ComplaintsforPlantsome Retail Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  27/03/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Delivery Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  I saw this company on ******** and after checking their page, learned that they were a local company located in ****** right next to ********************.On March 16, 2024, I made an online purchase to a local company, Plantsome for $151.37. I immediately received a confirmation stating We have received your order on 03/16/2024. Your order number is *****. An email will be sent to you with a tracking code once your order has shipped. The confirmation included the total purchase price including the discount.The purchase was an XXL ****** Tree Cane Yucca plant.I live in a secure building and provided the buzzer number so that they could contact me upon arrival to gain access to deliver.At 6:13PM on March 19 they sent an email notifying me that my order would be delivered the next day between 1:30 and 3:30PM and that if I had any additional delivery instructions, I should email them. I immediately emailed saying that I had an appointment the next day at 1PM and would not be home at 1:30 so they should try to deliver later in the time window to ensure I would be home.I only received an automated response that said to wait on sending a follow-up until I had received a response. I received no subsequent response.When I arrived home, the delivery had been attempted at 1:44pm and of course, the driver could not gain access to the building. I emailed upon returning home and again, have only received an automated response. I tried calling the number on the business card at the bottom of the email... ************** . This is not the correct number! The gentleman who answered, receives calls for this company frequently, told me that they have the wrong number on their business card.After several days of emailing and getting only automated responses that did not address my concerns nor answer my questions, I became frustrated and emailed them to please contact me to reschedule delivery or cancel the order of a XXL ****** Tree Cane Yucca and refund the total: $151.37.

• Initial Complaint

  31/10/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Delivery Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I did buy on line Oct 26, they don't have the phone line, only conv on the e-mail, I did try to tell them to cancel the order, they said, they only work on Mon-Fri: 9AM - 5PM PST, I did place order after those hours on Oct 26, they try to deliver on Oct 27, and I did tell them need to cancel hold order and they reply, need me to pay the re-stock fee, I said, why I need to pay, and their reply, because term and condition, I did reply on Oct 26, just delivery next Monday was today, but I will not buy again, and util today, they did not have any reply, did they run aways?

  Business response

  31/10/2023

  Hi there!
  We apologize for the inconvenience.
  

  Orders may be cancelled by using the self serve order cancellation. However, orders that have already been fulfilled by our team can no longer be cancelled which is perhaps why the option wasn't provided to the customer at the time they selected to cancel their order. Our customer service team, upon contact with them, did cancel the order for the customer and no restocking fee was applied.

  
  Your order was fully refunded, as the method of payment is ****** ****** it can take up to 5 business days for the refund to complete (when paid via ******).

  We have provided a *** copy of the refund as processed through our store (see attached). 
  

  We hope this satisfies your request.
  
  Best,
  Team Plantsome

  Customer response

  01/11/2023

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***************

• Initial Complaint

  18/09/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I have been trying to speak with the online retailer since I received my order on August 18. I purchased 3 of their products online in August 14. One of the products, priced $24, was dying and of inferior quality when received. I have tried on many occasions to contact the company’s customer service team, as they state, through Social media or email, so that I can address this issue, however they have been silent for 4 weeks. They state they stand behind their products and have a 3 month satisfaction guarantee. How can I communicate with them that they sent a dying plant when they will not respond to my messages or return my request for a conversation. I sent a request on august 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 26, Sept 12, 14, 16, 17. No response.

  Business response

  03/10/2023

  Good afternoon
  
  We appreciate the complaint that this customer has filed with Better Business Bureau. I would like to unpack this issue starting with the 'end' because I think it is important to note the following from the outset:
  
  1. As soon as Plantsome was made aware that there was an issue with this customer's order, we resolved the issue by giving the customer a full refund on his entire order. Not a refund on the part of his order where he had an issue but on the entire order. We did this because we recognize we were very late in handling his complaint.  
  
  2. As the owner/CEO of Plantsome, I also made a personal follow up phone call explaining the situation to the customer and most of all apologize for the situation.
  
  Now as for what happened a few details:
  1. The issue the customer had happens on 2-4% of orders where plants are not healthy upon arrival (can be due to various reasons). The normal process is always to issue a store credit or refund for such issues
  2. However, unfortunately this customer reached out on a social media channel that we had difficulty accessing and managing for a period of time which is why we did not catch his correspondence with us. We checked and could not find an email correspondence from the customer. This is not to place blame on the customer for using social media to reach out, we should have done a better job of fixing this issue more quickly, but it is what caused us to respond so much later than usual.
  3. The customer also sends screenshots of 'appointment requests' made through ****/********. We do not have such a feature available to customers. I will look into disabling this if it is possible since I can understand that this creates further confusion.
  
  
  I understand completely the frustration of this customer, being left in the dark for a considerable amount of time and we have sharpened our processes as a result to make sure these things do not happen again, In a sense I am grateful the customer brought these issues to light. I would however argue that the experience is in no way a reflection on how we typically deal with these issues as well as the type of company that we are. I think our full refund (upon finally catching the issue) as well as the personal phone call are an indication of that. 
  
  I have attached a screenshot of the full refund for reference. 
  
  I hope this satisfies the BBB to keep us in normal standing.
  
  

  As much as that may be a part of the issue here, we do appreciate the fact that a customer cannot know that we don't have proper access to our social media accounts.

  
  
  I notice in the screenshots that this customer also tried to create an 'appointment' on ********* or ********. We are looking into this as well since Plantsome does not have this ability or has ever mentioned anywhere that an appointment can be made with us on any of our social media or on our own website.
  
  

  Customer response

  03/10/2023

  
  Complaint: ********
  
  
  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is only partially satisfactory to me.
  I am concerned that they say they will make the effort to have control over their social media messages and appointments. Their own printed material that was sent with the shipment indicated that the BEST way to reach them was through social media, and upon their very late response, I noticed many others having this same issue and not getting any response from Plantsome**** 
  Clicking on their link in their website to email them, did not open an email, rather it wanted me download a mail app. So no, I did not send an email with my original concern, because I could not. Their own website links didn’t work. 

  It took some deep digging for a week on the internet to find their email address. 
  Plantsome**** and Plantsome in ****** both received my social media messages and requests for customer service callback (they obviously could not help me but did expressed concern on not being able to contact customer service here in Canada). So my only conclusion I can draw from this is that Plantsome*** is not operating at the expected level of the parent company. 
  While I appreciate the personal call from the CEO and the full refund, the route issue is that it took 4 weeks of frustrating posts, social media requests, silence from Plantsome and deep digging on my part to get a resolution. How will they demonstrate that they are going to make these meaningful changes to these hugely problematic consumer issues, beyond a statement when they are forced to respond to.
  
  
  Sincerely, 
  
  **** ***** ****
  

   

  
  Sincerely,
  
  **** ***** ****

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