Garden Grocer - Big Disappointment!

[Squidrific]

We just used Garden Grocer for this first time for our girl's trip. When I originally ordered I had the alcohol we wanted in the comments section. My credit card was charged for the groceries and the tip as I expected, however, I didn't get a confirmation or any kind of acknowledgement.

The week before our departure, we had a change of plans and decided to fly in a day early. I immediately called Garden Grocer and the rude lady informed me that I need to e-mail the new information to them she wouldn't take it over the phone and then she hung up on me while I was in mid-sentence.

I e-mailed that I wanted the groceries delivered on Friday to SSR instead of Saturday at BWV and I also cancelled the alcohol I ordered in the special comments, because I had a bad feeling about the whole order situation and no acknowledgement. We arrived at SSR and no groceries. I couldn't do anything about it because it was after midnight anyway and figured I would clear it up in the morning.

The next morning we transferred to BWV - well our groceries had been delivered there on Friday instead of SSR which I had completely specified. Our room was ready at check-in and so we went to the room and the bell man brought up the suitcases, owners locker and groceries. He mentioned that he double-checked the groceries against the list when they were delivered and none of the breakfast items were there and that he had mentioned it at the time to the delivery man.

I immediately call Garden Grocer and was practically accused of lying. Did you check your bags? Umm, yes. Are you sure they were all delivered? Yes, the bell men double-checked. Ok, well we will check with our delivery person and see where they are. At this point, I mentioned that I had asked for it to be delivered on Friday and he said well we did deliver on Friday to BWV. I decided against pointing out that it was the wrong resort. Well this is our breakfast food so now we will have to buy breakfast. No sorry - nothing but accusations and rude tone.

I got two more calls during the course of the day, asking about was I sure the food wasn't delivered. I was a bit frustrated at this point. NO - I don't have my orange juice, cream cheese, bagels, etc.

Finally at 4:00 p.m. they call and say that they are going to do me a favor and have the items that I am disputing delivered to the hotel. Again, no apology. I paid a $12.00 delivery charge plus the $15.00 tip that I had included for just $60.00 of food - I expected to be treated better than this.

Sorry folks, but the hassel wasn't worth my time. I received lousy customer service and will never use them again.

 

[Mtnman44]

I would contact your credit card company and dispute the service charge and the tip since the merchant failed to deliver the services paid for. It's not a lot of money but it's the priciple. Plus, it makes the merchant have to go through the trouble of responding and they are hit with a chargeback fee (around $25 to $30) from their bank.

 

[fishermouse]

Everytime DW and I discuss having food delivered another thread like this comes along
seems like everything goes well until we get ready to use the service. Guess I'll skip it and just take a cab, or remortgage the house and buy from Disney..

 

[Squidrific]

Everytime DW and I discuss having food delivered another thread like this comes along
seems like everything goes well until we get ready to use the service. Guess I'll skip it and just take a cab, or remortgage the house and buy from Disney..

I understand. We are having a big family trip in October and I was using this trip to try out Garden Grocer. Needless to say, I won't be using them again. I am a pretty forgiving person - I was okay with the wrong delivery date and location, but then to question what I received and to be using jerks about it - forget it!

I can say that we used Happy Limo and they offer a 15 minute grocery stop.

 

[jarestel]

You know, I don't mind so much when people report an occasional snafu or 2 when dealing with a business. Things happen and nobody is perfect 100% of the time so I don't necessarily hold the occasional problem against an establishment. But I do judge a business on how they handle problems when they do arise and if I were in your situation, Garden Grocer would not get my business again. It doesn't sound like they handled this well at all.

 

[goofy4tink]

You know, I don't mind so much when people report an occasional snafu or 2 when dealing with a business. Things happen and nobody is perfect 100% of the time so I don't necessarily hold the occasional problem against an establishment. But I do judge a business on how they handle problems when they do arise and if I were in your situation, Garden Grocer would not get my business again. It doesn't sound like they handled this well at all.

That's exactly my feeling! Anyone can give good customer service when things are going along smoothly and everyone is happy, but it's very telling when customer service breaks down when there is some kind of an issue. I have yet to be totally satisfied with either wegoshop.com or gardengrocer.com. Both companies dropped the ball on one or two things in my orders. I don't order very much, in fact the last time I left a huge amount of stuff behind that was never even opened. From now on, I think I'll be packing the non-perishables and then just sucking it up and head to Screen Door for my dairy/bread.

