T & M up for sale

[Potstubsdustbins]

Fame at last must be me looks grizzled old spud.

Pray tell whats a Pome?

[veggiechicken]

I wouldn't have had the nerve to call it a Poem

[Greenleaves]

Its nice to see T&M respond
And lets us know how they are getting on
Quite a few poems about them, I am counting
Perhaps we deserve some special discounting
Perhaps through verse, I will get your backing
To asked for a little bit off with free post and packing

[Lumpy]

Thompson & Morgan are donkeys years old,
Oh dear I hope their not sold,
they might just have a late reprieve,
if they reduce the price of their seeds,
along with other garden stuff,
reduce the price and I know it's tough,
but, if they make themselves the 'go to place'.
for all things garden they will earn their place,
as the country's leading garden store, and we will spend there more and more!

[Bill HH]

I wish you well dear T&M
May you go from strength to strength
Selling giant tomatoes
And cucumbers of extra length.

Competitors surround you
So be in the upper bracket
By working very hard
To get the right seeds in the packet.


best of luck T&M................... Bill

[WendyC]

Love the photos on the link showing the inside of the seed warehouse. It's just how I imagine the VSP to be.

[Lumpy]

OK because T&M seem to be keeping an eye on this thread I thought I would add a few of my suggestions to make the company more grower friendly.

Thousands of people are starting to have a go at GYO and many of them are complete novices who, like me, don't have much of a clue as to the right seeds for their growing areas. As garden sizes shrink so does area available, unless people get or want a lottie. Therefore many are forced to use whatever space they can afford.

Have a section for Container Growing - Close Space Growing etc

Divide your areas better e.g I have been looking for cold tolerant bush toms and had to Goggle seed varieties before I went onto your site - lifes too short to plough through the selection and I gave up so how about splitting the section into indoor, outdoor, bush, cordon, cold tolerant etc.

Put a symbol on varieties that can be spaced closer together.

Offer a pick and mix veggie plant section - I have heard good things about your plant quality but won't order any veggies as I don't want 20 cabbage etc so why not give people a chance to fill a tray with plants in numbers they do want.

Pretty picture packets are expensive to produce so why not go to plain packaging (pics can be seen in the cat or online) to save money and drop the seed prices.

Have a decent end of season sale - many on this site would order until their debit/credit card melted.

Show your supprt for wildlife by showing symbols on varieties.

Shout about the good you are doing by supporting health, school, community projects.

Have a free garden planner.


And so my rant ends but I am sure others on here have more suggestions.

[Alison]

Offer a pick and mix veggie plant section - I have heard good things about your plant quality but won't order any veggies as I don't want 20 cabbage etc so why not give people a chance to fill a tray with plants in numbers they do.

Hmmmmm, might be worth you looking at some of the older threads on this subject, quite a few of us have had our fingers burnt by late delivery and poor quality products which aren't as described and then struggled to get anything sensible out of customer services. Personally I think they gave a lot of work to do to become a go to company so hopefully they are still reading this thread.

[Lumpy]

Alison I agree with your comments because although I have not bought veggie plants I did buy 3 citrus tree's. It was on offer in one of the GYO mags and when they turned uo the 3 tree's, all about 8 in high had 4 leaves between them.
They cost just over £20 and for an extra £4 I could have got the same 3 citrus, 2-3 foot tall, fully leaved, some with fruit from a well know German store.

I did phone customer dis-services and the quote was 'what do you want me to do about it'?

I really hope that my 36 perennials turn up soon and really, really hope that they arn't all foxgloves. They have had the money now for 4-5 weeks.

[veggiechicken]

Love the photos on the link showing the inside of the seed warehouse. It's just how I imagine the VSP to be.

Haha!! That made me laugh, Wendy. If the VSP were that big, I'd have to move house and employ staff. Its more like 2 big plastic boxes - the sort that are sold for underbed storage.

