Gardening Express customers vent their fury amid order chaos

Green-fingered customers of Gardening Express vent anger on social media after their lockdown plants and flowers fail to arrive – with no sign of refunds or even a message from the website

  • A growing number of Gardening Express customers have taken to Twitter
  • Many deliveries have been heavily delayed and refund requests are troublesome 
  • The online-based plant firm admitted it had ‘fallen behind’ in delivery times
  • This is Money has received a significant number of queries from customers 

A growing number of green-fingered shoppers have taken to social media to vent their anger at a website that had seemed to be their lockdown saviour – Gardening Express.

Customers of the online-only firm – which offers home delivery of horticultural supplies – complain they are still waiting for flowers and plants ordered at the start of lockdown in March. Meanwhile, emails from worried green-fingered punters are being met with automated responses and many refund requests going unanswered.

The situation is grave enough that the firm’s founder Chris Bonnett is due to appear on the Radio 4 consumer programme You and Yours show on 1 June to answer some questions.  

Plant problems: A number of customers have vented their fury about Gardening Express

New customers flocked to the website in March when it became clear most gardening centres would not be exempted from compulsory retail closures under lockdown.

But many experienced slow or non-existent deliveries and then found the Chelmsford-based company does not have a telephone number. It also temporarily shut down its Twitter account, so customers could no longer send a direct message by this method. The company reopened its Twitter account today and is receiving direct messages again.

Those who have submitted a request via the company’s website to ask about their orders have been warned that they will face a ‘significant delay’ in receiving a response.

Gardening Express – which This is Money has contacted – is open about the challenges it has faced in the last few months, stating on its homepage that deliveries are subject to delays, and in some cases by ‘at least’ two to four weeks. 

Leanne McDougall, 37, an event steward currently on maternity leave from Glasgow, told This is Money about her experience with Gardening Express.

Ms McDougall placed a £39.97 order with Gardening Express on 16 April, but is yet to revive her delivery from the company. 

‘I’m still waiting for my £184 order’

Martin Hibberd placed an order with Gardening Express on 18 April

Martin Hibberd placed an order with Gardening Express on 18 April

Martin Hibberd, 55, a sales and operations director from near Salisbury, has been in touch with This is Money about his experience with Gardening Express.

Speaking to This is Money, Mr Hibberd said he placed a £184.83 order with Gardening Express on 18 April, but is yet to receive his delivery from the company.

The order included a number of Van Gogh Tuscan Totem Pole cypress trees for £89.97.

Mr Hibberd said: ‘Given the pandemic I can see why so many looked to their gardens and can certainly imagine that Gardening Express have been swamped. 

‘I appreciate the steps they took to slow down additional orders by reducing their internet presence though it appears they have adopted a siege mentality and in an effort to fulfil all orders have placed cash before service. 

‘They would have fared better and maintained their reputation had they offered immediate refunds to orders they could not fulfil within a reasonable timeframe (not 6 weeks plus) and concentrated on fewer orders with happy customers.’ 

She told This is Money: ‘I accepted things are incredibly difficult at the moment as I am one those folk shielding as my young daughter has lupus and takes chemotherapy medication so I understand the difficulties.’ 

But, Ms McDougall said she had been ‘very disappointed’ that her order had not yet arrived.

On Tuesday, one Gardening Express customer, Jan Hubbard, posted on Twitter to say that she was ‘really worried about [her] money.’

Ms Hubbard said she placed a £128 order with the company on 14 April, but is yet to receive her delivery. She said she has tried sending Gardening Express messages online, but they are yet to respond.

Another Twitter user, Carly French, said she placed a £160 order online at Gardening Express on 12 April, but was yet to receive her order and had not been able to get in touch with the company. Ms French said she wanted a refund after suffering ‘appalling’ customer service. 

A Twitter user called ‘Lyndsay’ then responded to Ms French’s tweet claiming she had received her Gardening Express order, but thought the plants from the company were in a ‘right state’ and allegedly not packaged adequately. 

‘I placed an order with Gardening Express on 20 April’

Kath Monteith placed an order with Gardening Express on 20 April

Kath Monteith placed an order with Gardening Express on 20 April

Kath Monteith, 49, a partner at a law firm living in Newcastle upon Tyne, contacted This is Money about her experience with Gardening Express.

Ms Monteith placed a £160 order with Gardening Express on 20 April.

She told This is Money: ‘I had an acknowledgement from them confirming the order. They processed my payment of £160 and then I heard nothing.

‘I sent three emails and only after the third sent this week did I get a reply.’

Ms Monteith told told This is Money she had requested a refund from Gardening Express today.

On Wednesday, fellow customer Jill Rennard also took to Twitter to say that she placed an order with Gardening Express five weeks ago, but was yet to receive her order. 

Ms Rennard said on Twitter: ‘I know it’s exceptional times but they’re happy to take the money.’  

On Facebook, the company’s founder Chris Bonnett,  published a lengthy post on Friday suggesting that Gardening Express was now ‘catching up’ with its outstanding orders.

Mr Bonnett added: ‘We put an awful lot of steps in place to mitigate the situation as it unfolded, but despite all of these, we have fallen behind where we would like to be in terms of dispatch time-frames.’  

The company has seen over 160,000 orders placed since lockdown, which is around five times its normal level for this time of year. 

Full response from Gardening Express

In response to This is Money’s article, a spokesperson for Gardening Express, said: ‘The demand we have seen over the past few weeks has been unprecedented but we are working around the clock to fulfil every order. 

‘Obviously there are restrictions in place and our staff have to maintain social distancing measures while processing orders but we have opened two new packaging centres, trebled staff numbers and introduced a nightshift so we can work day and night to get the orders out to our customers.

‘We have also taken steps to make a large number of products out of stock and cut Google visibility, so order levels have dropped back from Easter weekend’s peak of 7000 a day, and we are making good progress on orders in hand. It’s also worth noting that as soon as orders started to rise we pulled product from other sales channels such as eBay and Amazon.

‘We are doing all we can and we ask customers to please be patient at this unprecedented time. We have been constantly updating the website with expected delivery times, starting with 15 working days, now increased to delays of up to four weeks and possibly more depending on product. This messaging has been clearly plastered all over the site, and on our FAQs pages etc for some considerable time.

‘Some of our plants were marked as not being ready for shipping until mid-May, and this includes some bestsellers. The reason for this is we ship the plants when they are able to thrive and not be killed by a ground frost. This is clearly stated on the website although some customers may miss this.

‘Every customer gets an automated email when they place their order and again after five, ten, 15 and 20 days if the delivery hasn’t been made, explaining the issues we are facing. Some customers may need to check spam filters to ensure they receive these emails. A small number may have provided an incorrect email address in error.

‘Customers can cancel orders for a full refund at any time if the order has not been shipped, but we are promising to fulfil every order taken. We have the plants here at our nursery and we can say with certainty that all orders will be fulfilled if people are patient.’

 

Full statement from Gardening Express' founder Chris Bonnett on Facebook posted on 22 May

Full statement from Gardening Express’ founder Chris Bonnett on Facebook posted on 22 May 

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