Supplier still stimulating demand while can't deliver because high demand

[quanglewangle]

When I ordered some trees from Gardening Express I was expecting delivery in a few days. That stretched to 10. Then to 15. They don't have a phone and have suspended their online chat service and the only remaining way to contact them is a trouble ticket system that carries warnings that it is heavily loaded (hardly surprising) because of unprecedented demand. I got a keep-warm e-mail a few days ago "virus, unprecedented demand, blah, blah"

My gripe is that during this period, when they can't keep to reasonable delivery times due to high demand, they have been further stimulating demand with special offers on their web site.

This is not principally a virus matter, it is a get-the-money-in-and-worry-about-the-service-level-later, or never, matter


To cap it all I suspect that now they are about to dispatch on a Friday, for the plants to spend the weekend parked in a too hot/too cold courier's van

[Martin H]

I've always had excellent service from specialist companies. I've bought hedge plants, fruit trees, chrysanthemums and seeds that way, with prompt despatch and very good results.

But I have found that mail-order purchases from generalist companies, those that sell all kinds of different things, to be patchy at best. Their money and effort seems to go into production of lavish catalogues that land on your doormat with a loud thud at regular intervals, and into email and social media advertising of fantastic "bargains".

Sad to say, the worst culprits seem to be those that used to be purely seed suppliers but have now branched out into so many different things that they can't even send a decent packet of seed promptly.

[quanglewangle]

^^^ OK, lesson learned.
We are big users of Amazon Prime and have got used to their really good customer service. Whenever we have had a problem, which hasn't been often, the attitude has been to give a refund more or less out of hand.