 

[PiperMickey]

Sorry to hear about your experience.

I just used gardengrocer for the first time last week and was very pleased. Even with having ordered a bit too much I still feel like it more than paid for itself (just for the water alone!)

 

[Disney Ron]

We just used Garden Grocer for this first time for our girl's trip. When I originally ordered I had the alcohol we wanted in the comments section. My credit card was charged for the groceries and the tip as I expected, however, I didn't get a confirmation or any kind of acknowledgement.

The week before our departure, we had a change of plans and decided to fly in a day early. I immediately called Garden Grocer and the rude lady informed me that I need to e-mail the new information to them she wouldn't take it over the phone and then she hung up on me while I was in mid-sentence.

I e-mailed that I wanted the groceries delivered on Friday to SSR instead of Saturday at BWV and I also cancelled the alcohol I ordered in the special comments, because I had a bad feeling about the whole order situation and no acknowledgement. We arrived at SSR and no groceries. I couldn't do anything about it because it was after midnight anyway and figured I would clear it up in the morning.

The next morning we transferred to BWV - well our groceries had been delivered there on Friday instead of SSR which I had completely specified. Our room was ready at check-in and so we went to the room and the bell man brought up the suitcases, owners locker and groceries. He mentioned that he double-checked the groceries against the list when they were delivered and none of the breakfast items were there and that he had mentioned it at the time to the delivery man.

I immediately call Garden Grocer and was practically accused of lying. Did you check your bags? Umm, yes. Are you sure they were all delivered? Yes, the bell men double-checked. Ok, well we will check with our delivery person and see where they are. At this point, I mentioned that I had asked for it to be delivered on Friday and he said well we did deliver on Friday to BWV. I decided against pointing out that it was the wrong resort. Well this is our breakfast food so now we will have to buy breakfast. No sorry - nothing but accusations and rude tone.

I got two more calls during the course of the day, asking about was I sure the food wasn't delivered. I was a bit frustrated at this point. NO - I don't have my orange juice, cream cheese, bagels, etc.

Finally at 4:00 p.m. they call and say that they are going to do me a favor and have the items that I am disputing delivered to the hotel. Again, no apology. I paid a $12.00 delivery charge plus the $15.00 tip that I had included for just $60.00 of food - I expected to be treated better than this.

Sorry folks, but the hassel wasn't worth my time. I received lousy customer service and will never use them again.

Squiddy, my wife placed an order online last night for our trip in 3 weeks. Today she decided to remove an item and called the 800#. I guess she talked to the same rude woman you did. She told her in a snotty tone to email any changes then hung up. My wife was upset at the treatment.

We used them in March and they did pretty good except they told us they couldn't get diet gingerale. We thought that was odd, but overall we were satisfied, but I'm starting to NOT have a good feeling about them for our upcoming trip.

 

[D&R love Disney]

There is no excuse for such rude customer service. We used Garden Grocer last week and everything was perfect. I got a call while we were at MGM from the delivery guy who was dropping off our order at BCV and our room was not yet ready. He left the items with bell services and told me the amount I owed for the beer and wine. He didn't even want me to give him my c.c. number at the time, just wrote the amount I owed and highlighted the phone number on the receipt and told me to call the office when we got to our room. Worked out perfectly.

 

[Kickapoo Joie Juice]

thanks for that heads up. We'll stick with publix!

There's *nothing* I dislike more than bad service...

 

[Debbie H]

I thought I remembered something about this place so I did a google search. Back in 9/06 a dis person had said she had terrible service and rude behavior from the owner. For the aggravation, delivery fee, and tip, I'll do my own shopping.

 

[Coloradomom]

Sorry for your experience. We've used garden grocer twice now (3/06 and 10/06) with no problems, and we will use them again.

I know though, that it can be frustrating when this happens but did want to share that we've been totally pleased with gardengrocer.

 

[Esmerelda]

I'm sorry you had a bad experience.

We have used GG at least 5 times with absolutely no problems, no mistakes in order...and never late. I recommended them to 2 other families in the past and they both reported stellar experiences.

