Gardening Express Reviews

Name: Gardening Express
Address: Gardening Express, Chelmsford, Essex
Rating: 1.16

1.2 Rating 1,799 Reviews

3 %

of reviewers recommend Gardening Express

Company Reviews

Questions

Metrics

1.2

Based on 1,799 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Courier
Average Delivery Time	Over A Month
On-time Delivery	Greater than 16%
Accurate And Undamaged Orders	Greater than 30%
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 2nd September 2025

Varese

Gardening Express 1 star review on 24th July 2025

Anonymous

Gardening Express 1 star review on 27th June 2025

Anonymous

635

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

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

“What an utter bunch of thieving cowboys. Order took months to arrive. Half the order on last legs. You’ve got more chance of becoming the next prime minister than getting anyone from their customer service team to respond. Avoid like the plague. Utter rubbish company with even more rubbish customer service. Shame on them”

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Posted 5 years ago

“Worst company ever, after 2 months wait dead trees arrived, they had no roots just a twig stuck in compost. A lot of money wasted. Do not use this company”

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Posted 5 years ago

“Very disappointed with the time taken to address my delivery of plants, I have received an acknowledgement of my complaint, which has been passed on to the next tier, My plants came after being delayed in transit, Several plants bundled together in a sealed plastic covering, By the time I received them , the pots were crushed, the plants were dead, I have been waiting far too long for a response, replacement.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“Con artists, who send out poor quality plants and then leave customers looping in a complaints handling process that constantly loses the information. Absolute con merchants.”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 10th August 2020

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Posted 5 years ago

“Avoid. Take your money and don’t send your goods, no contact. Small claims being taken out.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“Do not use gardening express. Took months to get my order and when it finally arrived the shrub was dead. They now continue to ignore my complaint having initially asked me for a photograph, which I duly sent them. They are still using Covid 19 as a reason for lack of contact.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“What is wrong with this company, taking what must be £1000's in orders and not sending what was paid for. Should not be allowed to trade. I have been in contact with family and friends to avoid this company and requested them to contact their friends to see the reviews and for them to also contact their friends to avoid this company. Wonder how long it will be before they bust and we get nothing from this Limited Company”

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Posted 5 years ago

“Avoid like the current plague They are complete scammers - they take your order and your money and then forget you exist. Finally when your plants arrive they look nothing like what is advertised and when you contact them to complain they fob you off with an email apology blaiming the current crisis for the delay - which would be barely acceptable if that was what I was actually complaining about. Returns must be done at cost to yourself and they have very cleverly disabled goodle reviews so they can only be rated on other sites AVOID.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“They send you dead and dying plants and then make it extraordinarily difficult to contact them to complain. Automated messages thank me for my patience. What patience: Amazon and other companies don't hide behind Covid 19 to excuse their shortcomings. My plants were in transit for at least four days. I will NEVER order from Gardening Express again and I will be telling Trading Standards about the woeful and expensive experience.”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 9th August 2020

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Posted 5 years ago

“I ordered a lot of plants from this company at the start of lockdown. After they took my money, nothing happened for 10 weeks ... then they delivered several boxes of dead and nearly dead plants. I raised a support ticket on their website (all plants are guaranteed) and received a reply apologising and letting me know tier 2 support would be in touch shortly (raising a ticket is the only way to contact support - no telephone number, no email). A month passed and nothing! In frustration I went onto their Facebook page and began posting details of my experience. I was surprised to then receive a series of messages via Facebook Messenger reassuring me that someone from management would resolve the issues I had faced very shortly. Nothing after a week except the same platitudes and promises. They claim they cannot locate my original support ticket on their system even though I can and have sent them a screen shot of their website showing it and their initial response! Worst company I have ever dealt with. Only gave one star because none is not an option. SCAMMERS - please beware. As others have pointed out, ALL the positive reviews on Trustpilot are "INVITED REVIEWS" meaning they were actively sought by Gardening Express after they knew they had delivered what they were obliged to.”

