Gardening Express - Overall Rating based on 93 reviews
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3 grow your own mushroom kits
The worst grown your own mushroom set I’ve ever had and the worst customer service. That’s the last time I’ll buy from this online store.
Bought three sets of grow your own mushrooms at Xmas (bought before from other retailers) and only three mushrooms produced in total!! The kits are hopeless. I complained to Gardening Express and they said because I didn’t contact them within 14 days to say they were substandard that I am now too late. Anyone who has ever grown their own mushrooms will know that it takes WEEKS and weeks to harvest a crop and before you’d know there was a problem.
My advice is don’t but their grow your own mushroom kits and don’t expect any sort of customer service from Gardening Express ever . Oh, and you can only chat or email. There’s no phone contact whatsoever . RubbishI actually would not ever buy from here again
Exochorda macrantha The Bride
Order this shrub, which cost £15.95 and all I received was a bent twig. I raised a complaint which was closed, without my agreement, they said the bent twig was alive so no cause to complain. I wish I could upload a photo of the plant as it would give everyone a good laugh. Goodbye Gardening Express, from a good customer.
ordered and paid near £ 400.00 months ago.. no delivery... no response to email or complaiNTS.. GOING TO SMALL CLAIMS COURT NOW TO RETRIEVE MY HARD EARNED CASH... NHS KEYWORKER
Just contact your bank and you can still get your money back under the 90 day money back guarantee if you have not received the goods after 14 days. They have been holding customers money since 2019.
You will also see that Chris Bonnet the owner of Gardening Express wrote an article in Horticulture Week during lock down on how he didn't think nurseries should re-ope, well that's not surprising, he was buying all the stock they couldn't sell as they were closed and he was re-selling it online, dead or alive. I can't paste the link here but search ' Opinion: Gardening Express's Chris Bonnett opposes garden centre opening during coronavirus crisis '
So he rallied to keep nurseries closed (and for people presumably to lose their jobs and their companies due to Covid) so he could buy their cheap plants when they were desperate for money, and sell them on at a profit to people who couldn't buy from face to face nurseries. He took on too much, couldn't fulfil orders, didn't stop taking orders no matter what, just kept taking the money and delivering some dead plants to some customers. Others got nothing, or an odd twig, nobody got refunds, he got a whole load of cash, and other honest nurseries lost their businesses. He is now nowhere to be seen, offices closed, chat lines closed, Facebook account as dead as his plants, and is STILL taking money online... He must be abroad or surely he would have been arrested by now if he was doing this in the UK?Yet now here is months later re-opening his own garden centre (after others have gone bankrupt and closed due to his profiteering) Karma will get this company soon. Dispicable.
Omg worst Co. In world!!! Stole my money seriously. 4 months no plants no refund. No contact no or email or chat or address. I think this is an offshore scam. If it isn't they will refund the thousands who have paid for dead dying or no plants since Feb. No good ignoring all those people and hoping they will go away. No way to contact GE at all. What does that say? But I know they spend time looking at reviews rather than sorting out problems. GE if u r reading this have some morals and refund customers whose money you have stolen. You are terrible. Terrible. Can you sleep at night????
oh yes I think they can sleep at night. If they couldn't they wouldn't have been behaving like this for years, they have always been scammers, they just got the opportunity to do it ten fold with Covid. Pure exploitation
My ticket has been deleted again, without giving me a refund, I will open a new one and keep doing so until I get a refund. I ordered in April, when delivery times were stated on my invoice 3-5 days, several weeks later I asked for a refund, as I'd bought plants elsewhere then, they then tried to deliver them after ignoring all 12 of my messages insisting on a refund. I sent the plants back before they even reached me as I had contacted them weeks before to cancel and ask for a refund. Then sent more messages. Still being ignored, still no refund. I think what they are doing is focusing on trying to get their current orders better, so they get some good feedback, and can filter them and post the good ones on review sites (trustpilot). But in doing so they are ignoring the hundreds, maybe even thousands, of customers form the past 4 months who have still not had any contact or any refunds. They are just hoping eventually we will go away and they won't have to refund us - their hope is we give up and go away - I won't go away until I have my refund. GE, rather than concentrating on NEW business why not sort out your existing customers first? If more people posted reviews saying that they had been given refunds, then the potential new customers may feel more inclined to take a chance. Your attitude is full of short-termism. We don't want to know on your website that you are 'ready for a second wave' we care about you sorting out the chaos from the first wave, and the total exploitation of COVID that your company displayed during that time. Take off your blinkers, stop taking new orders and sort out the thousands of customers still very unhappy, once you have done THAT then maybe you can focus on getting new customers and your reviews will improve genuinely - you are your own worst enemy. I have started a charge back and gone to small claims. I have been asked for evidence and luckily I saved all the ticket info before they deleted them! I wonder if they are deleting tickets so people have no evidence to take to court? My advise would be to copy any comms now for when you need it, like me. To be fair, once I get a refund I will update my reviews saying that, but I must have wasted days and days of time on this over the past 6 months. It's like dealing with a company in a 1950s developing country where there are just no rules and everybody can get away with corruption and just doing what they like!
I see on Facebook that Bonnett's Gardening Village is planning to reopen in the next week. I think the only way I am ever going to get my money back is to go over there in person, which I WILL do. They give me no choice. I would like to meet Mr Bonnett face to face and tell him exactly what I think. I will also be charging for my time and petrol. I'd suggest others do the same, they leave us no choice as they refuse to communicate in any other way.
