One of the first trees I purchased for my new yard ten years ago was a fruitless Sweet Gum (Liquidambar styraciflua). I wasn't actually planning to buy this variety of tree but decided when I saw it at a garden center that a Sweet Gum tree that had all the good attributes of a Sweet Gum, but no fruiting, would be a good tree.Without going into all the details, it turned out that this sweet gum was far from fruitless and in fact is very heavily fruiting most years.
I still have the receipt and the tag, both of which say "fruitless".
About six years ago, I decided to go back to this garden center with pictures of all the sweet gum balls hanging on the tree and copies of the receipt and tag. I wanted them to know the tree was mis-labeled and I was disappointed. I wasn't going to ask them to remove the tree so I could plant a tree that I really wanted or anything like that. I just wanted them to do something to show they cared and were sorry about it.
Oh those lucky garden center employees! I made their day. I don't think anyone had every come back with proof that a tree they sold was mis-labeled. And by the way, it seems to have been mis-labeled by the wholesale nursery first.
They looked at my picture, copies of the tag and receipt, and me and deferred the whole problem to "the manager" who was conveniently not in. But they assured me, promised me, that he would call me!
Six years later, I'm still waiting for that call and I've only gone to that garden center once or twice since then. That hasn't been as hard to do as it sounds because this garden center is not on my side of town.
But when people ask me where to go to buy trees, I tell them about the mis-labeled tree that I got at this garden center, because they should be aware that such a thing can happen to anyone.
What would you have done? What should the garden center manager have done?
Comments
I can't imagine that the manager didn't call you. I might have called him/her directly to make sure the message was relayed.
I get really irratated with places that label their plants wrong. Who ever supplies Lowes does a bad job labeling. I have found several mistakes. I have brought an error to the attention of the management. I don't know if it helped. I couldn't let them pass off an Arctic Willow as one that gets the fuzzy catkins as the label stated. It wasn't even the right plant in the picture on the label. Geeez
Not long ago I had this problem on a smaller scale: http://www.penick.net/digging/?p=315. At my favorite nursery I bought an ornamental grass labeled as a 'Yaku Jima' miscanthus, which I specifically wanted. The grasses weren't in bloom, but the pot was clearly labeled. After a few weeks, it bloomed the bottlebrush inflorescence of a pennisetum.
I went back to the nursery to discuss it with the manager. Their now-blooming pennisetums were still mislabeled, by the grower, as in your case. The manager apologized and gave me a store credit. Problem solved and customer satisfied.
Doing the right thing creates loyal customers.
Knowing which nursery you are referring to and knowing that is a well known, non-big box establishment, I think I would still try to let the manager know how dissatified you are and show him the same proof that you had last time. Maybe they have a new manager. And I think I would ask for the manager first, before explaining the situation in any detail. If they ask why you waited so long, tell them you have tried in the past to talk to them about it. A store's reputation is very important to them and most wish to preserve it.
Kathy, the older sister
Our garden center would rather have a happy customer that will do repeat business and does everything in its power to rectify any mistakes. And that is why we are one of the most successful garden centers in the city.
Since after all this time it still bothers you so much that you're telling other potential customers about this mistake, talk to the manager and tell him/her that given the chance you're not recommending their nursery. Likely, they'll be smart enough to see that replacing your tree will be much cheaper in the long run.
That being said, mistakes are made because we're all human, but when this happens, someone should do something to compensate for it. It's a way of showing you really care and that the mistake wasn't intentional.
I think they should give you store credit for the amount you paid, then they should notify their supplier of the error.
When someone comes in upset about something we ask the customer what it is that they would like us to do? Yep, you got the power! Want a new tree to plant? Want credit on the tree you bought? Want me to do a little dance while signing the praises of May Dreams Gardens? I’ll do it. In addition we would also contact the grower and let you know what they say.
This is all so preventable. While the original mistake, the now planted fruiting Liquidambar has already happened, they are just compounding the hurt by never having contacted you.
This company should thank its lucky stars that you haven’t mentioned their name
Probably in a week or so I'll be writing a story on my blog, not about plants, but about my misadventure with my laptop--and how that is finally being resolved. But we'll wait til I get the new one and send the old one back...:-)
These stores with their :customers last" attitude reap what they sow in the future.
The tree was $35 by the way. I did figure out, Nan Ondra, when I did more research when the tree first started to fruit, that it was 'Rotundiloba' with rounded leaves that didn't fruit. I know now that if I ever see a sweet gum with 'regular leaves' tagged as fruitless, that it isn't. But you all know how it is when you get to the nursery. No reference books on hand, so you have to trust the tags!
Thanks again for all of the support.
Carol at May Dreams Gardens
Across the nation we have small businesses wringing their hands and complaining that the big box stores are driving them out of business because the small businesses cannot match the big box prices.
Yet here we have an example of an opportunity to provide good customer service, one of the most important differentiators between big box and small business, and it is wasted.
It doesn't matter where the error originated, the more important error was in not addressing the mix-up when given the opportunity.
I would continue to share your dissatisfaction with others, and if you are feeling charitable, attempt one more time to provide some education to the manager about an issue that can certainly be make-or-break for the business.
What we do at our nursery is 3 months after the sale we send our customers an email and ask them to rate us on our Staff, Quality expectation and leave a comment if they wish. We then print this out and put it on the notice board for all the staff to read from the staff who graft and propogate to the customer service staff.
Most of the time it is a big moral boost for Staff and gives us work satisfaction but the customers who we haven't met all their expectations often give us the wake up call to get our act together in whichever area they have complained about.