On Sun, 06 Apr 2003 16:52:14 GMT, "Warren"
wrote:

Polar wrote:

I'm just wondering where there would be a store that you can bring an
empty seed package back, and get it replaced or get your money back.

All the local nurseries that I've dealt with for years know their
customers, and wouldn't insult a person who brings back a plant that
didn't make it (yes, they do that!) or seeds that didn't. Just good
business.

Seed packets. Not plants.

The stores and nurseries I go to don't pack their own seed packets. If a
plant they sell dies, even if they only cared for it for a weekend
before selling it, they have a little more responsibility for the
condition of the individual plant.

The seed packets are mass produced, and sold widely. If you're the only
one who had a problem with a particular seed packet, it probably didn't
have anything to do with what the store or nursery did. They're not
going to get credit from their supplier, and their supplier isn't going
to get credit from the producer. If you're returning an empty seed
packet to the retail merchant, you're asking them to take responsiblity
for something they had nothing to do with.

Yeah, we're only talking a very small price. But frankly, my business
would have to be very desperate for customers for me to care about
loosing one that pitches a tissy fit over a packet of seeds. Over time,
an unreasonable customer like that is going to cost more to service than
they're worth happy -- and they're pretty much indicating that they'll
never be happy if something so minor is such a big deal to them.

And they don't even have a receipt! Would you start handing out $1.89 to
every Tom, Dick and Harry that comes into your store with an empty seed
packet? Once word gets out that you do, people who've never been to your
store will be bringing in empty seed packets. Word spreads fast, just as
it does when a merchant starts taking coupons for products you aren't
buying. Those nickel and dime frauds add up faster than you think, and
there are enough people out there making livings off of 50-cents here,
2-bucks there, to put a small businessman out of business.

So when you bring in an empty seed packet and no receipt, you're either
a con artist, or an unreasonable customer. Either way, that $1.89 today
has the potential to add up to big bucks in the future. Even with a
receipt, I'm going to wonder what kind of a customer you are.

Now if it was a seed packet packed right at my nusurey, and my business
is the producer of the seeds, then it's a different story. I had
something to do with the quality of those seeds, and it's reasonable to
expect me to take some responsibility for it even if you don't have a
receipt. And for that matter, even if you bought it someplace else. But
my responsibility is because I'm involved with the production of the
product. I'm not just reselling a mass-marketed product.

I have a rake that broke after one season. I don't expect the store I
bought it at to give me my money back. I might have considered making a
request to the manufacturer, but it's a rake. Stuff happens, and my use
of the rake was as much of a factor as the quality of the rake when it
left the factory. It wouldn't be fair to the reseller to ask them to eat
the cost of the rake, and absorb costs involved with trying to get the
manufacturer to give a refund.


I've got a drawer full of empty packets, as I'm sure many people do,

Why would anybody save empty packets? Straight question.

Because I never remember exactly what anything I plated is. I may
remember that I planted three different kinds of marrigolds in a
particular bed, but by the time they're blooming, I won't remember what
kind they were. It also helps next year when it's time to go shopping
for seeds again.


I'd stand in line if I thought they were worth new packets. And I've
had
such bad luck growing things from seed, I could say they didn't live
up
to their potential, and not be lying.

Just because you've had back luck doesn't mean that everybody has.

Well, if your luck is better than mine, then when asking for an exchange
for your empty seed packet, you'd have to lie about why you want it
replaced.

If you read carefully, I explained to the store exactly, and politely,
what the difference in germination was in the two different
seeds I'd purchased from them.

I don't know whether you're being deliberately offensive in
suggesting that I "lied" to the store; from the rest of your rant, it
sure sounds like it, so why don't we not converse further.



--
Polar