Van Atta's Greenhouse & Flower Shop — Local services in Bath Charter Township

BRIDES BEWARE!!! WORST VENDOR EVER - DO NOT DO BUSINESS UNLESS YOU WANT THE DATE OF YOUR WEDDING CONFUSED EVEN THOUGH ALL DOCUMENTATION WAS ACCURATE. My wedding was on a Friday and flowers were scheduled to arrive between 1-2pm for decoration/setup. I paid this business nearly $1400 to decorate my entire venue and do bouquets, corsages, etc. By 2:30, when nobody had arrived, we called Van Atta's. Their response was, "That wedding is tomorrow." When we assured them it in fact wasn't, they left to check and came back to say, "You're right." (and then made the excuse...) "Weddings are usually on Saturdays" They proceeded to fumble around and say they weren't sure when they could be at the wedding because they weren't ready but they'd try for 3:30. My brother left to go to Meijer and missed pictures because we weren't even sure flowers would be there for the wedding given Van Atta's incompetence. When they arrived, colors were off (baby blue ribbon with light pink flowers when wedding colors were navy and wine red = bad) and the $200 bridal bouquet was also tight when the request was cascading.

BUT DON'T WORRY - to make up for this horrible experience (brother missing photos, complete panic before my wedding, bouquets missing from photos, AND inaccurate order), THEY OFFERED ME A 10% DISCOUNT. Unbelievable. I had to argue on the phone FOR THIRTY MINUTES with a terrible manager named Lisa who kept saying, "but you got your flowers. They showed up." Apparently that's all that's required for good business, no matter how poorly you treat customers - if you show up, it's fine.

She eventually offered a 30% discount and by that time I was so exhausted from arguing with her, I accepted. However, I do not want Van Atta's thinking 30% in any way made up for the horrible and stressful experience on my wedding day. DON'T DO BUSINESS WITH THEM. GO ELSEWHERE FOR YOUR...

Definitely not a horrible nursery but I'm not always pleased.

Plant Info - Generally speaking, I know what I'm looking for and have extensively researched the needs of a plant before I get it. The light/water recommendations printed on their labels don't always match up with that research. I trust the gardeners and plant experts I researched with rather than their recommendations and I have yet to have a plant die on me.

Plant Labelling - They are either misinformed or someone doesn't quality check that the plants are properly classified. More than once have I purchased a plant from them with a dubious label and when I've triple checked at home, my gut was right and the label was not. This happened again today with a NOT variegated string of hearts being sold to me as such, at a pretty high price. There are only two cultivars: standard (whose hearts have variegated patches, yes, but are not classified as variegated) and variegated (cream edges that turn pink with the proper stress) and again, I've triple checked and this is certainly a standard ceropegia woodii. I'm keeping it because it's a haul to go back and return it, but when they called me to confirm I'd picked it up and I expressed my disappointment, they refused to acknowledge their mistake/misinformation and insisted I return it instead.

This shop was a welcome stop on the haul between Lansing and Flint but I will be grilling the staff on any plants I may buy in the future, if I choose to stop again after...

When your business is your region's exclusive dealer for a certain manufacturer*, and you have only one employee that is capable of working with that manufacturer, then that employee needs to be responsive and available. In particular, when a customer states that he might want to make a special order from that manufacturer, then you need to perk up and provide that customer with whatever he requests as soon as possible. If your one employee is over-burdened by this, then you train more employees to be able to help.

Now, I realize that there is a difference between "I want to make a special order" and "I want some information to help me decide whether to make a special order" and I was in the second category. But even in that case where you only have a potential rather than a definite, you take then chance. If the customer does decide to order, you make a profit, and even if he decides not to, you make good will.

What you chose to do is ignore me. For this one employee to not be in when I called or stopped by, and to not return my emails or my phone calls. Thus, you do not earn a profit, you do not earn good will. What you do earn this zero-star scathingly negative review. You had multiple chances and you blew them all. Congratulations.

Further, you earn for the remainder of your business the complete loss of future purchases by myself or any member of my family. I have bought some house and garden plants from you before, but never again.

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