“Your returns policy is prejudicial against buying them in a garden centre. Once they leave your farm for a garden centre you take no responsibility and people like us purchase them in good faith, but do nothing when they don't work out how they are supposed to. You are just con artists that do not guarantee your roses Once they leave your premises”
“If I could give them a minus one. they used to be very good BUT now they are overpriced. They do not honour their guarantee. I bought a rose on the Spring(£34) It was week and had blackspot. It is 6 months old and despite spraying it still has black spot and is very weak. David Austin will not replace and tell me it will not kill it I have bought a lot of roses from them but this will be the last one”
“I have bought a lot of DA roses with the confidence of their guarantee but this is the last one at their inflated prices, A tiny rose covered in blackspot. DA has refused to replace instead given me Advice. I have tried everything they suggest to no avail. £34 for a sick rose is not acceptable.R”
“Standards have dropped.
There was a time when you could expect every purchase to be of the highest standard but in recent years bare root have gotten smaller, spindly canes with immature roots, potted Roses arrive damaged during packaging, damaged by cane boreing sawfly causing reduction in plants overall health and vigour.
When you get in touch which they state on your website you should when something is wrong they wriggle out of any responsibility and you will have to fight to get them to honor their promise to honor their five year guarantee.
They completely ignore the consumers Rights act.
I will never order directly from David Austin Roses again and will instead view the Roses stocked at the local garden centers at least you can see the overall health of the plant you are buying.”
“Awful, do not purchase roses from them. There are better growers to purchase from. Rose died and was dead when I got it. They do not refund shipping on a rose that was dead when I received it.”
“Rose arrived covered in parasites. Now dying. They said it was fine that they sent it like that and would not give me a replacement. Just beware, David Austin have a cult like following of people who won’t hear a word against them. In reality they are scammers with no care for the customer or their roses.”
“David Austin Roses is a company with no integrity. I received a gift card for roses on my birthday but moved from the west coast to the east coast and had about 5 years of restorative work to do on my new property. Preparing it for a cut flower farm. When the property was finally ready I went to use the GC and it expired 7 months ago. There is no one there willing to give me a credit for the GC even though I would have spent thousands of my own actual dollars there for my cut flower farm. That is horrible customer service and it's thievery. I will never purchase anything from them from now on based on principal alone. I hope this company's poor customer service contributes to their demise.”
“Just awful customer service. I ordered a rose from them in 2023. They waited to ship it until it would arrive in November. What came was a small stick that was not in its pot any more due to poor shipping. I should have complained then but instead I hurried to plant it before the ground froze (I live in New England so November is super late to be planting roses). I planted it, watered it, and placed a cage around it to protect against critters. Well no surprise - it did not survive the winter at all. So much so that by spring, that tiny stick was just simply gone. I contacted them about a replacement and they insisted I provide a picture of the dead plant. When I explained it was simply gone, they refused to honor their replacement. In my experience they are not an honorable business to buy from and you would be better served buying from a local garden shop.”
“Reading these reviews makes me sad. DA used to be a quality company. As seen from the reviews there’s something desperately wrong with them.
I ordered a Lark rose which I saved for! It ended up coming late in season as I read other reviewers had same issues. I only had a few canes. The rose was pretty sad looking! I’m being nice! There was only a few canes and few roots PLUS, two roots were broken. One of the only two healthy looking roots was broken and a smaller root.
And let’s add some more disappointing features, the roots were moldy! Unbelievable! I am even more disappointed at the customer service. They said to email the company add the pictures and id receive another rose. One month later and haven’t heard a thing! I finally am giving up. Not worth the stress! Sadly for them, they get a bad review instead because they don’t want to follow up on their neglectful behavior! Here’s photos and we did plant it to see if it makes it! Look how sad it is! Two canes! We gave it lots of TLC and made a gopher cage. We had to add it to another part of the garden where we’ll just see if it survives.”
“I would rate this company negative stars the company is ridiculous I was lied to over the phone phone. I had my eye on a rose I called and was given various date I was on the website patiently waiting. I called today and was told the rose I was looking for was listed Saturday which is false because I was on the website every day.”
“We have ordered 6 bareroot roses at a time. The first two batches worked out fine. The last were sent very late in the season. In spite of taking all the same precautions planting them, they didn't survive. We have now been trying to exercise the warranty for about 5 weeks. It appears they are hoping we give up. They have requested multiple photos of the dead roses.”
“I love their roses. I ordered 5. When I received them, I didn't receive what I ordered. I have contacted them 4 times. Still no response. They sent me 2of the same kind, when I had ordered one bush and 1 climbing. When you spend a lot of money, you would think you would get a response.”
