nature hills nursery—superb customer service

It's amazing what a difference courtesy makes when it comes to customer service. Last month, Kinkos screwed up and earned my undying disgust. This month, Nature Hills screwed up and earned my undying loyalty.

weigela variegated

About a week ago, we got a big box from Nature Hills Nursery. I've been ordering lots of stuff for the garden, so I wasn't very surprised -- I just didn't remember what I'd ordered from this particular place. Opening the box, I found five Variegated Weigela and a Red Prince Weigela. Nice healthy plants, carefully packaged and all intact.

weigela red prince

But I, for the life of me, couldn't remember ordering weigela!

I dug through everything until I found the packing slip, and discovered that the shrubs were supposed to have gone to a lady in Fairfax, New Jersey. Ah, a shipping error. But what had I ordered that probably went to the New Jersey lady?

Fortunately, I keep all of my online receipts. Not organized, mind you, but I have 'em all somewhere. So I dug through them to find out that last June I'd ordered a witch hazel, a lilac, and a false indigo bush, all scheduled for fall delivery.

I called Nature Hills and talked to Pete, in customer service. Who apologized profusely. Took all my information and asked if I could use the weigela's since it would be too expensive, and not good for the shrubs, to ship them back. And that he would track down my order and get it right out to me. He was very nice.

If the actual destination for the weigela were somewhere within an hour or so, Stanley and I probably would've delivered them on one of our Sunday jaunts with Helene. But Fairfax NJ is quite a bit further than we normally go, so yes, I can use the weigela. Stanley planted three of them (to further fill out the living fence we're making to block the ugly house of the weasel next door) and I gave three to my sister, who is doing a lot of landscaping now.

On Monday, Pete called me back. Said he was working on getting my shipment out, but, he apologized, the witch hazel was all gone for the fall -- did I want to cancel it or backorder it for spring delivery. I really want the witch hazel, so I told him to just send it in the spring. Then he said, "please go online and look through the catalog and pick out something and we'll send that to you free." Wow! That's a great way to apologize! I didn't need to look -- I just asked him if he had a mimosa tree (silk tree). That's my choice. He said, "Sure, but I might not be able to ship it for fall planting." Fine by me. Stanley and I love them so I was pretty excited to get one.

The bottom line is Nature Hills does customer service right. I didn't expect the free plant as a gift, just courteous service as they fixed the mistake. This company went above and beyond and, as a result, they've earned my loyalty and my future business -- I have a lot more to order in the spring.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 10/16/04 at 09:34 PM
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