That is wonderful! I got my American Olean from a local store and with the great price, samples, service, huge variety and delivery turn around time I am also really pleased. I chose American Olean because I'm looking for "all green" materials and their website is really useful for researching which lines have the most recycled content. From the website AmericanOlean.com you can link to their Greenworks website with lots of this info. Here is a link that might be useful: American Olean recycled content tile selector

That's great. It's often worth asking. This service creates customer loyalty. Once I called Grandma Hoerner's jam company to ask where their jams are sold since my store stopped carrying them. They told me where to go (Marshalls) and sent me a sampler box of about 4 full sizes of their jams free!

My grandson (14) is quite fussy about his hair and always has a great style. He recently found a young man on youtube (with great hair) selling a product my grandson wanted to try. Since he knows I exist to ensure his happiness, lol, I told him I'd send for some. I was issued a tracking number right away, but the product never seemed to leave the station. I finally wrote an email, then another, and finally one saying I was going to cancel and if they didn't refund my $ I would report to my CC company. I never got any response. My grandson was quite disappointed. When I looked at their website again, I noticed a newly posted customer service phone #, which I called. A very nice woman answered and when I explained the problem, she was so apologetic and said they'd been a little overwhelmed with orders so she was working very hard to get caught up. She said this was the 2nd time she had personally taken an order to the USPS, gotten a tracking # but the products never left the PO. She wasn't sure if someone was stealing them, or what. I told her it was for my grandson, who had seen a video on youtube. She said that is her son and he'd be thrilled to hear my grandson is a fan. She said she would have her son write a note to my grandson and that since her son wears a puka shell necklace in the videos, she would have him send a necklace, too. Remember those? I guess they are back in style, at least for boys. And she would reship the order priority mail the next day, which she did. My grandson was thrilled with the note (he's a big fan of some of these youtubers) and the necklace, which he has been wearing. Not sure if he loves the product as much as he hoped. Now he wants a perm so it will have more wave, lol.

Good customer service - or the lack of it - is one of the primary reasons I frequent certain retailers and avoid others like the plague. It certainly seems to be in short supply these days! It may very well be regional differences or the size of the establishment but most better retail nurseries and garden centers in my area have dedicated plant buyers on staff whose business it is to locate and order specific plants from the scores of wholesale growers they have access to. I was one, once upon a time :-)) Each week we received availabilities from the growers as to what was in stock, looking good and available that week and I would place my perennials and groundcover orders accordingly. The buyer for trees and woody shrubs would do the same, although most of the trees were preordered the previous fall. Most of the larger nurseries will accept special requests as well. That's how my long desired Spigelia 'Little Redhead' came into my life! 😁 LaLennoxa, I hope you can locate and get your hands on the Ruby Slippers oakleaf. I grew one in a previous garden and it truly is a stunning plant. Very floriferous and with gorgeous late season and fall coloring. My sister and I were out shopping for some supplies for my new garden last week - essentials like a new hose and a weed whacker - so we stopped at Home Depot. This is a retailer I only visit when it seems to be the last resort or the best pricing as a) their plant selection is dismal and not well cared for and b) decent customer service is almost nonexistent. We were pleasantly surprised when an employee in his early 20's went above and beyond the typical to assist 2 little old ladies pick out the proper weed whacker for the situation, showing us several different models he thought best, and then proceeded to carry the selected item to the check out for us. He was so helpful and attentive that we both had to compliment him on his superior customer service!! So it does exist and sometimes in unexpected places, if maybe not as commonplace as it should be.