Seattle Orchids 1st Order Experience

[BellaOrquidea]

Hi All,

I wanted to share with you my recent experience with Seattle Orchids. On May 31st I placed an on online order that included three phalaenopsis (Cornu-Cervi in bud, Matthew Chen in bud, and Phal. Tetraspis), one “TLC” orchid (chosen by SO), and one “As is” Cattleya.

My orchid order was placed on a Thursday therefore it was to be shipped until the next Monday, however for “personal” reasons the vendor did not ship any orders that week as per their website announcement. This takes us to the week of the June 11th. However I did not receive my order because they sent me the wrong order, which kinda sticks because I had that week off from work to plant and quarantine all my orchid orders and other orchid related orders...
After two calls to Seattle Orchids and several emails to inform them of the mishap they finally said for me to ship the wrong order back to them, pay for the shipping charges out of my pocket as they would later reimburse me. —I must admit I was bothered by this because in my experience anyone else would have provided the shipping label for me to print out and just drop it off or even have USPS pick up the package themselves. I did as they asked and paid and shipped the package back to them. I did receive a reimbursement in the form of store credit. Again, this also stinks because so far my first experience ordering from them hasn’t been that pleasant.

One week later, I called to ensure they received their package and find out when I would receive MY order. The lady who answered my calls, Destiny said they would email me with tracking info once my order shipped. I never received any notification from them and I think this was their biggest mistake because my area had some unexpected heat waves with temps over 95. They shipped my order without notification and my orchids sat outside in the heat for hours. (It is also in their policies to check and withhold any orders with such weather...this did not happen with my order)

Finally, when I received what seemed to be the correct order I discovered they had sent me the wrong orchid!!! Once again. I received a Phal. Samera instead of the Matthew Chen and the quality of the orchids I received was the worse I’ve ever seen. They all had burned leaves, dehydrated, and one of them had a fungal infection. The Cattleya had two rotten pseudobulbs, and the TLC turned out to be a Miltassia which was probably the only one orchid in good condition.


One week after and I’m still calling the place to let them know about the mistake again...they instructed me to soak the orchids and what not to revive them but it was too late. The infection had already spreaded to the steam and after sending them pictures of the plants they said they would let me know what to do next. A few days later I received a redound for my order. I never received the Phal. Matthew Chen or replacement orchids for the ones I received in bad conditions.

After this drama (because that’s what it all turned out to be) I will NEVER purchase anything from them again. I still have the store credit they gave me for the shipping expenses, but with the horrible experience I just went through I don’t want anything from them. The people at the customer service was always polite and helpful at their best of their capabilities, but it was clear that they did not have the correct inventory of the Matthew Chen, they never sent it and was never available. The communication to their customer was lacking and I wish they would have asked me if they should replace with other orchids or refound me the money. Perhaps I would have been able to also include the store credit and be done with them once and for all.



.