I guess everyone reaches the point in their life when they begin suffer fools less. I know I got there a while ago but, lately, I have found myself putting up with less and less of the bs that gets tossed around. What especially ticks me off are those that feel it is ok to insult my intelligence. This last month or so I had a case that proves the point.
For a number of years I have been ordering sweet onion plants from the Park Seed Co. of Greenwood, SC. These plants are started someplace in Texas and mailed so I get them in midApril. This year, however, I had not received them by the first week in May so I contacted the company. I received a return email informing me that my order would be sent when it was the proper planting time for my area which would be late May or early June. I replied to this email by informing the writer that previously the plants had come in April, been planted as soon as I could get them in the ground—usually after a week or so in the refrigerator because the ground was too wet to work—and we began harvesting them in mid to late June. This email was answer to the effect that the writer was in error but there had been a problem with production and the plants would be sent as soon as possible. Ok, I wasn’t happy about that but, as a gardener, I understand how those things can happen.
On May 20, I get an email that the onions are being sent via USPS. Since this is also the week that the PO is closed for Memorial Day, I hope the package will arrive by Saturday so it doesn’t sit around until Tuesday. They aren’t there on Saturday nor are they there when the PO reopens on Tuesday. So I email the company again. I am told that it will take a week meaning they should be there the 27th which is Wednesday. They aren’t there on the 27, this generates another email. They aren’t there on the 28th either. Now I’m pissed.
So I send an email informing them that do to the fact these onions are so late, I should be given a refund. The return email informs me that according to the USDA zone chart the planting time for my onions is the end of May and that if I want a refund I must return the onions. (This email is signed by the fourth person to respond—I have an idea that there is only one person in customer service, they just sign an arbitrary name to the computer generated response.) Now my intelligence is being insulted since I know the correct time for planting onions in this area is April. In addition, since these plants will now be going in so late that they may be up against warm, dry weather which may impede their development, I am concerned that they will not mature correctly. This certainly qualifies me for some monetary compensation. Also, since planting time for onions in this area is now a month late, it is impossible to find plants locally to replace them should I return them. Park Seed knows they have me over a barrel and have no intention of admitting the problem is theirs.
I write a return email to this effect and inform whoever is reading it that I am not some Gen-Xer that is making his first garden because the President’s wife is planting one on the White House lawn. I also inform them that, in spite of having purchased seeds from Park for over 40 years—I have kept a garden log that goes back to 1965 and I was using their seeds then—I would no longer buy from them. In addition, I thought that it would have been a case of common courtesy for them to have told me the onions would be late arriving and have given me the opportunity to cancel the order and buy locally. After a month, that train had long left the station and they not only owed me an apology but a refund plus the onions. As of this morning, I have not received a response to that email but suspect that when I do it will be a generic one signed by another person. I do know that the next Park catalog that arrives here—something that occurs with a fair degree of regularly—that I will return it.
BTW, if you’re reading this and wish to know the names and addresses of other seed companies email me, I have a number that are reliable and which I will be using from this point forward.
Addendum: Back in the last week of April I was in the local Lowe’s and noticed they had flats of a dozen Walla Walla sweet onion plants. Since my garden was ready and I hadn’t received my Park order I picked up one and put them in the ground that day. Now, after two frosts and one hard freeze, these onions are golf ball sized and should be usable in a couple of weeks. Just to prove that I, rather than some employee in customer service, knows what he’s doing.
PS: I had some problems getting this blog posted two days ago. As of today, the onion plants are still between here and TX. Also, I after I email Park again today I receive another computer generated email which was signed by a fifth person.
Tags: Add new tag, Park Seed Co.