Thompson & Morgan - issues!
Thought I would vent my frustrations on this forum at the experience I am having with T&M at the moment.
I ordered their perennial collection, some penstemon and a 'lucky dip' perennial and used Tesco Clubcard vouchers to pay - order placed 9th Feb.
I emailed a few weeks later to chase up the order and was told that they originally expected the delivery to be end of Feb but that the plants would now be delivered by the end of March but that "this would not impact the performance of the plants" (I beg to differ given I'd lost a least a month of potting on in the greenhouse vs receiving plug plants end of March, a big ask for those plants to catch up where the Feb plants would have been).
A week or so later the Penstemon arrive - drowning and wilted, almost shrivelled up to nothing. I quickly potted them on and gave them as much TLC as I could but only 1 of the 6 has survived. I emailed to complain and was told replacements would be sent (two weeks on and they haven't been yet...).
It's now the end of March and no plants have been delivered. I have emailed a couple of times in the last week and no reply.
I have been a customer of T&M previously and have had reasonably good service and have broadly been pleased with the plants (usually small plugs but well packaged and healthy). This experience is just about putting me off for life!! I wonder if paying with Tesco Clubcard vouchers makes you a 'second class' customer with them? Has anyone else had a similar experience?
Posts
I paid with tesco vouchers for some seeds and added on 3 plugs of rozanne geranium as a special. Deliver before end of march. They came on Saturday last. bone dry.3rd doesn't seed to have any roots. I doubt it will make it.
The coin is a £2 used for comparison. They're not what I would call superplugs.
I wish I'd taken a photo of my Penstemon plugs - it's embarrassing that one of their employees thought it was OK to put them in a plastic box and post them!! My fingers are crossed that when my plugs finally do arrive they at least stand a chance of doing something this summer!!
T&M have really gone down hill in recent years, I have had loads of problems with them I will not be using them again.
Also Van Meuwen & Vernons geranium nursery are the same, both part of T&M
I agree with Mark 499 on abysmal service from T & M I have given them up. I have in recent years had good service from Jersey Plants Direct.
Mike W
I did email them immediately to complain - they were never going to ask for them to be returned, I only hope the replacements are sent in better condition (if not I will expect refund). I simply tried to 'save' some of the poor plants following TM neglect! Tricky thing is I paid via clubcard so dont know how refund would work. Lesson learnt - I won't order from TandM again.
Hi Smiffy G
Thank you for your post. I am very sorry to learn of your disappointment with your recent T&M order and I appreciate the inconvenience this has caused.
The past few months have been the busiest in the history of Thompson & Morgan with everything coming to a head in the past two months. With the warm Winter and rainy season it has caused a delay in the growing of our plants which has had a knock on affect with all of our orders.
I understand that you have put your faith and trust with us to ensure your order is delivered to you swiftly and of good quality. At Thompson & Morgan we take this responsibility very seriously and regret whenever we are unable to perform to our high standards.For this I am sorry.
With regards to your query of refunding payments made through Tesco. If you wish to claim a refund we would be happy to action this and we would notify Tesco of this arrangement. Tesco would then refund the points used back onto your Clubcard which would show on your next quarterly statement.
I hope this information has helped. If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to get in touch at [email protected]
Kind regards,
Natalie
Customer care
I don't mean to interfere here but with regards to the response by a Thompson & Morgan employee.
That is not an excuse, You are a global company, customer service should be your number one priority.
I have seen on too many occasions, poor customer service from your company.
Being as you call it 'busy' is an extremely poor reason for these customers atrocious delivery's.
I suggest you take a long hard look at the company you are working for.
Hi Mattbeer87
Thank you for your review.
I appreciate your comments and we always welcome feedback from our customers, both positive and negative. We pride ourselves on our customer service and I understand that this season we have not lived up to the high standards that we expect to provide.
We are intergarting a new ordering system while relocating our Despatch department which has caused some delay in process of our orders. We regret the inconvenience this has caused and we will endeavour to ensure this matter is reviewed with the urgency it requires.
We value your custom and I am very sorry for the disappointment caused. This is not indicative of our usual service and I hope you will give us another chance to be of service to you in the future.
If there is anything further I can do, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Care team.
Kind regards
Natalie
Natalie, Could you indicate whether you think the above three plants are acceptable.. especially the one on the right.
Surely, even if you are really busy, it doesn't take much training of the packers for them to be selective in what plants they send out, and substandard ones be held back for further growing on or discarding.
I havn't written in to complain. Last time I did with some plants from you, I was told that"All our plants are capable of flowering in their first season." The blue poppies died before flowering, the hardy gerberas weren't hardy, and the Verbascum plugs were rotten when I got them.
I won't be succcumbing to the pretty pictures again.
I haven't used T & M for a very long time for the very same reasons given by Smiffy G and fidgetbones. The plants I was receiving were very poor and many didn't survive. My husband worked for a Dutch flower company direct out of Holland and he said the plants shown by fidgetbones wouldn't even make it out of the auction and would end up in the bin. Surely T & M realised before the date of delivery of these plants that there was going to be a delay because of the weather and the loss of growing time. Maybe a block email to all customers may have helped or a notice on the web site.
I now grow everything from seed, I buy my seeds from Premier Seeds Direct on Ebay and every seed I have sown has germinated, brilliant.
Good luck with your plants everyone.