Hey, not to be rude or anything, but Chitown (and myself) are both 16, and when working with only the money you can find laying around your room or what not, it adds up!

I got both my bananas from them and it was an excellent transaction! Bananas were shipped promptly by express mail and arrived in excellent shape, and the price was the best I found.

On yahoo shopping he has a 4 1/2 out of 5 star rating from 266 reviews.

I'd buy from him again in a minute, and maybe if I saw prices drop after I ordered I'd politlely ask if I could get a cheaper price :)

I think you may have learned a valubale life lesson here in that skipping right to "angry customer" does not always get you the best results when dealing with a business.

Here is a link that might be useful: yahoo information for greenearth

Wish we had an edit feature for posts - but I followed your link and saw you were the only negative review at Dave's Garden, with 6 other positive reviews. I think it's safe to say he didn't handle your complaint very well at all, but overall it looks like your experience was not the norm for this company.

I ordered from this nursery, got a fine, healthy banana plant, and thought they were very nice to deal with.

The decision to reduce the price of that banana would have been driven by the inventory to sales ratio, and was surely not timed or scheduled based on when you or any other person might order one. If you were complaining within a matter of hours after ordering, you didn't even give them an chance to make an adjustment.

You probably put them off with the tone of your complaint. "Please reply with details on your system and what's going on" would have put me off too. If you had been a little nicer about it, they would have been nicer in return.

Nothing is worse than getting played for a fool. I'm glad Chitown33 had a difficult time with this dealer. 6 Positives mean nothing when you hear that the nurseryman is a jerk to deal with. Why would I want to give the little money I have to this guy/business when there are other nurseries that sell bananas that don't treat you like a doormat. So I would agree to disagree with a few of you.

Gabe15, are you really 16???? I thought you were a professor in botany or something! I have gotten most of the best tips from you. All I can say is that I am certainly impressed!

Erlend (Age 26)

Erlend,
Thanks I guess! I turned 16 this March and have been growing bananas since I was 13.

Gabe & Chitown,
I'm impressed and appreciate all you contribute to this forum. Thanks for all the help.
Steven

Kyle,
I ordered four basjoos from Greenearth about two weeks ago. Yes, I did have a problem with them (I only got 3!) I called them back and in 2 days, 2 healthy plants were delivered. (With free fertilizer!) They were very nice about it. I will defiantly order from them again.

Christian (12)

Hi, If they were rude to one customer there is a chance they will be rude to anyone else they don't agree with."Get a life" comment may have been funny to Greenearth but it could cost them in future customers (me for one) on this forum.I got a life and bananas is a big part of it.john

So you all,
I recieved a box yesturday and opened it. It was a tiny little Saba, about 1/10 of the size of the box it came in, with very dried out fronds. It came in dirt that was so dry it was like saw dust. I was expecting this to be from the other company I ordered the Saba from, for cheaper. I looked at the paper work and it said GreenEarth on it! (With the bill included). I'm really surpised to have gotten this thing from them after Ted so kindly cancelled my order. Looks like I'm not the one cant READ after all.

Here's the picture of this thing. I've never gotten a banana in a worse condition, of the many I've had shipped to me.
{{gwi:409338}}
They are one organized business for sure... They can't even their cancellations right. I guess after Ted saw the damage done to GreenEarth's reputation lately, he decided he needed my business after all.

Chitown

I don't see what's wrong with a seller setting their own prices however they see fit, according to supply and demand. The only thing Greenearth did wrong was ship an undersized banana in bad packaging. The free plant may have been sent as a goodwill gesture despite your objections to their business practices. His response deserves some recognition as an attempt to rectify an unpleasant situation with a sensitive customer.

Maybe I'm missing something here, but what's wrong with lowering prices?

Did they really charge you? With all the fuss you are making a good company would probally send you one for free.

Geez, Kyle. Are you complaining about a free plant now? That saba will be fine. It's time to stop trying to trash this company now, Kyle. It's not working. In fact, I think that I'll place an order with them!

I think that perhaps there's a generation gap kinda thingo going on here. You being 16 and all, me being 45 and all, I kinda see that you got a little huffy right out of the box when you should have played it a little more cool. Generally, if I had ordered a plant from a company, ANY COMPANY, and then noted a price reduction within a "matter of hours", my personal response would have been to email them with something like,

"Hi, I just ordered a Musa Saba from you for $11.50, then noticed that you put them on sale for $9.50 a few hours later. Is there any possibility that you might be able to give me the sale price, as it happened within such a close period of time and all?" instead of directly being confrontational and saying you are ANGRY as you did.

