AOS Orchid Marketplace - My email to them
 

Hey everyone,

I recently had several issues with an order from a small vendor listed as "Elite" on the AOS Marketplace. I found this vendor's policies and incompetence so striking that I ended up sending an email to AOS to inquire regarding their policy to add vendors to the marketplace. Especially to label them as "Elite."

I'm leaving the email below with names redacted, and I will update this thread once I receive a response. In the meantime, your thoughts on AOS Marketplace vendors?

--- My email to AOS Member Services:

Hi Naya,

I hope you are doing well and that you are having a pleasant holiday season. My name is XXXXXX XXXXXXX and I'm an AOS member.*

I wanted to inquire about the supervision AOS might maintain over orchid vendors advertised on the orchid marketplace. Especially those distinguished as "elite" members.

I recently placed an order from XXXXXXXXXXXXXX, assuming that its listing on the AOS marketplace as an Elite vendor guaranteed some reliability. However, I became really concerned about the legitimacy of this vendor after receiving my order. I received poorly grown and sick orchids, poorly packed for shipping, and with clear signs of prior bush snail infestations (and some remaining ones).

When I asked the vendor some questions about their growing in order to identify the potential cause of the issues, the vendor wasn't clear and seemed confused about the basic principles of orchid shipping. They were also defensive about the bush snails since, in their own words, "in a year in business, nobody has ever complained about bugs."

It frankly sounded as if they were either amateurs or scammers.

This is concerning to me as I was led to this vendor by my trust and confidence in AOS having adequate quality standards in place to supervise and review vendors before listing them.

Could you let me know how this orchid marketplace actually works? Does the AOS verify and oversee applications to make sure businesses are legitimate and competent?

I thank you in advance for clarifying this and providing more information about how the AOS actually picks the businesses they feature on the marketplace.

Thank you!

Best,
XXXXXX

Give those orchids a good soak in coffee to get rid of the snails. Ugh.

No idea about the AOS marketplace but it is disappointing to hear about your experience with it. I tend not to buy orchids from anywhere that I cannot read reviews and that the reviews are mostly positive (there are always those who give negative reviews when they, themselves, kill the plants...or for stupid reasons).

Here in Ohio, there have been many sales when orchid collectors die or can no longer take care of their orchids. These are advertised through orchid societies and people go and pick out, in person, the orchids they want. I have not gone to any of these because I am trying to keep the collection small but many of those in our society have found great orchids this way. Maybe you could try something like that, instead. You get to see the orchids before buying them. I am sure that these types of sales are everywhere...what else do families do when their loved one has a fortune in orchids that needs to be unloaded? (some do tend to just donate them to orchid societies so they can be quickly rid of them....)

First Rays is also an AOS “Elite” vendor.

As far as I can tell, “Elite” means “paid the AOS an annual fee”, which permits the vendor to post “Dealwire” offers that the AOS emails to members. I honestly doubt there are other vendor qualifications.

I used to advertise regularly, offering a special AOS discount, and it was a financial bust - I honestly don’t recall anyone ever using the code. The Dealwire offers, however, have been quite lucrative.

I keep forgetting that stores in the marketplace offer 5% off, I think the only time I remembered to actually use a voucher was on your store last time I needed to stock up on Kelpak and Quantum.

Other suppliers I use frequently, like Kelley's Korner, don't seem to even be listed in the marketplace anymore.

The store I had the issue with had an offer on Orchidwire and that's how I found them. I regret it so much... I also noticed they keep running offer after offer... I'm honestly wondering if they import mature plants from abroad and "dress" them up in new media, then sell them at 5x the price they paid. The plants I received were in pristine media and the pots looked literally unused, yet the root systems were decimated across the board.

I let my AOS membership sunset a bit after they rolled out the marketplace feature; when it was first announced, I thought it had the potential to be useful & a value add on...when dropped though... :/
I'm curious to see what your response from the AOS will be...

I think the flaw in the logic is expecting the AOS to vet the vendors.

Don’t forget that they endorse the Grow More fertilizers, too, and there’s nothing special about them.

Folks subscribing to my newsletter get a better discount than do AOS members…

Given the rigidity and no b/s nature of the AOS when it comes to judging and what gets published in the bulletin, I think it'd be fair for most people to infer that there is some sort of vetting/oversight involved...

I think the criteria is basically good general reputation, an officially registered business, and a minimum BBB rating. If complaints started coming in afterwards, the offender could be removed, but they have to be careful about not allowing someone on the list that fits the basic criteria for their 501c3 and litigious issues. I think that with time it’ll get more refined and will be a better source, but as it stands, it is still a pretty solid list.

I have never had a plant judged, so cannot assess the seriousness of the organization based upon that, but I have had several articles published and didn’t see any particular rigidity (some, I have only learned about when I was sent a proof copy to approve), and I refuse to pay BBB, so I know that’s not a criterion.

Don’t get me wrong, I think they should vet the advertisers, but they are a really slim organization, so I’m doubtful…

If you ever want to see dysfunction, get yourself elected to the board of a national 501(c)3 hobbyist organization.