“Ordered a Hyde Hall rose in the early Fall of '22 for a Spring '23 delivery. I've ordered roses from several nurseries over the past nearly two decades and two houses. I'm very well versed in when to expect a shipping notification for delivery to my zone 4b area. Mid April - mid May. Imagine my surprise when out of no where I receive a "Your Order Has Been Despatched[sic]" from David Austin on March 17th, for expected arrival today - March 20th. I am awaiting a reply on why my bare root rose order was shipped out while the ground is still frozen and snow is very much still covering the ground here in the upper Midwest. This has marked my very last order from this company. Buyer beware.”
“They took my money for 2 plants munsteed wood rose in feb 2022 and never fulfilled the order. They dont attend phone calls and they block your number if you keep trying to call them. They are assholes big time. I paid $140 Canadain dollars included shipping. You have to return my money assholes.”
“****Edit: I showed my neighbour who is pretty hot on roses and she thinks it has “witches broom disease” which is from DA nursery as it hasn’t been in my garden and arrived like it. The new growth is all affected. Binned! UK customer.****
DO NOT buy online from D. Austin as the guarantee means nothing. They are much poorer quality than those supplied to the garden centres. Perhaps they sell the ones online that they couldn’t sell in a shop? Excellent marketing but lacking in everything else. I guess since the sons took over it’s more about insta promoters and posh catalogs than really quality and customer service.
After buying lots of DA roses over the years for myself and as presents for others. I’m annoyed because my parents got me Gertrude online as a gift and 35 quid isn’t cheap for them. Sent me a crispy and crinkly Gertrude with yellow and brown leaves that are oddly shaped and two of the three main stems growing against each other. I sent them pictures and they said if I plant it it will be fine in a few weeks. I won’t be waisting my time because bits keep falling off it and it hasn’t picked up with TLC.
Shame DA used to be a lovely quality English Company, took a few years for it to go right down hill. Condescending customer service, company living off D. Austin’s legacy.”
“I ordered 70 white roses before my gardener had dug the beds. I askes for them to be delivered in a week's time. They were delivered a day later. Not what I wanted! I had undered ordered. I needed more roses which I ordeded for ASAP. They sent them almost a week later with a Sarurday delivery. Not what I wanted again! This is very poor custumer service that dosen't listen to customer requests. High prices which I don't mind and high arrogance which I do mind!
David Austin Roses does not care about Customer Service .....just pretend care that has been automated.”
“2/22/2022
I had ordered two Winchester Cathedral rose bushes from David Austin Roses on 3/14/2021. I noticed that the roses were charged to my CC a couple of days later.
Believe-it-or-not, the roses arrived on 2/20/2022, almost one year after ordering them. Early on I had thought the delay might have been a minor one, however, never received any information regarding the order status. Eventually I had forgotten all about the order until they arrived which confused me as I thought the order should have been cancelled.
I have no use for these items at this late date so I notified David Austin Roses (via eMail), That there must have been some error on their part given the extended period of time between ordering and shipment. I was told that they would accept a return, however, (a)The cost of doing so would be mine. and (b)If the returned product was not salable, I would not receive a refund.
The went on to tell me that I was notified of the shipment on 3/2/2022, suggesting that I should have cancelled the order at that time. Note however the supposed date of notification was a future date. How can this be?
Nevertheless, I again notified them that inasmuch as the delay was not my fault and that this supposed ship notification has yet to happened, I felt obliged to insist them to arrange for the return with no recourse to me should the items returned were found to be non-saleable.
I might also note here that the charge to my CC was made shortly after the order was placed. Unlike the customary charge-on-delivery, which most retailers honor, leaving me with an additional issue with not being able to refute the charges against to my CC through the bank (sixty day limit on these things).
I might also note that the current cost for the Westchester Cathedral Roses is $32/each (plus T/S/H). I ordered two and my CC charge was over $90. (something I should have checked earlier).
Nevertheless, It's not about the money. Its about the shameless way the David Austin Roses folks do business. Failure to disclose, failure to deliver and of course failure to satisfy customer complaints post-sale.
If I could I would haven them a negative rating, however the worst I can do is give them one star (what a joke) let everyone know just how awful they are to do business with. BTW if you look up their reviews (which I should have done at the beginning) you will notice that more than 40% of the reviews are two-stars or less. Caveat Emptor everyone. Please, please please do NOT do business with this despicable organizations............Thanks”
“The plants are always sent in perfect condition and come carefully packaged. I had a problem with a climber which didn't drive and Lisa offered me a replacement as soon as she saw a photo of the plant which I had mistakenly put in a too-small pot. David Austin is, for me, the best rose grower I have ever come across.”
“I ordered three barefoot roses from David Austin Roses. When they arrived they did not look much alive. However I planted them feeling I should give them a chance. I had never purchased bareroot roses prior. And did not understand it can take 6 to 8 weeks for them to start leading out and greening up. This is exactly what happened. With feeding, watering and nice warm weather my roses are very much alive. I would suggest others to do the same with bareroot roses they may purchase from David Austin Roses before placing negative reviews! It could be you just did not give adequate time for the roses to come out of dormancy.”
