If you have a local club or know of people in the area interested in an exchange you can simply meet in person. Shipping leaves is fairly easy too. Cut them from the plant, wrap the cut portion in a moistened paper towel. Take a piece of tin foil and wrap it around this. The tin foil keeps things in place. Put each variety in a small, labeled zip top bag. Pack the bags loosely in a box to avoid crushing. Priority mail is fine, but ship early in the week so they don't sit on Sunday. Don't ship when temps are in the mid-80's to 90's at either location without an appropriately-sized cool pack. Cold weather shipping requires some insulation, and possibly a hot pack.

I used to order them from a local brick & mortar agency. But now have my tenants order their own and submit them to me with the Application. They can be ordered from Equifax, Experian or Trans Union only. Must be an original color printout, no pages missing, no xerox copies, nothing altered and must be dated within 7 days of the application. I direct them to this site, it's the only one approved by the Federal Gov't for consumers to get their free annual report from each Bureau: AnnualCreditReport No gimmicks, no sign ups, no fees, just answer security questions that only the consumer themselves would know and the report is generated and can be printed or accessed online for about two weeks. If they choose to go elsewhere, or have a membership elsewhere, that's fine, as long as it's from one of the 3 Credit Bureaus. If they don't have a PC, no problem, they can use a public library PC for free. I have them submit their own for three reasons: 1) Fraud protection(for me). Agency ordered reports show full bank account #s, full CC#s, full SS#, full loan #s. I don't need or want that much info. And I surely don't want it on hand if someone has their ID stolen. (We're small, only 3 homes, not a huge complex or anything.) When the applicant obtains their own report from site above, all pertinent numbers are blocked out except for the last 4 digits. So I can't see full bank account, SS#, etc. 2) Cost. It's free if they use the means described above. 3) Less hassle. The agency I used (and many others) have been forced to become very stringent in recent years due to ID theft. They must come inspect the office (mine's a home office), all reports must be stored in a locked safe or file that only I have access to (which they were anyway). I cannot show the consumer their credit report unless they are being declined (even tho they pay for it). I must destroy it after retaining it for one year. They have quadrupled their membership fee ($100) and started charging a $90 inspection fee annually (which essentially is them coming in and taking photos to show I've got the proper set up). So far it's working fine. I put the info on how to obtain the credit report on my apps. They fill out the app, get their report, and return all of it to me. Then I can review it all at once, check references, etc. If I lease to them I simply staple the credit report to the back of the app and keep it in their file. If not, I return it to them with a rejection letter via Certified Mail, and put in the rejection letter that their report is being returned. While we're at it, a few other quick easy screening methods I use from experience. Cell #s are not permitted for references on the App. Has to be a landline phone. (I'm amazed at how many people try to put down friends or neighbors as prior landlords due to something bad happening.) I then go to White Pages.com and put the landline number in the reverse directory and make sure it matches up to the reference's name and address (that gets fudged too). I'll also go online to local County Auditor or Assessor, do a search of prior address listed, and make sure owner's name matches owner listed on app. If not, I search out a phone # for the person who is listed on tax records as the owner and give them a call. Twice in recent years I've spoken to owners who gave me a big red flag on an applicant who they had serious issues with and for whatever reason did not go to court (therefore no record would have shown in court docket searches). In this day and age, most Counties have their court dockets online. Once I have the app with name, D.O.B. and last 4 digits of Social, I search the local docket to see if there is past history of eviction, Property Judgment, convictions for domestic disturbance issues, or other convictions that might influence renting (passing bad checks, selling drugs from a residence, etc.). If they put down they have lived in other areas I check those County dockets as well. I also check Sex Offender registries. All it costs is a little bit of my time, is very revealing, paints a pretty good picture of what kind of person the applicant is, and can save a lot of grief. ;-)

I'm with you lowspark, as far as blaming the training. I'm a business owner, and the way our employees communicate with anyone who calls my business is extremely important to me. Every scenario is thought out, nothing is left to chance. I have a friend who owns several fast food franchises. He and his wife started with one and did all the work - along with recruiting her brother and sister. Now he pays well to have excellent management. Small franchises are either manned by an owner/operator, or by hired hands with no real manager on site. Guess which ones you get better service at? Some franchises require an owner/operator or an investor with experience in that franchise. It doesn't do all the rest of the franchises any good if there's the few that are poorly-run. People don't think it's just the one franchise. They think, "all Acme Burgers are bad!" Jerzeegirl, please reconsider not talking to the owner. You may be saving someone their entire livelihood, as most small franchises like Subway are "subsistence" shops - they bring in just enough profit for the owner's family to live on. The real problems are with large corporations/public companies (like certain phone carriers, department stores, gorcery stores) who don't foster good service, and there's noone to complain to and noone cares.

I got a reply back from them. It says, "I apologize for the pricing discrepancy with your order. The indicator is if the return address on the advertisement is for our office in the United States. Our advertisements are in a number of magazines from the United States that are available in Canada, which can cause confusion for placing orders within Canada as our system will order it with the Canadian pricing. If you wish to keep your order, I can apply a credit to reduce the total to match the original pricing you saw. Please let me know how you wish to proceed. Customer Service Supervisor bradfordexchange.ca" The problem I have with his excuse is, I got the offer in a direct mailer, not a magazine ad. I still have the envelope. It's from Canada. Everything in it is from Canada. Nothing in it is from the US. I told them they can have their item back. It's all sealed up and labeled and ready to go back to the post office.