Wth is witht he mail order comapnies

[epsilon]

Soo I've noticed that buying seed from the smaller hobbyist growers is so much better. Not only do you get much better report with the owners on things like flexibility and customer service. But the little guy is sooo much more effective and efficient at getting your orders out to you in as short a time as possible. not to mention the prices are much better, which you would think would not be the case because of the difference of space and time to grow.

I swear if it weren't for the novelty stuff that so many flower gardeners liked from parks and others, they would probably eat it really,really quick. Which makes me wonder if there are any heirloom/hobbyist flower growers that sell neat seeds at great prices too.

I especially love the community of growers/ seed sellers on T-ville as they are some of the nicest and knowledgeable people that I have ever had the pleasure of doing business with.. Viva le Small Buisness!

I apologize for this rant.

Gaston

[Irv Wiseguy]

I have to agree. I've bought seeds from several of the smaller vendors listed in the Seed & Plant Sources forum here and have had great service every time.

Irv

[drew51]

I think it's great too, but would say they all have their place. I use both.

[bughunter99]

The smaller ones are not all super speedy. Some of them are still working to incorporate faster technology into their processes. Few of them refuse to do it at all, lol. I'm OK with that. I know up front the way it is going to be-the sites are good at saying that if you read their policies. I just plan accordingly.

The color enhanced, exaggerated descriptions in the Parks catalog are definitely fun to read, but I've never once found anything on Parks that I couldn't find elsewhere on the internet. I'm biased though. They made an enemy forever with me when they sent me a box of mildew infected plants and refused to give me a refund. I'm not alone with reviews like this, buyer beware! http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/3/

Stacy who LOVES garden watchdog for evaluating garden order companies.

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by bughunter99

The smaller ones are not all super speedy. Some of them are still working to incorporate faster technology into their processes. Few of them refuse to do it at all, lol. I'm OK with that. I know up front the way it is going to be-the sites are good at saying that if you read their policies. I just plan accordingly.

The color enhanced, exaggerated descriptions in the Parks catalog are definitely fun to read, but I've never once found anything on Parks that I couldn't find elsewhere on the internet. I'm biased though. They made an enemy forever with me when they sent me a box of mildew infected plants and refused to give me a refund. I'm not alone with reviews like this, buyer beware! http://davesgarden.com/products/gwd/c/3/

Stacy who LOVES garden watchdog for evaluating garden order companies.

And DG's Garden Watchdog isn't perfect either and that's b/c there are certain folks, I won't name names, but it's been noted before that they use fictitious user names to praise sites that they own.

Carolyn

[drew51]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

And DG's Garden Watchdog isn't perfect either and that's b/c there are certain folks, I won't name names, but it's been noted before that they use fictitious user names to praise sites that they own.

Carolyn

I didn't know they own any nurseries? Seems like I would have heard that before. I always respected their Top 5 ratings, as my experience with the top 5 nurseries was always fantastic. i would like to know what they own?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by drew51

I didn't know they own any nurseries? Seems like I would have heard that before. I always respected their Top 5 ratings, as my experience with the top 5 nurseries was always fantastic. i would like to know what they own?

Oh dear, I think you misread what I posted.

DG doesn't own any nurseries or seed sites, what I said above is that there were certain persons who owned seed sites who used fictitous names to give high ratings to the seed companies that they, the fictitious name persons, use to praise their own companies.

This was actually discussed here in a thread I'll probably never find, but could try if you insist that I do it, also who knows when I'll have time to do it.

Carolyn

[drew51]

OK, well good we made that clear, yes, I can definitely see that happening! It doesn't work as I tend to focus on the negatives anyway!
I'm often on the Fruit and Orchard forum of GW, and we have caught people doing that too. When you post a positive review the day you joined, it kinda gives it away

[Doug9345]

With any reviews I actually read the reviews to seem what the negatives are actually complaining about. If it's about high shipping cost then you know that going in and I don't feel that warrants a negative review. If it's about wrong varieties then that is a much bigger issue.

I'm also very wary if there are a lot of negative reviews swapped to positive. Some companies cajole or coerce customers into changing their reviews.

