Gardening Express has a rating of 1.07 stars from 584 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about Gardening Express most frequently mention customer service, trading standards, and phone number problems. Gardening Express ranks 95th among Plants sites.
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Having had a very good experience with Gardening Express earlier this year, I ordered half a dozen more plants a week or so ago. I then decided to check out recent reviews and was shocked to see how damning they all were. I decide to write off the money I'd spent. Instead the service has been fine, the plants delivered today as expected, very well wrapped, and in excellent condition. I don't understand what is happening, unless there is a scam company operating too?
Ordered a few plants and majority were of good size and were healthy. One, however, was not fit for the bin. I complained with photographic evidence and was fobbed off with a story that basically it will grow when planted! Ridiculous
Shockingly bad company! Disingenuous: promising no quibble 14 day refund, if not satisfied is a blatant lie. Despite complaining about the very small, poor quality plants I received, and sending them photos, I have just been fobbed off and refused either a refund or replacement. Avoid like the plague!
Products used:
Delphinium plants.
Poor communication, even worse descriptions and diabolical customer service.
Plants delivered damaged or as just a pot of dirt. They do not cover expensive postage for returns
Products used:
Best off in a compost heap
I recently purchased the following items from the Gardening Express sale: Colourful Garden Mum Chrysanthemums, Fargesia 'Asian Wonder' - Red Dragon Clumping Umbrella Bamboo, and Maranta Fascinator - Prayer Plant, totaling £47.93. Unfortunately, I found them to be noticeably smaller and of lower quality than expected, and in my opinion, not worth the sale price. Despite reaching out via email to request a return and refund, I have not received a response.
Shocking Service. Don't use Gardening Express.
1. We ordered 5 plants. One was too small and not the size ordered. Two were half dead. One had been savaged by slugs/snails.
2. Gardening Express completely ignored our emails and instagram messages to let them know about the order. No response to date and we received the plants over 4 weeks ago.
3. No customer service at all.
Really disappointed with Gardening Express.
Two large ugly brown nodes where branches were cut off (on a cheese plant my sister gave me for my birthday). And their reply is that things happen during transit and it will recover. Also two tall branches and then nothing in middle and then a few really short ones. Nothing like the pictures on their website, nobody would have bought this plant in a shop. But they refuse to pay for return. And we can't submit a review on their website probably cos of our low rating so their 4 plus stars is a fake.
Ordered a hydrangea that arrived with few leaves on only four very leggy stems, despite it being in season. The plant was too long to fit in the box leading to one of the stems being snapped off, trying to get through to customer service is almost impossible however, when I did I was told these are as they would expect them to be delivered. Refused to replace the plant or offer any refund.
I certainly won't be ordering anything else from Garden Express.
Don't be fooled by the low prices.
12.12.23
After over 2 wks of wait the order has finally arrived witH more than a half missing. Dispatch email does not mention that something would be missing neither I've been contacted to be informed of this. Plants are not in a rip top condition at all. Leaves are falling and they won't survive till even Christmas. I wish I never found this place. It has caused nothing but headaches and im not even seeing the end of it as now I have to chase either missing items or my money since I paid for it. I would have never paid £6.99 delivery if I knew I will receive only £1x4 plants which I can get in any supermarket for the same price. Most important items on the order were the ones they never sent. I do not believe for a second in the only one having issues with these horrible people and I'm certain all reviews are fake left by employees. If I could give minus 10 stars I would. I'm going to report GE to trading standards.
Ps. I'm sure any positive reviews are fake. It's interesting that 5* suddenly started to pop up once I left 1star. Fake fake. Will report to TP
And I didn't order house plants I ordered plants for Christmas which obviously won't arrive for the house decoration. Again full blown ignorance to emails. Nothing is in junk stop your lies. I hope everyone reads reviews before proceeding giving up their money for you a compete waste of space business. Disgusting
Update: 7th of December and still no news of items being dispatched. This is something unheard off.
A week and I heard nothing from this company about where is my order, when it will be shipped etc. it's a pure scam.
