In January I ordered 2 butterfly and hummingbird gardens from Michigan Bulb. My mother also ordered two. It was a great deal—my mother sent a check and I gave them my credit card number.
When we still hadn't received anything in June (and all of the other places I ordered from had sent their plants) I checked the website and saw that the plants weren't scheduled to ship until June 30-July 15.By this time the perennials would be mostly finished blooming. Needless to say, I was none too happy. My front garden had been tilled and weeded waiting for these plants. My daughter was waiting to plant her butterfly garden.
I decided to continue waiting. It was still a great deal, and would look great next year.
Yesterday my mother got a check in the mail. "Sorry. Unable to ship. We'll send you a new catalog". I, on the other hand, had received NO communication whatsoever. Not even an email to say, "Hey, we can't ship it. Sorry." I wrote to customer service to tell them this, and let them know I didn't think I'd be ordering from them in the future, since all the other places I ordered from managed to get my plants to me.
The reply I got floored me. I mean, aren't customer service departments supposed to be for "serving the customer"? Doesn't Michigan Bulb care at all about retaining customers? The reply was. "Due to the popularity of the garden, we were out of stock. And it's past our shipment time for the summer. We removed you from the mailing list." It pretty much said to me, "Too bad, so sad. And don't let the door hit you in the arse on the way out."
I checked their website to check on their shipping times. They don't ship in the summer. Why in the world would they put my shipping dates as June 30th-July 15th? They KNEW they wouldn't ship it out then! And they couldn't bother themselves with an email to let me know the status of my order?
I understand things run out. I understand that shipments can't always be sent. But this reeks of Michigan Bulb knowing full well they wouldn't have enough to meet demand, but they still kept taking orders for it. Considering I ordered in January and then got a ship date of mid-summer when they KNEW they don't ship in the summer. The whole thing is bad business. I won't shop there again (not that they care).
It was extremely poor customer service all around. I won't do business with them again, and I suggest that anyone else who does do business with them, and writes a check, to expect the possibility of them holding your money for 7 months interest free. Maybe I should just be pleased my mom got a refund?
Lynnette
Appleton, Wisconsin
U.S.A.
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