I too have had problems again this year with contaminated growbags.The cost of buying new plants and new growbags is ridiculous.I thought they had sorted this from last year.
My bags are not Levingtons though,anybody else had the same with other bags?
The annoying thing is that Scott's admit they had a problem last year, but are still challenging the validity of my complaint. They had the temerity to say that the photos of tomatoes I sent were healthy. I think they are the worst crop I have had in over 35 years of growing. There was one photo showing leaves and stem that had twisted round so the bottom of the leaf was uppermost - apparently a classic aminopyralid symptom -according to the RHS. Apparently that is healthy, to Scott's customer service people.
Here are some pictures from my Greenhouse of my distorted Chilli's and Cucumbers and the very sorry state of my Tomato Plants, all grown in Scotts Levington GrowBags! Perhaps someone from Scotts would like to come over for some salad and consume some Herbicide contaminated produce for tea.... no, thought not.......but they have said it is safe to eat!
Agreed to the SOG Act argument. But the retailer will almost certainly ask for a receipt, to prove you bought the bags from them. But who keeps receipts from items like grow bags? And which was months ago.
I bought about 15 bags, when my local garden centre was doing a "spring offer". I think it was 3 for a tenner. But that was back in early April, and I certainly didn't hang on to the receipt, for long, it would have gone after my weekly wallet clear out.
I am still in "discussion" with Scotts. But they prevaricate all the time. They've now sent me little plastic bags to send off soil samples for analysis. Even though they openly admit they had a problem with bags last year, and have seen photos of twisted, distorted and truncated plants (and now fruits too).
If anyone else wants to contact them, their email is [email protected] and the person who seems to deal with these complaints is Amy Drudge. She's the clever person who said these tomatoes looked "healthy" !!
Just had to destroy 36 assorted tomato plants grown from seed in John Innes, before planting up in Levington grow bag compost purchased from Pennels Garden Centre Lincoln May this year
Sadly all plants grown in this medium have the described problems. All the plants grown outdoors in soil are O.K. The peppers planted in the same compost have the same problems of deformity. It was not until I Googled the problem that I found out what the cause was, or the extent of the problem. I went to my garden centre with a sample of the foliage and deformed fruit and was told that no one else had a problem, and that it was probably a viral disease. I will be sending a sample of foliage and compost to Scott's but don't hold out much hope after reading this on going saga.
Scotts are just having a laugh. You wouldn't believe the rubbish I've been told by their customer service representatives. They're stalling good style.
Their tactics seems to be procratination, hoping you'll give up pestering them.
I'm surprised the big guns like the gardening magazines, haven't had a go. But maybe they're too worried they'll lose the lucrative advertising revenue.
We are just the customers. Nobody is bothered about us.
Back in June I suggested that gardening magazines might wish to take up the cause. It would seem not and maybe the advertising revenue has something to do with that.
But the Watchdog programme (on hold for the summer hols) is just the sort of programme that would be prepared to take up the cause. They are taking problems for future episodes, according to last nights episode, so I think it would be a good idea if some of the posters most affected contacted the programme makers to see if sufficient "noise" might bring about a change.
We must all make a lot of noise about this, I had already put a post on the Watchdog page, we need to make a fuss because it is not being taken seriously. Yes we are being ignored.
I shall add my name to the Watchdog list, although I have not been affected by the terrible problems that others have suffered. My problem was a couple of years ago with dreadful compost, and they did, at least, have the grace to acknowledge the issue, and I had a voucher as compensation. But I didn't lose a whole year's worth of plants, which has been the unfortunate experience of others.
A united voice is more likely to be heard than individuals being fobbed off one by one! (Let's call it a class action! )
It’s been a while, but Scotts still deny that my growbags were contaminated with aminopyralid. They maintain that the soil samples I sent were clear. But the hard evidence was that the tomato and pepper plants grown in Levington compost were severely disfigured. Identical plants sown at the same time, but grown on in another medium, were fine. Scott’s, just ignored me for months. Just like other customers comments above. I think their policy is procrastination hoping the complainer will just give up.
