Gardening Express Reviews

Name: Gardening Express
Address: Gardening Express, Chelmsford, Essex
Rating: 1.17

1.2 Rating 1,711 Reviews

4 %

of reviewers recommend Gardening Express

Company Reviews

Questions

Metrics

1.2

Based on 1,711 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Courier
Average Delivery Time	Over A Month
On-time Delivery	Greater than 16%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	Greater than 31%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Email, Live Chat, Telephone
Queries Resolved In	Over A Week
Customer Service	1.1 out of 5
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process	Difficult
Returns Process	Could Be Better

Phone:

08448 044 253

Location:

Gardening Express, Chelmsford
Essex
CM1 4UA

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Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Sort by: Most Recent Most Recent Highest Rated Filter: None None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“Ordered Persian lilly and following the instructions left them to grow in the pot Six weeks later I looked to plant them in position to grow Not growing at all but just rotting Obviously not been growing at all Small bulbs for the species On complaint the company said they were out of guarantee and nothing to do £35.00 spent for nothing”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 months ago

“Gardening Express is a sham. Offer of guarantee it completely false. Bare root plants they send are as good as twigs but hugely more expensive with no refund actually available. Do not waste your money on this left over stock.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 months ago

“Edit- They also REFUSE bad but honest, reviews on their website!! If you are lucky, which I was on occasion, to recieve a live plant - although it will almost certainly arrive a full two weeks after it's supposed to - you're lucky. If you have a problem forget it! Customer services ignore you when you challenge them. They refuse to accept perfectly good photos of dead plants. They expect you to pay vast amounts of money to send back dead plants - despite it costing more than the refund would be. They refuse to supply details of their complaints procedure. The list goes on! I'm lucky enough to have a significant social media following, so I will be sharing my experiences and their, quite frankly, rude replies when they do bother. I will also be in touch with the financial ombudsman because they have broken a large number of rules regarding complaints.... not to mention sending out dead plants! Please, if this happens to you, do report them. They clearly hope that you simply get bored. Personally, I think that any company who refuses to engage and resolve basic issues,like sending out dead plants, needs to be stopped until they alter their ways. Don't be afraid to fight back. I wish I could share pictures on here of the dead plants. It's truly shocking.”

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Posted 7 months ago

“Gosh, I wish I'd read these reviews before I started doing business with them. An appalling company to do business with. For years I have used a well-known high quality supplier but thought I'd give these guys a chance. That was back in April 2024 and since then I have spent nearly £400 on plants. One of those orders was for 6 standard roses - and 3 of them were CLEARLY dead on arrival. At their request I went through their process of waiting to see if the plants would improve but when a further month later I advised them that they were definitely dead and sent photos, they demanded more photos showing the 'whole' plant when previous photos supplied this apart from maybe the bottom 6 inches. Most other plant suppliers exercise a degree of trust and respect. Gardening Express don't. Ignore the apparently favourable prices. You get what you pay for. They are a joke with an amateur approach to customer service.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 months ago

“No updates on deliveries and no response to my emails to them. Wish I had read the reviews before placing my order with them! I will be contacting my credit card company today for a refund. Do not use them!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 months ago

“Purchased 3 bare rooted roses which were delivered on 25/6/24 I have given them 7 weeks to grow but no success. Contacted Garden Express customer services by email (no phone line available) advised i am outside the Warrenty period please take note when ordering from this company”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 months ago

“Ordered 2 x 5ft multi coloured trees supposed to turn up in time for funeral service .ordered in time as website states up to 10 buisnesd days ,checked order and not even been dispatched, 4 x weeks later ,sent emails but no response, this company just seems to want money but won't bother sending any goods out .”

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Posted 8 months ago

“Having read the reviews on this website I was full of trepidation before my order arrived I had ordered 4 different Penstemon plants either in bud or in flower. When they arrived thee were in flower the other had finished flowering two were identical the third different and the 4th unable to identify , only one had been labelled. Admittedly I was ordering the plants late in the season and they were pot bound but they had been reduced in price accordingly. I complained and I was asked to provide photographic evidence, their response was exemplary they immediately refunded in full including the postage and were extremely courteous with virtually immediate emails and provided a contact telephone no. This experience is at odds with all the negative entries to be had on this website which is at odds with the Trust pilot website,I am puzzled!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 months ago

“Ordered eight plants in total. got all these fancy tracking emails. delivery date given for a few days later so arranged to stay home from work and only one plant got delivered. had an email saying that part two of my delivery would be next day, Another single plant got delivered. Had an email that night saying that quality control was not happy with the condition of the remaining plants so they offered a credit not or refund. I dont think they even had all these plants in stock in the first place and that they buy them from other sources. I would rather everything in one delivery than more than one. The one tree which was my second delivery did not look very healthy. it looked and felt dry. I have planted it yesterday so watching carefully to see how it matures. Having read all the bad reviews, which i missed as i normally do research before buying. could kick myself. Just read all the other reviews which back up what i went through. shop elsewhere if i was you.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 months ago

