Daylight Robbery

[Eric Hardy]

The other day I left Anthea browsing among the seed packets and when we got to the till it chalked up £16.32 for 8 packets. I thought that it was quite a lot but today I felt absolutely cheated. She was planting her seeds in seed trays and came to the packet of Suncherry tomatoes that she had decided to try. When she opened the packet she was aghast, there were only four seeds inside.    I examined the packet, which was from Thompson and Morgan. It cost £3.69 or 92p per seed, which is outrageous. I peered at the small print at the top of the packet and it did say average contents 6 seeds so we had been warned (if only we had had our specs with us when we bought them) but 4 is not 6 so presumably someone got 8 if 6 is the average. In contrast she had 50 Marmande seeds for £1.29 from English Gardens.

Grrrrrr!!!!

Eric H

[roiphil]

Eric that is disgusting, idea for you are you part of any gardening club if so maybe you could all get together and purchase seeds from www.molesseeds.co.uk register and put in your orders as growers

Phil

[trishs]

I'd email and complain.  They'll likely send another pack for free.  I once complained about the lack of Achimenes tubers? (tiny little things whatever they are) and was sent an extra pack.  F1 seed is ridiculously expensive, but worth it IF it's something you really want.  Curious to know what variety?  My must-have tomato is Lupitas which I discovered a couple of years ago.

[trishs]

Re the perils of not wearing one's glasses.... my husband, Rog, was preparing the grandkids' tea yesterday and the fish fingers weren't quite hot enough so he tried to set an extra 10 seconds.  But the timer showed 10 minutes so he tried to change it but instead of reducing the time it went to an hour; by which time he was panicking and the next thing it was ten hours, which is a bit excessive for a couple of fish fingers    At that point he came and found his glasses lol.

[NightHawk]

Eric, I agree with Trish.

For seeds as expensive as that, and so few in a packet, they should be labelling their packets with a specific amount inside.  It's not like you're talking about a hundred or so when you could get slight discrepancies either way.

At least customers would then have an informed (and accurate) choice to make to spend or not.  Sadly though in your case, you weren't able to read the small print.

However, it's probably worth contacting the shop first where you bought them from (if you can get back there easily of course), or failing that or you get no satisfaction from the shop, then email customer services at Thompson & Morgan.

Let us know how you get on Eric.

[Eric Hardy]

That is a good idea Trish. I have emailed Thompson and Morgan, as you suggested. Let's see what happens. I am afraid going back would be a bit of a hassle, Laurie, so I have taken the email route.

Trish, the packet calls it “Suncherry Premium F1 Hybrid Tomato”. We normally grow Marmande and a lovely sweet little cherry tomato whose name I forget. Every year Anthea removes a few seeds and dries them on a card for planting again the next year. Marmande grow into funny shapes but we like the flavour.

I love the story of Rog and the fish fingers 

Eric H

[Eric Hardy]

idea for you are you part of any gardening club if so maybe you could all get together and purchase seeds from www.molesseeds.co.uk register and put in your orders as growers

Sorry, Phil, I didn't mean to ignore you. Unfortunately I am not an active member of the local gardening club. Good idea though.

Eric H

[roiphil]

no worries eric hope you get some email result, i found a piece of glass in a bag of compost a couple of years ago, i sent an email to the producers just to let them know, next thing i know a rep is out and half a dozen free bags of compost for me 

[Eric Hardy]

Update: email received today

Dear Mr Eric Hardy

Thank you for your recent email. I am sorry to learn that an error appears to have occurred during the packaging of your seeds.
In order to maintain the high standards which you would expect from us, we conduct regular quality checks throughout the packing process. I am pleased to report that errors such as this are a rare occurrence. 
Nonetheless, I appreciate the disappointment this experience may have caused and hope you will accept my sincere apology for our error.
I have arranged for a replacement packet of seed to be sent with our compliments. I am confident you will not be disappointed again. 
Once again, please accept my apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused. If I can be of any further assistance, please get in touch. I’ll be happy to help.

With best regards,

Kayleigh Hutchison
Customer Service Team

So good idea, Trish, thank you 

Eric H

[roiphil]

result nice one it always pays to contact company if something wrong

[trishs]

Let's hope you get more than the average this time around   I just opened a packet of tomato seed yesterday that said enough for eight plants and there were a good few more.  I haven't counted them yet but I was just making an initial sowing of three seeds left over from last year plus two from the new packet to see if they germinate and thrive in coir pellets.  I'm not exactly confident as I've seen mixed reviews about coir but for convenience this year I thought I'd give them a try.  Our local nursery/garden centre closed last autumn and although we have others nearby we are finding it difficult to  locate one which sells the range of products and garden sundries that the old one provided   I'm particularly fed up that I can no longer find anywhere to buy New Horizon compost.  Miracle Grow isn't anything like as friable and I'm not sure how my seed growing will go this spring.

edit. I made a telephone call and found a supplier of New Horizon but it requires rather a long round trip to Otley so we'll have to buy in a few bags at a time.

[NightHawk]

Good result Eric 

The email never you cost you anything, and any reputable company should respond accordingly, in an effort to promote good customer relations.

Thompson & Morgan is a well established company so kudos to them.

[ideasguy]

Yes, I agree Laurie. T&M have a very good reputation. I enjoy looking through catalogs to unwind at bedtime and T&M is one of the best.

Now then Eric - to reach a conclusion, it will be interesting to see how good those Suncherry tomatoes grow
More work for you and your camera

[Eric Hardy]

Now then Eric - to reach a conclusion, it will be interesting to see how good those Suncherry tomatoes

They had better be good at that price George. The picture on the packet makes them look really nice, I think that is what attracted Anthea. We will have to wait and see. I hope we don't get the blight like we did this year  , but we were in good company, Monty Don's tomatoes got the blight too.

Eric H