Allotments 4 All
Produce => Edible Plants => Topic started by: cambourne7 on November 15, 2006, 17:11:22
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Hi
I ordered some seeds from seedfest 6th oct but nothings turned up.
Anyone else had a bad experiance?
cambourne7
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Hi Cambourne,
I used them about 2 years ago. I was unlucky- they lost my order, but after e-mailing and complaining it was sorted and I got my seeds.
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I used paypal to complain afer they did not reply to my email :-(
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I placed an order early in the year and they stated dispatch on 11th August - still waiting and they have promised me that they posted them off four times now. To be fair to them they have now refunded my payment in full but it was disappointing.
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I was about to order from them earlier this year but found out they have a poor reputation, so thankfully I didn't. They also go by the names anioleka and rougeland seed company.
I hope you get your money back.
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Sorry to say, I also sent for some seeds and have not received them and no reply to my emails. I would avoid them like the plague in future.
I also had a similar experience buying a sewing machine from Joy's International Sewing Machines, got the machine (damaged), sent it back, never to be seen again. I have sent emails and a recorded delivery letter but no satisfaction at all. Had to buy a similar machine from ALDI's for nearly half the price (managed to get the last one in store).
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Thanks Glowgirl, Larkshall how did you pay for your seeds??
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Another US based company.
We have some great UK breeders?
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Larkshall how did you pay for your seeds??
I paid with my credit card, it was only £3 so not worth chasing. They got £3 and a lot of bad publicity.
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you should be able to contact your bank (whoever gave you the credit card) and do a chargeback.
You will need copies of all the emails potentialy.
If the bank says they dont know what your taking about ask to speak to there fraud team.
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I got scammed a couple of times on Ebay (dislike with a passion now) and the credit card company sent me forms for the claims but each one carried a charge of £5 for the 'administration'.
So in the case of trying to get back an amount of £3, it would not be worth it financially but more more priciple. But of course, the charge would depend on your credit card company.
Yes there are many excellent UK growers but some varieties of seeds one might want, are hard to come by here. And seedfest does (did) advertise itself as a UK company so it's more buyer beware.
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I bought some from nikkis seeds on line, they were unusual seeds an reasonably priced as well :)
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sounds familiar- i ordered seeds two years ago in november and they arrived (after emailing endlessly) in april: they said that the post office had really let them down. This may well have been true- the orginal package arrived in the following september!
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I've used Seedfest a few times, normally they are very good but this years order was different, I started emailing them after a couple of months because I hadn't received anything, I got no reply but my seeds turned up a few weeks later, along with a selection of free stuff, presumably to make up for the delay. Seems like they're having ditribution problems at the moment.
Another US based company.
We have some great UK breeders?
I know where you're comming from Tim but many of the so called heritage varieties are impossible to source in the UK
I got scammed a couple of times on Ebay (dislike with a passion now)
Sorry to hear that, I've been buying stuff on ebay for 3 or 4 years now and have never had a problem, even when I've bought things from overseas.
One rule I always stick to, if I'm paying more than 50 quid for something it has to be within 60 miles of where I live, that way I can go round & duff 'em up if they try to rip me off :'(
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Yes, my order for three seeds from seedfest came with four freebies ???
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Well that is obviously where your seeds all went - they sent them to MT and Sunny ;D
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from memory i had ordered luffa seeds and some beans which i could not find anywhere else. There the same used in heinz baked beans ;D
I had ordered from them in the past without a problem, i have progressed though ebay and they handle it all without a problem. You find that if you buy via a payment processor like WorldPay, Paypal and others they take on the moral responsibility whilst banks papershuffle. Thats why i never pay with a credit card on ebay. I use checks or paypal.
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You don't have to deal with them through ebay BTW
http://www.seedfest.co.uk/ (http://www.seedfest.co.uk/)
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i know i was just replying to an earlier comment at the same time :D
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I ordered throught them 2nd October, seeds allegedly sent 12th October, nothing arrived to date. 4 emails ingrored. email to CC now who took payment ignored. Paypal dispute started yesterday. Previous satisfied customer now got the right hump !!!!
I am more gutted aboutt the seeds than the money (only £5) as I wanted the wierd squashes and pumpkins and the chillies with no burn ... :(
Hey Ho, I will report back when I have some news.
Helen
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Everyone here seems to have bad experiences with seed companies.
I am in the process of getting a plant and seed business up and running.
We are going to speacialise in chilli and pepper seeds.
What kind of seeds are you having trouble getting hold of?
I will see if I can source some of these and put them up for sale.....
of course with a reliable service!
any ideas welcome.
thanks
:)
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Well that is obviously where your seeds all went - they sent them to MT and Sunny ;D
Sprouty!
