The disaster that is Park Seeds!

[jebgordon]

The bio domes work great for me. I didn't get the best results by using the sponges the first year. I switched to using seed soil to fill the cells and grew much better seedlings. I use a heat pad for peppers to get quicker germination.
Jim

[ddsack]

I wonder if the title to this thread is exactly fair to Park Seeds? The "disaster" seems to have abated, and this thread will live on forever.

Disaster may be too severe, but service still appears uneven. I ordered $65 worth of large permanest trays on March 7th - it was a good deal with a discount and free shipping at the time. It will be three weeks on Thursday, and when I check my order status online, there is no tracking number yet, which the website says means it has not yet been shipped. So add a week to a best case scenario, and it will be at least a month from ordering before I get those trays. I will post here when I receive them. The online catalog still indicates they are in stock and available to ship, as it did when I ordered.

I would have ordered them from elsewhere, but with the special discounts that week, they were cheaper by a couple dollars each than the other places.

[Muslickz]

I personally have ordered from Park Seeds two years in a row, usually lettuce or radicchio. They have a great pelleted version, I have yet to get less than a 90% germ. rate.

I have had nothing but good experiences with them, my orders always arrive within 10 days and they ship with care.

Bottom line.. Park seeds did me right!

-Mus

[JLJ_]

Originally Posted by ddsack

Disaster may be too severe, but service still appears uneven. I ordered $65 worth of large permanest trays on March 7th - it was a good deal with a discount and free shipping at the time. It will be three weeks on Thursday, and when I check my order status online, there is no tracking number yet, which the website says means it has not yet been shipped. So add a week to a best case scenario, and it will be at least a month from ordering before I get those trays. I will post here when I receive them. The online catalog still indicates they are in stock and available to ship, as it did when I ordered.

I would have ordered them from elsewhere, but with the special discounts that week, they were cheaper by a couple dollars each than the other places.

ddsack, I like Park -- they may not be what they once were, but I've found them still nearer their former standard than many sources. However, I had an experience much like yours.

I emailed them (using the customer service form on their website, I believe). I explained what I had ordered,and that the items had all been and were still listed as in stock and asked if they had really been shipped, in spite of it not showing on the website. I received a reply saying that an item was backordered, and they expected my order to ship when the missing item arrived (date about a week later).

I wrote back and said that I found the reply troubling, as it seemed likely that by the time the missing item came in, something else might be out of stock. I pointed out again (kindly) that all items had been shown and were still shown as in stock, and said that if anything had been listed as out of stock I would have not have placed an order that included out of stock items, and that I did not want substitutions, but needed the items, and hoped they could find out something that would make a useful suggestion possible.

I received a prompt courteous reply that the items in stock were being shipped immediately, and the missing item would be shipped at no charge when it arrived. And they did just that.

I suspect that many of the problems people report with Park derive from a combination of a "don't ship until all items are present" policy and their system not being kept up to date about what is in stock, so that even their own telephone order people don't know items are out of stock unless an inquiry prompts further inquiries. That probably leads to exactly the situation I feared -- one item comes in, but by then another is out, so orders are unduly delayed, without explanation unless the customer inquires and pushes beyond the "it's on backorder, will ship a week or so" stage.

Not what one would expect of a company the size of Park. But at least thus far, I've found them helpful about fixing the problem if asked about it. And it is much better customer service than I've received from another large company that is on this site's recommended list.

Worth a try, if you haven't already.

[ddsack]

I think you are probably right that the "in stock" designation is probably meaningless, if personnel are not obligated or trained to update their public website to accurately reflect stock on hand. The only thing on my largish order were the Permanest trays, so there was nothing else to wait for. I ordered online, so they have my email address and could easily sent a notice that they were temporarily out of stock if that were the case. I can use the trays no matter how long it takes them to come, since I need to replace some old ones that are cracking after long years of use. I just think it's really poor customer service to not give notice if you're unable to fill an order in a timely manner.

I used to order lots of flower seeds and some veggies from Parks years ago, but in the last few years, I've found other sources that I like better. I thought I'd give them one more chance, and I'm not very happy with the result.

[Baizanator]

I've been a Park man for a long time. My father is and my grandfather is but, lately, there has been a huge issue with them.

I placed a HUGE order back in January with my cash account card. I was charged and received the order. Yesterday I see on my other debit card that they'd charged me again for the order. I did not authorize this transaction. I call them up and they tell me that it had been declined on my other card. I was unaware of this because I order most of my large orders on pre-paid disposable cards for security purposes.