[drew51]

I think if you're a big company, you're going to get some negative reviews. Anybody who has run a business understands that one person cannot run the whole thing. So a company is about as good as it's employees. Often a good idea to treat them well, they represent you. I usually buy from big companies because they often have exclusives. One can wait a year or two for the smaller, better run nurseries to obtain the item. But often I cannot! Burpee, Gurneys, and others do offer exclusives. Most of the time I don't care, but upon occasion I do. Burpees had Double Gold raspberry first, I really wanted this. It is at other places now. Henry Fields this year has Niwot raspberry, next year Nourse Farms, a top rate, as good as it get's fruit nursery will have it, but I could not wait. Niwot is the first primocane (fall bearing) black raspberry to hit the market. I have has discussions with the breeder. He is helping me with my own raspberry crosses. So I wanted to get this ASAP. I respect the breeder a lot. He sent me instructions on breeding raspberries. I want to support him.

Having said all that I have bought most of my seeds from small to intermediate sized companies. Plus some of you guys sent seed. If I actually mange to grow some, I'll offer up seed. I do have excess seed from ones I have purchased that I do not need too.

[Doug9345]

Originally Posted by drew51

I think if you're a big company, you're going to get some negative reviews.

That's why I actually read reviews. Big and small companies can end up with that one customer that is unreasonable and posts negitive reviews. DG GWD is helpful as long as you are mindful that it can be manipulated. I weight the reviews based on the number a person has posted, the time between joining and posting and whether I recognize the reviewer as being an active poster otherwise.

[drew51]

I too read the reviews. I was just looking at coir products as a substitute for peat. I looked at three products and read the reviews on Amazon. Almost all were positive, but about 6 reviews on 3 products were 1 star. I read those, all of them were with price, postage, and one said weight was off. Many of the one star reviews even said the product rocked. I was actually amazed as basically their were absolutely not one negative review about the products themselves. That's actually a first! I looked because a guy on GW warned about phytotoxicity, and it is true that salt can be a problem, but the companies selling it are aware of this problem. It seems the product is pretty good, worth a try at least!

So yes one really needs to read the reviews. I guess I got into the habit by reading the reviews on allrecipes.com as they reviewers often point out the flaws and alternatives ingredients, so I found reading the reviews there, super useful.

[debles]

I rely on reviews when considering products I've never tried before or companies I've never dealt with before.
Even if I don't purchase from the company where the reviews are, I try to read as much as I can before deciding yes or no on a product.
Many times negative reviews are more about confusion of the buyer, but if many mention a common complaint, it warrants consideration.
I'm an Amazon Vine member and get to try many products and books free on the condition I review them within a specified period of time. There has never been any pressure to post positive reviews.

[Worth1]

Reviews are lopsided due to the nature of people.
You do something great and no one knows, you screw up and the world knows.
So what you sometimes get is all complaints.

Then there is the stupid review, "Ive had my so and so for one week and I love it".

The the ones that have had the same thing for a year have nothing but bad to say.
This is the reason I haven't bought certain things the one year out ones were almost all bad.

A tiller I bought had horrible reviews and I still bought it.
The reason was the things people complained about were their own fault.

Hard to shift from forward to reverse, gas flooded the carburetor and the shear pins kept busting.

The fix for me was bump the clutch to get it to shift,"it isn't a car transmission, turn off the gas like it says to do and dont till rocks.

Ive read bad reviews right here on this site about a seed company I use all of the time.
"I got seeds from so and so and none of them came up"
BS the reason they didn't come up was their fault not the seed company many times.
Reasons are plenty.
Cooked the seeds.
Planted the seeds too deep.
Messed with the seeds with some magic seed sprout potion.
Let soil dry out in the middle of the sprouting process.

Then there are the complaints about the amount.
If the seed suppler says 20 seeds then expect 20 seeds, 'not more, if you get more fine if you dont then dont complain.
I dont count seeds I trust the people I buy from.
It would be like someone paying me back money I trusted and counted it in front of them.

Worth

[Doug9345]

There also seems to be a mob mentality when it comes to reviews. Good reviews seem to beget good reviews and bad ones seem to beget more bad ones.