"I'm impressed with only one thing of this company and that is the sheer variety of plant seeds that can be ordered. They do have quite a large selection to pick from and mostly everything I've ordered so far from seed germinated with exception of a few varieties of squash and bean that didn't germinate or had terrible characteristics that caused them to barely grow.

Their live plants option typically ends up delivering mostly dead plants on arrival. I've only been able to nurse a few things back to life that they delivered. One year they shipped bare root dwarf apple trees while it was still frozen outside and the shipping company never knocked so they were killed on our doorstep (or probably in the frost of the truck). I have zero desire to order much of anything live from them if I can avoid it.

Their online ordering system doesn't accept more than one Seed Replacement Certificate at a time which forces you to call to order if trying to use them. This exposes you to a very poorly trained and somewhat rude (poor phone etiquette) call center group of individuals Gurney's outsourced their phone calls to. This was the following blunders the call center performed when I was forced to call due to lack of support for accepting multiple certificates online:
* The gal that answered wanted my account number without explaining where I could find that. I'm knowledgeable enough to figure this out myself, but I wasn't ready for that info immediately as the first question.
* I was told I could indeed enter multiple Seed Replacement Certificates online which is absolutely incorrect.
* I was asked what my promo code was that was in my cart. It was simply 5FREESHIP60 which was the current default promo code offered. She seemed to believe that I had to enter the Seed Replacement Certificate where the promo code went. This took about 10 minutes to sort out. I kept telling her that all that was there was 5FREESHIP60. I really don't understand what her misconception was, but it was grossly apparent they have no idea how the online shopping experience works.
* Their system showed I had multiple Seed Replacement Certificates which was the reason why I called. The Gurney's system offered a certificate that apparently is associated with another store that they mix together on their backend. Gardens Alive! uses the exact same Seed Replacement Certificate number pattern so this basically affirmed my thought it was the same company behind the scenes. However, at some point the phone rep ran into an problem where that one certificate could not be applied so it was taken off the table as an offering.
* I have great cell phone coverage and talk in meetings 5 days a week for most of my work day. I don't have audio problems ever. However, during this phone call to order which took WAY too long, there were multiple audio outages requiring me to request they repeat themselves to confirm shared data. It was a very terrible experience.
* It was obvious that the rep wasn't well trained and multiple times she kept confiding with someone nearby to figure stuff out, but she was very rude when she did so with long periods of being muted. I tolerated it, but I did show a little bit of frustration as I kept asking the very annoying question of "are you still there?"
* After my order was complete there was a bit of laughter on the call center end which included the rep I had just been speaking to. I'm not sure what the joke was, but if it felt it was at my expense.

The whole call center experience top down really exemplified the typical lack of training and respect received of individuals working out of call centers sourced from India.

The only reason I ordered from Gurney's again was to spend the Seed Replacement Certificates. Since I've now put those in my past I won't be attempting to order from them again until I start reading positive reviews which may take a miracle or a decade or two to forget...

UPDATE 2023-04-20
##### Rude Call Center Regrets - Only Days After Calling In Order My Credit Card Encountered Fraudulent Charges #####
Shortly (about five days) after my horrible (and last ever) first experience ordering via their extremely rude and unintelligible call center my credit card began getting fraudulent charges applied to it. I'm on the phone with my bank now and I expect this card will be replaced since this one is compromised. I had a bad feeling when I gave these rude ladies on the phone my credit card information as needed to place the order due to their incompetent online ordering system and they sold my information to some dark web market.

There is NO other possibility. The call center that Gurney's uses is running a criminal operation. I may contact the FBI about this one since I doubt that if I bring it to Gurney's they will take any action or even take it seriously. I use my credit card regularly at established locations that I have a business relationship and trust established. At no time prior "

"I ordered an Egift card for my friend on her birthday, June 4th and I thought she would get it on her birthday. Now, Gurneys says it will take them a week or more to deliver an ELECTRONIC GIFT CARD! I wish I had read these reviews before I ordered. Most big companies, i.e. Starbucks, Amazon deliver the same day you purchase an Egift card. Not these idiots!"

