15 replies to this topic

[Neoasis]

Seller of palm seeds and seedlings, as well as Eucalyptus and Yucca seeds, in Belgium.

[Neoasis]

I really do hate to come here and do this - but as the one year anniversary of my seed order with Europalms was yesterday, I feel I should offer my experiences for others considering ordering from them.

I have ordered from Europalms four times if I remember correctly. The first order I placed, I waited and waited, and after three months I contacted them, and without explanation as to why my order had not shipped, was told they would go out the following Monday. The sabals I had ordered were okay, but the trachys had quite a few dried up, woody floaters in the mix. If it weren't for the Sabals, I would have gotten no plants from my $600 seed order. I heard good things about them, so I placed two more orders, thinking maybe this was a one time thing, because everybody makes mistakes, myself included. Though they arrived slower than from other places, the shipping was less so I didn't think much of it. I was satisfied with those two orders, so I placed another order from them.

On January 28, 2011, I placed a 212Euro (297.81USD) order with them, expecting them to arrive in Spring just as I'd be ready to sow them. Toward the end of April, I sent an email to inquire about my seeds:

Hi,

I would just like to check the status of the order below dated 28 January, as I have not received the seeds yet. Thanks! Payment was sent through Paypal also on 28 January.

Take care,
Dewayne

His response:

Hallo Dewayne

You should have them middel next week

Thanks

james

No problem, I thought, I'll have them soon. Problem is, I didn't. I emailed them several times with no response, and felt it necessary to step up my campaign to find out what happened to my order in this message on July 5:

Hi James,

I still have not received my seed order placed in January. I have contacted you through your site every week for the past six weeks at least and have received no reply. If my seeds have not shipped by now, then I wish my payment to be refunded. I will be sending this message from my business email, my personal email, as well as through your site. If I do not receive a response to any of these messages, then I intend to share my experience on the IPS forums. I really do not wish to do this, but at this point I see no alternative.

Sincerely,
Dewayne Humphrey

His response on July 5:

Hallo Dewayne

I am just a few days back in the office
I was horizontal for some weeks in the hospital
I will have a look to it, I thought we had send it , so I will look it up here and will let you know
If they are indeed not shipped I am very sorry for it , will fix it directly
Please hang on for a day ore 2

Thanks

James

I can understand this, I have multiple health problems myself and I felt bad about my threat to share my experience after reading this. However, a few days went by and I had not heard anything from him, so I contacted him again:

Hi,

Any word on the tracking? I've tried replying through my email but the messages keep getting rejected for some reason.

Thanks,
Dewayne

His first response, July 9:

Hallo

We found the papers from the phyto
I will search tomorrow cause I believe it was send
We always scan the phyto so we will have that scan on the computer from the
office
Will have a look tomorrow and see if I find the trace as well
Thanks
james

His second response, July 15:

Hallo dewayne

You received the phyto
However I can not find any trace here back in my bookkeeping I believe we made an error
We have a phyto but no trace
The shipment to usa is always with trace
I gone do a new sending but I need to get a phyto for it
I have been a few times in the hospital in the past so I thinck there is the mistake
I am sorry
Do you have a fax ?

Thanks

james

So, satisfied that this was just a mix up which would soon be fixed, I waited. And waited. And yet again, I started sending emails, most of which received no reply, so I sent another message:

Hi again James,

I still have not received my order, and will not wait any longer. I wish my E212 payment made on 28 Jan. 2011 to be refunded. The payment was made from (email deleted for privacy). If I do not get a refund promptly I will share this experience on the IPS forums, as this is the worst experience I have ever had in ordering seeds and/or plants. I feel that I have been very patient, but when I place an order in January, and it still has not arrived in September, that is completely unacceptable.

Sincerely,
Dewayne Humphrey

I realize I was not very pleasant, but after sending a message every week for several weeks yet again, about an order placed 8 months prior that still had not arrived, I felt that perhaps if I threatened to share my experience again, I might get a reply. Sure enough, that one did get a reply on September 22:

Hallo
Dewayne

The seeds are shipped to you
You should have them in a few days
Sorry for the long wait but I had no other option
Just mail me when you got them !
Please do not think I am away with your money
They where mailed in 3 bubble wrapped envelopes !

Thanks

james

Once again I waited. A few days turned into a few months - for the third time. So in December 4, I started sending emails again:

Hi James,

I am writing once again to inquire about my seeds. As you can see, I've waited patiently for ten weeks - again - and I still have not recieved them. They certainly should have made it by now.

Sincerely,
Dewayne


NO RESPONSE AGAIN.

My next message on January 8, accompanied by a Paypal request for the 212Euro for my order:

Hello again James,

As you can see from this message dated September 22, you claimed to have shipped my seeds, but I still have not recieved them. I placed this order on January 28 of 2010*, and have contacted you numerous times, most of which you have not responded to, including the messages I've been sending since December. My seeds have still not arrived.

I do not enjoy sending these messages, but I can not understand why I'm still having to send messages about an order I placed almost a year ago. I understand that mistakes happen, but this should have been fixed long ago.

As it is, I am going to have to re-order seeds I've already paid for because I can not trust you to get them to me. I also hate to do this, but if I don't have my seeds in my hand by January 28, the one year anniversary of my order, I will leave feedback on gardening sites warning others of my experience. I think I have been much more than patient - I mean, here I am, almost a year later, still trying to get my order. I believe most people would have raised the alarm much sooner than I am.

If you can't send my seeds and get them to me by January 28, then I will accept a refund. I just want this matter closed, as this has gone on too long for me to wait any longer.

