Ty Ty seems to have a VERY extensive history of unscrupulousness - customers being cheated, lied to, and mistreated. This is surprising, given that it is after all, a place to buy plants. Of course I found all of this out after ordering form this past year.
MY EXPERIENCE ASIDE - this company's history with this kind of stuff is quite atrocious. Their rating and comments (59 NEGATIVE, 13 Positive) on the site at http://gardenwatchdog.com/c/489/ &this says it all. Something needs to be done about this, people are being cheated by their mail order branch constantly. Looking deeper into the complaints, I discovered that since 1982, there have been more written complaints against the owner (s) of TyTy Nursery (running nurseries 25 different names) than all the other 3000 Nurseries in Georgia COMBINED. Their treatment of the customer is quite indifferent, reluctant, and in some cases aggravating and discurteous. Customers associated with their largest blunders are completely ignored. I encourage anyone who has dealt with them before to file thier own report. A researched report by Tom Kowalski can be read here: http://gardenwatchdog.com/comments.php? Compid=489&offset=50
As for my own experience, it all began when my order of several tender, high-priced plants arrived beaten from transit, and without packaging protection of any kind. They were also much smaller than advertised. I was patient with TyTy at first, and I called about this mishap the day the plants arrived. I told them that roots were severed, bulbs were very bruised and that the plants wouldn't survive. I was told to wait it out, to see if they lived. So, I planted them anyway despite my intuitions and hoped for the best.
However, when all of my plants had died despite special care and patience on my part, I began to get a bit annoyed. So I called again, and they sent me a policy card outlining the guidelines for "free" replacement. This is where my real issue with the company began. I am usually quite reluctant to get involved in complaints, unless it is a very serious issue, and it is their coercing policy which I object to.
The policy I found to be quite inappropriate given the circumstances. The problem in the tranaction obviously had nothing to do with me, but with their neglignece. However, the policy cited several things which I had to do - things I found quite unreasonable.
First, you have to ship back the dead plant matter for inspection, so the company can determine if they are really dead. This is a cost to me, about $4 just to ship them dirt and dried stems. If living tissue is found, the 'guarentee' is void.
Secondly, you have to pay them another 25% of you order's cost for replacement shipping/boxing. With my order, this plus shipping back the dirt would cost around $25-$27 - for something they call a "free" replacement. This is totally unreasonable. So, knowing that I had done nothing but send them money, and they had sent dying plants, I came to be quite annoyed about this and filed a complaint with the BBB requesting a full refund.
Rather than a refund, I recieved a letter stating that I was being uncooperative, and that I had refused to follow thier guidelines. They brought up several circumstancially irrelevant arguments in defense of thier policy, and reasons why I should not be able to get any money back. As of now, a representative and I have exchanged 2 letters, and it goes on still. I have recieved a response claiming that I am "misrepresenting" their absurd policy - that I am simply an uncooperative customer who should've followed their guidelines. Their defense is clearly only about keeping my money, and not about actually selling plants or even listening to what their customers have to say.
"Doctors and pharmacists do not give refunds if their treatments or medecines do not work..." is what I have been most recently told. So the exchange continues with another letter I sent last week.
0 comments