling my order because he is busy picking and packing the 10,000 + orders he gets per week and they don't have the resources. Well any good business is going to ace their customer service over their greedy reasons for not efficiently staffing to deal with customer issues and customer demand equally. Having read the reviews from this website above, I'm regretting I did not do my quality control in making sure this company was reputable and I fear my inability to cancel my order before it has even been shipped is going to be the least of my problems based on the low quality plants people have complained about on here. Thankfully credit cards have our backs and we can get our money back from people who start businesses but fail to handle the customer side of things appropriately. I will re-review once I get my order, which I am expecting with 3-5 days, however there is a sneaky little notation stating orders can take up to 14 days during busy times. It's never too late to up your business service, get some quality customer service staff and staff to handle the influx of orders so you can expedite them quickly and efficiently. Let this business venture of yours be a lesson. I'm off to the Northamptonshire Notice Board to slag you off...
Date of experience: May 6, 2019
Does what it says on the tin! Good quality plants delivered swiftly, very happy
Date of experience: January 31, 2015
Gardening centre for garden plants and flowers. The UK's No. 1 Online Specialist in the UK with Hardy plants guaranteed 5yrs
