Gardening Express
reviews and complaints

I have been hugely disappointed with the timescales of the delivery (ordered 8th April, recieved 22nd April, customer service respond 29th April) and the quality of the plants is awful!

I have had to buy the box plants elsewhere and wish to return the plants you send for a full refund.

I had a complaint with the quality of the product and that it was 3 weeks delivery time. I was shocked with the response from the ‘customer care’ team and their return policy.

I will not be spending money returning their shoddy products. Further to this I’ve raised a complaint, receive sarcastic emails and to escalate my complaint I’m asked to write a letter and send to their ‘customer care contact’ S-J. Who I’ve already been emailing!

Im entitled to my money back and you can have your plants back.

Awful experience.

I ordered 4 x 6ft Leylandii from Gardening Express at 10:05:25 BST on 17th April 2023. I received confirmation of my order and that payment of £186.95 had been taken from my card. On 24 April I received an automated email from Gardening Express to say that some orders were taking longer than usual. I therefore waited another week but the plants did not arrive. I was by this time outside of the two week window for claiming an automatic refund. It is now 4 May (2.5 weeks after I placed my order) and I have had no update from the company. I tried to use the Chat function on their website but was told that it would take 3-5 days to receive a reply, which is ridiculous. I sent an email to [protected]@gardeningexpress but have had no response. I also sent an email to chris.[protected]@gardeningexpress but received a notification that the message could not be delivered. I assume the owner, Chris Bonnet, has changed his email address due to the large number of complaints he receives. I am desperate to be refunded for the large amount of money I have paid but can see no way of doing it.

Received today 26th April 2023 at 13.09 pm my order from Gardening Express ,an acer plant, the box it was delivered in is showing evidence of being crushed at the bottom, the pot the plant is in is broken, the soil the plant is in is soaking wet and covered in insects, the plant itself is dead and has broken stems and has no chance of recovery.

I have been trying all day to get in touch with Gardening Express on their E mail address given, ineedhelpgardeningexpress.co.uk but all my E mails to them keep coming back to myself. I have taken photographs and sent them but they also kept coming back to me.

The plant itself is also not of the size of advert which states up to 3 feet but this one dose not even make 16 inches max.

It is really a sad looking plant. very upset as received 2 Canary date palms from them the other day and they are in perfect condition.

I order £74.84 plants with my birthday money on 24th March and unfortunately the address was incomplete on the order because I didn't notice that an autofill hadn't put the full address in. The plants were due for delivery on the 3rd April but because of the incomplete address they couldn't find my property. Yodel informed me of this and I corrected the address on the Yodel App with the full address the very next day 4th April. Yodel failed to deliver and ended up saying the package was being retuned to Gardening Express.

I have been in touch with GE and they emailed to say that when they receive the plants they will get in touch to ask about a refund or replacement. I have heard nothing since.

There is no response it is impossible to speak to anyone at Gardening Express or Yodel and I have lost my birthday money. Yodel should have been able to deliver once they had the full address but they didn't use their own system appropriately and now GE should be following up the return from Yodel and they are doing nothing to help.

Order [protected]

Two Daphne plants were sent to me last month as a birthday present. On the order they state they are both evergreen.

Unfortunately, one is dead and the other not looking very strong.

They were given to me by an old friend who has just lost his wife, so I am trying to get a replacement, without bothering him.

I want to email or message two photos of the Daphne but there is no email for this company!

I asked for this or a phone number on the chat line and Sarah, who was'there to help' never replied!

Anemone Hybrida Bressingham Glow Japanese Anemone SKU P22155 £14.99 and Anemone hupehensis Splendens Windflower SKU P22183 £14.97 delivered 23 August 2022

I expected these to be delivered in a similar condition to the Anemone hupehensis 'Red Riding Hood' Japanese Anemone Windflower, that is, 'in-season, strong, healthy, full of buds, flowers and shoots'. They weren't. They aren't.

These are short, stubby scrawny, almost lifeless plants with wilting foliage, no flowers, no buds, highly unlikely to have any flowers at all this year 2022!

'Autumn', Gardening Expresses' Quick Messaging System agent advised me 'This is a young specimen and will thrive once settled'.

If I wanted two 'young specimen' I'd have ordered two 'young specimen' and they wouldn't have cost me £29.96 but more like £4.99 each!

