Is it possiable that your package was opened at customs?I sent a seed trade to Austrlia a while ago and clearly maked seed on the package as the trader requested,and it took almost a month ,airmail.

The Richter's Toll-Free Number is 1-800-668-4372.

This spring I was told it would take maybe 4 weeks for my seeds to arrive but it took a couple more weeks or more.

They have a system whereby charges for unshipped items stay in your name as a credit to be used against future orders. If you wish to receive a refund you must notify them.

I found this annoying. I think they should ask you to choose, when ordering, to receive a refund or credit account. But I don't think they are being shady, just saving on labor with respect to a fluctuating inventory and customers who often have repeat business.

My situation also involved other billing issues.

In the end, I will buy from Richter's again and I give them the benefit of the doubt.

I think there may be cultural differences at play regarding customer service promptness and procedure, however.

I had a bad experience last year with Richter's. After waiting for months for my parcel, of the plants I ordered, two were totally dead, a third was dying, and a variety of spiders, gnats and assorted garden pests erupted from the box as soon as I opened it. One spider bit me, too.

Even though I qurrantined the Richter's plants, my previously healthy, pest-free plants became infested with all sorts of "wildlife" and I had the devil's own time restoring some balance. I suppose seeds should be OK, but be prepared to wait a long time for them to arrive.

..."I think there may be cultural differences at play regarding customer service promptness and procedure, however."...
What do you mean "cultural differences"? I am a totally ignorant Texas girl and I have absolutely no notion of what you might be talking about there??? I guess that I think that common manners are all that are required here...ie..when someone pays for something they expect to get what they pay for. The invoice in the package said that they sent the 3 seeds involved, there was no notice in there of anything being removed by customs or that the package had even been opened at all. I would think that after 3 or 4 emails that Richters could have returned at least one of the emails! I did not know that they had a toll free number, although I am so put out at their lack of response to this issue that I may just let them keep the money. I did not know the toll free number so I spent about $12 in phone calls to get the order straight to start with; they never told me of the toll free number at that time either! My husband is paying for this and now I doubt that he will ever have dealings with any out of USA people again as he is even more "backward" than me!!!

You really do take your "money" into your own hands when dealing with out-of-country plant/seed dealings. The USDA has put such strict conditions on any plants/seeds coming into this country now that to get your order at all, is even "iffy". Many times, customs just trashes them and forget to let you know by letter. Even from state to state now is a nightmare in some cases because of new state laws prohibiting what they may consider an exotic that they don't want taking up in their state. Because of this, many of us will now find it difficult to expand our growing collections.

As far as Richters goes, don't give up the fight for your money. Just keep calling their toll free number till they get so sick of hearing your voice that they finally fix the problem. Letting them know that you are a member of GardenWeb.com won't hurt, either.

Well, this is the thread I was looking for...

I placed a seed order in late April. After a month, I emailed asking the status of the order. Received an email the next day stating the order had just been shipped. That was two weeks ago. They haven't answered an email since, including the last one, which I sent after noticing they billed my credit card twice for the same order!

I'll try calling tomorrow, but if I don't get a satisfactory response, I'll be making another call to American Express.

Hi Oldbiddy,

I didn't mean to imply anything about you being totally ignorant or backwards, or anything at all!!! Please, I was TRYING to be helpful, esp with the 1-800 number, which I dug through a big mess to find. Of course you should be treated well and fairly as a customer. You should call them repeatedly at their expense until they fix your problem. Don't give up, and then don't order from them again if you aren't happy!

There are many american seed companies that will give you excellent service, but all get very very busy at times. Ordering early before the main season helps.

To help avoid bad service, check out Garden Watchdog (below).

You type in the name of a mail order garden company and then view all the positive and negative comments and their overall rating- kind of like ebay.

The home page has a list of the top rated mail companies if you want to try a new seed company.

By "I think there may be cultural differences..." all I was trying to say was that I don't know how they do things in Canada and what the "pace" of service and customer helpfulness is. For example, I expect different kinds of responsiveness in companies from Mexico or France than the USA.

This was my first purchase from Canada and I didn't want to criticize something I may not have understood, yet was perfectly normal for Canadian consumers. Ultimately, they did solve my problem after all, even to my benefit. So I was being careful(from my own experience not yours) to make room for behavioral differences. Reading all these dissatified posts, however, makes me less inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt.

Please, I apologize if you felt my comment was about you rather than Richters. I don't want or need to insult anyone on Gardenweb, what's the point? I see the forums as friendly and helpful places to share information.

Here is a link that might be useful: Gardenwatchdog

I have ordered from Richters for several years simply because of the variety. I've received plants from other sources that were in better condition, but have turned to Richters when searching for the more unusual and then usually order some of the more common plants at the same time.
I am not likely to ever order from them again though. Like all other gardeners, I do some planning, daydreaming and ordering of plants and seeds in the winter months.
I placed an order with Richters last November for both seeds and plants. The seeds arrived in a reasonable time and I've heard nothing about the plants I ordered. I realize that they cannot ship too early because they are in Canada, but it's mid-June and already very hot in Oklahoma. I sent 3 email inquries before getting a response. The response simply informed me that some alleged manager had cancelled my order, assuming that I would reorder again in 2004. I was never notified and I now have to spend precious time to determine if I ever got credited or refunded for the plants and the shipping of the plants that I will not receive. It's also too late in the season to acquire these plants from another source.
I replied quickly asking for proof or evidence that I have not "paid" for the cancelled items and again there's no response.
Apparently this is not the same company I'd done business with in the past. I would not recommend them to anyone after this experience either. BUYER BEWARE!