Have to contact bank to get my money back now. Nobody responds to emails either. Should have read reviews first
I ordered a plant which arrived on Monday 12 June however as soon as I removed it from the box I could see the poor plant was dead. I have tried emailing, messaging through Facebook and contacting through the Gardening Express web page at least half a dozen times but have had no response whatsoever. I am absolutely appalled at the total lack of customer service and will never ever deal with Gardening Express again.
Tip for consumers:
Do not waste any money as this company is dreadful
I recently ordered a three colour Hibiscus from Gardening express and although delivered in a timely manner, the plant was completely dead. I have complained to them about this and carried out the tests they suggested but the plant is now three months old and showing no sign of life at all. I have found it almost impossible to contact them and have requested a full refund (of over £30) But as yet have had no response at all. Deal with this company at your peril as they are the worse I have ever come across.
Tip for consumers:
Do not use this company
Products used:
Garden Plant
I ordered a duo pear tree that was described as 'established'. When it turned up as a gift, every leaf had been ravaged by insects and the info sheet attached to the stem was old, dirty and brittle (it broke off when being taken out of the box. The tree has clearly not been looked after in a nursery and was in no fit state to be sold and the customer services for Gardening Express have not responded. Based on this experience I DO NOT recommend this company.
We bought a pair of trees for either side of our front door one of the trees was a bit sparse when we unpacked it,we thought that we would give it time to bush out as it was a young tree,the tree continued to deteriorate so we contacted Gardening Express what a waste of time that was no help whatsoever last time we will be using them and we will be leaving reviews everywhere as we are on several Gardening forums.If you are considering purchasing from this company I would reconsider as the customer service is non existent. You have been warned...
Appalling bunch of cowboys. Still owe us for a dead clematis that arrived 6 weeks ago, nine weeks after ordering. They blame everything on COVID... so how does every other online company manage? They are like Banksy... impossible to contact. E-tickets? Might as well write to the Martians. See their Trust Pilot reviews too where they are ranked 193 out of 194 garden centres. They've been reported to Watchdog, the Press, Rip off Britain, various GOV sites and Trading Standards. Christopher Bonnett their MD is too busy enjoying his £1.2 million house Piece Cottage' to bother about his customers. Their come-uppance is due very soon!
Ordered 6 dormant bare root fruit trees in November as they were supposed to be guaranteed to grow. Planted as instructed. By April 5 had leaves on but one is completely dead. I asked them to replace the dead one on accordance with their Bare Root Guarantee.
It turns out the Guarantee only applies to products with the code BR in front of the order number. Unfortunately my trees have the DEAL even though they were bare root fruit trees. Clever underhand tactic by these rogues.
Products used:
Trees
Sold me two pathetic acers,which looked nothing like their pictures,paid nearly £90 for them,one has now died,so I thought they would replace as they state a 5 year warranty,they haven't replied to me and have now indeed blocked me,basically they are thieves,please avoid folks *******
I think this is their contact Phone: zero eight four four eight zero four four two five three
08*******8448
Location:
Gardening Express, Chelmsford
Essex
CM1 4UA
Products used:
Acer trees
Ordered plants on 11th May still waiting! On the 28th June after contacting them was told they had been delivery on the 22nd June Rubbish! Then told it had gone missing repeated emails and still nothing even recorded a letter to manager on the 15th August asking refund but guess what... No response think I can say goodbye to my money This company should be closed down for they are blatantly advertising and taken money without the slightest intention of supplying plants or refunding and if your lucky enough to get any plants there are dead Save your money Go else where Avoid like Covid 19
As everyone else has said, this company says they will reply to a completed web form but they do not. Received unusable plants, very damaged and they don't give a hoot. Will never waste my money there again. Shocking and how they can trade like this is disappointing to say the least. Be very warned people, buy elsewhere, this company does not deserve your trade!
