My experience with Santa Barbara Orchid Estate

[ericst11]

well if you buy a 100 dollar plant you better beable to grow it or you should not be buting it.

[Brotherly Monkey]

Originally Posted by ericst11

well if you buy a 100 dollar plant you better beable to grow it or you should not be buting it.

Well this assumes that people always act in a rational manner and would not try to blame a vendor for their own mistakes. Both things I think we can agree do not always pan out in the real world

[marydaniellesantos]

I agree, but I would think that a person buying a $100 dollar plant would be ready to take the resposiblitly to care for the plant correctly. But as Brotherly Monkey has mentioned, that doesn't really happen in the real world...

[ericst11]

Ok i see what you guys are saying she doesn't know me from the average joe . Then don't tell me you have thousands of them for sale and just tell me what you have for sale . Yes there are some people out there that buy 100 dollar plants and they look great and get them home and in a month they point the finger. I know this but then on your web site you should not post them and not label them as easy to grow for the normal grower. I grow alot of hard to flower species and you take your chances any time you buy a plant if it 20 dollars or 200. know what your getting and do some reseach about that person or the company like i did. But like you said its the real world and just because someone says they had nothing but great order with them doesn't mean the next guy will.

[cmu]

some people just have a bit of a superior attitude as well. laelia anceps can be grown mounted, in any bright windowsill even here in the northeast u.s.

people can be funny about things as well.
I was at a vendor's greenhouse in the mid-atlantic region many years ago and I was trying to buy a nice phal lindenii to add to my collection as it was one of my favorite species. one of the owners got very chilly the way southerners can, while under the guise of being nice and polite and told me that none were available and future correspondences were ignored. I guessed later while talking about it with a fellow orchid grower that it was possible she felt I would grow a bunch of them and sell them and undercut her business, and she had admitted that she supplied a few places with them.
some people feel that because they are involved with orchids and that they may have 'special' ones, that this makes the person involved 'special' as well. well, they may be special but not in the way that they imagine! lol i'm sure the owner there at sboe felt that their laelias were so close to perfection that they shouldn't be subject to such indignities as having to grow in heated conditions with glass between them and the sky!
there are such people in the world who breed dogs, cats, horses and such who feel that their products are so superior that not everyone is entitled to own them, no matter how much money they have. I would just try to make orders through the internet where you don't have to talk with someone, maybe have someone else place the order, and if there are any questions via email just have them say they are expert greenhouse grower

[ericst11]

Thats just how some people are ,But i have found a ton of very helpful folk that are more then willing to help.

[NeoNJ]

Yes, they really got a "Hoity-Toity" attitude out there in Santa Barbara! And it comes thru in their Emails as well ! I can't believe they do any business with their lousy attitude and rotten Customer Service! Their plants are all over-priced for what they are offering, and they make it sound like they are doing YOU a favor by selling it to you! Their prices start at $50.00 for NBS plants. FORGET IT !

[Cattleya17]

Hey that lady is still there! when i first started dealing with them the same woman answered the phone. i was trying to order a Den loddigesii and she said : You know they wont grow well in the home right?'' i said no. She said well they dont. i said well i will be growing it outside in the summer and she still insisted that i look at another plant. our conversation ended. Most recently they told me if you buy this cymbidium its gonna be 50/50 it will die. that made me sad.

I really got upset. and was thinking how can you tell me i cant grow this and essentially that i cannot have it? I still ran into this same woman when i bought my laelia Pacavia from them. i tried to ask her for a two spike plant and she told me well it going to be expensive and that she didnt know if they had one. you may not want to spend that much (It ended up costing 84 Dollars after shipping) So again our conversation ended. I called back ans said this is what i want. So since then ive been dealing with her. after a while she warms up and she knows my voice when i call. i cant remember her name tho! She sent me a free t shirt with my order tho!

It is very big of someone to apologize!!!! people really dont know how to do that anymore!

She can be very condescending but you just have to very clear with what you want when you call and don't give her any wiggle room. You have to be polite and then start with I Want this do you have it. and then it should be fine! Agreed you should not have to jump through ropes to get good service with them And on some things they are overpriced! example 84 dollars. The plant was gorgeous tho and worth every penny! you spend and you get quality from them but the service is lacking and is really off putting!!

Also when they list things as sold out you really have to call and ask if it is! when i found SBOE about 3 years ago there was a plant listed as sold out and it is still listed as sold out! also i really hope that they start an online store! They try to deal with every customer personally which is nice but the woman they put up to do it is insufferable!

[fotofashion]

Several months ago I called SBOE and placed an order. I got no hassle, the person (a woman) was very pleasant. When I inquired about a certain orchid which the website said "inquire about price", knowing it would be very expensive, she merely told me the price and commiserated with me when I said "wshew!"
The plants were of a good size and reasonably priced.

My only complaint is that they did not email me an invoice as she said they would, so the final cost of the order was a surprise. They also did not bill my debit card for almost a month after I had received the plants! A surprise!
Beverly A.

[Lana]

I bought from SBOE in person, and I think I met that same woman everyone is talking about. She does come off as a little condescending, but I have to say, when you see a person's face when you talk to them, things don't sound as bad. Well, from our conversation I remember that she is a daughter of the original owner of SBOE, so she's there to stay Also, the other, younger lady, forgot to print a tag for one of the purchased orchids, so I had to call them the next day. I spoke to the nicest gentlemen, who was extremely helpful, sent me the tag and a hand-written note saying he apologized for the inconvenience and thanking me for my purchase. Overall, I'm pretty happy with them and will probably buy again next time I'm in SB. Especially because this way I'll just go to their growing area and pick what I want myself!