Seattle Orchid virus issues?

[MJG]

I appreciate all the input and I agree with the sentiments expressed! I bought my orchids with a credit card. I thought credit cards were better than paypal when it comes to fraud. Now I know.

I wrote back to Seattle Orchid and told them that the only resolution that's acceptable to me is a full refund. I also offered, in lieu of actually sending the diseased plants back, to rerun the tests and mail them the test strips. I am not hopeful, and plan to start the process with my credit card company tomorrow.

JScott, you are right. Research your orchid grower (or in this case, reseller)! I let myself get suckered into buying from SO because I was searching for a phal bellina (desperately) and the only vendor that bubbled up as having one in stock was SO. I jumped at it, not knowing about their reputation, but also not researching it. Ironic that the bellina they sent me has BOTH the ORSV and CyMV viruses.

Then I let myself be drawn in by their "help our poor grower in Hawaii who is barely afloat in the midst of covid-19" sale. 3 of the 7 orchids I bought from the poor Hawaiian grower tested positive for viruses.

Anyway, moral of the story is do your research before you buy.

Something else that absolutely galls me is that yesterday I received a "blast" email from them that they're doing a second "help our poor Hawaiian grower sale". Seattle Orchid is doing this despite all the recent feedback they've received about the Hawaiian orchids being diseased.

On the happy and healthy side of things, I did find a beautiful phal bellina that arrived at my home today from Orchidweb ie Orchids Limited. I am delighted. And thanks to this board, I found this grower and read about their reputation before I ordered. 🙂

[JScott]

Originally Posted by MJG

I appreciate all the input and I agree with the sentiments expressed! I bought my orchids with a credit card. I thought credit cards were better than paypal when it comes to fraud. Now I know.

I wrote back to Seattle Orchid and told them that the only resolution that's acceptable to me is a full refund. I also offered, in lieu of actually sending the diseased plants back, to rerun the tests and mail them the test strips. I am not hopeful, and plan to start the process with my credit card company tomorrow.

JScott, you are right. Research your orchid grower (or in this case, reseller)! I let myself get suckered into buying from SO because I was searching for a phal bellina (desperately) and the only vendor that bubbled up as having one in stock was SO. I jumped at it, not knowing about their reputation, but also not researching it. Ironic that the bellina they sent me has BOTH the ORSV and CyMV viruses.

Then I let myself be drawn in by their "help our poor grower in Hawaii who is barely afloat in the midst of covid-19" sale. 3 of the 7 orchids I bought from the poor Hawaiian grower tested positive for viruses.

Anyway, moral of the story is do your research before you buy.

Something else that absolutely galls me is that yesterday I received a "blast" email from them that they're doing a second "help our poor Hawaiian grower sale". Seattle Orchid is doing this despite all the recent feedback they've received about the Hawaiian orchids being diseased.

On the happy and healthy side of things, I did find a beautiful phal bellina that arrived at my home today from Orchidweb ie Orchids Limited. I am delighted. And thanks to this board, I found this grower and read about their reputation before I ordered. 🙂

Don't feel bad, I've done the same thing myself. I'm looking for a particular orchid, and I get excited when I find it and order it immediately without researching the nursery. I bet we've all done that at one time or another. But now you know, and you can get the word out about Seattle Orchids, and maybe you can make a difference in somebody else's life.

[JScott]

Originally Posted by MJG

I appreciate all the input and I agree with the sentiments expressed! I bought my orchids with a credit card. I thought credit cards were better than paypal when it comes to fraud. Now I know.

And as far as PayPal goes, I always use them when the option is available, because their grievance process is much easier than with a credit card, they will try to help you work it out to your satisfaction, and if that is not possible, and they feel that you were not treated fairly (and the burden of proof of fair treatment is on the seller, not the buyer), they tend to side with the buyer more often that with the seller. They'll just reverse the transaction. I love PayPal.

[MJG]

I've only used PayPal when a credit card is not a payment option. That's going to change.

I started the dispute process with the credit card company. I've never had to do this before. Apparently they'll be sending me paperwork to fill out. They'll be receiving copies of this forum's comments about Seattle Orchid! Maybe I'll send them pictures of the test strips too.

Meanwhile I have to keep these sick orchids alive and looking like they did when they arrived, in case my credit card wants me to return them. They're quarantined on "death row", and I hate to even touch them. (I do know how to keep viruses from spreading -- but I am SO over this!)

[JScott]

Originally Posted by MJG

I've only used PayPal when a credit card is not a payment option. That's going to change.

I started the dispute process with the credit card company. I've never had to do this before. Apparently they'll be sending me paperwork to fill out. They'll be receiving copies of this forum's comments about Seattle Orchid! Maybe I'll send them pictures of the test strips too.

Meanwhile I have to keep these sick orchids alive and looking like they did when they arrived, in case my credit card wants me to return them. They're quarantined on "death row", and I hate to even touch them. (I do know how to keep viruses from spreading -- but I am SO over this!)

Take a picture of the plants every day, so that it shows how the virus has progressed and caused the decoine of the plants, rather than anything you did. The plants are sick, and they are going to keep getting sicker, and that isn't your fault. Take a picture every day to show the progression of the disease.

