Gardener's Supply Company — Local services in Burlington

I placed an online order for two items on May 3rd and paid in full with Venmo. The money was deducted from my balance. One of these items was on backorder and the other shipped out on May 7th. I was also charged the full amount in Venmo for this item that had already been deducted from my account on May 3rd. I attempted to contact Gardner's via phone and was told that it would be a 45 minute wait to speak to a representative. Fair enough - the world's a crazy place right now. After 75 minutes of waiting, my phone call disconnected and I thought I had hit a button somehow. Frustrated, I emailed the company acknowledging that it was late in the week and I would just like an answer regarding these transactions at some point next week. Today is May 15th and the only emails I have received are automated ones boasting about their wonderful customer service and plethora of great products available. I also attempted to call back and was disconnected at approximately 50 minutes when I wasn't even touching the phone.

Here's the kicker - I call Venmo customer support because it's my only available recourse at this point. The representative from Venmo tells me the purchase I made on 5/3 (that was subsequently deducted from my account) is showing as a "pending" status and the one from 5/7 has been fully processed. That's right - I've essentially been charged twice for the exact same thing and then Gardner's will hopefully (?) release the hold that was already taken from my account balance on 5/3 when the backordered item ships...in June.

I am very fortunate that the items I ordered were not exponentially expensive (less than $150 total)...but what if I had spent thousands of dollars on backordered items? Would Gardner's just have the authority to put an additional hold on multiple thousands of dollars out of my account until they were able to meet their obligation?

In summary, nothing about my experience with Gardner's Supply Company has been helpful or enjoyable. If a company cannot meet the demand of its orders, it's ethically responsible to either increase staffing or work hours or stop taking additional orders. More importantly, it's borderline criminal to hold a customer's money in some undefined escrow until a company sees fit to fulfill their obligations. This will be the first and last time I use Gardner's...

I've spent a lot of time and money at this store over the past two and half years and it is consistently hit and miss. The good first. There is a good selection of plants and products consistently. Personally, the location is the best part of everything about this store. The small public gardens with the little arbor, the large outdoor space filled with plants in the summer, seats tucked here and there, and the gardens connected to the Intervale pond with the large willow tree next to the tree lined walkway next to the barn, and then the trails leading off along the Winooski River. An absolute favorite place to wander, sit, or exercise. During the winter, going into the greenhouse area indoors to simply be around the plants is a relief to have nearby when I am missing the sun through leaves so much! The staff has usually been helpful for the most part, though also often uninformed, or rapidly impatient with questions, which stands in contrast to the Managers claim that they only hire "people with a Masters in Botany" for 15 dollars an hour or less? I'm pretty sure they don't and if they do, maybe pay them more so they are willing to share their "extensive" knowledge and have the time for questions, much less know what is in stock, or not. The same Manager refused a return of a Benjamin Ficus tree I purchased, even though later when reviewing the return policy, I could have returned it. That begins the less good. Many plants in the indoor greenhouse that are part of the base stock are not well taken care of and haphazardly arranged, often dusty and/or slowly dying. The store clearly relies on it's seasonal burst of business, but consistent management will keep loyal customers. I've taken to buying plants elsewhere now for the most part or ordering them online as, once considering my own skills fairly in caring for them, the plants I purchase there don't tend to thrive. I also suspect if not intentional mis-pricing, then simply a failure to pay attention to pricing and mis-labeling in small and rather sneaky ways. I will continue to shop here, but since the competition is fierce for local business compared to national, there's what could be improved on that would maintain loyal business easily IMO, so three stars...

DO NOT ORDER FROM THIS COMPANY. If I could give Gardener's Supply Company and their customer service 0 stars I would, a 1 star is way too generous. I ordered a Mother's day gift well within the delivery time their checkout process stated, "order will arrive in 3-8 business days". Tomorrow is day 8 so naturally I was curious why I hadn't received a shipping notification with tracking. I called them and the first representative stated that "oh, well our warehouse is backlogged so it could be up to 5 more business days, but I can't guarantee it". I said that wasn't acceptable, if I had known this before I gave them my order and my money I wouldn't have ordered it. She then offered to have me, yes me, pay for expedited shipping. I again said that was unacceptable. She then offered to split the shipping with me, to which I refused. She then passed me to a supervisor, I explained the issue and he made an excuse of "well I don't know what the website says for deliver times". Really? I went on to explain how ridiculous this was and how unacceptable it was that they never communicated that there would be a delay in shipping, I had to call them to get this information. He then said, "well actually in reality it will probably take 2-3 weeks for the items to be delivered", which is crazy. He then offered to have me pay $25 for expedited shipping, which I'm not going to pay, this is their mistake. I own a business and this is an absolute crazy request to have your customer pay for a business issue like this. Sometimes as a business you have to take a loss to make things right. He refused to cover the shipping, so I cancelled the order and requested a refund. This is the absolute worst customer experience I've had in a long time. There is absolutely no way I will ever do business with them again,...