Sincerely,
Dewayne Humphrey

*I meant to write January 28,2011, not 2010. My mistake.


I can understand if someone is having health problems that there will be mistakes made. People make mistakes even when they're healthy. I have never had such a frustrating experience just trying to get responses to emails, and have given up hope of EVER receiving my seeds, or the nearly $300 I sent them. If anyone out there can afford to throw away $300, you have my envy. For my part, I certainly hope that James is okay health wise, but after several times being told they were or have shipped, and here it is a year later, I can not understand how I could still be out just shy of three hundred bucks and have NO seeds. My sympathies if his health is still a problem, but if he can't deliver then he should refund my money. I just wonder if there are others who are in similar situations.

I'm a quiet person who rarely posts here, but I read a lot and really enjoy this forum. I hope people will not think I'm being unreasonable, but after a year of unfulfilled promises I feel I've been very patient and very reasonable to wait this long before sharing my experience. At this point, however, I've given up all hope that I'll ever get any satisfaction from Europalms so I feel I have nothing left to lose.

Sorry this is so long, but it's certainly felt longer for me.

[mike2748]

Europalms my first order was great 2010 a couple thousand seeds anybody need D. decipens....

my second order was a bust after trying and one contact got no where and pulled back my payemt thru paypal...

[gyuseppe]

I too am sorry to say this : the last time I bought seeds from them,germination very little to nothing, sorry my vote and negative

[Neoasis]

Update: I received my order today, March 14, 2012. Since posting this thread EP has been answering my emails and has completely filled my order. Hopefully this was an isolated incident.

[Frank in Florida]

Purchased Dypsis seeds in 2010 and had about 50% germination, took a while to arrive if memory serves, but was satisfied with results.

[wonjae]

hi all,
i've let me share my experience.... i've take order by jan 11' 2012 and sent payment through western union jan' 16 2012 (paypal not available at europalm)... i didn't received the seeds untill now... bad response seller an very unsatisfied..it's wrong if they claim that's Europalms is now the largest palm seed supplier in the Benelux and ranks among the top 10 in the world!

regards,

zainudin

[dwc47]

I have been ordering seeds from Europalms (James Verhaegen) for at least 4 years. The orders always took a minimum of 1 1/2 months to get to me in the US from Belgium. I was always willing to wait because the seeds were generally viable, and, in some cases, there simply was no other vendor offering the seeds I wanted. Up until last year I felt pretty safe in ordering from Europalms because I could pay via PayPal and fall back on PayPal's buyer protection policy if it were ever needed. In 2011, however, Europalms switched from PayPal to direct credit card processing through a clearing house. I did not like the switch, but I wanted the seeds, so I placed an order that totaled about 42 euro. The order was placed in November, 2011. It was so difficult to place the order using the European clearing house that when I finally succeeded, James sent me an email asking me how I did it! After 2 months of waiting on my order, I began sending emails inquiring about my order. There was no response to these emails. Finally, sometime in February, 2012 I began to get less nice in my emails and told him I would never order from him again and would tell all my palm-growing friends to avoid Europalms at all costs. This time he sent me an answer stating that the order had been sent and I should receive it the following week. That was a lie. I received nothing and heard nothing until 2 days ago, when I actually received my order with no explanation or apology 6 months after the order was placed. I would not recommend ordering anything from Europalms unless you think you would enjoy this kind of atrocious customer service!

[Harry]

It has been 6 months since I ordered plants from this vendor and so far i have received nothing.
They do not even reply to e-mails. Do not buy from this site.
You get more results by throwing money out the window.

[Harry]

Its been 12 months and 23 days since I ordered plants from this vendor and nothing has been delivered yet.

Must be a new world record!

[Phoenikakias]

Its been 12 months and 23 days since I ordered plants from this vendor and nothing has been delivered yet.

Must be a new world record!

I hold the record with some decades since I had ordered and prepaid seeds from someone called Steeb in Germany, and some years since I had ordered and also prepaid some Jubaeopsis caffra seeds from rps!

Edited by Phoenikakias, 27 February 2013 - 12:38 PM.

[palmtodd]

ordered dypsis decipiens seeds and I had to contact them after 3 months to see what was going on with the order.  I asked for refund many times through email and never got a response. Now it is 8 months past and still haven't received a refund or any seeds. what a rip off! 

Edited by palmtodd, 11 March 2013 - 07:10 AM.

[Toby]

......and some years since I had ordered and also prepaid some Jubaeopsis caffra seeds from rps!

 

Konstantinos, I assume your Jubaeopsis got lost in the mail. Please e-mail me with more specifics and I will replace if that was the case.

 

On Europalms:

It seems like James is not really in business anymore, his seed list has not changed for years now, and I have heard a few more stories similar to the above posts.

 

Best, TOBY

[EuroPalm]

 

ordered dypsis decipiens seeds and I had to contact them after 3 months to see what was going on with the order.  I asked for refund many times through email and never got a response. Now it is 8 months past and still haven't received a refund or any seeds. what a rip off! 

 

Hi Todd,

How did you pay EuroPlams ?
Through PayPal or in another way ?
If through PayPal you will have a chance to get back your money.
Tell us,

Regards,

Phil

[EuroPalm]

Todd,

Everything becomes clear !

I did not understand why you asked me to refund the money you paid to Europalms company ! This is a big mistake !
I am located on Corsica island and I am not a palmseed dealer.

I have nothing to do with this company located in Belgium or Netherlands !

EuroPalm (my pseudo !) has nothing in common with Europalms !

I hope they will refund your money ! Good luck,

Phil

[palmtodd]

sorry about that, my mistake.

 

cheers