:P ;) ;D
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:-[
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while we are all talking about being let down....although it isn't a seed company... we made a big mistake signing on with talk talk...took six months from ordering before we got the modem and install disk...more emails and phone calls than i can remember...then finaly they arrived and didn't down load properly....back to the phone & 20 minutes wait for each call after being told that " that will solve the problem" but it didn't.....then got to talk to the next leval up chappie seems we were one of the people who had been sent a corrupt install disk....so he would send a new disc out and everything would be great ;D 4 weeks later the disc came and guess what no differance..... whenever we want to use the internet we have to unplug the modem and re plug it in again also thair f secure protection didn't install properly and keeps comming up with errors.....replaced it now......they ignor any complaints by email.....we even sent a letter to the main man......no reply either........we now know why they have an 18 month contract or pay £70 yes its cheeper but the worst isp we have been with
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I think the problems that some companies have aren’t with the availability of stock so much as sloppy order processing. Few people would be really upset if they order something and then get a prompt and courteous refund and an apology that what they’ve ordered is out of stock.
What I suspect happens with people like Seedfest is that orders come in and are carelessly handled. Whether they choose to print the orders and use a paper-based system, or rely mainly on computer files, it’s important to administer it scrupulously, and to plan for every eventuality – out of stock, cancellations and amendments, bounced payments, undeliverable, “not delivered”, returns, complaints, and so on and on and on.
On the plus side, many more companies get it right than get it wrong. I guess the rogues quickly go out of business. But I occasionally deal with people who are brilliant if everything goes well, but a nightmare if it goes wrong, simply because they don’t have the right processes even to deal with something straightforward like the delivery getting damaged in the post.
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I ordered seeds worth £6.25 from Seedfest last June - I'm still waiting >:(. There have been umpteen emails sent to - and for a long time returned as undeliverable - many of the Seedfest affiliates. >:( >:( On 25 October I sent another one which didn't get returned, but no reply either. >:( >:( >:( I have used them before and had no problem but I shall never use them again. I've said a :( goodbye to my money and would warn anyone else tempted to try ANY of their websites, to avoid them like the plague >:( >:( >:( >:(.
They moved their U.K. branch back to the States last year and I think it is since then that the problems have arisen. It is downright fraud to take money from someone without supplying the ordered items, be it a product or service. Maybe we should report them to the appropriate American authority - but which one is it?
There have been threads on other gardening forums too, so it isn't just us who have been defrauded of our money.
Tricia
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I hate seedfest! I ordered 50 packets of veg seeds through ebay in February and of course nothing arrived. I had to file a complaint in the end, after several months because they kept ignoring my mails. I got to talk to other people who had the same experience and it seems seedfest had no intention of sending seeds out. They were kicked out of ebay at least twice, as there were so many people complaining to ebay. It's most frustrating because they list so many lovely varieties on their site (which, of course helps to attract people!).
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Everyone here seems to have bad experiences with seed companies.
I am in the process of getting a plant and seed business up and running.
We are going to speacialise in chilli and pepper seeds.
What kind of seeds are you having trouble getting hold of?
I will see if I can source some of these and put them up for sale.....
of course with a reliable service!
any ideas welcome.
thanks
:)
Sounds intersting....... you have a captive audience on here...special discounts to A4A members? ;)
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I hate seedfest! I ordered 50 packets of veg seeds through ebay in February and of course nothing arrived. I had to file a complaint in the end, after several months because they kept ignoring my mails. I got to talk to other people who had the same experience and it seems seedfest had no intention of sending seeds out. They were kicked out of ebay at least twice, as there were so many people complaining to ebay. It's most frustrating because they list so many lovely varieties on their site (which, of course helps to attract people!).
Wow tora thats horible - claim it back from your credit card company!
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I got money back by pay pal. ;)
The most annoying thing was I ended up sowing veg seeds quite late. I'm determined to start sowing early next year! ;D
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:o Can't believe so many problems with one seed company, I ordered from alanromans.com everything I needed and arrived within a week, some people said they don't have a big selection but I found them all right, hope everyone gets their seeds or money back and don't forget to rubbish seedfest early next year to warn other people.
May the coprn be with you.
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On this topic, I've made a reccommendation to have a section dedicated to seed/nursery suppliers. I think it's a good resource for us.
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there is a list of suppliers in the wiki? Is'it there?
paypal just gave me a full refund ;D
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I have filed a dispute through paypal and had a reply from the company that took my message ...
"Hello, this is Joseph Stanley with CCNow Customer Service.
