Gardening Express Reviews

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

1.2 Rating 1,702 Reviews

4 %

of reviewers recommend Gardening Express

Company Reviews

Questions

Metrics

1.2

Based on 1,702 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

“I bought different plants, some in offer and others not. The bulbs in offer came completely rotten! It was a waste of money. One of the orchids came with mold, and other plant came with the pot broken. I send them an email two weeks ago and they haven´t got back to me. I assume that the customer service is awful. Before buying I check the reviews in the website and al of them were 5 starts. After rating them with less starts I realized that my review hasn´t been uploaded into the website, so -based on my experience- it seems clear that they upload only the reviews they like. I will not buy from them again”

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Posted 3 years ago

“Do not buy from this company- purchased a pair of plants one turned up and was already failing despite countless emails and was told the plant was ok they have basically died.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“I ordered 2 totem pole trees from this company in lockdown.When they finally arrived they were dreadful. Not fit for sale. I contacted them and sent photos. It took months for them to contact me and asked for photos again, which I sent.That was October 2020, in January 2021 they answered me and said that they would need the plants back in original containers with original tags and I had to pay for them to be sent back! Disgusting! they can see from the photos from first arrival that they are very poor. Don’t order from this company!”

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Posted 3 years ago

“Avoid this company, like the other people here my order was never delivered, their customer service is non existent and they wont refund my money - you have been warned. Don't trust the few 5 star reviews on here because they do not reflect what this company is about and your credit card company may refuse to refund.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“My wife purchased 2 bicolour budlieas 1 half of on died 3 weeks later raised a ticket and that was a problem on its own only to have it dismissed a couple of months later with no explanation. I would not buy a light bulb from this shower as that would probably die A very disgruntled custom”

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Posted 3 years ago

“First of all this is the first review that I have ever written and that is because I am completely disgusted with the poor quality of the plants and even more disappointed with the lack of communication from customer services, I bought 3 house plants to give for Christmas presents and they arrived on 23rd December. They were in such a poor state I could not give them away as gifts. The orchid was covered in insects and webs and had to be washed on arrival and the flowers dried up and dropped by 30th December. There were very few buds on the Christmas cactus and these all dropped off without blooming and the African violet had few leaves and many flowers that were dried up on arrival and had to be dead headed again by 30th December. So I emailed a complaint and sent photos on 30th December. I got a reply referring to the purchase of a tree so I emailed a reply with more photos and have not even had a courtesy reply. I emailed to say I was disappointed to not have received a reply. Still no reply by today 8th January”

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Posted 3 years ago

“BEWARE!!! plants took 4 months to arrive and then were dead. Totally ignored request for a refund despite months of emailing and contacting. WOULD NEVER USE THIS COMPANY AGAIN!!”

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Posted 3 years ago

“DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM THIS COMPANY I have been in constant touch this company since June 2020 regarding a replacement Acer under their so called 5 year guarantee. They have either totally ignored my request for a replacement or said it has been passed onto the Horticultural Manager (do not think they have one) who will be back in contact shortly. Either way you do not hear anything else from them. I have submitted 4 support ticket requests the first two were deleted by them after 2 weeks with no action at all. The fourth one is still on their system and has been since 11 September 2020. I have asked for numerous updates as to what is happening without any response. The shrub was of very poor quality when it arrived in `November 2019 but despite careful care and attention has not developed at all. Avoid them at all costs as you cannot communicate with them. An excellent website to look at but it is all a scam.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Was concerned by previous reviews but decided to go ahead and am pleased i did. I ordered a Winter Jasmine and it arrived promply, is of good quality and size, was well packaged and a good value. Will use again.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“I have ordered several times and always happy with the plants. They are well packed and arrived at the time stated. If you order at the wrong season then you will wait, but I knew this, so not a problem. I have just ordered some dwarf fruit trees and in doing so came across all these negative reviews. A bit shocked, hope my trees arrive and are healthy like previous orders. These reviews could ruin this company, I would not have bought if I’d seen them first. Just hope not exaggerated as small business are finding it tough enough. Well done Gardening Express on my purchases so far and I really hope any satisfied customers take the time to post good reviews. I think reviews may be only posted when bad, and the dozens of happy customers don’t think it is necessary”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“I ordered several plants. When they arrived they were much smaller than expected. In fact 2 rose trees were £7.50 each half price ( so in theory worth £14.99) they were SO SMALL.. definitely not the size advertised. Like other reviewers I have had a couple of polite replies to my emails..but no action. I would not buy from them again”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“DO NOT USE this company. I dont often do reviews but just felt I should warn others. Terrible service. Plants arrived in terrible condition and I've complained using the ticket system but 5 months later and after complaining 4 times it never heard anything.”

