On Sun, 4 Jun 2006 10:29:26 +0100, Janet Baraclough
wrote:

The message
from Paul Corfield contains these words:


I'm obviously a very naive person but I find such antics bordering on
the incredible.

I see you have never stood in the returns queue at Marks and Spencer
clothes department :-)

Yes I have but I can understand someone finding an item of clothing does
not fit or something like that and wishing to return it / swap it / get
a refund. For some reason I find the same behaviour with a plant to be
bizarre - particularly the serial plant borrowers that Sacha quoted.
--
Paul C

On Sat, 3 Jun 2006 23:04:43 +0100, Paul Corfield wrote
(in article ):

On Sat, 3 Jun 2006 22:29:14 +0100, Sacha Hubbard
wrote:

Only if you claim it in person.
In all seriousness and very much of the moment, we had some people return a
golden hop today, claiming something was wrong with it. All that was wrong
was that they hadn't planted it in the two weeks they'd had it and hadn't
watered it, either. I showed it to Ray who confirmed this and offered them
a
replacement but no, they chose a Solanum instead. Off they went, very
happy
bunnies. The kicker is that one of our staff used to work at a garden
centre
in this area and she says that they played this game so often there that
they
were, eventually, banned from returning plants of any sort, at all. They
buy
a plant, let it stand around untended for a week or two, bring it back,
choose another that's a little more expensive and expect not to have to pay
the difference, do the same thing a couple of weeks later and so on and so
on. IOW, they never actually plant anything! They admire it for a while,
until they kill it and then ask for a more expensive replacement of
something
entirely different, trading up all the time!

I'm obviously a very naive person but I find such antics bordering on
the incredible. I wouldn't have the sheer front to do that. I find the
whole concept of taking plants back after I'd bought them and planted
them rather amazing - with perhaps the exception of buying a very
particular type of plant and not receiving the particular variety
requested.


At least now we're forewarned!
Interestingly enough, David Poole came to see us this morning and tells us
that the national body representing nurseries and gcs says that 6 months is
the outer limit for guarantee. They figure that a plant has had plenty of
time to be taken home, planted and live or die by then!

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

On Sun, 4 Jun 2006 10:29:26 +0100, Janet Baraclough wrote
(in article ):

The message
from Paul Corfield contains these words:


I'm obviously a very naive person but I find such antics bordering on
the incredible.

I see you have never stood in the returns queue at Marks and Spencer
clothes department :-)

Janet



Very true. About a thousand years ago I was a model at what was then
Debenham & Freebody in London. This was the couture department and even back
then, in the 60s, some of the evening dresses cost well into the hundreds of
pounds. It was not uncommon for a woman to 'buy' a dress one day and bring
it back the next, saying her husband didn't like it. But the dress would
have talc marks or worse - sweat marks - and would smell of perfume and we'd
know she'd worn it to a party the night before!

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

"Sacha Hubbard" wrote in message
Very true. About a thousand years ago I was a model at what was then
Debenham & Freebody in London. This was the couture department and even
back
then, in the 60s, some of the evening dresses cost well into the hundreds
of
pounds. It was not uncommon for a woman to 'buy' a dress one day and
bring
it back the next, saying her husband didn't like it. But the dress would
have talc marks or worse - sweat marks - and would smell of perfume and
we'd
know she'd worn it to a party the night before!

I used to work for a mail order company - suits would be returned as unworn
but had confetti in the pockets!

I am afraid to say that even underwear was returned as unworn but clearly
wasn't !! :-((

some people have no shame!

On Topic again, what if a plant doesn't flower (for example) after planted.
I would leave it til next year and see if it "recovers". a 6 month
exchange would therefore not cover the plant

Space writes


On Topic again, what if a plant doesn't flower (for example) after planted.
I would leave it til next year and see if it "recovers". a 6 month
exchange would therefore not cover the plant

But you don't get non-functional non-flowering plants - as long as it is
alive, it will eventually flower given correct treatment. By the time
you've left it into a second season, what you've done to it probably has
more influence on its flowering than what the nursery did a year
previously. So it's not really fair on the nursery to take it back that
long afterwards, unless you are claiming it was sick when you bought it
and hasn't recovered since.




--
Kay

On Mon, 5 Jun 2006 21:30:56 +0100, K wrote
(in article ):

Space writes


On Topic again, what if a plant doesn't flower (for example) after planted.
I would leave it til next year and see if it "recovers". a 6 month
exchange would therefore not cover the plant

But you don't get non-functional non-flowering plants - as long as it is
alive, it will eventually flower given correct treatment. By the time
you've left it into a second season, what you've done to it probably has
more influence on its flowering than what the nursery did a year
previously. So it's not really fair on the nursery to take it back that
long afterwards, unless you are claiming it was sick when you bought it
and hasn't recovered since.


No decent nursery or gc is going to sell plants that are sick and 'not fit
for purpose'. It's nonsense for them to do so and would ruin their
reputation in months. Kay is correct to say that it's not fair on the
nursery to claim that there is something wrong with a plant which may well
have been in the hands of the customer longer than it has been in the hands
of the nursery!


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

In message et, Sacha
Hubbard writes

Interestingly enough, David Poole came to see us this morning and tells us
that the national body representing nurseries and gcs says that 6 months is
the outer limit for guarantee. They figure that a plant has had plenty of
time to be taken home, planted and live or die by then!


What about bulbs?
Last autumn I bought some bulbs labelled "Scilla non-scriptus" with a
label clearly showing blue flowers. I was expecting wild-type
bluebells, deep blue, scented and with the top of the inflorescence
arching over.
What came up this spring was Spanish bluebells in a nasty shade of pink.
By the time they flowered they'd already offset into lots of tiny
bulbils that'll take years to eradicate.
I wished I'd kept the packet so that I could storm back to the GC and
complain - of course they just retail this stuff and don't know what's
in the packet, but their supplier deserves to be eaten alive by slugs.

--
Sue ]

MadCow writes
In message et, Sacha
Hubbard writes

Interestingly enough, David Poole came to see us this morning and tells us
that the national body representing nurseries and gcs says that 6 months is
the outer limit for guarantee. They figure that a plant has had plenty of
time to be taken home, planted and live or die by then!


What about bulbs?
Last autumn I bought some bulbs labelled "Scilla non-scriptus" with a
label clearly showing blue flowers. I was expecting wild-type
bluebells, deep blue, scented and with the top of the inflorescence
arching over.
What came up this spring was Spanish bluebells in a nasty shade of
pink. By the time they flowered they'd already offset into lots of tiny
bulbils that'll take years to eradicate.
I wished I'd kept the packet so that I could storm back to the GC and
complain - of course they just retail this stuff and don't know what's
in the packet, but their supplier deserves to be eaten alive by slugs.

Agree with you absolutely there, the GC should refund.
Equally with my Lychnis coronaria alba seeds - there's no way any
mistreatment of mine could have turned the white flowers carmine!
--
Kay