Hello all, My wife and I come to the forum looking for some objective input on a troubling situation.
A few years ago, after a long hiatus from orchid growing, we started renovating a house with just enough extra space for a modest greenhouse. The siren call of growing and working on a few crosses was too loud to ignore (not that we put up much resistance). But because we're now in the Geritol set, we made arrangements for the orchid flasks we were purchasing to be contract grown until our space became available - thus getting a 2-year + head start on our retirement obsession/hobby. It's now time to take the seedlings, but more than 3 months of pleasantly persistent (and eventually just persistent) requests for information have produced nothing more than two rather ominous warnings that not much survived and the numbers will be very low. The grower in question is a well-established and well-respected orchid house that solicits contract growing services from flask to finished plants and any step in between. Our 65 flasks of seedlings can be only a small fraction of what's in their greenhouses, so I understand we're not at the top of the callback list. They were extraordinarily slow to invoice, so I know paperwork gets low priority. But when the head of the company repeatedly promises to get back to you with the information - and repeatedly fails to do so - it seems quite a bit more ominous than just a casual approach to customer service. Emails go unanswered; telephone message unreturned. Neither my wife nor I are in good enough health to manage the very long trip to the grower's greenhouses to work this out face-to-face (which would be my first preference were it possible). It seems most likely that we'll never hear from the grower again - leaving us out some choice crosses and 2 years of growing time just when the years count most. Or perhaps worse, we'll suddenly get packages of seedlings that may or may not be as labeled and will take years to confirm. Some of our deepest and most abiding friendships have been with fellow orchid growers, both hobbyists and professionals. Although not all of our previous orchid buying adventures were 100% delightful, this complete lack of response is so unlike any previous experience that we're cast adrift. Without going into a lot of detail - our purpose is not to sling mud - our previous experience with this firm (albeit many years go) gave us an expectation of quality service and integrity. Instead we have a problem with no fix at hand. Does anyone have any experience with this or a similar situation? Any and all advice pointing towards a resolution is solicited and will be appreciated. Best regards, Charlie _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