As a plant seller myself, I can tell you, 99.9% of the people who sell mail order plants would have said, "WELL CERTAINLY I WILL BE HAPPY TO DO THAT FOR YOU!" if approached with something like the first query, but would more than likely respond just as Greenearth did and tell you to "TAKE A HIKE" if hit with your "ANGRY" email.

You made Greenearth defensive with your somewhat obviously hostile and angry email to him. I think that if you had been more mature about the whole thing, you might have gotten a much different reply AND a more positive transaction from him.

I am NOT knocking you because of your age, I admire and respect anyone like you and Gabe who are into plants and very serious about it, its a worthwhile endeavor and I happen to know Gabe is just about as knowledgeable as any adult I know, more so than some, but you need to learn the valuable life lesson of not being rude. As my gramma (may she rest in peace that woman was a SAINT) used to say way back in the wilds of East Texas in about 1965, "Sugar, you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar". Maybe you need to adopt that as your creedo.

Frank and Bihai,
I just found out that the plant was free just like you. I would not be complaning if it had known it was free. It came with what looked like a bill to me, which had my credit card on it and everything.
Ted, and GreenEarth; I really appreciate the gesture. I was un aware that the plant was free, so again thanks. I'm sorry for causing you any trouble, but I was not happy with the way I was originally treated. I know that I was too harsh off the bat, and again I apoligize for that. I will re-rate your company based on your free gift.

I'm not trying to cause any trouble here, all I was trying to do was what I thought was right. I thought I was charged for the banana, so sorry for any problems.

I appreciate it,
Chitown

Hey! Hey !Hey! Let's give three cheers for the teens on this forum who are into plants. That is just fabulous!!!! Afterall, when all of us oldies (I'm 55) are no longer around the world will be left in their very capable hands!! I'm originally from Chicago, too. Damn fine city!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hmmmmmmmm - - - now if only the Bears, Cubs, Sox, and Hawks would get their act together!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chitown, my opinion may not matter, but I think you are very correct in apologizing to Greenearth, and to do it publicly is the correct thing to do since you trashed his business publicly. Admitting you were "harsh" shows you are a reasonable person. Sometimes I think that business should not be allowed to be conducted over the Internet....maybe if people had to actually TALK to each other on the telephone, they would deal much more kindly with one another and many misunderstandings might be avoided. You did the right thing!

Thank you Bihai. I appreciate your respect. I e-mail Ted from GreenEarth with an apology and we have worked things out. We have both learned a lesson with this issue, and I'ts good that we can take something from this and hopefully apply it in future business. I don't want to offend anyone, and I'm sorry if I came off too harsh and rude on this board.
GreenEarth has proven to me that they are a respectible business, with great pride.

Chitown

Well since the age factor has been brought up a few times, I'm only 17 myself. I'm more of a "palm guy" than a "banana guy," but I'm trying to learn about anything tropical/subtropical. My dad was the one who gave me an interest in plants, but it was me who drew my own interest in palms and tropicals after my first trip to Florida in 1997. Since then, I've had the "palm bug" and it won't go away! The "planes" part in PlanesandPalmsGuy comes from the fact that I'm also a student pilot with aviation as another passion of mine.

Zach

When I was 17, all I did was sleep and watch TV. Working in the yard was considered a punishment. My parents are now perplexed at the fact that I get up at 6:00am on weekends, work 30 hours a week in my yard and don't watch much TV at all. I wish I would have been into this at 17. I would have majored in Botany in college. Who knew?!

Yeh, when I was 17 we were all down at the local punk rock club sneaking in on fake ID's, swilling beer and slam dancing then going for the occasional tattoo afterwards. Didn't even know what yardwork was. Now that I'm 45, I have a pool with outdoor speakers and I jack up Slayer, Slipknot, Lamb of God, Orgy, Type O Negative and assorted other "deviant" bands and pull weeds and admire my 5 acre Ponderosa, all planted with as many tropical plants as I can squeeze in to every nook and cranny. Funny how some things change and some things just don't.

Ha! Excellent Bihai. I'm old skool punk rock. (37) Now gardening freak, tropical plant nut. Maybe it has something to do with the music?

