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Feedback on online plant retailer

J

jamesb

Member
Joined
12 Jun 2012
Messages
226
When it came to buying plants for my current scape I learnt a valuable lesson. If you want decent plants cheaply the only places to go are; last trading post on eBay (I bought 20 plants I would say maybe 3 stems were a little straggly everything else spot on) or forums. However of you have a specific plant list you want to order all in one go you get what you pay for with plantedtanks. When I added. All the plants I wanted from TGM it came to about £70.00 which took me back so I shopped about and found these guys. The costs came to less than £30 so with such a big difference I figured I would give them a shot. Initially I placed the order on a tuesday night. Wednesday morning I received an email telling me how they bring plants in. They make one order a week from their supplier on a Tuesday lunch, plants come on Friday and generally you receive on a Monday at the earliest regardless of paying for overnight courier. This annoyed me as the only place I saw any details about delivery was when i payed a little extra for overnight courier. This was for the delivery from their warehouse/shop and not from the supplier but like I said I didn't find out the truth till the following day. After inspecting the website I found a page giving this information. Personally I feel that this information should be flashed right in front of your face before you place an order. (maybe when you select your delivery options for the transit of plants to your house!) anyway. The following Friday came and I received a partial refund with no explanation what so ever. In the end I emailed them and found out it was for plants that I ordered that the wholesaler didn't have. Again no information about stock on website, no information when receiving refund and no option to have them delivered when stock was available I feel is pretty poor customer service. When I received the plants none of them looked in good condition and the hygrophila difformis was completely dead. I emailed customer services and got no reply so found the email for the boss and sent him one. I got told they would order me some more and if that was no good I could have a refund (great faith in the product your selling). I talked to fellow members on the forum (showing pics too) and there were some feelings the plants were from the far east instead of Europe like advertised. I was assured they were from Europe though. When I asked for an eta on the new batch of plants I got no reply. Again it took 2 weeks as the emails regarding replacements took place Tuesday evening as it took 24 hours to get any form of reply from them. (you would of thought seeing as i was an unhappy customer they would of got them in a bit quicker one way or another)Well this batch weren't great I received 3 bunches and I would say I threw at least half a bunch away and the rest was passable...BARELY! All in all I think I will just save up and go to the green machine
 
Aqua essentials. Tgm. And try watermarque on ebay, very nice service from them. for me, aqua essentials rock.
 
I have all I need for now but thankyou :). Just wanted others to know this lot aren't overly great
 
Last trading post, is a brilliant guy. Works out some amazing deals with the farms for large orders of plants.
 
Thats utterly appalling treatment. I am a very conscious shopper, relying on good/negative feedback before making decisions.

I can categorically guarantee that I will not be giving this guy a penny.

Sorry for your bad experience james, but it will help others in future by posting this I am sure.
 
:thumbup:
Gill said:
Last trading post, is a brilliant guy. Works out some amazing deals with the farms for large orders of plants.
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. :text-+1:
 
Like I say it was top notch service. Has anyone tried ordering something specific from him that isn't listed on eBay?
 
Hi all,
Last trading post, is a brilliant guy.
Click to expand...
I've known Mike at "Last Trading Post" for quite a long time, and he is a planted tank enthusiast and fish-keeper with a shop, rather than a shop-keeper with fish. He always has interesting small fish in the shop (Amazon Aquatics in Warminster) and I'm sure if you after something different plant wise he will try and get it for you.

cheers Darrel
 
Thanks for the heads up on planted tanks . Net

To be fair I only get my plants from tgm. And I don't like shopping for this hobby online.

I try to support local shops:)
 
geoffbark said:
Thanks for the heads up on planted tanks . Net

To be fair I only get my plants from tgm. And I don't like shopping for this hobby online.

I try to support local shops:)
Click to expand...

Your really luck if tgm is your lfs ... some of the plants on offer near me are appalling.
 
I bought some Echinodorus from Plantedtanks and they're great. Well established now.
Maybe I was just lucky.
Also bought from Tgm as it's close to me and wouldn't go anywhere else now
 
This has been discussed so many times here, if you want good quality plants then you have to buy Tropica, also great quality but find smaller pots are Aquafleur, everything else if just pot luck, haven't brought a lot of plants online to be honest as I have ADC that sell Tropica plants and also LW that thrive on quality plants. But when buying online in the past always went with Aqua Essentials or TGM, you pay a premium but you know what you paying for.
 
I've bought plants from plantedtanks.co.uk three times before through their forum. First time the plants were great. Second time a little dodgy and third time every one arrived dead. I had similar responses from customer support on the third time and had to go trough the Paypal resolution process to get my money back.

Mike at last trading post is great, he's done special orders for me before. But I am also willing to give other sellers a try, especially on eBay as there's plenty of feedback to go by.
 
Just received a nice collection of plants through the post from Darren at Living Waters Online http://www.livingwatersonline.co.uk. Some of the most delicate stem plants 100% healthy and useable.They are Croydon based, (want to visit sometime) and really care about getting things right, couldn't recommend highly enough to be honest, feels more like buying from friends with the same hobby! Give a ring or send an email. Prices are great, and they can source any plant give or take the seasons, aswell as growing (not melting) many of the classic aquascaping plants and mosses in their own tanks. In the past I've bought from Greenline (all but gone), Java, Plants (Dead or) Alive, aquarium gardening, etc. Living Waters Online is in a different class - and my award for aquatic plant retailer of the year goes to....Living Waters! Proper Nature Aquarium style :clap:
 
The quality and speed of delivery from Aqua Essentials is second to none. I order frequently from them and have never received a lees than perfect plant!
 
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