Kenni Judd ) wrote:
: I would like to hear the concensus of those who post here concerning this
: topic. I'm not asking anyone to "name names" but I would like to know:

: If you place an order, receive it, and are not happy with it, for whatever
: reason, what do you want the grower to do?

Like Joanna I rarely if ever contact a mail order vendor about a problem. If
I get the sense that the vendor is a flake I'll chalk it up to experience
and never order from that vendor again. Luckily, I've never had a problem
with a grower (I've ordered from at least 5) so I've never really had to
cross that bridge. Well, there was the time that a grower sent me a
Dendrobium with scale on it but I don't consider that a problem worth
contacting the grower about.

If sufficiently motivated to contact the grower (e.g. I really, really,
really, want that plant and you're one of the few that offers it) I would
want a replacement and not a refund. I want the plant, not the money.

: Our own policy is to apologize [whether or not we think we did anything
: wrong G], and ask that the unsatisfactory plants be returned, whereupon we
: will issue a full refund including the return postage. Fortunately for us,
: it's a rare occurence, but I'm still curious.

I really hate having to ship stuff back. Not only do I have spend the time
to re-package the silly thing but I have to spend money to ship it back
making the whole transaction more expensive for me. Of course the box it
came in is probably too big for shipping it back (who mail orders just one
orchid?). Oh by the way, my wife throughs all empty boxes in the trash so in
all likelihood I'll have to buy a box in order to ship the plant back to you.
Worst of all, I have to somehow find time in my day to make the trek down
to UPS/FedEx during business hours to stand in line to get the thing shipped.
My life is too hectic already without having to deal with all that hassle.
You will go on my list of high maintenance vendors and one of three things
will happen. First, if I perceive you to be a high quality vendor then I
won't sweat that rare problem and I'll take the hit myself and make life
easy on myself. Second, if there are other vendors that I know of who don't
require me to ship stuff back I'll deal with them preferentially over you.
I feel that I should state that while I don't expect a grower to provide a
replacement without returning the unsatisfactory plant I greatly appreciate
(and am amazed at the trust) of the growers that do. Third, if the first
two situations don't apply I'll silently never order from you again.

As a side note I think the preceding diatribe answers Rob's rhetorical
question about why an honest customer would object to sending an order back.
Then again, maybe my laziness qualifies me as a bad customer. :-)

Dave