Esmerelda

 

[JimMIA]

About a year ago, there were several threads that were very negative on Garden Grocer. Not only was the service very poor, but the rude attitude was worse. Some of the posters went so far as to post actual emails they received from the company with the same kind of attitude reported in this thread. Those emails were actually well beyond rude.

Finally -- at long last -- the owner of the company came on the DIS and apologized, said they'd been overwhelmed and had some problems, and asked folks to give them another chance. Then the service started improving radically and people started using them again.

Whatever the reason, there sure does seem to be a recurring theme here.

 

[fishermouse]

About a year ago, there were several threads that were very negative on Garden Grocer. Not only was the service very poor, but the rude attitude was worse. Some of the posters went so far as to post actual emails they received from the company with the same kind of attitude reported in this thread. Those emails were actually well beyond rude.

Finally -- at long last -- the owner of the company came on the DIS and apologized, said they'd been overwhelmed and had some problems, and asked folks to give them another chance. Then the service started improving radically and people started using them again.

Whatever the reason, there sure does seem to be a recurring theme here.

Sounds like they can't handle the busy seasons, was around this time last year that they were "overwhelmed". They might be better off telling customers they are booked for dates when they hit a level that might get overwhelming.

 

[Squidrific]

I did want to give somewhat of an update. I called and e-mailed Garden Grocer about my experience so that they would have an opportunity to address the problem. I didn't ask for or expect any kind of discount, I just wanted to give them a chance to answer to the problems. The customer service phone rep stated that she would not answer to my complaints that it should be e-mailed. I have no response from my e-mail, nor do I expect one.

If Garden Grocer had answered my first call about my items and fixed the problems immediately and apologized, I would have been happy and probably would have used them again. Their hesitation to fix my order, their accusations that I had actually received the items, their rudeness sealed their fate with me.

 

[Disney Ron]

I did want to give somewhat of an update. I called and e-mailed Garden Grocer about my experience so that they would have an opportunity to address the problem. I didn't ask for or expect any kind of discount, I just wanted to give them a chance to answer to the problems. The customer service phone rep stated that she would not answer to my complaints that it should be e-mailed. I have no response from my e-mail, nor do I expect one.

If Garden Grocer had answered my first call about my items and fixed the problems immediately and apologized, I would have been happy and probably would have used them again. Their hesitation to fix my order, their accusations that I had actually received the items, their rudeness sealed their fate with me.

That's unforgiveable Squiddy. GG better have our order correct in 3 weeks or it will also be our last time with them. Unbelieveable that they wouldn't help you on the phone.

 

[ransom]

Thanks so much to the OP for sharing their experience. I'll make sure never to use Garden Grocer's service.

 

[DisMN]

We've used Gardengrocer 4 times now and never had any problems with them whatsoever......and we had several changes to our order as well. All 4 times were 100% accurate orders and ontime delivery.

Sounds like they can't handle the busy seasons, was around this time last year that they were "overwhelmed". They might be better off telling customers they are booked for dates when they hit a level that might get overwhelming.

Actually I believe it IS posted on their website that they're unable to accept any more orders to be delivered this week because they ARE so busy.....my guess is they're striving to be 100% cyber-communication ONLY especially during a very busy time for them. Maybe they don't have a good system in place for when people need to change their order and these changes overwhelmed them. Not sure why they'd hire a surly phone worker though. LOL
OP, sorry your experience was less than good.

 

[cgcw]

I did want to give somewhat of an update. I called and e-mailed Garden Grocer about my experience so that they would have an opportunity to address the problem. I didn't ask for or expect any kind of discount, I just wanted to give them a chance to answer to the problems. The customer service phone rep stated that she would not answer to my complaints that it should be e-mailed. I have no response from my e-mail, nor do I expect one.

If Garden Grocer had answered my first call about my items and fixed the problems immediately and apologized, I would have been happy and probably would have used them again. Their hesitation to fix my order, their accusations that I had actually received the items, their rudeness sealed their fate with me.

No excuse for this!

We've used them in the past and been happy despite the problems I've read here. But.....reading that they wouldn't even take the time, after the fact, to hear your dissatisfaction, we'll take our business elsewhere.