“This is a long story:
If you don’t want to read it all here’s the key take away:
*Charella communication is abysmal
*Charella will lie about attempting to communicate with you. I’ll happily share my phone records with them to prove this.
My belief is a company should be judged on its actions when things go wrong - if it goes well the reviews will always be great but if when things go wrong there’s no good reviews then it’s a company to avoid.
I ordered 2 15ltr hydrangea endless summer the original from charella gardens in March costing £120. I received an email confirming that the plants had been dispatched however my tracking information never updated. I called the courier who informed me that they were still waiting for the item to receive the item. After a few days I followed up with charella and was told the plants had definitely left them and I’d get a call back, two days later I called again and was told they would get the courier to do a warehouse search and get back to me. I then had to chase them again and was told they couldn’t find the plants so replacements would be sent.
A delivery date was provided, no plants were delivered. I chased again and was given a new delivery date and told if they didn’t arrive the lady on the phone would deliver them personally?!? Anyway the plants arrived at my parents house as my property is difficult to locate and I collected them and planted them up ready for them to come into flower this summer…….
Fast forward to now. The hydrangea have flowered - they are the wrong plants!! I called charella last Friday and spoke to Jason who said he would arrange for them to be collected and they should be in the original packaging. I explained that the plants had been planted so he said he would get back to me on Monday. Monday comes and goes with no contact. I call on Tuesday speak to a lady on the phone who says she needs to get back to me about what can be done. I also at this point send photographs of the plants when they arrived and now to show they are wrong. Wednesday morning I am diagnosed with COVID and start self isolation, worth mentioning at this point is that due to track and trace I’ve been at home in bed 24/7 with my phone next to me to answer regular calls from the NHS and the local council to make sure I’m at home - if I miss the calls they will come to my house and potentially fine me.
Today my Mom called me to say there was a man at her house to collect the hydrangeas - I’d had ZERO communication of this. My mom explained that I’d just had them delivered to her and that the hydrangeas were at my address. I then spoke to the driver who said “sorry I just had a note to get these when I was passing the area” he asked how far away I lived and I told him I had covid so he obviously couldn’t come.
I then called charella and told them a driver had been at my parents address. The lady said ok well I’ll rebook it. I told her I had covid and was really unhappy that nobody had called me to arrange this collection. She then claimed that in fact they had tried to call me multiple times?!? Totally contradicting the driver who said he just had a note to say get it when he was passing the area. I then asked if they had called me multiple times despite the fact I don’t have a single missed call from them why not email or leave an answer phone message but apparently charella have a policy of never leaving answerphone messages?!?!? I’ve told them to leave the plants, I want nothing more to do with this company. I have spent thousands of pounds on plants in the last two years and I’ve NEVER experienced such awful service. I’ve used large companies and small independents. Charella do not deserve to stay in business with this lackadaisical dismissive approach to customer service.”
