Hello dear readers,
Hope you are all well after the Easter Holiday Breake!
Today I'm writing a another Orchid nursery review, which may be a bit negative but I will explain everything in time.
Ray Creek Orchids
7, Jacklin Lane,
Luddington, Scunthorpe North Lincs.
DN17 4RB
http://www.raycreekorchids.com/
Please be aware that all nurseries I am going to be
reviewing will be treated the same and I will have a basic matrix for some
particular criteria.
Any additional positive and negative comments will be coming
from my own personal sentiments and customer experience.
Scoring Matrix:
1-5
Plant variety :3
Price:2
Size and health: 1.5
Description vs. reality:2
Delivery time: 4
Returns:4
Customer service: 3
Ray Creek Orchids is a British "family" nursery which provides plants, it's more of a Go-To place than online shop however they do provide this service. So let us begin.
Plant variety: 3
I have scored 3 because there isn't a huge choice, and the owner doesn't update the website to often (for the last 4 - 5 months? with new products) the website was recently updated to be more user friendly and modern, however this didn't really influence the plant stock. There are some nice plants, some quite uncommon and the lovely Plug plant section which allows you to purchase young seedlings of some very nice and attractive varieties. I would personally would like to see that someone is actually doing something to the website and adding more plants, especially when it comes to the plugs' adding more types would be briliant!
Price: 2
The prices are a No, No - because they are very high on some of the plants and you don't really get for what you pay. I would accept these prices if they were comparable with the quality.
Size and health: 1.5
Yes, this is a very low score in my opinion. Because the plants you buy are very small, ok my first Paphiopedilum Maudiae which i bought from Ray's was nice and i'm really happy with it now (after 2ish years). But there were signs, which at the time I didn't pay attention to. Like leaf burns, slug bites of leafs. On one occasion I purchased a dendrobium and the leafs completely freaked out when i had the plant for two or three days. And then I bought my Vuylstekeara... it was not a plant I would expect to pay £16 and have it as a rescue plant. If I wanted a rescue experiment I could have visited Tesco and make a £1 purchase. This is not only my opinion but I have heard similar things from people on the Facebook Orchid forum. The only good quality orchids are the plug plants, these seem to be vigorous and free from any stress and problems.
For a plant business this is not good, and lack of time or money is not a excuse because this will scare people away and lead the business to inevitable collapse.
Description vs. Reality: 2
Well, I can say there is a description and there is a picture. But first of all the picture usually is a blurry pixel which doesn't really give you any idea of what you will actually buy, furthermore there is no picture of the expected size of the plant or condition it may be in. Description is usually vague and that's it. Not very good in my book, very careless.
Delivery time: 4
I can't complain on this, they usually are quite good and will send the plant quite quickly and also quite well packed with a leaflet of instructions. No delay on this and within maybe 2-3 days of the purchase you can be a happy/not so happy owner of a brand new orchid.
Returns:4
Well, I'm not sure how other people dealt with this but I never had any problems and Ray was quite approachable and nice to talk to and returned one of my orchids which was the wrong item delivered (yes that happened).
Customer service: 3
I had been in contact with the owner and I found it to be OK, the returns work fine, its easy to ask for a change or cancellation of the order therefore I don't have any complains.
Overall Score: 2.7
But I can say my last category was vastly influenced by the low quality of the plants and probably the general service. I mean don't get me wrong I understand that Ray Creek Orchids is a nursery created by someone who loves orchids and kind of turned his passion into a business but I think that If you are having a business you should make sure that all of the levels of it are well cared for and of high quality otherwise through the lack of care bad reputation will build up and influence other areas which the person is concentrating the most.
I'm not discouraging anyone not to buy from Ray, however make sure you think twice before you do so you don't get disappointed.
Ray Creek Orchids is a British "family" nursery which provides plants, it's more of a Go-To place than online shop however they do provide this service. So let us begin.
Plant variety: 3
I have scored 3 because there isn't a huge choice, and the owner doesn't update the website to often (for the last 4 - 5 months? with new products) the website was recently updated to be more user friendly and modern, however this didn't really influence the plant stock. There are some nice plants, some quite uncommon and the lovely Plug plant section which allows you to purchase young seedlings of some very nice and attractive varieties. I would personally would like to see that someone is actually doing something to the website and adding more plants, especially when it comes to the plugs' adding more types would be briliant!
Price: 2
The prices are a No, No - because they are very high on some of the plants and you don't really get for what you pay. I would accept these prices if they were comparable with the quality.
Size and health: 1.5
Yes, this is a very low score in my opinion. Because the plants you buy are very small, ok my first Paphiopedilum Maudiae which i bought from Ray's was nice and i'm really happy with it now (after 2ish years). But there were signs, which at the time I didn't pay attention to. Like leaf burns, slug bites of leafs. On one occasion I purchased a dendrobium and the leafs completely freaked out when i had the plant for two or three days. And then I bought my Vuylstekeara... it was not a plant I would expect to pay £16 and have it as a rescue plant. If I wanted a rescue experiment I could have visited Tesco and make a £1 purchase. This is not only my opinion but I have heard similar things from people on the Facebook Orchid forum. The only good quality orchids are the plug plants, these seem to be vigorous and free from any stress and problems.
For a plant business this is not good, and lack of time or money is not a excuse because this will scare people away and lead the business to inevitable collapse.
Description vs. Reality: 2
Well, I can say there is a description and there is a picture. But first of all the picture usually is a blurry pixel which doesn't really give you any idea of what you will actually buy, furthermore there is no picture of the expected size of the plant or condition it may be in. Description is usually vague and that's it. Not very good in my book, very careless.
Delivery time: 4
I can't complain on this, they usually are quite good and will send the plant quite quickly and also quite well packed with a leaflet of instructions. No delay on this and within maybe 2-3 days of the purchase you can be a happy/not so happy owner of a brand new orchid.
Returns:4
Well, I'm not sure how other people dealt with this but I never had any problems and Ray was quite approachable and nice to talk to and returned one of my orchids which was the wrong item delivered (yes that happened).
Customer service: 3
I had been in contact with the owner and I found it to be OK, the returns work fine, its easy to ask for a change or cancellation of the order therefore I don't have any complains.
Overall Score: 2.7
But I can say my last category was vastly influenced by the low quality of the plants and probably the general service. I mean don't get me wrong I understand that Ray Creek Orchids is a nursery created by someone who loves orchids and kind of turned his passion into a business but I think that If you are having a business you should make sure that all of the levels of it are well cared for and of high quality otherwise through the lack of care bad reputation will build up and influence other areas which the person is concentrating the most.
I'm not discouraging anyone not to buy from Ray, however make sure you think twice before you do so you don't get disappointed.
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