Sun Harvest Citrus — Local services in Florida

My wife and I went there last week to buy fruit and to ship some fruit up north to a friend that just got home from surgery. So we bought two 10 lbs of Honey bells. Kept one mailed one. We talked to the post office person and they said that they had really good success of mailing fruit. Rarely had any problems. The postal worker said all we need is the receipt showing we just purchased the Honey bells. She said she would take care of the packing - the package would arrive by Tuesday (4 days later but arrived by Monday 3 days later). The husband of our friend said that the fruit arrived - however the fruit arrived spoiled and unprotected. My wife and I stopped today (the following Thursday). We asked for the manager - Suzy came out and took our name and phone number. I thought we were going to get some help regarding this situation. Suzy was helpful until she realized that we didn’t use their gift sending service but used the post office in their place. The cashier at Sun Harvest - when we purchased the fruit didn’t say they had this service - he confirmed that they needed to see the receipt to mail from Sun Harvest. Suzy said that the post office doesn’t guarantee their shipping - however she said she would talk to her manager and she if he could help. We waited for 15 minutes and realized that she wasn’t coming back. We asked a worker for her to come back and speak with us to find out what he said. Suzy came back and apologized that she was going to call us back after she spoke to him - which she said directly afterwards that there is a sign in the post office stating that there is no guarantee of fruit shipments. This was going to be her response later to us over the phone - for us to believe she was doing something.

If you are reading this customer or owner - you SHOULD NOT allow shipping of fruit. I’ll say that the fruit there is good - the workers help you and are kind. However, this seems to be a problem that needs to be addressed. Stop shipping of fruit or stand behind the post office.

YOU Can’t say to a customer- it’s...

We stopped here during our May 2021 trip to Ft Myers. It was just a random stop because something about it caught our eyes from the highway. The orange juice samples were excellent, I assume the oranges are too, and the ice cream looked very good. The gift shop was average but my friend bought a few items. I debated giving 3 or 4 stars because of the dismissive and unengaged staff. The entire time we were in the store (about 40 minutes) the 2-3 middle aged ladies working stood only behind the counter and never acknowledged us until we approached the check out with questions. Only about 5 customers were ever in the store during our 10am-ish visit. I wanted to inquire about purchasing orange juice to be shipped as gift to someone. The lady first said they couldn’t then stated they could for about 200$. When I repeated what she said to my friend she rudely clarified that the cost started at 200$, and would depend on state. I explained that cost wasn’t an issue but if they were unable to do it or didn’t offer the service it wouldn’t be an issue. I was displeased how she assumed the cost would be an issue and how she seemed in a hurry to dismiss me and get back to chatting with her friends at the counter. Oddly enough I wasn’t the only customer who wished to inquire about the same. Another gentleman at the orange juice tasting sample and myself talked about shipping the orange juice for probably about 20 minutes. The other customer was much more helpful and friendly then the staff also gave helpful suggestions. The employees made no effort to even see if we would happily take a case of oranges instead. The manager should be aware that the employees are leaving good money...

Went to the store and purchased two gift boxes for Xmas gifts. Was told I would receive an email with tracking numbers when they shipped. Received nothing. Called. One box had shipped; the other had not. They were sorry. They would ship the second one free but it would not go out until after Xmas. I would receive an email with tracking information for sure this time. Received nothing. Called. The basket had shipped but would take over a week to get there. The first basket took two days. I asked how the fruit could possibly arrive it decent condition after sitting in a truck for over a week. Sun Harvest’s response: silence followed by “Well, it’s too late now. If it’s no good, we’ll ship another.” Are they kidding? How many phone calls and trips to the store do they expect someone to make simply to buy a gift basket?

I have always enjoyed visiting their retail store, although the prices are exorbitant. But the place is staffed by incompetents. Stay away if you are planning to ship anything.

UPDATE: After receiving the response from Sun Harvest, things went from bad to worse. They had promised to send the second gift basket out after Christmas on Dec 27th and, in fact, told me they had send it out on Dec.27th, when I called to check on it.

Wrong! They created a label on the 27th but didn’t send out the fruit until January 2nd. Now the Xmas present won’t arrive until January 8th, according to Fedex. Unfortunately the recipients will now be out of town when the package arrives so the fruit will sit rotting on their porch. So thank you, Sun Harvest, for your help. A job well done! A very belated Christmas gift of...