Claessen Orchideen, NL -- worst experience I've had

[meridiannight]

I placed an order with a Dutch nursery called Claessen Orchideen. Had a very difficult experience with them.

First off, they couldn't process and send out my order within 2 weeks' maximum, like is stated in their policy. It was in the middle of August, they had a summer holiday or something, and they just couldn't process the number of orders coming in. They lied about and evaded my wishes to get my order posted sooner (their explanation on why it was even further delayed, was simply that I had not answered their question as to whether they should send plants out ASAP or wait till next Monday. So, we exchange several emails, and the one with my answer mysteriously gets lost, was in essence their explanation). I placed my order on August 7, it was eventually sent out on September 4 (they were supposed to send it on the week starting with Aug 12).

Then, when I expressed my wish to cancel the order, they ignored that as well. They claimed the package had already left their nursery. It was Saturday. I got the tracking link from the carrier next Tuesday, Sep 3, saying ''shipment expected but not received yet''. So, at the time I requested cancellation they lied about having already sent out my plants.

I replied that I intended to return everything when I received that package so again they might as well not send it out, and I threatened legal action. That was when they finally agreed to cancel my order. I was told I will get a refund within 14 days. And it took them the whole of 14 days and some 10 hours to finally refund my money, 220 euros by 23.34 at night.

----
In sum, TLDR, they easily lie and offer excuses why packages aren't sent out in time, and on other problems concerning the order. Correspondence with them is not transparent.
----

Their customer service is a complete joke when things turn bad and there's some kind of a problem. When you want to order plants, and have questions about their plants then they will be very nice and helpful to you. But when things don't go well, they will be extremely difficult to deal with. I heard all kinds of traditional excuses of how their employees were sick, and how another employee had left work for a while as to why issues with sending out my package or refund were not completed. These types of excuses are so naive, that not even kids will buy them.


As for the plants, if you ever order from this company, I advise against ordering their Vandas. All their other plants appear to be fine (I had ordered prior to this last awful exchange with them), but their Vandas have very bad root systems and are not the healthiest you can find. If asked, they will tell you how those Vandas came from Asia, and how the Asians cut off the roots for the transit, and also that new roots will grow on the plants. Like that explains the bad condition of the Vandas coming out of their nursery. One of the Vandas I ordered from them arrived with 70% of its root mass rotting! Stay away from their Vandas at least!

And one other huge minus with them is that they refuse to use faster couriers. They use regular postal service, postNL, and flat out refuse to send plants by DPD, or DHL or the like. They answered that postNL is their partner, and they cannot use any other carrier service. Huge problem. I had my plants sit at postNL facility for whole 7 days before anybody sent them out.