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Posted 3 years ago

“Avoid, avoid, avoid. Dreadful experience during the year. I ordered two plants (wisteria) - they never arrived. Yet my customer account said they had been dispatched, so please wait 2 weeks. Please wait another two weeks. Ridiculous ticket system for contacting them - no phone line or chat function. 10 emails later, still no satisfactory resolution. During the correspondence they apologised several times, and said they would dispatch again - but no plant ever turned up. Nor refund. It was just a process for fobbing off the customer. Fast forward to December, and my brother-in-law asked "Secret Santa" ffor a citrus tree which he had seen advertised by Gardening Express for Christmas present. Stupidly I thought, "surely they couldn't be as bad again". Wrong. It's now 21 Dec and 10 days since I placed an order which they said would be despatched in 3-5 days. Looks like brother in law won't be getting his gift, and I have lost more money Company now has a chat function as well as their "ticket system" - BUT it only operates three days per week. And still no phone line. This company deserves a County Court judgment against it. Maybe that's the only way you can get your money returned.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“One tree is empty and the other one is bent. I left a review on the plant page and it doesn't even appear, which makes me think other people left a negative review but they are invisible. Not happy at all. The return/refund policy is also unfair, they send something not in line with what they advertise and they expect me to walk to the post office with these trees and then pay for the delivery? Unacceptable”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Made multiple orders. Plants arrived dead, wrong plants were shipped, and/or plants were in an extremely poor and damaged condition. In many cases it appears that the damage was prior to shipping. Despite multiple emails over a period of several months and "Tickets" on their website Gardening Express has failed to even respond. And, you cannot even telephone them. They just ignore you and take your money. How they are still trading is a miracle. Pay a little more at a reputable company and save yourself from fraud!”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 19th December 2020

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Posted 3 years ago

“I recently ordered some tea berry plants. They originally said that my order would take 3-5 days to ship. I thought this to be reasonable. Then they said it could take 10 days, then 20 days. I tried to cancel my order, but they did not allow this, as you have to cancel within 24 hrs. Once more, you can no longer 'chat' with them; you have to fill out a 'ticket' e-mail. So, I went to Cowell's Garden Center, in New Castle Upon Tyne, for the same order. They shipped my order and DELIVERED the NEXT DAY. They kept me abreast with my order every step of their shipping process -- including exact times of shipping/delivery, a pic of the delivery person, AND a pic of my package at its destination. Now that's service, which is everything!”

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Posted 3 years ago

“Terrible plants Terrible customer service Terrible attitude How is this company allowed to get away with this, no being police by the relevant authorities???”

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Posted 3 years ago

“herrenodius quality of plants. and they do not publish negative reviews on their website. stay away”

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Posted 3 years ago

“I ordered 2 x Thai constellation and received 2 x monstera albo instead (like many others) We have now formed a Facebook group called gardening express uk complaints. If it wasn't quite so serious I would probably laugh, particularly at their explanation. Apparently, the plants we received are definitely thai but a new type grown by their supplier. They have longer internodal spacing and the variegation improves with light. Pahahaha my god you couldn't make it up. This company literally have no idea. We have lots of specialists who have confirmed they are in fact albo. We have even been in contact with the grower 'urban wild' as their label and plant passport were in the pot. Gardening Express have said the labels are generic and used by many companies and stated urban wild are not their supplier. Ok so that's completely illegal, nice. Urban wild have confirmed they are their ALBOS and that they do not sell thai constellation. They state they do not know Gardening Express so we assume they bought through a middle man. Maybe they gave the wrong info but the fact that Gardening Express aren't budging is infuriating. They must know the truth by now. They are standing firm on them being correct even though we have literally proved otherwise. Then, they finally agreed a return for a full refund however based on reviews a lot of us won't be returning because we don't trust we will get our money back at all. Absolute farce of a company. ETA I didn't return so no refund but it won't let me edit below”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I purchased a Monstera Thai Constellation but received a Monstera Albo (a cheaper plant). They then made up a false definition of what the plant was so they could pretend they didn't make a mistake! SCAM AVOID AT ALL COSTS”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Gardening Express is rated 1.2 based on 1,702 reviews