Dealing with a vendor about items damaged from cold

[SJF]

Hi everyone,
I wasn't sure where to post this. I ordered orchids from an online vendor. The held the order until conditions warmed up. Unfortunately, they didn't wait long enough and the temperatures were below freezing, took post office and extra day to deliver then when it tracked to, and was delivered during the big blizzard a few weeks ago. The one heat pack in the box was cold when it arrived. The plants were icy, cold and had mushy roots on the outside of the pots. I e-mailed them right away and took lots of pictures. They told me to let them warm up and send the pictures (this was a Friday). I sent the pictures to them first thing Monday morning. Some of the japonica and phal had crown rot starting and others were just yellow leaved and soggy. The jewel orchid got bright red leaves and only has two leaves left. The two dend. started turning yellow leaved about 4-5 days after arriving. The only plant not suffering is an angr. didieri. Some of the plants are dead, others almost there. They asked me to baby them and get back to them in a couple of weeks. I did that today and included the pictures of the two dend. They said they don't look too bad and should be okay, but if I wanted them replaced to ship them back. I am willing to try to help them stay alive. Here is what I don't understand: I e-mailed them within the hour of receiving the plants, sent pictures of the damage, they made the error sending them out before it warmed up, the shipment was delayed by PO. They want me to send all the dead plants back to be able to get them re-placed. At one point the one owner said he would replace one plant (only mentioned one) when I placed another order...just remind him. I am keeping the dend. and trying to keep them alive, the ang. is okay. The rest are a mess or dead. Why would the vendor want me to spend the money to ship dead plants back? Is this normal practice?

[NYCorchidman]

Through reading others posts, it seems like it is fairly common practice that vendors ask dead (or otherwise diseased plants) back to them. Why? who knows? lol

If plants came in poor conditions (with exception of damaged spikes, buds, or flowers, as almost all have policy saying they won't be responsible for those and make sense), they should replace or refund all of them.
If they say plants look good to them, that is not a good sign. That is for customers to decide and from your description, your plants were sent in poor condition or damaged while being transported in cold weather. either way, they have to pay you back or replace with good plants.

I would like to know the vendor name for future reference.

By the way, I have never bought plants with heat pack so I don't know how effective they can be, but buying plants especially cold sensitive ones like phals in winter time is never a good idea.

The fact that tender plants are sold (even with heat pack) in winter time shows to me that seller probably put money waaaaay above the plants or customers.
Some nurseries will have notice saying they will not ship during certain times of the year or only ship to warmer states in the winter time. These are the people to deal with.

[SJF]

Originally Posted by NYCorchidman

Through reading others posts, it seems like it is fairly common practice that vendors ask dead (or otherwise diseased plants) back to them. Why? who knows? lol

If plants came in poor conditions (with exception of damaged spikes, buds, or flowers, as almost all have policy saying they won't be responsible for those and make sense), they should replace or refund all of them.
If they say plants look good to them, that is not a good sign. That is for customers to decide and from your description, your plants were sent in poor condition or damaged while being transported in cold weather. either way, they have to pay you back or replace with good plants.

I would like to know the vendor name for future reference.

Yes, it was all leaves and plant damage. There weren't blooms or buds. I certainly learned a lesson and will never order from them again. They were shipping from WI to NJ.

I sent this e-mail a couple of hours ago:

Hi *****,
Okay,
I will send everything except the 2 dendro and angr. back. I really don't understand why you would want dead plants back, why I need to spend money to ship dead plants that were damaged due to shipping in the cold and spending an extra day traveling in a blizzard,especially since I e-mailed you right away and sent pictures right away, but okay.

I am having major surgery on Friday. I doubt that I will have time to send them out prior to that. I have pre-op testing and filling out admissions paperwork tomorrow, need to food shop and cook Wednesday and Thursday for my husband and children. The soonest I will be able to ship it out is the end of next week, but more than likely it will be the following week that I can pack it up and have someone ship it for me. I won't be able to drive for two weeks.

I will let you know what they say. If they don't choose to handle it better I will post the name or send it to you privately. I am very disappointed.

[NYCorchidman]

I have no clue either. Maybe they want to be sure customer aren't telling a lie, but then if they get pictures right away, sending them back is only a waste of everything!

Wisconsin...hmmmm....orchidweb, is it??

Any vendor who does not responde in an accomodating, understanding, and polite manner in whatever the issue is, usually not so good one to deal with I've learned.

