I would think that this is the work of a temporary employee hired during the busy season. I can't imagine a nursery owner treating a customer like this - well, actually I can, but that person, in California, no longer runs the nursery.

Hackers? At specialty nurseries?

Is this the end of online ordering? Do we now have to be sending checks, and hoping ours gets there first for that rare variety which is offered about once a decade?

Maybe you might want to contact the nursery owner directly? Tell them your concerns and fears, and mention that you have posted online but have so far not named names.

I make a point of asking for the full name of anyone who answers a phone if I have to contact a company. I find that that alone will often put an employee on best behavior.

After asking them if this was a joke, their email response was:
>I'm not laughing if it is.

This is Blooming Woods Nursery in Alachua Florida.
I also have called many times but only get an answering machine or busy signal. I left a message, no return call. I have also emailed them via another email address on their website, but didn't get a response. At this point I don't want my money back or a replacement rose. I don't want them to have my info. I will just spend my money at another nursery!

So strange how something as financially fragile as a nursery can treat a customer this way.

I can't believe they think they will get return business with that kind of service. Or any new business, by word of mouth, which is very important. And I can't believe that they don't know that people pass this kind of info along to all of their friends on these forums. Sadly, this is a company that is surely on its way out of business!

Companies do seem to pay attention to negative ratings on Dave's Garden forum.

It is sad it would have to come to that.

thanks nastarana... I am trying to find where in Dave's Garden to leave nursery reviews. Do you know where?

That's really shocking! I am hoping it's just an idiot temporary worker...

You may prevent some from doing business with them, but it probably won't put that large a dent in their orders. "We", those who frequent online forums, aren't that large a percentage of those who buy things on line. Kim

well blow me - i suggest you spend some time thinking up a specially acidic and withering reply.

Ironic that Blooming Woods shows both Blush Noisette and Mrs. Wood's photos on their Blush Noisette catalog page. I seriously wonder if they know what they have. Kim

Here is a link that might be useful: Blush Noisette catalog page

On the main page of their website, they have a picture of Natchithoches noisette labeled as Blush Noisette, so they must have their inventory labeled wrong. I bought mine from a Florida nursery also mislabeled, but they corrected it as soon as they realized it. They had purchased the inventory of another nursery which had all of them mislabeled and not being familiar with the rose, they didn't realize it for awhile.

Hackers? At specialty nurseries?

Actually small company web sites are much more vulnerable, since they can't afford the best of the best of site security, which isn't cheap. Hacking is epidemic, so be careful where you click and make your passwords as long as possible, at minimum 13 characters, and of gibberish letters with numbers, capitals, and special characters mixed in, because those are the hardest to hack. Never use a recreational password for financial sites, and so on. Hacking is going to get worse and worse, beware.

Something must be going on there, either the place is going belly up, or the owner is not aware of what is going on. It could well be hacked. Kind of odd they call the rose 'Julia Child' as 'Julia Childs'. Teen-aged kid doing the website?

Did you pay through paypal? Can you complain to them?

If the rose was purchased last year, it's been too long to complain. I believe you have about ninety days for them to get involved. A friend purchased antique glass from Britain and it arrived extremely poorly packed and shattered. The seller continued stating they wanted to "work with him" until the time ran out to complain to Paypal. He tried Paypal and they told him it was too long since the purchase. If it was bought through Ebay, you may have a chance. He did and sent a complaint through Ebay, which tied up the seller's account, locked it fully, until they satisfied him.

You could also take a look at Yelp and Angie's List, too. More and more people are using both sites. A ding there could really cost them. Kim

Very wise advice and info, Hoovb, and Kim. :)

hoovb i payed through paypal but i fear the transaction is too old (almost a year). I am going to let it be. i wrote them back letting them know i don't want a replacement or refund at this point, that i have informed others of their lack of respect for a paying customer. I am guessing they won't respond.
makes me wonder how many natchitoches noisettes they have incorrectly sent out. maybe others have called them out on the mistake and thats why they have a chip on their shoulder.

The funny thing about this is that before they asked "So what do you want, your money back?" i was going to just ask them to send a blush noisette for free along with a red cascade mini that i would pay for. that way it would be win/win. But unfortunately the conversation went south and they lost out on a future customer and an additional sale of red cascade.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. Today is a bad day for polite responses, I am afraid.
I asked a question about some product (not rose related)through e-mail few days ago and just got a response from a seller. Instead of answering my question the answer was "Did u read or do not the descriptions?". I quote it as is, no corrections): And, by the way, information I was asking about was not in desription. I decided not to order....
Olga

I guess I'm showing my age...but the "texting shorthand" responses to properly constructed sentences irritate the devil out of me. I don't text, period. I do write and I do email and telephone. The irony of such an illiterate appearing response to a literate, legitimate question demonstrates that not only does the seller NOT read, they appear incapable of it.