I order from Richters.com, too, and they are a bit slow. I also have the same problem with "credits" - my invoice says that they are out of stock on certain items, and they will ship later...but I never get my backordered items. They have an extremely diverse selection, so I'll keep going back, even though the customer service is less than perfect.

I am a longtime Richters customer who lives in Canada, in fact only a two hour drive from where they are located. I have found the quality of their service degrading steadily over the years. I placed an online order May 31st of this year and received confirmation that it would be processed within 1-3 days. Nothing yet....I sent them an email last Tuesday to check the status of the order but have heard nothing back. I've worked in customer service all my life, and no matter how backlogged they are, there is no excuse for ignoring an inquiry.

I will look elsewhere in the future.

Followup to earlier posting. I have emailed them twice more requesting information regarding the transaction that someone "cancelled". I want to know if they charged my credit card for the entire order amount last November or just for the seeds that they did provide. If they charged the entire amount, I want to know if they've issued a "credit" for the majority of the order that was cancelled without ever telling me. Although I sent the email to 3 email addresses at Richters AND to the person in what they refer to as Customer Service - there has been no response. I will call their 800 number today and try to get some answers. For those of you having trouble with this company, the number is (800)668-4372.
This has been a horrible and unforgetable experience. I will NEVER order from this company again.

For those of you considering it, do yourself a favor and search for another source or even several other sources if you are seeking specific herb plants. There are many other suppliers with decent inventory and who do provide customer service. Just a couple are Lingles and Nichols.

PO'd in OK

I will never order from Richters again. After waiting months for my seeds I finally received 1 pack out of the 4 I ordered (but of course they still charged me the same amount for shipping). They ignored every one of my emails either asking when my order would be shipped or if I would receive my other seeds later. Plus the seeds which never came were still listed on their website as available. After reading the posts above I think I better go check my credit card bills and see if they charged me for the seeds I didn't receive.

I just wanted to say that I had called their 800 number today and told them (again) what had happened only condensing it all down to just one or two sentences. They said that they would send the seeds. I hope that they still have my address in their system as they said that they did. I will repost again when I receive them. Funny thing, I thought that I called the 800 # last time but the phone bill was about $25 just for that one phone call? I must have used the other number. Gosh, I sure messed that up didn't I! I think that the moral is: just don't order anywhere near May or April or you may not get your seeds at all! Thanks for all the helpful posts on here; I hope that I haven't offended anyone. I find it hard to talk to people on the internet sometimes. :

I order bulk seeds from Richter's on a regular basis and have done so for several years. I have learned not to order online and instead to call and ask if the seeds are in stock. If they are not in stock, I tell them I don't want them backordered, because otherwise they will come in maybe 3-4 months or maybe never--the order will be mysteriously "canceled," as happened to another poster, and they will never tell you about it. If the seeds are in stock, they usually take 2-4 weeks to come, even though they say they are being shipped the next day, etc.. I watch my bank account for pending transactions with them, and if the transaction doesn't go through within 5 days, I call them just to remind them.

I think they have no worked-out procedure for handling backorders and that this causes a lot of problems people have with them. Many companies nowadays don't do backorders at all because it is a hassle in terms of shipping and record-keeping.

I have never had any problem with their customer service people (I always call, never email), and I have always gotten good seeds at a decent price (in bulk) from them. Plants I don't know.

I have also ordered a lot of seeds from abroad over the years--not only from Canada, but the UK, Germany, Holland, France, Israel, and South Africa. Some places do things more slowly (IME, France, South Africa), and I do think it is a cultural thing. As long as you know they will do that, you can plan around it, and that's okay.

Customs has never opened any seeds I have ordered, much less seized them. I don't think they have got the people to check on things like that since 9/11.

I really enjoy Richters, but they send me cool weather plants in the middle of my very hot summers. But other than that, I have gotten used to their idiosyncrasies...

I feel I must chime in here as someone who has worked for a quality mail order nursery. I ordered plants from them a few years ago that were nice size and robust. Seeds I've never had a problem with from them. But this year I too ordered from Richters and had problems. The seeds were fine but the plants...mushed up tubers that were hollow inside. Plants that died shortly after being shipped...even though it only took about 48 hours for me to get my orderfrom the time they shipped it...the biggest insult was the size of the plant starts. One square inch of soil hiding not enough roots to support the plants even when they are planted. I believe this was part of why many did not make it...by the way I worked as a propagator and now teach gardening and you can bet I babied those things trying hard to get them to survive. They were however quick to credit me when I phoned them.

In my mind I'd hate to be working the CS desk there if everyone was getting plants the way I did. They really need to take a good hard look at quality control before the end up with a bad reputation that precedes them.

I forgot to post on here that I did finally receive those last seeds that I ordered in April! I got them in September! But not without calling them back several times and I had to give them the order # first. Thanks for all of the helpful responses to this post.

This is quit interesting. I have bought plants and seeds from Richters, never having a hitch!
I love Richters and am just penning my 09 list this week...