It is already mid-Summer heading into late-Summer with Autumn 'just around the corner'.

I've not spent £29.96 for Gardening Express to deliver me two 'young specimen' in 3-litre pots for me to grow myself, I've spent £29.96 to have premium quality 3-litre 'in-season' plants delivered full of buds and flowers!

Furthermore, the Plant Passport shows A ANEMONE, B BE-2.085.018.364 C week 13/16 2021!

And Gardening Express expects us to pay 'return postage'? Unbelievable!

I ordered the above which was a pomegranate tree and a Cyprus pine

The Cyprus pine was fine. However, the Pomegranate was very poor for the money. I ordered this tree to plant for my partner who had died whilst on holiday. it was supposed to be a 'very large hardy tree' and on the photos with a decent trunk. it turned up as a weedy sapling. I complained this afternoon as it was definitely not an £80 tree. it probably would have cost about £20-£30 in a nursery.

I was planning on planting it in an orchard as a tribute to Chris my partner.

The on line chat was not helpful. I was told I could return it at my cost to post?

I do not have time to do this. The tree is unsatisfactory. I havent got time to package it up and return at my expense.

This tree was meant to be a tribute to Chris.

Chris died suddenly on holiday. I am currently trying to repatriate Chris and then arrange a cremation. I really dont have time to be packing up trees etc

It is so disappointing as the tree was meant to be special

The tree would be fine as a general purchase at say £20 but at £80 it is an absolute rip off.

The attitude of the call centre was that it was alive and what more would I expect.

Not really what I needed to hear !

I doubt I would ever buy anything again from this company

I just wanted a tree to celebrate Chris

He loved pomegranates

I have had to go and buy another appropriate tree at extra cost

I could barely afford the pomegranate tree as it was

This company showed no compassion and their on line chat had quite frankly a poor attitude

The tree is not as advertised

The plants arrived damaged and on complaint they asked me to change pot and water. They started to die as received damaged, so contacted again and again with no answer. I was reassured that plants are covered with their garranty. Sent photos and contacted several times in the last few years, but they told me they neither refund nor replace as they are not covered and they can't find records of chats and photo messages. Fed up and regret wasting hundreds of pounds to receive damaged plants.

Hi

I bought a grass plant from Gardening Express. When it arrived, it looked dead - but I gave them the benefit of the doubt thinking it could be dormant. A couple of weeks after having planted it and nurtured it, it is clearly dead.

I approached customer services to be told that, because I had not complained within 2 weeks, there was nothing they were prepared to do. Poor, poor customer services. I would advise you avoid and will do so myself.

In January, I bought two multi coloured hibiscus trees. We are now halfway through May and one is full of green leaves and doing well while the other is just brown twigs. I contacted Gardening Express (through chat) who asked for a photo and so I sent one of the two trees side by side. They returned the photo with a circle around the stem which was below the grafting points and when I pointed this out they requested I return the tree. It is 5 months since delivery and so I no longer have a tree box to return it in and asked if they could send me one. "No" was the answer (they don’t send out boxes) and I was advised to go to my local hardware store and buy a box thin enough to take a tree but tall enough (around 5ft). I replied that my local hardware store does not stock boxes of that dimension so could I cut it up into small pieces so as to fit into a normal size box. I was told no because I would kill it but I said it was already dead also, I could not do a “bark” test above the grafts on twigs simply because I have tried and my camera will not focus on something so small and thin. They still would not have it so In the end I gave up and informed them that I will lose a tree but they will lose more when I put my review on as many review sites as possible and they were happy with that.

Placed a very large order with gardening express. I immediately had a problem with the quality of some of the topiary and shrubs. It was impossible to complain. For weeks of trying wouldn’t recognize password or kept crashing. Today looks like they have managed to provide a link but to A person in customer service that is arrogant and patronizing. Initially you have to return product with original labels despite photographs required but clearly not accepted. They want dead plants back at my expense. I have one holly out of four that died. Apparently all their plants are not only checked by them but by an independent ministry person. So the fault is me who apparently can kill one but get three to thrive. Same with 1 out of 3 Hydrangea and 2 out of six lemon cypress.

