General Chat

Has anyone ever ordered plants online from a company called Thomson & Morgan?

A few weeks ago I went online to order some plants for my tubs at the front of the garden as I cant get to the garden centre. I spent £37.oo in total and in return I received 4 dried up, half dead petunias 2 weeks ago. The plants were laying down in a box that had airholes so the soil had mostly vanished.

When I picked up the box from my front porch, I left a trail of the reaming soil all over my hall and kitchen floor plus the table.
Once opened, I was so disappointed.They certainly were not worth the money.

I sent an email to them requesting a refund. That was 2 weeks ago.So earlier this week, I sent another but no reply. Today I receive another 3plants of petunia but different colour.
Slightly better packaged but so dry and half withered.

I went on to their website and decided to read some of the reviews!!! Well what an eye opener. If I had read this first, I wouldn't have wasted my money.

Its highly unlikely that they will reply or refund me as many others have tried and failed.

They should be named and shamed for ripping people off.
I did try their tel number but because of the Virus, they are not taking any calls!!

Has anyone else ever used this company and got decent plants?

Would love to know

Florence in the hebrides :-P

Sorry to hear you had a problem Florence.
I used them this year for seeds and plants.

They arrived separately but the plants were absolutely fine. I've used them several times in the past and never had a problem.

I believe they use Royal mail for delivery so inevitably everything is taking twice as long to arrive. Not ideal when it comes to plants.

No never used them Florence strange because they are quite well known seed merchants. I shall be wary in future.

If you go to their website and read the reviews, you will be shocked by some of the comments.

yes as they are well known, I didn't bother reading the reviews first as thought they were a good company

Florence in the hebrides

T & M are a very large, well-known company here in Suffolk and they have been going for about 150 years so presumably they are doing something right but they don’t seem to understand the meaning of customer service.

A few years back I bought some of their flower seeds. I can’t remember now what they were but when they grew they weren’t the flowers on the packet, so I got in touch expecting an apology and some fresh seeds. Instead they sent a leaflet on how to germinate seeds :-S. So I contacted them again but I couldn’t get them to understand that they had germinated beautifully but the packet hadn’t contained the seeds it had said on the front. In the end I just gave up. Now I don’t buy from them.

I HAVE bought of them one lot were all dry withered so I Emailed them got another lot & an apology the post is taking longer just now I would if you can send an Email with a photo say you are unhappy it's disappointing when you order & they are not Good expensive hobby but you should expect your monies worth Barbara

Very strange.

We used them at a lot when I was with the Botanical Garden, mainly for seeds but also for ornamental plants that were not easily obtainable over here.

I admit I've been retired for 20 years, but T&M were always dependable.


Florence ............ I'm certainly not trying to excuse them, but did you check how long they had been in transit??

There should have been a post mark if they came via Royal Mail.

Dont think that long, but the packaging was awful and all the soil fell out.I did photograph the plants and the box and sent it to them but no reply as yet.

If you can tweet your complaint a swift message from customer services usually follows. Companies hate public complaints or bad reviews which they cannot erase from their own website.

I have been successful in getting fast responses using Twitter

Good luck

X

I haven't used them but if they have a facebook page you could message them sometimes you get a faster response on there. It worked for me with another company that didn't answer emails or the phone simply because they were overwhelmed during the day. I think they had more orders than usual but less staff due to the lockdown . Lots of poor reviews on their site as well but I have always been happy with the service.

Like Sylvia they were our go to place years ago and my FIL, who had a 300ft long garden swore by them. They used to have things you couldn't find elsewhere and the seeds always germinated well. I have only bought their seeds from garden centres in recent times though and have never bought any plants on line. I suppose the post is not so quick as it was now, everything seems to take longer to arrive which wouldn't help.

Well why would u send a plant in a pot full of soil without a plastic bag around it secured so the soil cant come out? Why didn't they put one of those little bags of water to keep the plant moist.Tbh the soil that was left was so bone dry and the plants so dead looking, I really don't think it was the post offices fault.
The packaging was terrible and totally unsuitable.

Yes a friend suggested FB but I do not have any social media accounts.So email was the best I could do.

Florence in the hebrides

Not excusing bad customer service but I wonder if they were working with skeleton staff because of the Covid19 and the people packing were not usually in that area. Keep going with your complaints and maybe threaten to put it on Twitter

I know it too late but I use gardening direct and they pack their plants really well with the soil moist and wrapped in plastic separately for each plant

Sometimes the plants are sent in their growing pots but all enclosed and well wrapped

They send too in cardboard packaging with plenty of headroom


https://www.gardeningdirect.co.uk/

Thankyou Shirley. Have taken a look and they are so much cheaper. Will def order from these next time. Ty.

Florence in the hebrides

I used them a lot for seeds as well as plants and always had brilliant plants and good quality seeds.

If there were delays and the parcel badly handled on it's journey could this explain the condition.