Garden.com is now under the protective wing of Burpee Seeds
Written: Jun 15 '01
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Burpee Seed Company has been in business for over 125 years.
Cons: it's sad to see a good website and company shutting down...
The Bottom Line: with a reputation for fine helpful customer service, fast service, and ease of online shopping
|
|
|
| pansy4agirl's Full Review: Garden.com |
Since this review is claiming to be an article about Garden.com, I will try to keep it directed to that. As popular as the online version of this wonderful, customer-servicing business was, they are shutting down their "online connection" under the name of Garden.com, and the well-known seed and gardening company "Burpee Seeds" is taking over the controls, effective this summer.
Hopefully the transition will be smooth, as Burpee is very reliable and well-known world wide. The Garden.com website has already been updated to reflect this change, with many links to carry you over to the Burpee pages. I do like what they have done to the Garden.com website, instead of simply posting a link that says "shutting down - click here to go to Burpee Seeds" - the pages are beautiful, and you have instant access to some of the most popular parts of the Burpee website.
Among those are the "Garden Wizard" - known for being able to solve any gardening problem in three steps, no matter what the problem is. Another link takes you to the Burpee recipe pages, where you can find some delicious, nutritious, sometimes simple but wonderful recipes, many times for food that are special to certain areas of the country, or seasonal varieties.
Burpee also has a Garden School, an online version of "one-on-one" mentoring - where you can learn everything possible in one of two concentrated areas - - perennials or vegetables/annuals. Each "school" has six online classes, from the basics, through planning and designing your garden, preparing the soil, planting and transplanting, maintaining a healthy garden, as well as troubleshooting. They are intensive but fun, and you can be taking the classes while you are working in your own garden, matching up the areas study with the situation taking place in your own garden.
They also have a "kidzone" area, where parents can find helpful hints to involve the kids in gardening. Included here are ready-start seed packs, fun and even funny things to grow, a colorful wall calendar for the kids to monitor their garden, as well as some tools that are even fun for grownups to use.
Burpee also has an online newsletter that gives timely tips and gardening secrets, that they will send to your email address for no charge, twice a month, or more. They also run periodical internet specials, (perhaps even more so, now that much of their focus is directed at the new Garden.com customers who are entering their site, many for the first time, perhaps.), but also because the year 2001 marks their 125th anniversary.
It is impossible to know the 'why' of the shutting down of Garden.com, but for many who used the service, and enjoyed the easy navigation on their site, the beautiful floral pictures, the question and answer section, and the excellent customer service, by phone or email direct, will now have a chance to discover (if they have not already done so) another fine and reputable company - Burpee Seeds.
Burpee has always had toll free telephone customer service and ordering numbers, a toll free fax number, and now that the internet has become so important to so many, they offer something that not too many online merchants do - if you purchase something by credit card, they guarantee it, of course, but if you end up returning it, and then are charged the first $50. on your credit card, Burpee will reimburse that first $50. as well.
Since this review ended up switching (just like the Garden.com website) over to Burpee seeds, I will give you just a bit more information about them - the company was started in Philadelphia in 1876 by an 18-year old who loves plants and animals. He borrowed $1000. from his mother to open up a business, and within 25 years had built the largest most progressive seed company in the country. By the year 1915, over a million cataloges were being mailed each year.
So while it is sad to see a good website shut down, I for one will enjoy the new additions to an "old and reliable" company such as Burpee, as they fill in the gaps during this transition, and are challenged to meet the fine standards in customer care and satisfaction that Garden.com established.
If you had been or contemplated visiting the website of Garden.com, I hope that you will still take a few minutes to visit the new site that Burpee has established for them until the change is complete, and can be assured that Burpee will take good care of the customers that came to enjoy Garden.com.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
pansy4agirl
|
|
Location: warm and sunny Arizona
Reviews written: 30
Trusted by: 11 members
About Me:
Life is an adventure....not a guided tour
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.