Gardening Express Reviews

Name: Gardening Express
Address: Gardening Express, Chelmsford, Essex
Rating: 1.17

1.2 Rating 1,715 Reviews

3 %

of reviewers recommend Gardening Express

Company Reviews

Questions

Metrics

1.2

Based on 1,715 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Courier
Average Delivery Time	Over A Month
On-time Delivery	Greater than 16%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	Greater than 31%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Email, Live Chat, Telephone
Queries Resolved In	Over A Week
Customer Service	1.1 out of 5
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process	Difficult
Returns Process	Could Be Better

Phone:

08448 044 253

Location:

Gardening Express, Chelmsford
Essex
CM1 4UA

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Gardening Express 1 star review on 6th April 2025

Anonymous

Gardening Express 1 star review on 6th March 2025

Anonymous

Gardening Express 1 star review on 28th October 2024

Mark Ramsden

Gardening Express 1 star review on 2nd September 2024

Olga

627

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Rated 1 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“They broke my xmas!!!!! send me poor half dead blue spruce! Shoud be 120-150cm my was 95!!! I lost 80£. Very dissapointed! Keep away from this shop!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Item ordered and paid for. Never arrived. No phone number and 'live chat' is not live.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“In the past, I have been relatively pleased with the quality of plants and delivery from Gardening Express. My latest order was disappointing. Of four plants, one was a superb specimen, two were shrubs which were in extremely poor condition and the fourth and final plant was not what I had ordered, and was of absolutely no use to me. I accept that there has to be an element of chance when buying anything online. My real frustration is the difficulty communicating with the company. The primary function of the GE bot appears to be to keep you waiting (40 minutes and counting) until you give up and decide not to communicate your issues. Extremely disappointing.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“I'm very disappointed. I ordered 3 lucky dip orchids as it was a photos of different colours. They managed to send me all three same colour. The plants looked neglected, came overwatered with wet damaged leaves, with lots of little holes on petals, which means bites of pests, found some on leaves too. I have over 30 orchids but I never had that poor quality plants like Gardening express sent to me. Horrible customer service, they didn't understand my problem, I was referred to another assistant which asked me to send the pictures of plants, after I attached my last picture the conversation was cut off. I will never ever buy from them again.”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 11th December 2021

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Almost impossible to contact them, as they offer neither email or phone details. You have to wade through Frequently Asked Questions on their website and finally reach an online chat where you wait a long time (30 mins in my case) before trying to explain in typing and send photos, only to get a message to say I had been unresponsive for a while and been cut off ... That was me struggling to get to grips with it all, not being unresponsive! Tried again, but no satisfaction because I a) immediately on their arrival sent an email and photo of one dead plant, and another nearly dead, to a wrong email address and then b) sent another email to yet another address which couldn't help me, so I was well outside the time for letting them know that a dead and a nearly dead plant had arrived! Not that it would have helped, as I should have evidently sent them back at my own expense for a replacement, I was told. Won't bother to post below the photo of a pot of earth with a few dead strands in it... Meanwhile had used Gardening Express again (part order has arrived and looks quite good) but after wading through Cassie's 'chat' messages today I will never, ever be tempted to use them again. What is wrong with giving Cassie, or someone more understanding, a phone with which to make pleasant, human contact. Plants are living things (or in one case dead!!) so why not encourage speaking in person to a living human being?! It was a small matter initially (just part of a special offer order and of no great monetary value) but has now led to this review due to their customer service.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Extremely terrible service, lost £75 off a £300 order due items not arriving on time and having to reject the delivery, there is a 25% fee to do so even though delivery was so late. PLEASE STAY AWAY, not worth the stress and loss of money.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“I ordered a Boston fern I,supposedly in white presentation pots and a cyclamen in a white presentation pot…I received a 6 inch cyclamen in a tiny pot and a malus appletini in stead of a Boston fern….I will never ever buy from this two penny bit company again….customers are getting done over again and again…not me anymore…if it wasn’t for I’ll health I would have gone to my local garden centre…”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“I have wasted hours of my time trying to get a refund for the half dead plants I received from Gardening Express. I am kept waiting on the complaint site sending messages and photos to and fro, and then their site which is supposed to close at 4pm closes even though it NOT 4pm. Today it closed me down at 3.30 an I know the same thing will happen tomorrow as it has every day since I got the plants on 3rd December. Today is the 8th Dec.”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 8th December 2021