Could very well be....the Dead Kennedys are playing a show near here pretty soon and I really wanta go. Nothing better than DK's, Bad Religion, Black Flagg, I could go on and ON! Seriously, nuthin makes a hot sweaty job in the 90 degree heat and 70% humidity go by faster than jammin tunes. There's construction going on across the road in a swank Sub-D and the guys over there always have a radio on blasting country music as they bulldoze down mature trees to put up yet another unneeded $800,000 aerocrete home...I like to overpower their wimpy country jams with Static X, Avenged Sevenfold, Soulfly, MxPx etc whilst cheerfully holding a hose on my newly planted bananas, bromeliads, colocasias and brugmansias out front...I just smile and wave....with the knowledge that whoever buys that house has deed restrictions that will prevent them from planting the cool stuff I grow because the plants won't be on their APPROVED LIST of landscaping plants...its funny, everyone from that Sub-D walks down my PRIVATE road to gape at my yard with their tongues hanging out...makes them feel sorry that they agreed to move into a place with an association in control. After all, plants not withstanding, they can't blast their stereos either, ha ha LIFE IS GOOD!

Good for you. I can relate to everything you said. You'd better not miss the DK's show even if it's not with Jello Biafra. I think the guy from Dr. Know is doing the vocals now, but still, it's a DO NOT MISS SHOW!

Good luck and happy gardening!

Now that I'm 45, I have a pool with outdoor speakers and I jack up Slayer, Slipknot, Lamb of God, Orgy, Type O Negative and assorted other "deviant" bands and pull weeds and admire my 5 acre Ponderosa, all planted with as many tropical plants as I can squeeze in to every nook and cranny.

You sound like someone we could definitely hang with! I don't have a pool in my BY and no acreage to speak of but still...I thought we (my honey and I) were oddities!

Nope. There's "coming of age" (rather than middle aged) folks like us out there who actually grew up with punk and metal as the mainstay and never went through "Disco fever" or "Country line dancing" or "New Age". I know a lot of metal heads my age, but most (not ALL) tend to listen to old hair and glam metal, most of the folks I know who listen to Black metal, metalcore, grindcore, darkwave and hardcore are about 15-20 years younger then me. And I am female to boot, I have been told I am an "anomaly" but actually I think I am the normal one. Go figure.

Hey hey, dont knock the country line dancing. LOL Of course I admit im an oddball.

geez, I thought I was the only one.

Being the son of a couple that majored in botany and of course met in a botany class, the plant stuff was genetic and started very early (first collecting trip was in the eighth grade). Being the son of a couple that loves classical music... its only natural that i'd like everything but! The older I get (ok, i'm only 30, but for this thread that makes me older i guess) the more things i like music wise, but I never "grow out" of my earlier tastes.

While it varies for different people of course, there are some common threads i think. People that are heavily into plants on a serious level tend to be more open minded and often more creative. They grow what they appreciate and listen to what they appreciate with less concern of what is supposed to be normal. The creative positive side is released through the gardening outlet and the more aggressive side is released through music. not having a good outlet for both sides is when people get screwed up. Plant people also tend to find beauty in the fine details that others totally miss. Hence the need to have 30 diffent species of what most people can't tell apart etc.

didn't even know DK was reformed! I've always wanted to wear an old 'Holiday Inn Cambodia' t-shirt on a trip to se asia and go into cambodia.. but maybe its not such a good idea, still makes my laugh though.

Tim Chapman

Tim, I never would have figured you! I have a new respect for you. And of course you are correct....the agression has to have an outlet. For me its head banging, as I am a very dominant alpha female type. And you are also right on the money about seeing the difference in what someone else would all see as the same...when I used to grow over 60 different tropical water lilies, my husbnad would sigh and roll his eyes when I would come up with another one that I "just had to add to the collection"...he'd say, "What makes this one any different from the 60 you already have?" and he said the same thing about heliconias..."Well, that one is red and so is that one, what's the difference?"
He is astute enough to be able to see the difference between my vandaceous orchids though, so I don't have to beat him.

I mostly listen to reggae, however I find head banging death matal quite agreeable most of the time as well.

I also grew up listening to punk (GBH, Dead KennedyÂs, Sex Pistols, Black Flag, old Social Distortion) & heavy metal (Slayer, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Ozzy). I still listen to all of these bands to this day. I guess you stick with what you grew up with.