Well thank goodness I don't have to traipse all the way to Essex for a refund. I got my refund yesterday after 4 months of trying, plus interest. Horah!! Now I can let this horrible experience go. good luck to others in getting refund, maybe they are getting around to them now and things may improve in future..
I experienced the same treatment so I decided to do a chargeback via my credit card. It has taken them a few months to deal with my claim but I finally got my money back. Please submit a chargeback claim via your credit card and hopefully if enough people are given their money back this despicable company will start to feel it where it hurts and stop treating their customers with such contempt.
I’m a very downhearted time poor and cash strapped single Mum. Ordered the perfect gift from my mother in law’s birthday. The internet picture looked perfect. Gutted I didn’t check everyone’s shocking reviews first. £31 gone! The item did arrive to the wrong address which was just as well as I received it not my mother in law. The plant was totally ruined having been rolled around in a box 5x too big. It looked like it had been in a washing machine. V v sad, frustrated and angry. Needless to say no response to my complaint or emails.
Bought about 85 hedging plants which were reduces if bought in lots of twelve. After placing the order I saw that if I bought the same quantity in lots of 80 it would be half price. I had an online chat and they agreed to a refund the difference. The plants arrived today and they are excellent. I have absolutely no complaints.
Lemon cypress
I ordered 6 lemon cypress for my window boxes thinking they would look like the online picture.
Supposed to be tall and elegant but no, they were bedraggled and sad looking. Sadly this won’t let me post pictures. GE think they looked fine. Unbelievable. I won’t be buying again.Pair of Tuscan Cypress Trees
Ordered a pair of Tuscan Cypress trees. On unpacking one was damaged, in that the leader branch was broken. Immediately emailed Gardeningexpress with pictures, took a week for them to reply (after I chased them) to be told that there was no detrimental damage. Having stated that I was unhappy with this I was told to return them at my cost to get a refund, when all they had to do was send a replacement tree. Rest assured I will not use them again and would strongly advise against anyone else using them.
House leeks "bargain"
Delivery arrived with a few days delay. Package should have contained 10 plants in perfect condition. Two were missing completely and a further four were damaged or rotting.
I was able to salvage 4 of the 10 plants. I photographed the package as opened and forwarded the photo to the company . Recceipt acknowledged but since then silence.
This is possibly the worst online purchase I have ever made!.
Should have read all the negaive reviews before ordering!2palms 3grasses 3lithodora
Boxes on delivery very badly damaged plants bone dry palms in ok condition Grasses ok but 3 lithodora were beyond help pots damaged Gave them a good soaking but all 3 not worth putting in ground They answered promptly to complaint but nothing since Would never buy from them again Ever !!!
Acer orido Nishiki
I bought the Acer advertised at 1.5 to 1.8 meters high what I received was a rather poor plant just over one meter high and it looked nothing like the photographs in the advert and it looked nothing like the proper variety so it's probably wrong I'm still arguing with them about returning the plant they've now stopped replying to my emails this was my first order and I will never order again and I recommend everyone to just never buy from them
I had some issues & I rang head office number which is tel:01245 20442511 & spoke to a customer service manager
Heuchera and lavender
I ordered two plants. They arrived in a box that was so battered that the Hermes delivery lady commented on it. On opening the box, one plant was OK but the other was in a dreadful condition, three-quarters dead. I contacted Gardening Express and to my amazement they actually expect ME to pay the costs in returning it to them! I shan't waste my money with this company again. Very disappointing.
I had some serious issues & I rang head office number which is tel:01245 20442511 & spoke to a customer service manager You do have to keep ringing and they eventually answer it. They have blocked my review on trust pilot at present as they block any bad review. Hope the number helps
Lavender Plants
Ordered in confidence, but that soon changed when the product was received - it was nothing like the description and even worse when I tried to start the process of returning them. There is no telephone number and all email correspondence just quote the terms and conditions. I have escalated my complaint with an online resolution centre and hoping something comes of that. DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY - COMPLETE SHAMBLES.
I had some issues & I rang head office number which is tel:01245 20442511 & spoke to a customer service manager
Slow to dispatch, plants broken, complaint ignored
Slow to dispatch, took over a week. Recieved email saying they had been dispatched, checked tracking but courier said hadn't been recieved from Gardening Express. Stayed like this for a couple of days, so clearly weren't dispatched when they said they were. Plants arrived broken in several places. Complained and got no response. Terrible service. Would not use again. Would and recommend.
I had some issues & I rang head office number which is tel:01245 20442511 & spoke to a customer service manager
Pleased with my purchase
Overall pleased with my purchase, value Acer Orangeola tree arrived in 5 weeks. The plant was healthy and a good size. Will order again. It did take some time to arrive and I did get a little nervous, but all is quite good to be fair.
Do not buy from this company
I ordered a collection of ten different potted plants. There were three plastic detail cards one of which had fallen out of the pot so I couldn't work out where it belonged. Some of the pots looked like they just contained compost, again no identification. There was no other paperwork. I emailed them and their reply did not address my issue at all. After two e mails going round in circles I requested a paid returns label and a full refund. This was ignored completely. I've now got in touch with my bank. I paid by debit card and the bank agreed to take up the dispute on my behalf. Be warned, do not buy from these rip off merchants.
Avoid!
I have two fairy magnolias from them and they are rapidly dying from a fungal leaf spot disease and leaf blight. At all costs, AVOID .
Review with most votes
Avoid!
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