Received my order on the weekend, half dead / tiny plants which are not established despite the website confirming established and garden ready plants. I have tried to complain only to be told tough, that the manager Tias word was final and I couldnt take the complaint any further. That if I wrote in then she would tell me the same thing over correspondence as well. Was very passive aggressive and unhelpful on chat. These plants are not established or garden ready. I've been told to pay to send them back but I'm not prepared to pay to send something back that has been sent that is not as described. Plug plants are more established then this!

Box (I use that term loosely) arrived 26th Jan. It looked like it had been used as a punch bag by a heavyweight boxer then passed to a football team to practice taking penalties with. Once opened, quite a few leaves were bent & snapped, a few also have look like insects have been merrily eating away. Other leaves are dry & brown at the ends. Now comes the fun part - trying to contact Gardening Express. The only way we can see is through a terrible speech bubble which almost completely hides the questions/complains behind it. We had to go back & re-enter the web page over & over & click all of the barely visible options until we finally came across "Damaged" as a complaint option which brings us to this complaints page (at present 1st Feb 2022 136 complaints, 0 resolved so we do no out much hope of a resolution).

Whilst writing this, I did receive a response from Gardening Express. Their attitude is - Any damage to the plant will grow out, if you would like a refund, they will not collect or cover the cost of the item being returned to them. frankly with their customer service they come across as the Ryanair of the gardening delivery business. Would recommend buying elsewhere

I placed an order with the company, and 1 item on offer was POINSETTIAS for Christmas decoration! They were on offer for just £1 each, which in the sceme of things is not a great deal of money! I ordered 6 of them for in our house, and 2 lots of 2 for brightening up relatives houses! When they arrived they looked great, when my wife opened the boxes, and took them out, within 12 hours all 6 had lost EVERY PETAL, AND MOST OF THE FOLIAGE! ALL that was left on all 6 was a STICK in the middle of a pot!
I have tried on their site to find a way to contact them, but if anyone else out in the world has managed it, I wish they would pass the spell onto me!
My details are as follows.
IAN GITTINGS
37 BELVEDERE CLOSE, BURNTWOOD, STAFFS, WS7 4YR. PHONE [protected] EMAIL [protected]@gmail.com
MANY THANKS.
IAN GITTINGS

I received them 2 days late and they are half dead when they arrived. Almost all the leaves have gone. The customer service is very difficult to reach. No contact numbers or proper email for complaints. I will never use this company again.

Ordered 28/11/2021, despatched 6/12/2021, delivered 14/12/2021.
Several of the plants arrived in very poor condition.
You simply cannot contact their customer service. You access a robot chat system which promises that "you will be talking to a person soon". Waited over an hour on both occasions and no-one contacted me.
I paid good money for very poor plants and service. I want either a refund or replacement. I will never order from them again.
I guess they don't have a telephone line because it would be swamped by customers complaining. They should be very ashamed of the way they treat their customers. A very shoddy company.

On 2nd December I placed an order online for a bird of paradise plant to be delivered to my son in London for his birthday. I received a confirmation of purchase email the same date with order number [protected]. On 6th December I received an email from Dispatch Cloud confirming receipt of my item for delivery - number [protected]. It was scheduled for delivery on 7th December but has never arrived and I cannot get in touch with either company to find out what is happening. The delivery company's website just says there's a problem. Their 'live chat' service isn't working either. I paid £16.37 for something I never received and would like a refund .

Plant ordered 12 days ago. Not delivered . Order No [protected]. I can't contact this Company. They have no phone No, no email address, there quick answering service doesn't work, no link in chat box, there support ticket also not working, no link . The phone No below is not in service. The courier Co DX have failed to find my address on several occasions & now say my plant is not instore. My email address is. [protected]@talktalk.net

When i placed order the site stated dispatch with 3 days now its been 2 weeks and order hasnt been processed i have tried numerous ways yo contact customer service in order to cancel the order and get a full refund. However i have had zero response. The chat is slow and the person i eventually got a reply from was extremely unhelpful and rude saying she has told me multiple time i cant cancel or get a refund. No useful information or even a simple polite response. Im very dissatisfied with the customer service and would still like the order cancelled and my money refunded.

I have ordered a large selection of plants which have turned up either damaged dead or almost dead. I spent over 400 GPB worth of plants and none of them were as described. I have included pictures of just a small selection of plants I had received from them. Nearly all of them are in this condition.!