Gardening Express Avis 1 063

Horrendous experience with a christmas tree that i ordered - wrong type, wrong size and packaged so badly, branches broken as well as being lopsided from all directions.
Customer Service asked for photos which I sent but they were not accepted. They said to return it by a courier that I should pay for myself! This is ridiculous as I can't re-wrap a tree that has been wrapped with netting by a machine and courier costs would exceed the refund amount. Now I have to pay somebody to take it away as it's too heavy and spiky to put in the car for the tip!

Avoid this company! They used to be good but have gone seriously downhill!

Ordered a 7-8ft Christmas Tree. What arrived was a 6ft 3" tree. I asked for a replacement tree of the correct size. The company told me I had to unwrap the tree, measure it and then send details to the company. The tree is wrapped in continuous black plastic and is very heavy. I have not heard from them again. I trusted this company with my money and my order, they took the money and sent the wrong item. They have spoilt Christmas. I want my money back and this tree taken away. They need lessons in Customer Service!!

Two Xmas trees were ordered and paid for in OCTOBER for delivery slot 1-6 th December .
One tree rocked up today 9th December an the other is still AWOL . Its not hard one job deliver within 6 days a HUGE window especially when its your only job . Platitudes of "currently experiencing some small delays" actually doesn't do it Karen AKA Gardening Express .....so angry I am blocking you from now on . You genuinely are ruining our Christmas

Ordered some specific pansies- lots of them, and received bog standard pansy's- not what we ordered. IMMEDIATELY contacted Gardening Express and have sent 5 emails with photos, keep asking me for more photos. Nothing now- they seem to have ignored me now Order number 700965961

Ordered their offer of Houseplant Roulette - Lucky Dip Houseplant Selection
H25531 12 £24.00
Subtotal £24.00
Shipping & Handling £6.99
Grand Total £30.99
DREADFUL !
The plants arrived in a damaged box , one plant dead and two already dried up one further one had its leaves snapped off, subsequently has died
Pots were broken
Customer service advised taking photos with labels in pots showing and full length of plant. I did do this
Two weeks and no response, they say 5 days response time
I would not buy again from them and urge others to take care

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES would I recommend this company. I ordered a huge amount of plants for autumn planting this October and spent a lot of money. My issue is that despite repeated messages they refuse to answer me and there is NO OTHER WAY. to contact them other than the message system which they refuse to answer. Judging from my experience and others who have reviewed here, beware of this company which is so difficult to contact- there is obviously a reason for that.My plants stayed in the depot of the courier company for 14 days in boxes, starved of light and water and consequently arrival 89% of them were dead. I sent many messages to gardening express before arrival alerting them that although their site said the plants were dispatched, that they were still in transit and I suspected they would die. This was their responsibility to sort out and although they did answer two of my messages saying they would ‘chase this up’ on arrival as suspected, my fears were correct. The plants had sat four two weeks in the dark with no water. Two huge pallets arrived in a disgraceful state. They were nearly all dead and shrivelled. I immediately contacted Gardening Express with photographs as proof including the dates. In all I have sent at least seven messages to them because there is no phone to call or address. They are still ignoring me
A month later. Their guarantees on the site are not worth anything , they laughably say that you have 14 days to return damaged plants! I was supposed to send two huge pallets back to them on a truck to where ? No address. At my expense? This company is behaving in a fraudulent way and I am not going to let them get away with this . I will be contacting trading standards and the small claims court. Please please do not buy from
them - I wish I had gone on trust pilot before I did . I have now read other reviews who have had a similar experience and I wish I had not spent such a large sum of money.

Post script:
After I threatened legal proceedings and the law regarding this, Gardening Express did refund me the money. Amazingly I did reorder a small order from them again to see what would happen and this arrived safely and in good condition.I have read a lot of the reviews and recently they seem to be doing better but I see that the delivery company is still letting them down with the lack of care and attention to delivery and though my recent order arrived untouched the original arrived very battered packaging. The delivery company is at fault for a lot and seems to not care about these plants and the fact that they are living things that have been carefully grown and packaged.Gardening Express in my view are flying by the seat of their pants probably to keep their costs down but actually their business model will only be fit for purpose if they get these deliveries right. Consequently, customers are incensed while GE builds a barrier of 'no telephone contact' to protect themselves and the 'contact' form is frustrating for their customers as it is removed and you wait days for responses sometimes. There must be a better, less stressful and more decent ethical way to run a business. The variety and condition of plants is superb when it all works. I think they need to bring someone in to completely overhaul this business and reputaion wise they will have to reprove themselves. Its a pity but i do appreciate that they sent me back my money and see this as a sign of improvement. I just wish I hadn't had to threaten legal action.

