101 Market — Local services in Otsego

I visited 101 Market on Memorial Day and had one of the worst customer service experiences with Pat. While I’m confident, Marilyn, will only continue to belittle me as a customer with her response to this (as she does to anyone who leaves a less than stellar review), I would like my experience to be known.

I’ve been shopping at 101 Market for years with my family. When my husband and I built our home last year, I continued to do so for our landscaping. I purchased large planters this year and really wasn’t sure what to do with them given the volume and felt a little lost. Memorial day, I stopped in and grabbed some plants for some smaller planters. Checked out no problem. My mom made a suggestion on a plant for my large pots, called 101 market to confirm they had it and told me to go back. I went in and Pat was at the counter and walked me over to said plant. As I was loading the cart she asked me what exactly I planned to do with them, I told her the planters and she said absolutely not and led me to ferns.

All I have are 2 front porch planters & wanted to add flowers to them this year, which really is NOT a big deal. I kindly thanked her and kept shopping. I then spoke with an AWESOME lady there and told her I was looking for flowers best suited for my porch (gave her the same info I provided Pat). She walked me through several sections and explained exactly what would be best for what I was looking for and why they would work well. I spent an hour walking back through and made choices specifically from what she recommended. As soon as I got to the register, Pat was rude. She seemed irritated and immediately started pulling plants from my intended purchase telling me they’ll die. I said no worries, good to know and let her pull them. She continued to harp about every single plant and told me NONE of them would work. Completely contradicting the other gal that helped me. Pat was going off about every plant, and I felt so overwhelmed and frustrated. Maybe she was annoyed I didn’t go with the fern option? No clue. Yet, I maintained my composure and told her I would call it day and start over. I walked out, YES in tears and cried in my car.

It was humiliating and beyond confusing. Pat being your front end specialist, should absolutely not be interacting with customers this way. The most positive takeaway I have from this experience, is Pat quite literally not allowing me to spend the couple hundred dollars I was going to that day and the money she will save me from not shopping here again in the future.

And to you, Marilyn — as a family owned business, do better. Especially, with customer service. I now understand why Pat treated me the way she did (completely unwarranted) after seeing your condescending response that was full of blatant lies. It’s great that you stand by your employees and you do have some really awesome people working there, but also learn to stand by your customers when they are treated poorly. Turning your employee’s poor behavior back onto me when I was nothing but polite and quite frankly, let her rip into me over flowers is ridiculous. I look forward to sharing my experience with friends and neighbors in my...

We bought 2 hibiscus bushes along with a hibiscus tree and other flowers in May, 2023. We spent around $450. 2 of the hibiscus bushes leaves started to turn yellow on day #3 after we brought them home before we put in different pots. I called and talked to multiple people over the last month at 101 Market. We did everything that we were told to do including adding miracid. The leaves continued to turn yellow. We also limited the watering of the plant per Peggy and Jill. Peggy shared with us that they had a lot of hibiscus plants with yellow leaves this year too. Finally, I spoke with Hannah who told us to return the bushes. When we went to the store to return the bushes - the lady at the counter called Pat for the return/exchange. Pat told us to keep the sickly hibiscus bushes and buy more plants and we she would give us 50% off of another purchase. She also INSISTED that the hibiscus bushes that we were returning were overwatered. It was clear that she did not want to return or exchange these. From a customer service stand point and a customer of over 10 years which included spending a lot of money at 101 Market year-round - this interaction from Pat was unwarranted and rude. She followed us through the store asking us 100 questions and telling us how to care for plants. Did I mention that I have had flowers throughout my whole life but never experienced this before? We finally found two hydrangeas. We proceeded to check out. We felt very uncomfortable. Pat let us know at checkout that we could purchase the two new hydrangeas that costed more money which we paid and clearly stated that they would not be warranting them. I have managed almost 30 years of my life. I would never speak to a patient or a customer or interact with someone in the manner that Pat interacted with my husband and I. We will not be back to 101 Market. We take pride in caring for our flowers. Did I mention that we spend a lot of money on flowers and holiday/Summer decor? My favorite time of the year is Summer. We cared for our hibiscus as we have cared for them in the past and got guidance from multiple people from 101 Market. Very dissatisfied with...

UPDATE: The response from Marilyn is absolutely not an honest one!! She only reached out to me over a week later and left one message! How dare you diminish our interactions!! My daughter did leave in tears!! You have no integrity! Horrible!

Very disappointed in how the one cashier treated myself on Mothers' day and now my daughter this past weekend. I have dealt with the rudeness of this cashier many times before and always chose to just let it go. I know it can be so hard to maintain a pleasant personality when dealing with the general public. I have many years experience with customer service. However, after being snapped at on Mothers day, and sending my daughter in to pick up a plant, that I suggested for her. I don't know that I will ever return. This same cashier berated and humiliated my daughter in front of other customers at the register. She apparently did not agree with her choices in plants for shade. Which is completely fine, but her behavior was unacceptable!! Long story short, my daughter left in absolute tears! With no plants! I also need to mention, prior to my daughter arriving at the facility, I phoned and spoke with the floral gal! She was wonderful!! So kind and helpful! A big thank you to her! I ended up speaking with her again, when I called back with concern and question about what happened with my daughter when she was in. She took my number and was going to have the manager contact me. As I expected, that did not happen! I get they are very, very busy. But, I have always spent a healthy amount of my hard earned money at 101 market. I had hoped to continue to do so. I have also suggested to many others to shop there! But, when the manager cannot find the time to address a situation by the end of business day, that tells me all I need to know! Unfortunately, we will be going elsewhere moving forward. Granted, I gave until 11 AM today. Still crickets! Customer service has really...