Gardening Express 1 star review on 8th August 2020

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Posted 5 years ago

“Wish I'd read the reviews before buying. Missing plants from order, sent loads of emails. Still no refund. Avoid Avoid Avoid! You have been warned.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“Do not use this company. I ordered plants in May and it’s now August and I still haven’t received them. Have repeatedly asked for a refund. Nobody responds to e mails. I just want a refund.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“Hi I have been waiting nearly 4 weeks now for 2 Planters. I find these companies take the payments straight away but take too long for delivery. Once they have your money they don't care. I have had the same problems with Gardensite paid £650 4 weeks ago promised delivery Monday 3, August and no show. Customer service were terrible, rude. They can't fulfil the order now after this length of time. Still waiting for a full refund disgusting. Can I recommend The Greenhouse people. Brilliant customer service, Management and Delivery driver all as promised and on time. Garden Express and Gardensite or something else, Halls do not order from them. Garden Express rubbish Garden Site/Halls rubbish The Greenhouse People Brilliant and well done to them. By the way if could get a refund from Garden Express would of bought similar from a local store that day.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“I ordered plants on 19/4/20. They advised after 2 weeks that there would be a delay, totally understood with lockdown etc. What I didn’t understand was why they took until 3/7/20 to arrive. There was no way to cancel or to contact apart from leaving emails that were mostly ignored. When the plants eventually arrived they were tiny and can only have been seeds in April! If they can’t supply orders they shouldn’t accept them. I returned the plants and they eventually refunded but I paid over £10 Postage all in all. Very disappointing.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“One the worse outline shopping experiences I have ever had. I ordered a Japanese Acer (£89 with postage) the plant was supposed to be around 150cm and according to the picture a lush deep golden red colour. After waiting for 3 weeks and receiving some passive aggressive emails that said if I enquired where my order was this would delay my order...! What arrived was a 90cm scrawny damaged plant that had clearly not been watered or cared for in any way. Whatever you do not use Gardening Express to order any plants”

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Posted 5 years ago

“It's a Scam. I bought plants in April. I accepted Covid explanations. However, I'm still waiting delivery. I asked for a refund but noone bothers to respond to the emails. I just want my money back”

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Posted 5 years ago

“It's my fault for not reading the reviews on this dreadful company. As a result I have the same experiences, long delays, no proper communications, very poor quality plants, no response to complaint. Forget their guarantee promise, complete waste of time.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“AWFUL!!!!! I spent over £100 on plants. 3 were virtually dead on arrival and many of the others were on very poor condition, e.g. snapped stems, damaged leaves. I was issued a 'ticket', whatever that might be, as an acknowledgement of my complaint and have been waiting in a queue, if one exists, for a proper response for over 2 weeks. That to me is appalling customer service. The automatic update on my ticket sites Covid for the delay. What nonsense, other companies are managing very much better. Please do not waste your money on buying from here. I shall be taking this further at: https://www.coronavirus-business-complaint.service.gov.uk/ Am also leaving as many negative reviews as possible to warn people not to make the same mistake.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“It’s a scam. Dead plants arrived on two occasions. Sent tickets for refund absolutely no response whatsoever. Wasted my money. Continued to take people’s orders though despite delays in people receiving there products. On arrival all dead . failed to respond to people’s complaints etc. I’ve now involved the bank and will be taking it to trading standards. Company should be made to cease trading. Total scam don’t waste your money”

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Posted 5 years ago

“SCAM SCAM SCAM! Shame on you Gardening Express Bought two climbing plants. Order no. 600635988. One week later received automated e-mail saying no stock and to wait indefinitely. Desperate for refund but no contact details on website. Raised ticket. Got standard automated reply with lame excuses, shamelessly blaming everything on covid19, and just blatantly refusing to refund. Feel like being conned, scammed and bullied by big corporation hiding behind company policy. I have a feeling this company put all their resources on online selling and writing fake review all day but put very little effort to actually delivering the plants. Do not use this company. It is giving a bad reputation to other honest online garden centre website. I have ordered plants from other website during covid19 which arrived within a week.”

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Posted 5 years ago

Gardening Express is rated 1.2 based on 1,799 reviews