"Feeling very disappointed in Gurney's (aka Scarlet Tanager LLC) right now. Many weeks ago, I ordered a Carmine Jewel dwarf cherry tree from them. I had the option of ordering from Gurney's or several other nurseries and chose Gurney's because they have always had such a good reputation (in spite of their prices being higher than elsewhere). My ship date kept getting pushed back, but I never received any notification about the changes - I had to check my order status to find anything out. I eventually reached out to customer service to find out whether or not I was actually going to receive the tree (since I had already received the Romeo dwarf cherry I ordered). Later on the day I first emailed customer service, I checked my order status again and the Carmine Jewel was no longer showing on the "to be shipped" list (although the invoice total remained the same). After multiple attempts to reach customer service, I finally received a response to email yesterday letting me know that they are out of stock and I won't be receiving my tree. Had they let me know sooner (or not taken the order in the first place), I could have ordered from somewhere else, but now everyone else is out of stock too. If my order was accepted weeks ago and the only reason it hadn't shipped yet was my planting zone, it seems incredibly unfair that Gurney's would sell a tree to someone else that I had already ordered AND paid for.

I guess northern buyers need to be aware that with our planting dates falling so late in the spring, we may or may not receive the plants we order from Gurney's.

FYI - I just spent time reading post after post after post on facebook, yelp and other review sites from other frustrated Gurney's customers and it makes me wonder what happened to this company. My grandmother, aunt and mother swore by Gurney's. They always said their seeds were the best around and that they were an honest company. My mom is the reason that I chose to buy my cherry trees this year from Gurney's rather than one of the many places that had them available for less money. When I told her the price difference, her response was "it will be worth it when you have a successful planting and don't waste a year or two growing something that won't live or won't produce." Well, I've wasted a year anyway and have no chance of having success since I didn't even receive the dang plant I ordered. (Not to mention, I still haven't been credited for the unshipped plant.)

What bothers me the most is their lack of concern. I guess I understand if they aren't concerned about me and my garden, but aren't they concerned about their reputation? When a company survives for over 150 years, it's because they are good at what they do. The number of horrible reviews (including pictures) shows the world that they are no longer doing customer service well and that any remaining loyalty to Gurney's is misplaced. What a shame."

"ordered in January. Mid April now and still waiting for most of plants to arrive.
Wait and wait and wait and go to their website every couple of days. The promised date of delivery keeps changing, but the products are never sent. Getting too warm to be planting trees now.
They delivered a dead, dry stick for a tree.
Some of their stuff has grown though.
Won't be buying again from them.
"

"All the plants I ordered arrived dead and by the time the decide to honor their guarantee, its either too late and they can no longer ship this year or they reship using the same carrier which was the cause of the original arrival of dead plants. It took 2 weeks to deliver 5 plants 500 miles of course, they ended up dead. Gurneys refuses to ship using another carrier (to save money they use FEDEX surepost) but instead uses the same carrier with the same results and as such i will never get a live plant. They also refuse to refund my money instead they prefer to continue to reship.
There is no way to escalate a problem as their customer service dept is a third party that has no clue on the business they are servicing and are useless in accomplishing even the simplest tasks.
I highly recommend you go elsewhere, anywhere else but here if your end goal is to have living plants delivered to your door step."

" where to begin. Placed my full order in January, was supposed to start receiving order in April. A few items showed but many were out of stock. "No idea" if they would get them in. It would be nice to know if stock was coming so I could seek alternatives elsewhere. Asked for supervisor call back 4 separate times, promised within 24 hrs. Never happened! Plants were supposedly showing up in May, some did most did not. After complaining got some sent to me, arrived dead . Sent them pictures, opened a claim, promised a response which never came. Called, complained, out of stock, asked for call back, never happened. All you get is a call center halfway around the world with broken English, while Ma and Pa Gurney count their money and watch their landscapers plant their yard with stock from home depot or lowes. Save your money, GO SOMEWHERE ELSE. "

"I was once a satisfied customer. The experience this year has been horrendous. Missed dates and date changes without notification. Incorrect info in the catalog and completely disrespectful dismissive customer service. I think my garden will be different from what I planned and doubt I'll ever get some of my order. I will never buy from Gurney's again."

