Orchid shipped with mites
 

This is my first experience with this vendor, who has had mixed reviews on this forum. Today I received the phal that I ordered and found mites on the undersides of the leaves and in the crown. What would you do if this happened to you? This actually happened to me a few years ago with a different vendor, and I lost the phal to the mites. I have sprayed this plant with Orange Guard, but I am disappointed.

I would be contacting them and if possible have a macro photo taken the day you got it to send to them. I hope you can eradicate the mites.

Maybe people should know who this vendor is so they can avoid them.

The vendor is Orchids.com.

Mites are bad. I would contact them immediately, though, and nicely let them know. The longer you wait, the less likely they will do anything. Plus, you are doing them a favor as if one orchid has mites, others will too.
Leafmite

You demand to have your money back. It is an infected plant and they have no bussiness selling them to you; it can also infect your other plants. You can write them about the situation and if they ignore you; you can report them to the bussiness bureau...the worst you can do is sue them at your local small claims court. They will be required to appear in court wherever they are in the land. That will teach them...

I would contact them immediately. I've bought many plants from them and I've always had a good experience. I'm assuming they would either replace the plant or give you your money back. Please let us know how they respond to your problem.

If you paid with a credit card, if you do not get satisfaction from the vendor, you can challenge the charge with the card issuer.

You won't have to pay for the purchase or interest until it is resolved, and you have shifted the onus to the vendor to make it right.

If they don't, the vendor will have the amount received AND a "chargeback fee", usually around $20, debited from their account, you will not pay for the plant, and get to keep it.

You should definitely contact them, vendors should not be sending infested plants! A good honest grower will willingly fix the situation, and perhaps they were unaware of the infestation (it can happen). If they don't fix it, well don't drop the issue then follow Ray's advice, there is no excuse for refusing a refund on something that is clearly their fault.

Orchids.com is also known as Norman's Orchids. They're located in Montclaire, CA.

Good to know.

Thanks for the replies. I'll let you know how it turns out.

I received a couple of orchids from them that had black mold on the bottom leaves. I did not contact them because of the cost of returning the orchids and the fee they charge for re-stocking the plants. I figured I could get rid of the mold easily enough and to be fair, I do have several orchids from them that are absolutely beautiful and perfectly healthy. I love the wide selection they offer, but I am not sold on their quality or customer service...and why do they want you to wait a month to repot?:(

Haven't been here for awhile, but thought I'd check out feedback on some vendors. I stopped buying from Orchids.com about a year ago after receiving poor quality plants over a 2 year period: phals with broken roots (obviously carelessly shoved into a floppy pot), scale, and, yes, one with mites. Could have just been the wholesaler but QC was a problem! Their website photos were always wonderful; too bad the plants weren't.

argh I sorry to hear anyone but me got bad plants.. they usually save them for me bec they know Im tired of complaining.

I feel bad for the norman in orchids bec he usually does have great looking healthy plants. Its hard to understand this but one who looks at orchids all day might miss some mites. We dont bec when we buy we uber micro inspect the plants. I do see letting them know your plant(s) were not as healthy as they should have been is giving them the heads up there could be a problem. So by all means do contact them ASAP. Be patient. :)