Have you ever seen a catalog from Wayside Gardens? They look like a million bucks, all glossy and pretty and full of hope of what your garden could like like. Too bad their service doesn’t match the image they try so hard to project.
During my May trip to Illinois I found out that my mother-in-law, Pat, wanted a yellow climbing rose. I looked around online when I got home to Colorado and found that Wayside had a sale on them…buy one get 2 free. Hey! That sounds pretty good…get out the credit card, type in my info….sit back and wait.
She got the first one straight away and they followed the instructions and got it planted. I was unaware that they only got one and she was unaware that there should have been 3.
Fast forward to July….I get an email AND a letter by post that the two remaining roses had been shipped…eeeeek! Pat and Johnny were on their way here to bring Dakota home. A few quick phone calls had their youngest son, Justin, on the lookout at the PO for the roses.
End of July…no roses. I called Wayside and they told me to call the PO where the plants were to be shipped…ok..did that and the Postmaster assured me no packages had come in. We waited another week and I called Wayside again. “Oh, so sorry it was a MIS-SHIP” Huh? They shipped it wrong? How? Why? When? the gal on the phone didn’t know but offered my money back minus shipping since they weren’t shipping anything at the time due to summer heat…ok whatever! I now have a whopping $14.95 in credit with them.
Fast forward again to three days ago…the rose bloomed and guess what?!? It’s PINK!!! I called again and was told I was out of luck since they already gave me my money back….ok lady…what about the fact that I ordered a YELLOW rose and this is a PINK rose despite the fact that it had a tag stating it was YELLOW!?!
“We already gave you your money back”
“I want to speak to a supervisor”
“We already gave you your money back”
“I heard you…don’t you care that this rose is PINK not YELLOW? ”
CLICK….she hung up on me:|
OK …now I’m mad…I sent an email to customer service…they sent an automated reply stating I’d get an answer in 48 hours which was 72 hours ago with no word from them.
Yep…keep sending those fancy catalogs out but don’t train your phone, computer or warehouse people to keep customer satisfaction high. I’m off to find some garden forums to cross post this on.
2 Responses to “Wayside Gardens….hmmmmph!”
September 6th, 2008 at 9:38 am
Ohhhh…. Shamey Shamey!!! I’d say they were wrong from the get-go. Makes me wonder how many other people didn’t get their free roses. Sounds like a scheme for more customers & money. Too bad they messed up and lost at least one customer on the deal. My guess is, when Becky’s done with them, they’ll be down way more than that.
September 8th, 2008 at 12:25 am
omg!! makes me mad too………..rose rage!