Eventually, they agreed to send me £30 compensation, but still maintained there wasn’t a problem with my bags. I’d spent probably twice that amount on their growbags last year.
Posts
I too have had problems again this year with contaminated growbags.The cost of buying new plants and new growbags is ridiculous.I thought they had sorted this from last year.
My bags are not Levingtons though,anybody else had the same with other bags?
The annoying thing is that Scott's admit they had a problem last year, but are still challenging the validity of my complaint. They had the temerity to say that the photos of tomatoes I sent were healthy. I think they are the worst crop I have had in over 35 years of growing. There was one photo showing leaves and stem that had twisted round so the bottom of the leaf was uppermost - apparently a classic aminopyralid symptom -according to the RHS. Apparently that is healthy, to Scott's customer service people.
Here are some pictures from my Greenhouse of my distorted Chilli's and Cucumbers and the very sorry state of my Tomato Plants, all grown in Scotts Levington GrowBags! Perhaps someone from Scotts would like to come over for some salad and consume some Herbicide contaminated produce for tea.... no, thought not.......but they have said it is safe to eat!
Agreed to the SOG Act argument. But the retailer will almost certainly ask for a receipt, to prove you bought the bags from them. But who keeps receipts from items like grow bags? And which was months ago.
I bought about 15 bags, when my local garden centre was doing a "spring offer". I think it was 3 for a tenner. But that was back in early April, and I certainly didn't hang on to the receipt, for long, it would have gone after my weekly wallet clear out.
I am still in "discussion" with Scotts. But they prevaricate all the time. They've now sent me little plastic bags to send off soil samples for analysis. Even though they openly admit they had a problem with bags last year, and have seen photos of twisted, distorted and truncated plants (and now fruits too).
If anyone else wants to contact them, their email is [email protected] and the person who seems to deal with these complaints is Amy Drudge. She's the clever person who said these tomatoes looked "healthy" !!
Just had to destroy 36 assorted tomato plants grown from seed in John Innes, before planting up in Levington grow bag compost purchased from Pennels Garden Centre Lincoln May this year
Sadly all plants grown in this medium have the described problems. All the plants grown outdoors in soil are O.K. The peppers planted in the same compost have the same problems of deformity. It was not until I Googled the problem that I found out what the cause was, or the extent of the problem. I went to my garden centre with a sample of the foliage and deformed fruit and was told that no one else had a problem, and that it was probably a viral disease. I will be sending a sample of foliage and compost to Scott's but don't hold out much hope after reading this on going saga.
Will never buy any Scott's products again.
Judith207, so sorry to hear that.
Scotts are just having a laugh. You wouldn't believe the rubbish I've been told by their customer service representatives. They're stalling good style.
Their tactics seems to be procratination, hoping you'll give up pestering them.
I'm surprised the big guns like the gardening magazines, haven't had a go. But maybe they're too worried they'll lose the lucrative advertising revenue.
We are just the customers. Nobody is bothered about us.
Back in June I suggested that gardening magazines might wish to take up the cause. It would seem not and maybe the advertising revenue has something to do with that.
But the Watchdog programme (on hold for the summer hols) is just the sort of programme that would be prepared to take up the cause. They are taking problems for future episodes, according to last nights episode, so I think it would be a good idea if some of the posters most affected contacted the programme makers to see if sufficient "noise" might bring about a change.
We must all make a lot of noise about this, I had already put a post on the Watchdog page, we need to make a fuss because it is not being taken seriously. Yes we are being ignored.
I shall add my name to the Watchdog list, although I have not been affected by the terrible problems that others have suffered. My problem was a couple of years ago with dreadful compost, and they did, at least, have the grace to acknowledge the issue, and I had a voucher as compensation. But I didn't lose a whole year's worth of plants, which has been the unfortunate experience of others.
A united voice is more likely to be heard than individuals being fobbed off one by one! (Let's call it a class action! )
I think their policy is procrastination hoping the complainer will just give up.
Eventually, they agreed to send me £30 compensation, but still maintained there wasn’t a problem with my bags. I’d spent probably twice that amount on their growbags last year.