I received your inquiry regarding CCNow order number *********,
and I am sorry to hear that this order has not been received.
I have forwarded your inquiry directly to the seller at
seedfest@aol.com , as a high-priority message. I expect
that you will receive a response within a short time.
Please let me know if you still do not receive a satisfactory
response within 3 business days, and I will
be glad to investigate further.
Regards,
- Joseph Stanley
CCNow Customer Service"
So now the slippery suckers have 3 days to get back to me.....
Next instalment in 3 days time !
Helen
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I Paid through PayPal, but they refused to do anything for me as it was their policy only to mitigate or refund within a 45 day period. I had spent a good two months trying to get my seeds delivered by way of emailing seedfest, getting replies initially saying seeds would be sent, then no replies, then emails returned as undeliverable before complaining to PayPal..gggggrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Tricia
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there is a list of suppliers in the wiki? Is'it there?
paypal just gave me a full refund ;D
Thanks, I never noticed the wiki....but I was thinking more along the lines of members rating/commenting on the seed companies rather than just links to the websites - basically an expansion of this thread.
Re: refund, great to hear :)
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On this topic, I've made a reccommendation to have a section dedicated to seed/nursery suppliers. I think it's a good resource for us.
Until earlier this year I had a site which listed all mail order suppliers of plants and seeds in the UK. For various reasons this is no loner up and running but I have extracted the vegetable and general seed pages and reposted them at http://thewhitchurchweb.org/seeds (http://thewhitchurchweb.org/seeds)
I have marked Seed Fest with a reference to this thread and will do likewise to others if there is the same level of discontent
If I've got anything wrong or missed any out please let me know
Phil
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wow
this is ace
although if you put it in the wiki you would not have to maintain it :)
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:) Congrats on your money back Cambourne, also I missed wiki thanks for that, and tinkie you did say slippery suckers didn't you.
May the corn be with you.
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Hi Daisymay
Yes I would certainly give any memebers of A4A a discount.
I will talk to the owners of A4A and see what they say,
but anyone who is on this forum is welcome to a 10% discount.
I will put a post up when the site is up and running
and stock is ready for purchase.
Peter :)
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Well that is obviously where your seeds all went - they sent them to MT and Sunny ;D
Sprouty!
:P ;) ;D
Oooops :-[ Sprouty of course - don't know who I could have been thinking of.
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Someone said perhaps they are stuck in customs. There are apparently some restrictions on seeds coming in to the country. Food for thought. Hope we aren't blaming Seedfest and it's customs all the time.
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There was a customs inspection sticker on the ones from last year but they still arrived in under 2 weeks, they have now had 6 ! You would have thought that a well organised company would at least have the decency to answer it's emails.
I will let you know how I get on.
Helen
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You would have thought that a well organised company would at least have the decency to answer it's emails.
Exactly! Before I paid for seeds I communicated via emails with seedfest and they were very quick to reply to my mails. Somehow I didn't hear anything from them once I paid. So many people have had bad experiences with them. I don't think it's because of their move to the states. I bought things from the states before and had no trouble. Things arrived pretty quickly.
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Good News
I have received a refund to my paypal account from CC now, the company who takes the money, I have still not had contact from Seedfest so I can cross them off my Christmas Card list !!
Sorry to those who have missed out beacause of paypals 45 days rule, I must have only just scraped in.
I still would have preferedmy seeds though ....
Hey Ho.
Just thought I would let you know the end of it all.
Helen
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If you haven't got any seeds yet Tinky try alanromans.com was 50p a packet +80p p/p and I got them within a week, worth browsing at least.
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i just checked the seedfest site i was looking for the name of something.
it looks like there going back onto ebay!
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I recommend simpson's seeds and realseeds - i oredered from both and had my seeds in days. Plus they are small businesses which we should always support...
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Check out the seeds section in the Wiki - lots of suppliers, but after rreading about Seedfest, perhaps it could do with a blacklist as well.
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yes definatly a black list with a link to the thread
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cambourne7,
If you're after strange exotic plants (mostly flowers but a few fruit & veg) have a look at this:
http://www.jungleseeds.co.uk
Friendly company, great service - and even if you don't buy, the read alone is dribble factor 10!
;D
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yes i have ordered from them before, there really good
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I ordered just before Christmas from seedfest before I read this thread. :-[ Just received all my stuff today, with large numbers of free packets of v. useful stuff. :)
It's a pity people have had so many bad experiences with them. Let's hope they get back on track for this year for more customers than just me with their customer service.
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what email address did you communicate with them on?
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Er, the seedfest one, with aol
seedfest@aol.com
All went swimmingly. I paid through the CC thingy.