Howdy Richard.
I think you should be specific. WHY are you so peevish against this
Winchester Indiana company? Generic "warnings" from a chap who has no
posting history could for all we can tell be nothing but a disgruntled
ex-employee & don't automatically carry a lot of weight, but if you've
something specific I'm sure anyone who might be interested in Rich Farm
Garden's products would appreciate being warned off. You can't be sued for
slander if you're telling the truth, so no reason to hide.

If it's so important to you to warn people away from them, why code it for
no-archive? Will the warning no longer apply two weeks from now? I've
included the whole post sans no-archive code below, for archive purposes.

Since I didn't know if you were a reliable witness or not, I did a couple
on-line searches of my own. If the company had been highly rated elsewhere
I wanted to find out. But as it turns out, your warning looks entirely
sustainable.

Their website does make them look a bit white trash posting amateurish
snapshots of their grossly cluttered cruddy uninteresting barn as a wacky
symbol of company pride -- if that's where they store the seeds they sell
I'd worry about contamination -- that whole "barn tour" thing makes them
look a bit nutty since it gives the impression that they're not a real
business at all. Personally I wouldn't've trusted them just on the basis
of their website being so damned ugly.

You're right that the Indiana Better Business Bureau doesn't think highly
of them, though I wonder why you didn't yourself post the link or quote
the BBB to help substantiate your own credibility:

"Based on BBB files, this company has an unsatisfactory record with the
Bureau due to unanswered complaints. The Bureau has requested basic
information from this company. The company has declined to provide this
information. Without this, the Bureau may not have current information
concerning such things as the company's management or its nature of
business."

BBB also notes "We are currently attempting to develop information on this
company." So I trust you've sent something rather more specific to
to help fill out their file -- you shouldn't complain to
them anonymously though.

Rich Farm Gardens has no complaints at the very useful Garden Watchdog at
davesgarden.com, except one person who felt their prices were too high for
seeds (but bought them anyway so I guess theprice was not TOO too high).
Garden Watchdog is a good source of this kind of information, but
customers can't file praise OR complaints if the company actually has no
customers.

Gardenweb.com has one complaint in the Forums: "I placed an order with
them early in January. They never came. I emailed them in March and they
responded telling me my seeds would be shipped in March. I never received
any. I have emailed them twice since then politely asking when my seeds
would be shipped and have not received any response."

-paghat the ratgirl


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From: Richard
Newsgroups: rec.gardens
Subject: Bad mail order company...buyer beware
Date: Wed, 18 May 2005 06:15:30 -0700
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A mail order company that everyone should be aware of here, and not
use. That company is http://www.richfarmgarden.com

I know several people who have lost money to this company already.
You can read about them also, with a negative rating, on the Indiana
Better Business Bureau website.

Richard
--
Get your Paghat the Ratgirl T-Shirt he
http://www.paghat.com/giftshop.html
"In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to
liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot." -Thomas Jefferson