On Mon, 29 May 2006 23:17:54 +0100, Rupert \(W.Yorkshire\) wrote
(in article ):


"Sacha Hubbard" wrote in message
al.net...

Just a bit of mild curiosity and a small personal survey. ;-) What does
the panel think is a reasonable time in which to take back a dead plant
and
expect a replacement? Some nurseries have definite policies on this, I
know
but I'd like to have an idea of customers' reactions for my own
curiosity's
sake.
snip

I guess that if I was in your business I would be inclined to replace
anything at anytime with no questions asked. I also guess that the number
of returns would be minute compared to the total volume of sales.
Some customers (those folk who cause all your problems) are compete idiots
and you are able to deal with them-I am not.

Luckily for us, most are extremely nice people - the vast majority, in fact.
There is the odd person - in every sense of 'odd' - who does stupid things to
their plants and insists it's not their fault. We had a classic yesterday of
a woman who complained our remaining Arctotis aren't big enough to plant out
yet and then when Ray said "they'll be ready next week" told us she was going
on holiday for two weeks next week. So Ray said "well in that case, it would
be better to wait until you get back because they might die in your absence
if it gets hot". In all seriousness she told my nurseryman husband of over
50 years experience that this was nonsense as it depends on how deep you
plant them! There really is nothing you can say to that sort of thing! But
she was the rare sort for whom absolutely nothing is right - she wanted to
buy something else but wouldn't because it wasn't in flower and she couldn't
see the colour. So he showed her a picture of it in the RHS encyclopaedia
and that still wasn't good enough. She wanted to see the actual flower. As
we don't force our plants, he could only explain that the cold weather had
held things back for everybody AND that if she bought it in full flower she'd
have had it for less time flowering in her garden!
And two customers, standing right beside pots of the plant in question were
heard to grumble that we had no Alliums for sale! But as I say, that sort of
person is the exception.
There was of course, whoever-it-was yesterday who appears to have taken a
hammer to one of the customer loos and broken a vast chunk out of it after
stuffing it absolutely full of paper, but that's another story............

I have never ever returned any plant to any supplier even when it has died
shortly after delivery. I would never ever admit to killing a plant.
At future visits to a Nursery I will make sarcastic comments such as "How
much are you charging this week for pot plants infested with Vine weevil"
and expect some sort of concern from the staff.

Touching wood, that's a complaint we don't get, probably because we use
nematodes.

Customer complaints are to be welcomed on the basis that they allow you to
improve your business (that's what the Management Gurus say).


Actually, I think there's some truth in that because if nothing else, a
reasonable replacement of something that's died - reasonable in time elapsed,
I mean - makes for a happy customer who tells other customers etc. and means
that people do know they can trust us.
Though while I'm doing my "tales of a nurseryman's wife" thing, one of our
funniest experiences was someone who walked in, plonked a dead something on
the bench and asked my stepson what he thought of that! He looked at it and
being a chap of considerable intelligence, said "it's dead". The woman went
red with anger and said she knew that but wanted to know what Matt intended
to do about it. He picked up the label and looked at it and said "Nothing,
I'm afraid". More fury from the customer who demanded to know why and
turning over the label to show the name of a local NT property, Matt said
"because you didn't get it here"! To her real credit, the woman was
absolutely mortified and couldn't apologise enough. But to our great
satisfaction, not only did she get a replacement plant, it was bigger and
cheaper than her original! ;-)


--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
email address on web site