NEVER buy anything from JERSEY PLANTS

Rather annoyed!

Hope this is the right section to post this. If not, could one of the moderator type people please move it.

A tale of very poor quality goods and customer care.

I have ordered several different types of plug plants, paid for them at the time of order. 6 different types of plugs and all from the same place. Last week I phoned them to see if there was any progress with my orders. The phone was constantly engaged and then when I did get through I was kept on hold for ten minutes. Once I got to speak to someone I was really P***ed off by his attitude and total indifference. Smarmy git would not give me a direct answer to any questions, such as "When can I expect my plugs to arrive". I thought this wasa perfectly legitimate question. All he said was "Soon, probably some time in April"!

Today, one batch of plugs arrived by courier. I had ordered 100 Begonia Destiny on special offer with 60 plugs free. The box was undamaged but the plugs inside looked like they had been kicked around like a football. Most of them had broken leaves and stems and I doubt if very many of them are viable.

I tried to call the supplier but after 9 attempts the phone was still engaged. I was getting a tad annoyed and thought I would giveitone last try. The phone rang but I was kept on hold in a queue for 12 minutes. This time I spoke to a girlie. Told her what had happened and she said that they would send another batch out. OK, fair enough, these things happen sometimes. I thought that it would be a perfectly reasonable question to ask when the plugs would be sent. She had no idea and couldn't tell me how long they would take. I then asked what was happening to my other orders only to be told that my order was in a queue and would be sent out when they got to it. Getting quite angry now, "WHEN WILL THAT BE"? To be told, "Quite soon, depends on how quickly we get to your order".

I am very seriously tempted to cancel my orders with this supplier. Thier courier is obviously incapable of doing the job. Thier sales people are rude, obstructive and have no idea what they are doing.

The supplier is JERSEY PLANTS. I will NOT be ordering anything from them ever again. Please be careful if you have or are considering ordering anything from these people. They take your money and then don't care about getting the goods to you.

Chopper

 

Hiya Chopper sorry to hear about your bad service with Jersey plants.

My dad has used them for years and seems quite happy with them.

If you go to the top of your thread and press search, write in the search

box "jersey plants" and it will bring up some treads that GC members have

wrote about them in the past. Hope this helps.

 

I've had similar dealings with another supplier and it's a very disappointing shopping experience indeed

 

I always follow up the phone call with an email enlosing pics, and then send a letter of complaint. Sometimes I've got three replacements.

 

Sorry to post in the wrong section Marley, thanks for your help.

It is very annoying when this sort of thing happens. The way I see it is, everybody makes mistakes, (Especially me). When a company makes a mistake, you really get to see just how professional they really are by the way they deal with a problem.

As it stands at the moment, I will not ever buy anything from them again. Have to wait and see how they sort this out, but I will not just let it go.

Chopper.

 

I'm afraid many companies these days are just as bad, especially the larger more established companies.

I think a new company works hard to build up a good reputation. Once they have that reputation, then they can safely start cutting corners, relying on their good name.

I wouldn't mind betting that what you experienced, Chopper, was the 'outsourced customer service', designed to 'improve the customer experience by allowing the company to do what it does best'.

Basically, I reckon you got through to a large call centre that has nothing to do with the supplier other than to fulfil a contract for them. The supplier will send monthly data extracts to the call centre, and get monthly ones back. The supplier will also get reports about customer satisfaction. Those reports wont say 'Chopper had a good reason to complain', they'll say X% of customer calls were answered within N rings, and the abandonment rate was only X% etc.

The call centre staff, who will be paid a pittance, will have been given a script telling them what to do if the caller says whatever, and the staff just won't care, because their boss has told them if they don't get you off the phone within less than 2 minutes, then they'll be in trouble, whereas if they can get through X number of calls in an hour, then they might get a small bonus, or might even earn the accolade of employee of the month, and get to have their picture taken with the boss.

Meanwhile, back at the actual suppliers, the people there have no idea that anyone is upset.

Best thing to do would be to write a letter of complaint, and send it to the supplier's registered head office address. By law, this address has to appear on all correspondence from them, and they (or their agents) have to tell you it on request.

 

I used the 'mystery customer' approach, requesting details of when plug plants would be dispatched if I were to order now, and two and a half working days after I sent that mail I received the following response:

"Thank you for your email. The plants you are interested in are all despatched until the end of April, so that would be the very, very latest they arrive."

 

I can't find my last thread about Jersey Plants, so I have started another one.

Today I received a part of anorder I placed with Jersey Plants. For the second time in two weeks, goods I have ordered and paid for from them has arrived in a very sorry state. Renering most of the plugs useless.

Once again I had to try lots of times to get throughon thephone. 11 attempts this time. Then I got thier automated answering machine that informed me I was held in a queue and the wait would be TWENTY TWO MINUTES AND 15 SECONDS!

I eventually got through to a girl who was more interested intelling me about her companys' technical problems than actually resolving my complaint. In desperation I asked to speak to someone else, preferably her manager. The manager can only be described as someone that got bullied at school a lot, and gets punched often in pubs and clubs. His attitude was at best, blase. His stream of excuses and refusal to offer any sort of resolution was infuriarating and patronising. Including outright lies such as "We are the best at what we do". Such a statement is surely an opinion and subjective.

Mrs Chopperwas very pleased that my conversation with him was not a face to face meeting. She knows how I normally react to such arrogant nonsense.

I am very sorely tempted to cancel the rest of my order and take them to court for my costs. PLus a formal complaint to the relevant bodies. Most of all I really REALLY want to hurt thier idiot manager.

I strongly advise everyone NOT TO buy ANYTHING from these people. Unless of course you want to consult Mystic Meg for any progress report on your order and want to be treated like an interuption of thier work instead of the cause of thier work.

They have the worst customer service I have ever encountered. The buying of plants should be a very pleasant experience. Up until now it has always been so for me. This episode has left a bad taste in my mouth. I will make it my business to make them regret treating me this way.

Chopper.
PS: I am now NOT in a good mood.

 

Re: previos post see thread http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/rather-annoyed-t32326.html

 

Seem to have lost my last response as this board has reverted to reverse display order (again), and I've had to change it again.

So starting again and quoting from the previous thread:

So that seems you can expect you plants anytime, possibly over a 6 week, or even greater? period, and will they be in different stages of growth when they arrive?

KEY WORDS:

jersey plants complaints
jersey plants problems
jersey plants damage
jersey plants delays

 

Its not just you Chopper, have a read of this,

http://www.growsonyou.com/retailer/GB/show/28-jersey-plants-direct

 

Years ago I took part in a survey to see what effect bad customer services had. This was in the days before the Internet and we discovered that 1 upset customer lead to 200 other customers lost. One wonders how many it is now.
There are complaints about this company on almost every Gardening Website there is.