I wish you good luck though.
and hope your surgery goes well on friday.

[cbuchman]

I would think that any vendor would want to make the order right. At this point, I think you've done all the right things and there is nothing more to do, but send the plants back. Most importantly, spend your energies getting better! Good luck!

[AnonYMouse]

I'm probably in the minority but I see no problem with vendors wanting dead plants back.

If you buy a small appliance that doesn't power up or a shirt with uneven sleeves, you send them back, so why not a plant?

Some vendors (particularly in Hawaii where official paperwork is required) don't want the hassle of returned plants. But others might need "proof of loss" for their bookkeeping. (No, your picture is not enough).

And on a purely cynical perspective, look up how many people rescue plants just on this board. That counts as lost sales.

Just my

[minneSNOWta]

NYCorchidman - Orchids Ltd./OrchidWeb is in MN.

The only WI vendor I can think of is Oak Hill/Orchids Garden Center/Orchids by the Ackers.

[SJF]

Originally Posted by cbuchman

I would think that any vendor would want to make the order right. At this point, I think you've done all the right things and there is nothing more to do, but send the plants back. Most importantly, spend your energies getting better! Good luck!

Hi Carrie,
Thank you.

I agree. I am just really disappointed. I spend over twenty dollars in shipping it to me and was willing to have the order held until the weather was warmer. Now I have to pack up dead plants, take them to the post office and spend money to ship them back. I told them I didn't want a refund. I just want healthy plants

---------- Post added at 08:02 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:59 PM ----------

Originally Posted by AnonYMouse

I'm probably in the minority but I see no problem with vendors wanting dead plants back.

If you buy a small appliance that doesn't power up or a shirt with uneven sleeves, you send them back, so why not a plant?

Some vendors (particularly in Hawaii where official paperwork is required) don't want the hassle of returned plants. But others might need "proof of loss" for their bookkeeping. (No, your picture is not enough).

And on a purely cynical perspective, look up how many people rescue plants just on this board. That counts as lost sales.

Just my

This is one of those agree to disagree situations. I understand what you are saying, but the order shouldn't have been sent yet. I contacted them immediately, took pictures and sent them. The pictures were self explanatory. I was even willing to "baby" them. I didn't buy plants off the half dead rack, so I expect healthy plants.

Thanks for reading and responding

---------- Post added at 08:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:02 PM ----------

I think what makes me the most sad about this situation is that they seem to take pride in their plants. The orchids were all in good bark. The bark wasn't broken down and I think the japonica was in Orchiata. The initial response I got from the one owner was basically I am sorry and we will replace anything that was damaged. The second owner e-mailed me and his customer service was completely different. He is the one that offered a free plant with my next order. I can't understand how he thought that was fair. His treatment will lose customers. In my opinion, she should deal with customers and him...well not so much. I could understand his attitude if I wanted a refund and didn't contact them right away or send pictures

[AnonYMouse]

I think you are expecting too much from a small business. Since you haven't named the vendor, I'm going to generalize, but many growers do this as a side business. Unless a grower sells NoIDs to big box stores, they aren't making much money.

Originally Posted by SJF

...was willing to have the order held until the weather was warmer...the order shouldn't have been sent yet.

Did you give them a specific date to ship? Perhaps they shipped on a nice day in WI. Could you have reserved the plant to be shipped in May?

Originally Posted by SJF

The initial response I got from the one owner was basically I am sorry and we will replace anything that was damaged.

Why didn't you take this offer?

And maybe the vendor has a rep for bad service for a good reason. I'm playing devil's advocate and saying, step back to see what could have be going on, what could be better done next time.

[SJF]

Originally Posted by AnonYMouse

I think you are expecting too much from a small business. Since you haven't named the vendor, I'm going to generalize, but many growers do this as a side business. Unless a grower sells NoIDs to big box stores, they aren't making much money.

Did you give them a specific date to ship? Perhaps they shipped on a nice day in WI. Could you have reserved the plant to be shipped in May?

Why didn't you take this offer?

And maybe the vendor has a rep for bad service for a good reason. I'm playing devil's advocate and saying, step back to see what could have be going on, what could be better done next time.

I was going to take that offer and the other owner then e-mailed me and said to "baby" them and if they don't make it he would "throw in a free plant with my next order". That is why I said one is better with customer service