"Horrible. Kept pushing our shipment date back and then completely cancelled order. Beyond angry. When I called to speak with manager they had no way of transfering the call. Very polite but completely incompetent system. Now i have a garden and no seeds. I have been waiting so long for these seeds that most places are now sold out of the items I want. Thanks Gurneys, for absolutely nothing."

"Received 1 scrawny maple tree, dried out, hardly any roots. Junk!
They backordered 10 other items, said I would receive 3 weeks AFTER the planting window.
All people I talked to had heavy accents, and you couldn't understand half of what they said. Had to keep asking them to repeat.
I talked with a Robin, male, supposed to be their supervisor. A Isayn, Theresa, and a Doris. They all sounded like the same person. Unhelpful, thick accents, probably out of country, as a guess.
Waste of time! Do not use!
Wish I had read the reviews before I gave them $200! Again! Horrible !"

"VERY unhappy with my first experience with Gurney's. Ordered garlic for next year's crop several months ago. I just started to receive my shipments and all of them have been incorrect (I got someone else's order and was missing product from the second shipment.) I have now been told they cannot provide the missing/incorrect product and would refund for those. WHAT? I now have to source another vendor, pay 3-4x as much and may miss my planting window with cold weather looming. This is entirely unacceptable but without recourse, I'll be shopping for garlic today."

"Miserable experience from the get go and it just gets worse.
Crappy, weak, tiny roots arrived.
Complained.
Refund promised as credit.
Plants came up and were NOT the plants ordered.
Complained.
Full refund will be on it's way.
Never arrived.
Complained.
A full refund in the form of a check will be sent.
Check arrived for 25% of purchase amount!!!
Complained.
Gurney's turned it around making it MY FAULT!!!
Gurney's refused me the common courtesy of allowing me to speak with accounting or management.
NEVER AGAIN!
Avoid at all reasonable costs.
Am filing complaint with BBB in Indiana, the town they're located in and all plant/garden forums.
Just Horrible!
"

"I ordered two different tomato seed varieties from them and almost none of the seeds germinated. Other tomato seeds purchased from other companies germinated in the exact same conditions. I emailed customer service and sent a picture and got a refund"

"Awful, ordered strawberries - received 10 out of 250. I ordered a quantity of 10 which was to have 25 plants each - quick math...250. Ordered 120 of another variety and they sold them out from underneath me because I'm the furthest zone north I'm the last to ship. Placed my order at Christmas and it's May 26. Now I have no berries to plant. Other issues: sweet potatoes not received. Some other seeds did not germinate - I have a heated greenhouse, started in February. Seeds I picked up at Home Depot that are Burpee are doing great. They only thing good is they did refund my money for the Strawberries. Now I'm trying to reach a Canadian growing who might have the berries I want. It's looking like I might have to put my berry field project on next years list because these people don't have their act together. Thanks for Disappointing my 5 year old too Gurney's, she was looking forward to planting these berries with her daddy. "

"Horrible experience. They managed to immediately charge my credit card, but just couldn't seem to get around to shipping it. I was unsuccessful in getting help from customer service, and eventually cancelled the order. They didn't refund against my credit card, so I had to dispute the billing. I wish that I had read all of the negative reviews on this and other sites prior to ordering. Tell all of your gardening friends not to order from Gurney's!"

"Customer Service rep. was hard to understand and kept transposing numbers (address), getting spelling wrong, etc etc.
Awful experience, Worst I've ever had!!
Then when confirmation came, had my name misspelled anyway/again!
I called back to correct spelling errors and to let them know of my experience. That person was out-of-country also. Afterwards, they still didn't fix the errors.
8 days later I checked on the status and it said it hadn't been shipped yet. I was frustrated with the entire situation, and requested they cancel my order and refund my money. They refused. They said they couldn't do that. I would have to wait until plants got here and then call for refund.
I will never go through this company again! Wish I would have seen these reviews before ordering from them!


After 8 days I checked on the status "