“I’ve had an horrendous experience with gardening Express I ordered a shrub described as healthy green leaves in flower and bud. I r had delivered a half dead shrub full of disease majority of leaves missing rest diseased . Yellow in colour no flowers or buds . Customer services are non existent . Rude and ignorant . Company has a plant guarantee but does not stand by it . Do not order from here”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 months ago

“My plants arrived in a very poor state. Website said the lavenders would be in bud and bloom. My certainly weren't. I contacted customer services who agreed that they should have been in bud and in bloom but mine were the last of the stock and they certainly looked like it. Garden Express refused to replace them and just offer me a gift voucher. This was my first order and I won't be ordering again”

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Posted 8 months ago

“Chased for delivery, arrived a couple of days late Plaint was in awful condition, had been munched by bugs, the bottom leaves of the 'tree' were yellow with spot on denoting disease, those that hadn't already fallen off. Photo's sent to prove condition of plant to 'customer services' who told me it wasn't in poor condition!!!!!!! This is daylight robbery!”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 2nd August 2024

Helpful Report

Posted 8 months ago

“Worse online plants company in the UK by a long shot Avoid at all costs Plants were half-dead, they won't return your money, Morgan at customer services was beyond dreadful at providing any customer services.”

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Posted 8 months ago

“Bought 2 bamboos from Gardening Express. There was nothing "Express" about it, plants took ages to arrive. Two tiny specimens, one has died less than a month of planting it, the other one is still alive and looks reasonably healthy. Left negative review directly on their website, both times they were removed.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 months ago

“If I could give less than 1 star I would We ordered some marigolds I believe 30 at least half arrived dead. We also ordered some mini conifers due to poor packaging the tops that create the lovely pointed look was snapped off. I notified the company and they refused to replace or refund just kept asking for more and more photos when the first ones were very clear and transparent. I have no choice to report this company to Trading standards as luckily in the Uk businesses are duty bound to comply with rules and regulations to enable a company to trade. I felt it was important to leave this review for other potential customers and at least that gives you transparency to decide to buy from this company or not.”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 24th July 2024

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Posted 8 months ago

“Absolutely disgusting customer service and products well below standard. I ordered 4 plants, 2 of which were crushed but due to the nature of what they are they will recover easily. What I am disgusted with is 2 monstera that I ordered. One a standard monstera and the other a monkey mask. My order arrived with green carrier bags wrapped tight and knotted over the leaves of the monkey mask and the 2 other plants, these were individualy bagged and tied to the larger monstera pot. The monkey mask consists of 10 leaves, 2 are severly scorched, a further 1 is scorched to a lesser extent, and 4 are completly torn so only a fraction of leaves remain. That leaves 3 leaves on the entire pot! The larger monstera is infested with thrips! When they arrived there was no way they would have immediatly survived reporting as they were clearly shocked. I watered them, fed them and put them on suitable locations. The 2 smaller plants are recovering well and were repotted after 2 days. The monsteras however have required so much work, both clearly have thrips which I am treating. Neither however would still be alive had I not known how to look after them! I contacted gardening express who tried to pass the blame for damage on to the delivery company over and over again! The delivery company is not at fault! Knotting carrier bags tightly around stems and leaves and then sellotaping the pots together is what has caused the damage! They will not even comment on the thrip issue and the repeated response is they will be OK in the long run! Can you imagine receiving a dress which is ripped and telling a customer don't worry you can repair it and it will be fine in the long run! Each email takes a minimum of 48 hours for them to respond so this back and forwards has been going on for what feels like an age now! The response I received 2 days ago was to return the plants at my own expense to get a refund if I'm unhappy, they refuse to do anything else as the plants are alive. Which infuriates me as they are alive because I havecared fir them, repotted them,fed them and I am ongoing treating the thrip issue. They will not apologise for causing the damage or discuss the infestation. Nothing is there fault! At the beginning of this I would have accepted sorry, it's our fault and they will look on to the poor practice of tying stems and leaves in knots inside carrier bags, but now the denial of any blame and the constant it will be fine in the long run has meant that I will push ahead with an escalated complaint.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 months ago

“Were do I start waited ages for delivery but when it did arrive disappointed is an understatement got a full refund but bitterly disappointed with quality and size of fuchsia cuttings was a joke lavender was near dead soil dry stems brown like they had been scorched overall a very bad experience with quality of goods but on the other hand refund was promptly given.”

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Posted 9 months ago

“Had a damaged plant delivered which was rectified smartly , bought two standard roses last year and one this year and a black magnolia all lovely plants ,pity my photos would not download”

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Posted 9 months ago

“Plants arrived totally squashed. Leaves off. Soil everywhere. Pots broken. The customer service stated that the photo's were not sufficient. Perhaps judge for yourself!! These people are a joke.”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 11th July 2024

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Posted 9 months ago

“They sent small diseased plants not the 3 to 4 ft ones Thai ordered. They refuse to reply to my emails and messages. I have had to make a Visa charge back claim to get my money back. I will be reporting them to trading standards. Stay clear of them. No better than scammers.”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 10th July 2024

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Posted 9 months ago

Gardening Express is rated 1.2 based on 1,711 reviews