Worse company to deal with,place a big order,upon receiving one plants nearly dead & other was out of soil and 2 branches already/ nearly broken, contacted Garden express 4 times by chat,quick messaging and email NO REPLY. Not going to return dead plants and to bare the expenses als have no guarantee i will get my money. They claim they r cheaper than than yougarden and rest but there quality are far worse than others and small plants. Be aware don't buy from Garden Express
This would have been a 0 Star if it was available! Their service isn't just poor, it is almost non-existent. I purchased some plants with 2 separate orders back in April, they arrived in May & June, sadly, some plants were dead. I wrote to them with photo's immediately and respectfully requested replacement plants. Nothing to date has arrived and neither have I received a reimbursement. I have subsequently written to them numerous times, without a response, except for once when they said to 'bear with them during this difficult (COVID) period and that someone would be in contact with me soon'. 6 months after that initial contact, I still haven't had either replacement plants, or reimbursement. What is most irritating is that they state on their website that they are working with significantly reduced staffing (COVID) and to please be patient. But they are still able to advertise a full list of available plants for sale by way of their regular sales emails! Yes, the plants received that weren't dead have flourished, but Garden Express's customer service in the event of a problem is appalling. Buy from them at your peril.
Please do not use this company, read all the reviews online about them. They are rated so low, (mostly 1*) they supplied me with a dying tree and then refused to replace it. I received it in April and as a bare root it took over a month to show any life. It finally died in late July but their brutal response was to say they would not do anything as their policy was bare roots are not covered if you do not report issues before the end of July!
Tip for consumers:
Avoid Gardening Express
Products used:
Tree purchased
Ordered two hydrangea that arrived with few leaves despite it being in season, trying to get through to customer service is almost impossible but when I did I was told that I hadn't given the plants the right care, I'd only had them 1 day. Refused to replace until time had passed to prove they were dead. I potted them on, 2 months later after watering and feeding appropriately I just had sticks in a pot. Gardening Express then refused a replacement outright. Don't be fooled by the low prices.
Please avoid at all costs! You will most likely be very disappointed. I've attached some images to let you decide for yourselves. Even if they want to argue their case it would all be apparent from the evidence. The state of the plants they sent me were shocking to say the least, plus they were packaged with cello-tape over many delicate leaves. To put simply, out of the 20 plants I ordered (order number in case Gardening express question this review can be provided) less than half were acceptable. I wasn't even sure where to begin when I completed their online form to open a complaint ticket. Having read some of the bad reviews (only after making my purchase) I realised it may be a waste of time and energy to try to rectify it all with them. So all I did was bring up just one of the plants in question to gauge how they respond in these situations, and of course they dismissed it, attempting to just reassure me that the plant was healthy and nothing was wrong. Also, please bare in mind that the images they have on their website is not in any way an accurate representation of what you will receive. It is at least a 60% exaggeration of the level of quality and maturity in reality. Yes some customers may have had a better experience for varying reasons, however it is apparent that this company firstly do not respect the plants the way a garden centre should, and secondly have unacceptable "customer service", and make it challenging for you to question their horticultural department.
I very rarely write negative reviews but have to warn you about this company. I ordered two9 Bonsai trees. They arrived promptly but on opening the box the trees were dropping leaves and had several bare branches. I have emailed several times but have only had one reply saying they assume my original query has been answered to my satisfaction! I have asked for a credit note/new plants or my money back but have received nothing. I did think about sending the plants back but I will have to pay for postage, which I believe is illegal. I should have read their reviews before buying anything off them.
Ordered 2 standard roses in orange.
Flowering but blooms are pink.
No customer service. Sent emails and messages with no response.
Will not buy from here again
Products used:
Plants
Plants turned up 2weeks after ordering half dead and nothing like the pictures on their site. One small tree was nearly dead.
£70 I won't be getting back.
Complained with pictures and chased for a response, still no contact.
Please avoid and stick to your local garden centre
On 22nd April order pear and salix tree still no plants, after threatening to take it further, received an email saying its with yodel but tracking no doesn't work, its a shocking disgrace at least I only spent £21 feel sorry for others DON'T TOUCH WITH A BARGE POLE RUBBISH X no rating at all
Gardening centre for garden plants and flowers. The UK's No. 1 Online Specialist in the UK with Hardy plants guaranteed 5yrs