A few years ago, commercials and sitcoms showing bad customer service, even just bad behavior period, seemed comical. Today, the bad service and bad behavior appear to becoming the norm with good service and polite behavior the exception. Some of these sellers and other businesses seem to feel sales are their right, and not something they have to EARN. Kim

That sounds like a hacker to me, or a temp disgruntled worker.
Looking at their website, it's pretty poorly quality, leading me to believe they aren't doing well financially.
Personally, a website's overall look and quality is the deal breaker for me. If it looks cheap, they don't get my business. If I can't easily find a link to customer service and or a guarantee/warrantee info on their products, I go elsewhere.

The fact that you haven't been able to get in touch since, sounds sketchy to me. Sounds like you'll have to cut your losses and look elsewhere. Their loss.

I like Heirloomroses.com :)

Several years ago my Mother-in-law mentioned a love for red roses. Come Mothers Day I placed an order with Spring Hill. When it arrived it was an orange rose. I wrote an e-mail to the company, they apologized immediately, and gave me a refund. I didn't even expect them to refund me, thought maybe they would give me money off of a future order or something. I will say, because they did this it was always a company I looked to to order flowers from.

Hackers? A digruntled employee? I don't understand why so many here are so willing to give a pass to the management of the outfit in question. This reminds me of the rude emails I once received from that John person who manages (or used to manage) Hortico.

In addition to emails (which garnered no response) Northtexasdude called and left messages. A responsible owner/manager would have responded in some fashion. Hackers indeed . . . Give me a break.

I would try to reach management by phone and tell them exactly what happened. If you cannot reach them, I would not bother with any further contact - Natchitoches Noisette is a beautiful rose and at least you actually GOT a rose. Next, would leave extremely negative response on Dave's Garden and wherever else accepts posts of that nature. Third, I would order the Blush Noisette from Antique Rose Emporium. You will get a gorgeous, huge, healthy CORRECT specimen of what you wanted and you will be delighted.

I just received two roses that I ordered from a company and paid for TWO years ago. I have no idea why they were not sent. I was told several times they would be sent - then I had some knee surgery and put that on the back burner. This year in January, I decided that I would be the squeaky wheel that gets the grease [or the roses]. I started early contacting the owner - he was nice as could be, even called and we had a nice conversation, and I kept all the emails. No roses were forthcoming. Finally, I just kept at it and wrote a direct email - WHEN are my roses going to be shipped? They would tell me - next Monday, yada yada, but finally I received a huge package with 2 full size potted roses that are very healthy and growing well. I am glad to finally get my roses [the original 2 were no longer in stock so I had to pick something else - which was fine - I just wanted 2 roses that I had paid for!!] It took me 3 months just this year to get them sent, after numerous emails and a couple of phone calls. I am not going to name the company because I dont think its a major mail order nursery - it is located in a large city and I think the owner is mostly into selling out of his nursery and caring for others' gardens - sends a nice newsletter from time to time, but I am most certainly done ordering from this company. Took too much effort to get what other companies are most happy to send correctly. I suppose he is doing so well and is so busy he has no time to attend to his mail order customers so that is the last he will hear from me! Guess this happens from time to time, but I have never had problems with a mail order company before. Live and learn.....too many good established companies to order from - I plan to stay on the beaten path from now on.

Good luck to you! Both Blush and Natchitoches Noisette are excellent roses for Texas - I have both and enjoy them very much.
Judith

OWELL -- Some years back, I ordered roses from a well-known vendor, and never received them. They were just never "ready to ship." This went on for 3 years, then, they just dropped it.
Later, I was asked why I never recommended this nursery. I explained. The vendor contacted me, but instead of apologizing, he asked: 'Did you pay for them?"

Yes. I had.
No. Never got 'em.
Nursery's out of business, now.
:-(

Stuff happens.

Jeri

Stuff happens, yes, but in Sweden there is the National Board for Consumer Disputes to help consumers get their rights. Is there anything similar in the US?

The Better Business Bureau does keep count of complaints and disputes reported to them. You can report your problem to them and you can also ask about a company before you do business with them. The best source is forums like this, tho, where you can get plenty of feedback and recommendations. Everyone screws up once in a while, so you really want to talk with people who have a wide range of experience. Rogue Valley just spaced my order. I called them and, while, they were very nice and polite, they also seemed a bit on the stoned or otherwise ditzy side. But they went out of their way to ship it immediately. Their roses are good and this is the first time I've had a problem. It was handled professionally and courteously. They still have my business.

I just looked up Blooming Woods in whitepages.com (since my phone book doesn't reach all the way down there :) ) and there was no such thing but it did show a nursery called Blooming House Nursery in Newberry, FL

Here is a link that might be useful: White Pages listing

You'll notice they don't have an easy option for "Contact Us" on their website.

Pretty much means that they don't want you to contact them. I gave up after 15 minutes of trying to find their phone number on their website. What kind of business doesn't plaster their information all over each webpage? Oh yes---the kind that lets illiterate, rude people handle all of their email correspondence.