Plants arrived in pathetic condition, mostly dried and dying!!
Despite emailing and sending them photos multiple times, we have had no response, just automated replies!
Very poor show and no customer service at all.
Would have given minus stars if I could.

VERY poor quality plants received, emailed my dissatisfaction, as everyone else……no reply to emails. I tried more than once to contact them. No phone number to call, only email available which quite conveniently they never reply to.
Take this as a warning…..do not order from this terrible business.

I ordered hedging plants. The order form clearly stated “Evergreen Portuguese Laurel – Bushy Plants for Hedging – circa 80 to 120 cm” as did the Picklist with the initials of the sorter and checker. What we got was very poor quality plants that were 170 cm, taller than stated with no side branches or leaves on the first 50cm above ground level. They were straggly, not bushy and too tall to be planted as hedging plants – in fact they should have been dug up and burned years ago!
This company simply ignores UK consumer protection law - what I got was not as described (and illustrated on their website), not of merchantable quality and not fit for purpose. They have a laughable 14 day return for refund policy – which sounds great until you get prices from couriers to return the plants and of course this cost is not refundable. Other customers report being ignored when they do return goods (and of course they have no phone number for ‘Customer Service’) – sounds like good money being thrown after bad.
It would seem that Trading Standards need to be made aware of the way that this company treats its customers – in the meantime AVOID THIS COMPANY LIKE THE PLAGUE.

I purchased a pack of heathers from this company and planted them in special compost for these plants but within one month a quarter of them had died,(3 were dead on arrival) .I complained to the company and was told I was too late as should have done it within 14 days.I expected and plants to last longer than 1 month and as a result will never use or recommend this company.Most nurseries guarantee their plants longer than 4 weeks.

⭐☆☆☆☆ Extremely Disappointed – Poor Quality Plants, No Response, and Misleading Practices
I’ve spent over £100 with Gardening Express this year, but after my latest order I’ll never buy from them again. Several plants arrived in terrible condition — wilted, spent, and damaged due to poor packaging and squashed boxes. The Rudbeckia ‘Little Goldstar’ were completely past flowering and nothing like the “strong, healthy plants” shown online. Some Echinaceas and Polemoniums arrived with snapped stems and crushed pots.
When I contacted customer service with clear photos, I received a generic template reply demanding more pictures, labels, and paperwork that didn’t even exist in the box. Since then, I’ve had no reply or resolution at all. The company has simply ignored my follow-up messages.
To make matters worse, I’ve since learned Gardening Express has been featured on BBC Watchdog for exactly these kinds of issues — misleading product listings, poor plant quality, and avoiding refunds. Unfortunately, my experience aligns perfectly with that reputation.
Avoid this company at all costs. Their plants are poorly packed, customer service is evasive, and the whole process feels designed to wear customers down rather than put things right. There are far better online nurseries that deliver what they promise and treat customers with respect.

I’ve ordered loads from this company, often plants have been ‘on offer’ for really good prices, it’s been relatively hit and miss with the quality of things, but if somethings arrived and it hasn’t done as well as I hoped it would, I’ve not been too bothered because of the low price.

However I placed an order a few weeks ago and it arrived with an item missing - I contacted customer services who took over a week to get back to me asking for photographs. I sent them and they are now ignoring me (it’s been a month since I sent the pictures) - I have chased them but ultimately ended up doing a chargeback through my bank.

Incredibly disappointed in this company, their website insinuates a high level of quality customer service which simply isn’t true.

I won’t be ordering from them any more..

Ordered 8 heathers, two pansies, and two violas. Violas fine. Heathers out of season, despite being advertised as "studded with buds and flowers in season". Pansies not the right variety. Contacted customer service three times asking them to ship the correct pansies or just issue a refund. Got three bizarre responses via email from "Kit" who, is probably just a bot - first one asked to send more photos, which I did - no response. Responses 2 and 3 did not at all address my complaint and I got no responses to my responses. Never ordering from this sham business again and they should be investigated for shady practices. No phone number advertised for customer service tells you everything you need to know.