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Order did not arrive. They have a Hermes tracking code that says that Hermes have not recieved the plants. Impossible to get them to investigate. I'll not repeat what everyone else is saying. Their 'office' appears to be a social club and Bonnetts Garden Village certainly dont have the stock they are selling on line. (same registered office. So if this is a legitimate company they don't act like one.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“I bought two 'Premium Quality Topiary Buxus BALLS with stylish contemporary Flared BLACK Planters' - the plants arrived late but that wasn't the most dissapointing aspect - the 'stylish planters' are cheap plastic pots and the buxus balls are at the absoute minimum of the 'from' size they specified, and one buxus is very bare on one side. I measured them and they just made it into size category they'd stated, though I definitely wouldn't descibe them as premium, however I thought it was a competitive price because of their 'reduction' so I just hoped they grow. I'm annoyed with myself for not cross checking at my local garden centre (which is in the home counties and NOT cheap) because for £10 more I could have had two 30cm healthy buxus balls. I happened to spot some much larger specimens in Costco on a recent trip and they worked out at £15 more for a pair that are double the size of the Gardening Express ones (shown in the photo as a comparison) so do your homework and ignore their 'discounts' which are a joke. Having seen what poor value their specimens were I did write a review which then did prompt a response offering a 'no quibble refund' but sadly the effort and expense to return the buxus balls and the risk of the products being deemed to have been damaged by my courier means I'll just have to right the purchase off - please avoid, just check out the 47% negative reviews and make your own mind up.”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 18th November 2021

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Posted 3 years ago

“I feel very short changed...... The 'Cypress trees' I received were extremely modest in size - far smaller than the minimum height that was stated and generally looked v weak.... I would have paid no more than £10 per tree MAXimum in a nursery, as opposed to £55 for the pair !! And the customer service via email (-obviously!) was very dismissive of my complaint. Lesson Learnt I will certainly will never purchase plants from Gardening Express again and would urge potential customers to visit their local garden centre/nursery & purchase plants there instead !”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Wish I had read reviews. 3 hellebores delivered were dreadful. Looked as if they had been crushed with yellow and brown leaves. One was barely a stem sticking out of the compost. An agent told me every plant was individual and had it’s own season so not much help. She closed the chat down. Similar plants ordered from another company were excellent with green healthy leaves. Told I could return but not prepared to pay postage. Will never use them again.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Wow I wish i read the reviews. Unable to actually speak to a person. Ordered a 135cm to 160cm acer received a 110cm one. Apparently it is my responsibility to pay for and return an item i did not, did not order. Also the acer was really badly pruned - very lob sided.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Wrong Acer plant delivered, sent it straight back at a cost of £10.30 and now 4 days later they have delivered the same wrong plant AGAIN. If anyone from GEX reads this PLEASE answer your emails or your telephone and respond to your frustrated customers. Chris Bonnet DO Something!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“This company is awful. Do not believe the pictures on their website. They send out sub-standard plants and their customer service is appalling. They might be cheap, but do yourself a favour and go to a reputable garden centre where you will get value for money.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Please Stay Away! No circumstances that I recommend Gardening Express I bought 2 bare root magnolia trees from Gardening Express in late April and planted them following guidelines from several websites. In the intervening period the trees did not become established. I contacted Gardening Express to find out what could be done and effectively the 'customer services' agent Cassie pushed any responsibility back to me. I assumed that quality checks would have been done on the trees before they were shipped but apparently I should have been doing a bark test when the trees arrived to ensure they would awaken from dormancy. I was also meant to contact them within 14 days if I thought the trees would not establish. My understanding is that trees can take a few months to show any signs of growth, so again I was pushed back by their 14 day return policy. This is a good point to add that you are responsible for the costs for any returning 'faulty' plants. The great 5 year guarantee is not so great, it is only limited to certain plants, check the small print - of course the trees I purchased were not included So in short .... they put the onus on the customer to identify poor quality plants that they have sent out, don't give you sufficient time to complain and charge you for returns. There are no circumstances that I recommend Gardening Express. Please stay away!”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Plant never arrived. No way of communicating Gardening Express is a waste of time and a fraudulent company”

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Posted 3 years ago

“Poor. I wish I had looked at the reviews before ordering. My plants arrived I'm a box that looked like it had been sat on. Dispite the wording... Live plants with care. Written on the side of the box. Also some damage to the plants. I have tried to contact Gardening Express several times on the bubble at the bottom of the page. As per their instructions. No phone no, no email address, no customer service. How does this company continue to trade with such bad reviews.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“Wish I had seen these reviews before I ordered. Paid for 2 packs of shrubs (offer 3 plant pack) ie 6 shrubs but received only two individual plants. No way to communicate with this firm despite advertising "excellent customer service" and customer support service via messaging not successful. Email was sent with request for missing plants or a refund but this was never acknowledged. This was an extremely expensive order as far as I am concerned. Perhaps I will just have to write it off and be warned in future - never order from a company without telephone communication and if you do expect to lose your money. Zero stars.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

“I ordered an Acer for my neighbours 50 wedding anniversary as I knew she loved them. When it arrived 4 days after it left them. I gave it to them to open. I have never been soo embarrassed in all my life, as they opened their present excitedly the tall box in came in. The Acer was tiny near the last third of box like a dead dryed out twig! The image they post on the internet it looks beautiful in a square pot, Japanese shape All I could do was apologise when I saw the disappointment on their faces.I said never mind there is a 5 year guarantee so will get them to replace it. Since then unable to contact the Company by phone or message, finally after several failed postmaster general sent an email with images of the ripe off plant. I don't know how they are getting away with it. Please don't buy from this despicable Company. If we don't get it sorted within 25 days we will be getting our credit card Company to see what they can do. I suggest everyone does the same. Thanks for reading this review”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 years ago

Gardening Express is rated 1.2 based on 1,715 reviews