Fast Growing Trees Nursery

I ordered 5 hybrid poplar trees from this company. They advertise them as 3 to 5 feet tall. None of the trees were even 3 feet tall. One was 28 inches. In circumference, they were less than the size of a pencil. They looked like twigs with a couple leaves on them. The way they were shipped was they were tossed in cardboard boxes with no anchoring at all. They apparently bounced around in the boxes during shipment. 3 of them arrived broken. I called the company. They told me to send them photo's of the broken trees. I did. They then decided that only 2 of them were broken so they offered to send me 2 replacement trees. I told them I didn't want any of them because NONE of them were 3 to 5 feet tall as advertised on their website. They then wanted more photo's showing the trees next to a measuring tape. I sent those. In that photo, you can clearly see the trees are NOT 3 feet tall, let alone 3 to 5 feet. I asked if they even had trees that were 3 to 5 feet and if they didn't, please refund my money. They advised they have a NO REFUND POLICY. I pointed out that under Federal Trade Commission rules, if they can't ship me what they advertised, they have to refund my money and since they obviously didn't have trees that were 3 to 5 feet tall, I wanted a full refund. After not hearing from them for several more days, I sent them another e-mail and advised that I had filed a complaint with the North Carolina Attorney General's office, Consumer Protection Department. I also filed a complaint with the BBB. I got an e-mail back stating they were refunding my money, which they did do.

Today, I received a copy of the letter they sent to the NC Attorney General's office in response to my complaint to the Consumer Protection Department. It is so incredibly full of lies, it isn't even funny. Lie # 1, they said only 2 of the trees were damaged as a result of FedEx shipping. Not true. 3 of them were damaged. And they weren't damaged as a result of FedEx. They were damaged because they were packed so poorly. Lie # 2, she said that I refused any free replacements. Not true. I refused 2 replacement trees. I wanted all 5 trees replaced with 3 to 5 foot trees, which is what they advertised. Lie # 3, She said all of the trees were "well over 3 feet tall. Not true. One of them is 28 inches. None of them are 3 feet. Lie # 4. She said they offered me a discount to make me happy. They NEVER offered me any discount at all. Lie # 5, She said I refused to return the trees to them. Not true. I have the e-mail where I asked them to advise me when FedEx would be picking them up so I could repack them. I never heard from them.

Since I got a refund, I would have let this drop until these idiots wrote to the Atty General's office with this letter full of lies. I've now written back to the Atty General's office pointing out every single lie and requested that this company be investigated for false advertising and deceptive trade practices.

Bottom line, don't order from this company. You won't get what you think you're going to get from the ads they have on their website. Not to mention, what they charged me for these twigs with leaves was absurd. $29.95 and I swear, it looks like they cut some thin branches off a real tree and stuck them in a pot or something.

Comment On This

I filed a complaint with the BBB regarding this companies sales practices. Last spring, I ordered several trees from Fast-growing-trees.com. The trees survived the summer and had beautiful blooms, but didn't grow any taller--just bushier. After the winter (we live in zone 6), one of the trees completely died, and the others still looked dead in June with the exception of some new shoots around the bases of the dead-looking trees.

I did a live chat with the nursery, and they said that I live in the coldest zone that the trees will survive in. I asked if that meant the tree's new growth would die every year, and if I would be stuck with 2 foot "bushes "every summer, and their live chat person told me "yes."

I purchased these trees because they were in my zone, and I was expecting them to grow taller each year. I was told by live chat that "the zones can change." The trees have been listed as zone 6-9 for at least the past two years, but within about an hour after my complaint, the website suddenly changed and listed the trees as zones 7-9. I made a copy of the web page before they had a chance to change it for the BBB.

I am very upset that I was led to believe these trees would grow in my state. I realize that my 90 day guarantee period is over, but how was I supposed to know that these trees won't survive my winters here? Very misleading.

Their online customer service employee was rude, and the company lied (multiple times) to the BBB. If you can find the terms of service on their website, please read it completely before puchasing anything from them. It is VERY broad. Also check their rating with the BBB. My advice would be to buy local.

Comment On This

An Unfortunate Honest Mistake

It was unfortunate that the wrong size tree was sent to Faye and we do aplogize that the mistake was made. The complete amount of her order was refunded shortly after her notifying us. We were notified on 6/19/2008 and the money was refunded 6/25/08. When this amount was refunded we were still not sure that she had indeed received the wrong tree.

We will always strive to find better ways of shipping packages as well as better techniques of packing. We do our very best to educate our employees on these procedures, unfortunately mistake will occasionally still happen.

Faye did send us photos. We could not get an accurate perspective of height from the photos. Nor did we realize one of the photos she sent with a tape measure was of a tree that was intact and had not suffered shipping damage.

We do not use deceptive advertising. This is another area we frequently update to better inform the customer. One example of this would be the Willow Hybrid page.

www.fast-growing-trees.com/WillowHybrid.htm which clearly states 'they may not look like much... they look like young bare-root, thin trees.'

In her complaint Faye made no mention of her previous order of over $400. I do not believe if we had been practicing deceptive advertising that she would have placed a new order 5 months later.

We have a very well laid out website clearly stating all of our Terms of Service and Replacement Guarantee. On the check out page it clearly states by submitting your order you are agreeing to our Terms of Service. You can review the Terms of Service and Replacement Guarantee at:

www.fast-growing-trees.com/TermsOfService.htm &

www.fast-growing-trees.com/Guarantee.htm

Wendy Sea

Customer Service Manager