I bought 2 bare rooted plum trees in June. On arrival I notified Gardening Express that they seemed very dry. They suggested I gave them time, which I did.
They were potted into new sterile JI No2 compost in large pots and placed into the "nursery" area of my garden along with a pear tree, 2 hazelnuts and other new plants.
Everything grew strongly apart from the plum trees, one of which was clearly a "dead stick", and one which grew strongly, but only from the rootstock, not the scion.
I contacted Gardening Express on their contact page, and received a reply from someone called Dermot who asked for images of the plants which I sent by return. I have heard nothing since. I contacted their customer service director, and also a new claim via their contact page but have had no further contact.
I have had decent plants in the past from this company, but they will not enter any meaningful conversation about their warranty, which is clearly worthless.
I have given up trying to get any support and am currently writing an article to my local gardening society to suggest they avoid this company. I suggest you all do the same.

I ordered a magnolia tree as a gift for a 70th birthday present. So far I have received automated replies and one email sayingthey were prioritising my order. 24 hours later I have neither received dispatch or tracking information.I have asked for my money back if they are unable to fulfil the order. I await a reply. I am very displeased. Please don't use this company. They don't even have a phone number

I ordered a bareroot Magnolia tree, late in the season for bareroot cold stored trees but it was at a reduced price. On arrival I was disappointed as it was really just a twig and not what I expected. I was about to return it but saw on their website their bare root guarantee. So I foolishly decided to keep it to see if it would grow as I thought i would be covered by the guarantee. 2 months later after a very warm and sunny spring/early summer there was no difference and no leaves had formed. I contacted their customer service and was either ignored or told there was nothing wrong. I have provided pictures but have been told I'm not covered by guarantee. So basically I have paid for an overgrown twig. Do not use this company!

28/4 purchased 5 bare rooted fruit trees
5/5 planted up as instructed but only 1/5 grew
15/7 Complained,/ sent pictures under Guarantee fully expecting an apology and refund.
24/7 GE responded " not one of those plants covered by our Guarantees"
I responded That GE's own product description ( have copy) had clearly stated that they were covered by their "growth Guarantee" also their web site promotes " everything we sell is guaranteed" Their CEO actively promotes this fact ! ( Sun newspaper)
15/8 GE finally responded with apology , confirming they were covered but requested "Bark test & pictures" sent 1/9 but yet again NO Response...now + 3moths after initial complaint .
It is clear I am not alone with 94% of reviews to this site rating lowest possible customer service , many with issues on guarantee ..Even on the main site the average is 34% with terrible ratings from May - September this year! >60% one star!!!( see section "how company uses trust pilot)
Trust pilot indicates this company does not reply to negative reviews So I again invite the CEO of this company to respond and explain this terrible performance and misleading promotions which should be taken up by advertising standards If others have similar concerns?
They claim to be trusted suppliers to designers and exhibitors of a number of high profile events including BBC gardeners world live . Having been previously investigated by BBC watchdog on other issues , other complainant's , should consider sharing their experiences ( both good and bad ) so we get a Signiant improvement in service and GE honours its guarantees. .Please also submit your reviews to the main GE Trust pilot company site, so customers can see the true level of dissatisfaction with this company , which seems by far the worst of online garden plant companies.

Ordered 4 hibiscus trees, meant to be 3-4ft tall. Arrived 2.5ft tall from the bottom of the pot, so when I took them out they measured 2ft tall. I paid £160 for 4 of these trees!
I’ve been emailing useless Levi since August, it’s take 1 month to get 1 reply!
Then he’s finally told me today that the plants been 20% under is totally acceptable & that it’s measured from the bottom of the plant pot as well 🤯
Avoid at all costs!

8 days after ordering there's no update on delivery time at all. If I had know this online shop was so slow to dispatch and also slow to respond to emails I wouldn't have ordered.

First of all, the way the plants were packaged in the box was very poor. There was no protection for the foliage, which resulted in damage during transit as everything shifted around whenever the box was moved. They didn't even put a "Fragile" label on the box.

The delivery service used, DHL, was of course extremely disappointing as well. After I chose to pick up my order from a depot, the tracking number disappeared, and I was unable to track my order anymore. I tried to call DHL, but they don't provide an option to speak with an operator.

I wasted my time visiting the depot two days in a row before finally receiving my order, and I never received any notification from DHL at any point. In total, there was a three-day delay caused by them while the plants were damaged inside the box.