I am glad that we now know who this nursery is, so that we may choose to without our $$$ rewards from them.

And for their final email. sounds like they are either commercial only now or about to go belly up:

>>>Post this on Dave's garden as well. I am about sick of that joke of a website as well. It is because of them and people like you that we do not sell to the general public anymore regardless of the number of phone calls and people arriving at our front gate begging to get in and buy our plants.

Wow. You know, some people are just jerks, and that's the long and short of it. I'm sorry you had such a crummy experience. Gardeners are usually nicer folks. :(

So I guess your phantom emailer will be spending all that hard-earned money from their ghost customers for psychological counseling. How bizarre.

He/she certainly won't be spending proceeds on a new front gate that has been knocked down by eager customers.

*speechless*

wow....

Incredible!

A slightly different view.

They asked if you wanted your money back, you should have said yes and let it be.
You would have had a free rose and your money also.

As far as Paypal (and Ebay which is owned by the same company.)
Stay as far away from them as humanyly possible.
I had my account hacked during a ebay purchase. I spent most of a month going between Paypal saying call ebay and ebay saying call paypal.
I would not know my account had been hacked (excpet for the bank infor they wanted is what got me trying to speak to someone) as the hacker web page was IDENTICAL to the real one.
It was going through pages trying to find a phone contact that I saw the pbone number was not an 800 number but a sitraight area code so I would have had to pay for the call.

Afte this I called Ebay and using rather strong language said give me a number at Paypal where I can speak to someone who does not give me a lying bs sound byte or else.

If finally spoke to a higher up at Paypal and their attitude was "It is your problem, use a different c card"

I had spoken to the person I was buying a very expensive camera from; telling him why the money was not coming till paypal cleared somthing up.
After told him why I could not pay via Paypal, and he then went on to give me his even more horrible experience with Paypal and said he would take a money order no problem.

RpR I never had a problem with Paypal... Someone got ahold of my info from some website I went on :S and they got in to my email, paypal, and some other things and PP corrected it and everything is all good..

after the rude way they asked for my money back, I did NOT want them having my credit card info. This interaction should have been extremely simple and painless, regardless if i wanted my money back, or I wanted a replacement rose. What "should" have happened RpR is that they responded respectfully as if we were face to face, instead of acting like jerks unprevoked. You should be able have a conversation with a vendor and not expect this type of behavior. that is the bottom line.

Exactly.

jc I have found the best stuff doing that. :-)

It very well could have been management.... and I don't blame you for being skeptical.... however, as a business owner, i personally would rather be contacted by the customer via phone and or certified letter letting me know that there was a rude response to you the customer.... why because if by chance it wasn't me being rude I would want to get rid of the employee that was causing the problem.... I had this happen to me when an employee responded in such a horrific way.... I was appalled especially when I had trusted the employee with great responsibilities. In my case, I did fire the employee and it did cost me, friends who took sides... and the customer who thought this thing should never have occurred .... the customer was correct, it SHOULD NEVER have had happened. I was sad to lose the customer... but not the friends or the employee, because I NEVER want my customers to be treated the way you were.... just saying.... if was the owner who treated you that way, how do you know if the manager is really the owner? You don't... I would only ask that you at least call the company to speak to the owner.... not the manager and let them know... if it turns out to be the same rude person then forget it, you have done everything you could do, but if it was someone other than the owner than you may have just save the person's business.... think about it......

Running across old threads looking for something else...how I originally found Dogs in Elk thread..hysterical!!

What a terrible experience. It's hard to believe someone who grows plants is a person that nasty you think they would be a little bit more Zen, apparently not.

Just sounds like a very unhappy stressed nasty person and I wouldn't want them to send me a rose anyway.

I wonder if that company exist now or change names or locations.

Yikes, it is very stressful situation. I will be furious if that happens to me :(

Jin

Plumeria Girl, I googled them, and yes, they are still in business (how?), with a (sort of) website (a note says...still under construction...since 2014!!!!) and a Facebook page. I'd avoid both like the plague, lol.

Wow. Hard to believe they're still in business!

Carol

When I look them up it said closed permanently. Not surprising.

I thought the nursery was Angel Gardens at first. They charged $5 for switching a rose without telling me. It wasn’t a small order. I haven’t ordered roses from there since.

I haven't ever ordered from Angel Gardens but I've inquired about roses from them via email and always had prompt courteous responses so I didn't think it would be them lol.

I didn't know they charged a fee to switch roses though.

~Sjn

Blooming House nursery is NOT the same as Blooming Woods nursery. I buy regularly from Blooming House, in Newberry Florida and they are a fine local landscape nursery run by nice people. They do not ship plants.

Vaporvac, you're right, the google listing does say "permanently closed". I didn't even look at the listing, just the search results. The last post on the Facebook page is from 2013, and like I said earlier, the website has been unfinished and "under construction" since 2014. Obviously, their customer "non-service" cost them their business.

Put an amazing Exchange. It's a primer for how not to treat your customers!