[mothhawk]

I've always avoided T&M seeds since I found the germination rate to be very poor, so it is too costly in both money and time wasted waiting for seeds to grow, failing, and re-ordering from someone else.

[ThompsonMorgan]

OK because T&M seem to be keeping an eye on this thread I thought I would add a few of my suggestions to make the company more grower friendly.

Thousands of people are starting to have a go at GYO and many of them are complete novices who, like me, don't have much of a clue as to the right seeds for their growing areas. As garden sizes shrink so does area available, unless people get or want a lottie. Therefore many are forced to use whatever space they can afford.

Have a section for Container Growing - Close Space Growing etc

Divide your areas better e.g I have been looking for cold tolerant bush toms and had to Goggle seed varieties before I went onto your site - lifes too short to plough through the selection and I gave up so how about splitting the section into indoor, outdoor, bush, cordon, cold tolerant etc.

Put a symbol on varieties that can be spaced closer together.

Offer a pick and mix veggie plant section - I have heard good things about your plant quality but won't order any veggies as I don't want 20 cabbage etc so why not give people a chance to fill a tray with plants in numbers they do want.

Pretty picture packets are expensive to produce so why not go to plain packaging (pics can be seen in the cat or online) to save money and drop the seed prices.

Have a decent end of season sale - many on this site would order until their debit/credit card melted.

Show your supprt for wildlife by showing symbols on varieties.

Shout about the good you are doing by supporting health, school, community projects.

Have a free garden planner.


And so my rant ends but I am sure others on here have more suggestions.

Hi Lumpy

It's been so interesting reading your suggestions. We are in the process of making changes to our website and are constantly looking for ways to improve. I will ensure all of your suggestions and comments are passed onto our E-Commerce team who I know will really value the time you have taking in providing your feedback.

We do include lots of helpful sections on tips and advice on our website however I appreciate they may not be as accessible or easy to locate when quickly browsing online.

We include lots of articles on our website and always endeavor to keep our fingers on the pulse to what is up and coming in the gardening world and what our customers enjoy reading. If you would like to check out the articles on the link below these will provide lots of tips on growing in containers that I hope you will find useful.

Thompson-Morgan

In our peak season Thompson & Morgan can ship thousands of orders daily and in order to offer the best service and delivery, we are unable to offer our Customers the ability to hand pick a collection. Although we would love to offer this to our customers and experience this one on one connection, it is not something we can provide.

With regards to our seeds, the cost in producing full colour packets but also keeping our pricing competitive is a constant challenge and one that we need to balance effectively. However, many of our customers experience difficulty with identifying our packets when we do use a generic image across a varied range of seeds. Nevertheless, I have passed your comments on to ensure this is taken into consideration.

Furthermore, we do have a sections located on our website which is dedicated to facts about our wildlife and I hope you find this interesting

Wildlife Gardening | Thompson & Morgan

Plants for Wildlife | Plants for a Purpose | Thompson & Morgan

Once again, thank you for taking the time to pass on your feedback and I will ensure this is passed to our E-Commerce team who are always greatful for all new suggestions.

Kind regards

Natalie.

[Lumpy]

Well, after reading all that response I wish T&M good luck in the future as I think they may need it.

Attitudes towards gardening and growing are changing in reaction to shop quality, air miles, GM, garden footprint sizes, money availability and physical and mental health issues plus others and companies will only survive if they accommodate and provide for these changes.

Why not send out questionaire's to people on your mailing lists and actually ask them, your customers, what you should be doing rather than rely on business management services to come up with ideas.

[Greenleaves]

As the thread has transgressed from the original post I have closed it. If you have comments to make about customer service at T&M it should be via their website.

Buy Plants, Seeds, Fruit Trees & Seed Potatoes | Thompson & Morgan

[bearded bloke]

Further to the above I have removed/edited comments made since T&M's most recent post, as these cannot be replied to here now the thread is closed


Edit:http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...ml#post1372589