I don't know whether anyone is still thinking of using these websites which are still functioning. Just looking at the sites ........ although two have been updated for 2016 and the cottage garden one is still under construction - me personally - I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.
The sites themselves are very amateur productions, the spelling is atrocious and the grammar awful ........ Bear in mind these are things we are told to look for in spammy emails and part of my Uni degree taught me to judge a website to be a reliable source. There are so many promises and excuses ......... They don't have time to answer emails ........ and obviously, from the above posts, there are difficulties obtaining refunds. As Dove says above, the answers to the reviews are very unprofessional and there are parts of the site where links are unavailable even though updated. ........ I'm surprised that they are still online ......
I never received tomato plants in 2014 and wasn't refunded as promised. Like a fool, I placed another order this year and guess what, still no tomato plants.
After emailing the company, this was the automated response. Does this fill you with confidence?:
Hi I am starting to get a huge amount of e-mails regarding order deliveries now which i will reply to as soon as i can in the mean time the following update is this.
The first and most important thing i need to say is don't think its getting too late to plant it is far from too late we were getting snow and hard frost until a week ago and OK we are late getting some March/April orders out But I wouldn't be very professional to send out beans and courgettes etc out to you to be killed by frost the first night you have them I grow and dispatch to the weather and have the success of your growing at the heart of all i do Yes the garden centers and Big outlets have had veg out for some time but look at them closely they are suffering big time from the cold because theyve come out of a warm greenhouse and shoved pretty close to being out in the elements Ours are grown cold which in the sort of spring weve had means they take time to grow But they are much better healthier plants for it that are much more ready to thrive in your garden we also use Rock Dust in our compost mix which gives your plants every mineral and trace element it will ever need as well as producing healthy plants that can withstand the weather and repel pests and diseases better
Tomato orders we are processing as soon as we can its been an odd spring and i have had a few germination failures and lost some plants too which has delayed certain varieties Also because we had so many orders for the first March/April time slot i wasn't able to pot the second batch for April/May until we had shifted some of the early ones We have lots of plants coming on and we will get them out just as soon as we can.
For Veg orders again ive had a few germination problems plus I delayed a lot of the more tender items because it was far to cold and also due to an error on the website i hadn't spotted from doing the winter update many of you were able to order the more tender items for Spring delivery which should not have been available until the Summer delivery slot which is why some orders are delayed most of the items are now coming ready and will be with you as soon as I can do them.
I wish I had done a search on the web before I wasted my money ordering from this cowboy, I mean to have one bad year might be allowed but two or more come on. Even I don't get things that wrong each year, so I have tried getting my money back at least 4 times but no luck. The cheek of the block sent me an e-mail last month asking me did I want to cancel my subscription, YES and I would love my money back, I am not holding my breath in the hope of getting that back. I have however got in touch with trading standards in the hope they maybe able to do something. So watch this space
Hello Im Keith The Owner of Tomato Plants Direct etc I am terribly sorry to anyone who has not had great customer service from me But then i never proffessed to be any good at customer service I totally respect and agree with what people say
However as a small family business its not always easy when things go wrong But hopefully i learn from those things and strive to do better Yes we have some bad reviews But review sites are rarely a true picture of a small business as in the main only the people who have been upset post reviews on them the difference being the bigger companies pay for the more proffesional versions of Trust Pilot and the like so their reviews are more balanced because they collect reviews from every customer its not something at this time im prepared to pay for we do in fact have thousands of happy customers.
I am also sorry for some of the replies ive given not ideal but its only because im so passionate about what i do
I realise that the last few years things have not worked how i would like I would just like to assure people i have listened and i have done something about it I have been almost a victim of my own success in that we just had more orders than we anticipated and therefore couldn't cope with the number of staff i could afford But i have made big changes to the way things will be done from 2017 and all the veg plants will be grown and dispatched by somebody else under my supervision which will allow my end to just concentrate on orders from the Tomato website.
Philippa fair points made i didn't do this to start a debate i did it to try and allay some fears, before going out on my own i was production manager for some of the biggest nurseries out there so im not an amateur i could go on and on as to why things happened but all i can do is say i will do better.
Posts
I don't know whether anyone is still thinking of using these websites which are still functioning. Just looking at the sites ........ although two have been updated for 2016 and the cottage garden one is still under construction - me personally - I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole.