---------- Post added at 07:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:36 PM ----------

Also, leave a one star review on Yelp. I suspect that many of their 5 star reviews are written by employees.

[MJG]

Me again... I had mentioned above that I emailed Seattle Orchid letting them know that the only resolution that I'd be okay with is a refund. I had also asked them to either not make me send the virused orchids back (I offered to send them the test strip results instead), or to cover return shipping if they did want the plants back.

I did not threaten them with the credit card dispute although I had planned to move forward with that.

I received their reply today. Here it is:

[I][We’ve gone ahead and refunded the additional three plants you stated were virus’d. We have no problem ever issuing refunds for plants that have a virus, as it does happen. However, our issue with your case was that you happened to have 4 plants that tested positive. In the 12 years we’ve been in business we’ve only had about 12 customers contact us with this problem as it’s a very low occurrence. The tests available for the public have a known issue with false positive results. We’ve notified our growers in the past when this problem has come up and they use commercial/professional testing which show the plants in questions are actually negative. We even sell to the Smithsonian Institute Botanical Gardens in Washington D.C. and they check all our plants and have never had one with a virus. We’re not questioning you, we’re just letting you know that the tests available on the market are not always accurate.

Nothing wrong with being cautious and keeping your plants safe, but be aware that the testing available is not always accurate.

Best of luck wherever you choose to buy your orchids in the future.I]

So, ultimately they made it right as far as I am concerned. But it was a painful process.

[SouthPark]

Thanks MJG for sharing that. The nice thing here is that Seattle Orchid appears to be reasonable and normal in their communications. Their remark about all four plants testing positive is quite sensible too.

It is nice in that you both communicated and sorted this out.

[katsucats]

It's great that this all got sorted out. Out of the 4-5 vendors that I've gotten viruses from, all of them wanted me to send it back. One of them insisted he wasn't going to resell it, that it was just going to go back into his private collection. But it's still there on his website. All "reputable" nurseries too. It seems like just a shady industry standard. I was thankful to the one that offered to refund the return shipping. Most of them don't refund any shipping, to or from (or the price of the tests).

[MJG]

Originally Posted by katsucats

It's great that this all got sorted out. Out of the 4-5 vendors that I've gotten viruses from, all of them wanted me to send it back. One of them insisted he wasn't going to resell it, that it was just going to go back into his private collection. But it's still there on his website. All "reputable" nurseries too. It seems like just a shady industry standard. I was thankful to the one that offered to refund the return shipping. Most of them don't refund any shipping, to or from (or the price of the tests).

I'm glad you had one vendor who offered to to refund your shipping. The one who put it back on his website deserves to be called out. There are some good ones and somes really bad ones apparently.

Seattle Orchid was a long and unpleasant experience before coming to a resolution. I felt insulted during the process. They finally did the right thing, although it turns out that some of the money they "refunded" was from my credit card company deciding my dispute in my favor. The rest of it they refunded voluntarily (before the other credit card dispute was settled). I won't do business with them again.

I had 3 other vendors send me orchids with viruses this spring/summer. Two of the other vendors issued a refund no questions asked and thanked me for my business. The fourth vendor offered to send me a replacement that they tested before sending. These guys are so customer-friendly and cordial that I will buy from them again and again.

In the future I think if a vendor asks me to return the plant on my dime, I would suggest sending samples to Critter Creek instead. Someone else on this forum talked about doing that.
Agree with the vendor ahead of time that based on CC's results, (1) they'll issue a refund for the plant and for CC's testing cost if they confirm virus, or (2) consider the case closed in the vendor's favor if the results are negative. It's the only fair way I can think of to settle a dispute like this.

The vendors who insist of having their plants back at their customer's cost are out of line.

[JScott]

They've only ever had 12 customers complain about virused plants? There's more than 12 people on this forum who have talked about virused plants.

Somebody sent me a private message, and I won't say who, because it was a private message, but he bought a bunch of Cattleyas from Kalapana Tropicals that they were selling through Seattle Orchids during the volcano crisis. He got the plants, and tested them, and every one of them was virused. Seattle Orchid refused to do anything about it. Remember, those plants came from Kalapana, not from wherever Seattle usually gets their plants, but once Seattle took possession, those plants were theirs and became their problem, and it should have been up to them to make it right.

The people at Seattle Orchids are crooks. They are dishonest, they are liars, they are cheats, they will do and say anything to get your money, and then keep from giving it back if you deserve to get it back. I know just yesterday I posted a positive review of Seattle Orchids, but that was based on ONE plant. Of all the plants I've bought from them, that makes a total of ONE good plant i got from them.

I don't think they grow their own plants. They are just resellers, and I don't think they actually know much about what they are selling or how to properly care for them. I think if you get a plant from them right after the shipment arrives at their store, you are likely to get a fine plant, but if you get a plant from them that has been under their care for any length of time, the plant is probably going to be sick or dying, because they don't know what they are doing. They know very little about their own business.

When customers leave critical reviews, they just blame the customer, shirk responsibility, and often insult the customer. If instead of doing that, they would listen to what their dissatisfied customers have to say and use that information to make some positive changes to their business, they could do a lot better. They have a very high opinion of themselves, but a simple google search will show you that the public in general thinks very poorly of them.