So, instead of invoicing me or letting me know that I owed them, they simply made an unauthorized transaction on my personal debit card. We are disputing the charge at the moment with our bank, Chase.

I WILL NEVER USE THEM AGAIN.

[ddsack]

Update on my Park's order:

Good news is, my eight Permanest trays finally arrived yesterday. Ordered March 7th, finally arrived June 12th! More than a 3 month wait, good thing I wasn't in a rush to get them. After receiving no shipment info after a few weeks, I finally noticed that at the very end of my order confirmation email, hidden among other email links at the very bottom, there is a tiny link to click to check on your order status, needing your order number and zipcode. So every few weeks, I would check, and they kept moving up the projected shipment date by another few weeks whenever the previously stated date drew near. It got to be funny, because I knew the date would be pushed forward every time I checked. It may not be all Park's fault if the manufacturer wasn't supplying them, but then why put something on sale if you don't actually have the numbers, I think most people assume special sales are to get rid of overstocks.

The bad news is, (and this is not Park's fault) that the current Permanest trays are thinner cheaper plastic, you can actually bend them a little if you twist them at each end. The old trays from 15-20 years ago were very solid and lasted me many years, I still have some around. I bought a batch about 4 years ago, that have shattered already, and this new batch look even thinner than those. I won't be buying anymore Permanest trays. I can get about the same rigidity as these new ones by using a mesh tray under a non-draining plastic tray for just a couple of bucks if I buy from a greenhouse supplier. That would have been about 1/4 the price. Live and learn.

[Master_Gardener]

Originally Posted by ScottinAtlanta

I wonder if the title to this thread is exactly fair to Park Seeds? The "disaster" seems to have abated, and this thread will live on forever.

Isn't that why customer service is important? When companies excel, they deserve to be rewarded with your business. When they don't, they do not deserve your business. It works both ways.

A 100 year old seed company gets bought by a holding company. It continues to advertise "Since XX76" but in reality, they are Monsanto wannabees.

How do we know when a company has 'fixed' their problems and for how long? As they would likely tell you; "It's just business, nothing personal."

[ArthurDent004]

I ordered from Park Seed and received what I ordered. The thing I didn't like was they said they offered USPS tracking for your package but when I put in the tracking number I was given I found out it was delivery verification only, nothing else.

I normally check the BBB website to see if the company has a file but didn't this time. I checked after I received my order and noticed they had a "F" rating.

[ScottinAtlanta]

Park Seeds has a big sale today:

2-DAYS ONLY! HUGE seed closeout sale! Rock-bottom prices on the very highest-quality vegetable and flower seeds. These seeds have been greatly discounted, allowing you to SAVE up to 60% on our already low prices! Take advantage of these wonderful savings before they are gone.

http://parkseed.com/category.aspx?c=...19310000028716

[RJGlew]

I have never had an issue with any seeds/varieties from Parks and they ship to Canada. I will be trying Nectar, Juliet & Sugary from Parks in 2014.

[rhines81]

I have ordered from Park in the past, but it has been a while. This year I placed an order and they are so far the slowest to ship. Also, checking my shipping confirmation against my order confirmation they left off 1 of my seed packs (that I need now) without notifying me that it is a backorder. I still have not received any sort of notification on that, it is just absent from my shipment receipt.
I won't receive my order until next week and initially it was supposed to be today (some sort of delay with USPS).

Not a rancid experience, but not a "customer oriented" experience either. I ordered seed from several other companies at the same time and received all of those orders late last week. I ordered the missing seed from Burpee tonight, just in case Park does not come through with the backorder in time.

[greenthumbomaha]

Park Seed is having free shipping for the weekend, no minimum PKLDFREE. Thru Tuesday.

Not endorsing, just informing.

- Lisa

[Al@NC]

Anyone order from Park recently? I ordered some Megabite F1 seeds last Friday and the order is still not showing in their system when I try to see status?! :O

Is this the norm? I've never ordered from them before but they had cheap shipping to Canada..

Al

[clkeiper]

I ordered from them a few weeks ago. I got excellent service. I had seeds I needed for an order and I couldn't get them from my regular supplier. so I went searching for the seeds and parks had them. I ordered two packets but one was almost empty. I needed 200 plants for a customer. the packets were supposed to have 300 seeds each. the one packet was replaced quite quickly and without issues.