The sites themselves are very amateur productions, the spelling is atrocious and the grammar awful ........ Bear in mind these are things we are told to look for in spammy emails and part of my Uni degree taught me to judge a website to be a reliable source. There are so many promises and excuses ......... They don't have time to answer emails ........ and obviously, from the above posts, there are difficulties obtaining refunds. As Dove says above, the answers to the reviews are very unprofessional and there are parts of the site where links are unavailable even though updated. ........ I'm surprised that they are still online ......
BEWARE!!
I never received tomato plants in 2014 and wasn't refunded as promised. Like a fool, I placed another order this year and guess what, still no tomato plants.
After emailing the company, this was the automated response. Does this fill you with confidence?:
Hi I am starting to get a huge amount of e-mails regarding order deliveries now which i will reply to as soon as i can in the mean time the following update is this.
The first and most important thing i need to say is don't think its getting too late to plant it is far from too late we were getting snow and hard frost until a week ago and OK we are late getting some March/April orders out But I wouldn't be very professional to send out beans and courgettes etc out to you to be killed by frost the first night you have them I grow and dispatch to the weather and have the success of your growing at the heart of all i do Yes the garden centers and Big outlets have had veg out for some time but look at them closely they are suffering big time from the cold because theyve come out of a warm greenhouse and shoved pretty close to being out in the elements Ours are grown cold which in the sort of spring weve had means they take time to grow But they are much better healthier plants for it that are much more ready to thrive in your garden we also use Rock Dust in our compost mix which gives your plants every mineral and trace element it will ever need as well as producing healthy plants that can withstand the weather and repel pests and diseases better
Tomato orders we are processing as soon as we can its been an odd spring and i have had a few germination failures and lost some plants too which has delayed certain varieties Also because we had so many orders for the first March/April time slot i wasn't able to pot the second batch for April/May until we had shifted some of the early ones We have lots of plants coming on and we will get them out just as soon as we can.
For Veg orders again ive had a few germination problems plus I delayed a lot of the more tender items because it was far to cold and also due to an error on the website i hadn't spotted from doing the winter update many of you were able to order the more tender items for Spring delivery which should not have been available until the Summer delivery slot which is why some orders are delayed most of the items are now coming ready and will be with you as soon as I can do them.
Regards Keith
--
www.vegetableplantsdirect.co.uk
www.mailorderplantsdirect.co.uk
www.tomato-plants-direct.co.uk
I wish I had done a search on the web before I wasted my money ordering from this cowboy, I mean to have one bad year might be allowed but two or more come on. Even I don't get things that wrong each year, so I have tried getting my money back at least 4 times but no luck. The cheek of the block sent me an e-mail last month asking me did I want to cancel my subscription, YES and I would love my money back, I am not holding my breath in the hope of getting that back. I have however got in touch with trading standards in the hope they maybe able to do something. So watch this space
They're real shockers!
Keep us informed Dave.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Yes I will try to what ever happens.
Hello Im Keith The Owner of Tomato Plants Direct etc I am terribly sorry to anyone who has not had great customer service from me But then i never proffessed to be any good at customer service I totally respect and agree with what people say
However as a small family business its not always easy when things go wrong But hopefully i learn from those things and strive to do better Yes we have some bad reviews But review sites are rarely a true picture of a small business as in the main only the people who have been upset post reviews on them the difference being the bigger companies pay for the more proffesional versions of Trust Pilot and the like so their reviews are more balanced because they collect reviews from every customer its not something at this time im prepared to pay for we do in fact have thousands of happy customers.
I am also sorry for some of the replies ive given not ideal but its only because im so passionate about what i do
I realise that the last few years things have not worked how i would like I would just like to assure people i have listened and i have done something about it I have been almost a victim of my own success in that we just had more orders than we anticipated and therefore couldn't cope with the number of staff i could afford But i have made big changes to the way things will be done from 2017 and all the veg plants will be grown and dispatched by somebody else under my supervision which will allow my end to just concentrate on orders from the Tomato website.
Philippa fair points made i didn't do this to start a debate i did it to try and allay some fears, before going out on my own i was production manager for some of the biggest nurseries out there so im not an amateur i could go on and on as to why things happened but all i can do is say i will do better.
Last edited: 01 December 2016 17:45:51