Remember when......

[El Jefe]

I asked about  where everyone buys their plants and if you have ever had a bad experience with a dealer. Well I had issues with one company that I went back and forth with for months over plants they sent me that were not in great condition when they arrived, and failed to thrive. the replacements were just as bad I did not want to go through the hassle of dealing with their UN-customer Service yet one more time so I dropped it and called it a 20 dollar lesson. I will never purchase from that dealer again (Direct Gardening) as that had to be my single worst customer service nightmare.  I purchase mostly from Watergardens.com and Lilyblooms.com now and have looked at others as well but they are my two favorites. One reason is their customer service. I had sent Lily blooms an e-mail last fall shortly after my purchase arrived with concerns about 1 of the 2 escarboucle lilies I purchased. and their response was this

At 12:47 PM 9/28/2006, you wrote:
I just ordered over $200.00 dollars worth of water lilies from you and
they all arrived in good condition with the exception of 1 plant which
just appeared to be of a lesser quality when compared to all the other
plants. All the other plants appeared to be healthy and were of a good
size and weight. good color etc. this one particular lily appeared to
be very small and not as healthy and robust as the other plants. I have
doubts to wether it will survive or not given it's condition.........

Then I got a call from their customer service:

I just spoke to your customer service and they asked me to give it
a chance to grow (2-3 weeks ) and see how it does. If it does not
attempt to grow, call back and lilyblooms will replace it. I will wait and
contact you then. Again good doing business with you. Thank you.

And an e-mail from Curtis

If it doesn't grow and do good for you, let us know and we would be happy to replace it.
<Curt
LilyBLOOMS

When I did not see any signs of life I got real concerned and sent this:

At 11:22 PM 1/21/2007, you wrote:
Just as a matter of updating you. Neither Escarboucle has done anything,
they lost what few pads they had and nothing. The other lilies, all planted
in the same soil and same style are all doing great. We have had a
relatively mild winter here in Tallahassee and all of the lilies are growing
new pads, Again with the exception of these two. To be fair I am waiting
until the water warms up to see if I get any response from those two. When
it is warm enough I will wade in and pull the baskets to check for signs of
life. Again I just wanted to refresh this e-mail  to ensure replacement if
these do not grow. Thank you again, Andy

And just last weekend I pulled the baskets out of the water. One (the one I was having an issue with) had some rot and had not done well at all, still it looked as though it might be savageable despite having only one or two roots; so I cut all the bad parts off and  repotted what was left in hopes it would thrive. The second lily appears to be trying and I am hopeful because it finally grew some pilot leaves. Still I thought it only fair to wait and let Lily Blooms know the outcome good or bad when I had some answers. Lily blooms did something I have never heard of.... Went all pro active. I just received this

From: "info@lilyblooms.com" <info@lilyblooms.com>
To: "Andy Zimmerman"
Subject: RE: Enquiry from LilyBLOOMS Aquatic Gardens
Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2007 15:16:47 +0000

We are now shipping zone 8 and your escarboucle should be sent
sometime next week.
LilyBLOOMS

I didn't even have to fuss. They kept track of my response/request from months ago!  THAT  is outstanding customer service!

Andy

[Joyce]

There are quite a few people who could learn something from this.
Especially a few unscrupulous ebay sellers. 

[Ky Kim]

Isn't it nice to find someone that backs there products like that.

Kim

[El Jefe]

If customer service were like this with every American Company how many loyal customers would they have?? Seems to me there is a lot to be learned here. 1 customer out of 100's or thousands and they remember and act proactively on an issue that was submitted several months before, for a customer who was willing to wait. THIS is why I shop with Lily Blooms. 

[Shae]

Amen, Kim. Unfortunately there are too few. Andy, thanks for letting us know about your experience. I bet they'll acquire quite a few more customers as a result. I'm going to have to look up that lily to see what it looks like.

[EagleEye]

I love customer service issues

I deal with them just about every day at work. We have very good CS but I have seen the worst. In fact, I have taken classes on it.
At home I deal with companys with very good and very bad CS. Doesn't take much to figure out which is which. It starts with the phone systems that they set up. And trickles down from there.
I have to say that the bigger companies seem to have much better CS, in my opinion. And I always tell them how they rate and why they will be getting my business because of it.
As far as ebay sellers, I'm sure that there are unscrupulous buggers out there, and plenty of them.

I, for one, always lets a company know when they give me good service, (or bad service) and that they will get my future business.

Steve

[El Jefe]

Shae, Here you go. it really is a good looking lily...


I can highly recommend LilyBlooms, and I can emphatically say stay away from Direct Gardening...... Andy

[curt]

I have never really been on these forums and admit not even looking around (lots of plants to ship) but I wanted to respond to this posting.
I have a policy about replacement plants.  It goes something like this .. if the customer explains that they have received plants and they are not doing well they must wait and see how they turn out.  Take proper care, use good dirt and big containers and if after a few weeks they aren't going to make it for sure I will make sure that they get what they paid for and send them a new plant.  The other half of my policy is if a customer calls/emails me that they just received their shipment and they are all dead and want replacements (now), well .. if they ask me again in a few weeks and explain how they took care of them we may, depending on their answer, send replacements.  I would guess a good way to sum it up is I appreciate honest courteous customers. (They aren't always nice you know)

[El Jefe]

Curt..... Of LilyBlooms, Welcome to American Ponders. I am honored  As you can see I was just talking about you and Lily Blooms. I have to say that every plant I received has done well ( with the mentioned exception) and even these new one's are taking off.
    You made mention that you do not frequent sites like these, I know you are a busy guy but there is a huge untapped resource here. Lots of very knowledgeable people with a willingness to help out, huge networking resource. You may well find that this is a home away from home and a good place to bounce ideas off of some very knowledgeable and resourceful people. We have all types, from hybridizers, to water gardeners to waterscapers/landscapers.... Might want to hang out and stay awhile,  Thank you for providing such great service, I for one appreciate it and will continue to recommend Lilyblooms.com http://www.lilyblooms.com as a water gardening resource. After my nightmare with Direct gardening trying to get some plants replaced you were and are a breath of fresh air. Thanks again, Andy