For the Dead Kennedy's fans out there, Jello Biafra recently did an album with The Melvins... The Melvins played the music, Jello wrote most of the lyrics and was obviously the singer... It's great... sounds like old Dead Kennedy's in some way... without the familiar twang of East Bay Ray though. Overall, itÂs a great album. I had the chance to see JB with The Melvins on New YearÂs Eve last year but decided to wait until they came to Portland. A friend of mine went to the show and said that JB and The Melvins clearly were not getting along on stage and doubted theyÂd play together again too bad they performed a few Dead KennedyÂs songs too. I guess I should have made the 3 hr drive.

Okay, Gabe, who are your fave death metal bands? I cannot believe you would play reggae for your bananas, might make them go dormant........they would probably like metal better....

I dont own any metal CD's and cant really say that I can name any bands, but if someone puts it on, Im just fine with it, unlike some people I know. They may like the metal better, I guess that should be my next experiment : )

Beers on ice,and going to party tonite with ole hank!!!

It is poor business for a company to respond in such an unprofessional manner. Anyone can respond poorly to a stressful transaction. A company that goes out of their way for their customer is more likely to want future customers &/or get repeat customers. It looks like you have worked things out, but I very much appreciate your posting your experience.

Metal CD's? Actually all of mine are plastic... : )

Just kidding. I still rock with the heaviest of them.

Hey guys, not sure where I fit in on this subject? Being the youngest of 5 kids, I've been exposed to everything from 50's doo-wop, 60's long hair dope smokin', 70's blued-eyed soul and hevy metal and 80's hair bands. Currently though, the nanners get heavy doses of country from the wife( she doesn't appreciate the fine stuff I grew up listening to). By the way, just saw an awesome video on CMTfrom the "Crossroads" episode of Ronnie Milsap and Los Lonely Boys. Didn't catch the name of the song, too enthralled by the vocals, just the boys singing together and Ronnie on piano. But by the sounds of this thread," I can tell that you're alot like me... just a SMF"!

Tantor

I ordered 3 basjoo on saurday morning ,and opened the box on mondat evening. Thats as good a serviceasit gets, from florida to san diego.Im going to order a couple more too

I am just getting into bananas and this is my first visit to this forum. But I for one will NEVER order anything from that company! I am much older then you guys and was in the service bussiness all my life and you can not talk to customers that way. Customer service is the name of the game. The next time it could be me! He had a right to be angry the price was changed with in hours. They could have NICELY explained that the lower price was for smaller plants. Maybe he's the one that needs "to get a life".

I disagree. I don't think he has any right to get angry because the price was lowered after he bought. Why be angry? Happens all the time, every day of the week.

Fact is, the proper response would have been to ask for the lower price instead of doing a huge investigation into the companies pricing practices, which by the way is confidential.

ANyways, ketkin, I certainly do repsect your point of view. I see things slightly differently though. No biggy. But it was an interesting thread.

Chittown sounds like a pretty good guy and he did admit that he might have done a better in wording his inquires.

Oh well, have a banana of a day! Cheers.

Will you post a link to this Greenearth company? Thanks!

holy old post batman...

http://bananaplants.net/bananaplants.html

All my plants from them are doing great, the ice cream has pupped so many times it's taking over every corner of my yard with transplants.

I guess I am confused on the entire issue about your bad experience.
First off, they lowered the price, what is wrong with that??? It saved you money, I would have been happy.

I am not trying to sound rude, but this company was saving you money, whats the problem???
I guess I am confused on the issue.

After reading all the posts, It made me want to check out Greenearth's website, and what a good site it is. Very informative. I ordered 4 plants. I guess any advertisement is good advertisement.
David

Talk about digging up an OLD thread! LOL! This thread was almost 3 years old with NO posts in that time until earlier this year. WOW!

hahah!

Well let me dig it up again, another eight years later. I ordered two Musa basjoos from them, which arrived in excellent condition. The original post was typical of a crybaby who does not understand what running out of stock and relisting/repricing means.

I would recommend this company. I ordered several bananas a few months ago, and didn't hear anything back from them. So I emailed- no response. Then called- no response. Called back a few days later and started to leave a message and then the guy picked up. Turns out he was overwhelmed with the sale demands or something, but he shipped the plants out right away. They came in good shape, bigger than florida hill, but slightly more costly. So I don't have any complaints, but the guy was a little rough around the edges I do have to say.

I suspect there is something about running a mail order banana business that induces crankiness.*

*although the seller described in the original post would have a long way to go to match a certain Pennsylvania banana business in the rudeness department.

Wow I'm not familiar with a banana business in PA. That's pretty cold for a banana business!