SVO List

[MateoinLosAngeles]

Originally Posted by My Green Pets

Clawhammer you are saying that they are doing manual inventory updates? So when an item disappears from the list, it's because it has been manually removed? Wow...I thought for sure it was automated.

I am pretty sure they do it manually, in the past, I have ordered plants that were not from the "hot drop," just some random cattleya, etc., to find upon arrival that they were out of stock. They replace it with something else (usually more expensive) and add an extra plant.

So yeah, that indicates to me that the website inventory isn't automated. I don't even think it's linked to their e-commerce platform, so even if they have, say, 30 of a plant and 48 people order it, it won't be taken down from the website until someone does it manually.

The irony of it all is that they probably pay someone to do the website, but they have such a basic one that they could probably create/hire someone to create something on Squarespace or Shopify that they could easily update since those already have integrated inventory systems.

[Jmoney]

I think I have a catasetinae problem. 12 "seedlings" from this year. at least I think they will be happy in the 4" pots for a year or two.

I carefully took a plant from the first release out of the pot - there was some root growth into the sphagnum that I added when I up-potted.

[katsucats]

Originally Posted by MateoinLosAngeles

So yeah, that indicates to me that the website inventory isn't automated. I don't even think it's linked to their e-commerce platform, so even if they have, say, 30 of a plant and 48 people order it, it won't be taken down from the website until someone does it manually.

There was one time when I tried to buy several flasks from SVO and Fred (or was it Jose?) insisted that they were out of stock even though the flask list showed half a dozen in stock. So I kept pushing back to get clarification. I'm not sure if they're really that busy or don't want to divulge some things, but they never gave me clear answers. Finally, they relented and sent me an internal spreadsheet of their stock numbers, which still didn't reflect everything they said were out of stock.

Suffice to say, it's clear that it's all manual, and I'm guessing every time Fred ships an order, they decrement the daily internal inventory list (spreadsheet). But they ship all the orders for the week on the same day, so the inventory is off later in the week... or something like that. They should really be keeping an inventory for when they pull the items instead.

I tried to order a Laelia anceps 'Marble Queen' division once, and the request was ignored until I sent a second email, which was delegated to Jose who insisted they had no such thing in stock, despite it still being on their divisions list even to this day. But between then and now I had a chat with Tim Culbertson (twculbertson on ebay) about some divisions he had, and it turned out that Tim was able to get some stuff for me that would've been difficult for me to order directly from other vendors (e.g. Afri Orchids from South Africa). And so I got my 'Marble Queen' from Tim too. Being that they're both in Oceanside, it's possible that Tim got that one from SVO I probably wouldn't bother Tim for normal offerings, but if I want a specific cultivar or something rare, it seems more fruitful to contact him through ebay than to ask SVO directly.

---------- Post added at 02:00 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:53 PM ----------

Originally Posted by MateoinLosAngeles

The irony of it all is that they probably pay someone to do the website, but they have such a basic one that they could probably create/hire someone to create something on Squarespace or Shopify that they could easily update since those already have integrated inventory systems.

Since I'm unemployed at the moment, I wouldn't mind making one of these for free, but I guess there would probably be liability issues for taking freelance work. I tried to give Andy's an updated logo once, since back when his new site first went up all the logos were really fuzzy, but I didn't hear anything back and a couple days later their team updated the logos similarly.

[marie458]

This weekend I've been rearranging my outdoor grow space to accommodate more plants from SVO. I honestly didn't realize just how much my catesetum alliance collection has grown! To make matters even more challenging, I broke down and ordered a couple more goodies from SVO's 2nd listing:

SVO 9947
Ctsm. pileatum v. imperiale (Ctsm. pileatum v. imperiale 'Pierre Couret' HCC/AOS x self)

SVO 10649
Cl. rosea (Cl. rosea 'Collected' x Cl. rosea 'Line Bred')

I sure hope Ctsm. pileatum v. imperiale will give me that rare red color form. Also, I've wanted Cl. rosea for a while now. So, I'm very excited to see her beautiful blooms!

[Jinh]

Originally Posted by Clawhammer

Fred Clarke is the best and I love SVO, but its time for them to invest in some sales / inventory management software and link it to the webpage. It would save them time, cost, and customer frustration. There will always be certain plants in each release that everyone wants to order.

Yes!!

Someone on here mentioned that the Ivaneae Purple Fantasys were back in stock. I had ordered from the second drop and decided to send Fred an email asking if I could add one to my order before it shipped because my first order of catasetums got lost for a few days during 108 degree temps. All of my first order had wilted and yellowed leaves, but the smallest one, which was the Ivaneae Purple Fantasy hybrid (the one I most cared about of the whole order) the growth ended up drying up and falling off. I was worried the tiny pseudobulb might not make it.

Fred said he would just put one in my order! The next morning I woke up to an email saying he didn’t have an order for me. I responded back with my order number and then I immediately got an email from FedEx that I had a package from SVO coming. So, anyway I guess my order got shipped before he could add the Ivaneae Purple Fantasy.

I mentioned it to Fred, and he just said “Sorry, we must have just lost track of the order. We get so many.”
So, I wasn’t very happy about having to pay for shipping a third time (and this time for just one plant), but I really wanted to ensure I got a good healthy one that would make it. But when I went to order, they were already out of stock again. Really kind of got my hopes up. So now I just have my tiny little pseudobulb that will hopefully put out a growth next spring.

Anyway, long story short, it just seems like an inventory system and database for orders is pretty basic stuff for a business this day and age.

[katsucats]

Uh oh! Guess there's a first for everything.

[Grim Tuesday]

Saw this note in an email Fred sent out today:

As always, our team does our best to fulfill your exact plant request; however, when demand exceeds our available stock, we substitute an alternative plant with a similar genetic background and add a free “gift” plant to help make up for any inconvenience.



If this is not a desirable option for you, please type “No Substitutes” in the note section on your order at checkout. We will process your order based on when it was received, but with a slight delay in shipping. This will give us time to evaluate our inventory and email you with a list of sold-out items from your order. At that point, you’ll be able to indicate how you’d like us to proceed in completing your order.

Kudos for them responding to the feedback. I will order with confidence in the future.

[My Green Pets]

Time for a follow-up to my order!

I used the photos of the parents from SVO's page on the left, and show the resulting blooms on the right.
I was hoping for really dark spots and bold colors, so very disappointed by these dull colors and unremarkable spots. The lip is ok.

SVO10629 - 3inch Cyc. NEW HYBRID (Cyc. Alexis Jesus Pardo 'SVO' x Cyc. Dark Swan 'Black Swan')





And here's a photo of the cooperi with one green parent. In spite of its parentage, my plant is a boring brown.

SVO10068 - 3inch Cyc. cooperi (Cyc. cooperi 'Green' HCC/AOS x Cyc. cooperi 'Mem. Pat Worthington' AM/AOS)



Overall, feeling disappointed with both of these.

[katsucats]

I assumed the green was a recessive "alba" characteristic (I don't know if that's correct).

On another note, there was an SVO open house today. All the remaining Ctsm for $18 plus a 20% discount, so $14.40, regardless of the grex. So I bought some of the Darkonium hybrids that I missed on before. Considering these were if I recall $30 before, that's an over 50% discount. Needless to say I spent a lot.

[Leafmite]

Wow! Good luck with all of the new orchids!

I was hoping mine would be a little more fragrant. The flowers of the Cyc. cooperii were okay. The Cyc. pentadactylon's flowers were disappointing and not as fragrant as I had hoped (I had one before and it was very fragrant). Hopefully, it will be more fragrant next year.