treebeard55

I've never ordered plants from North Star Bonsai, tho they sell them. But so far this year I've placed three orders for supplies from North Star: for lava, fert cakes, and most recently, wire.

The first time nothing unusual occurred: my order was acknowledged, my card was charged, and in a few days I got my lava.

The second time, my order got mixed up: instead of one bag each of rapeseed cakes and 6-6-6, I got two of 6-6-6 and no rapeseed. I let Tom Brown know. The next time a batch of rapeseed cakes were ready, he sent me a bag, told me to keep the extra 6-6-6, and didn't charge me anything.

The third time, I ordered wire. My order was acknowledged by email (as were the first two,) but several weeks went by and no wire. When I told Tom, he said that my order had been shipped, and he'd see what he could find out using the tracking number. He was able to track the package as far as St. Louis, MO, where the trail went cold. Why the USPS decided to send something from Pennsylvania to Indiana by way of St Louis -- well, I guess that's our tax dollars at work! (For those outside the US, that's rather like going from Italy to France by way of Poland.)

Re-sending had to wait a few days until a fresh batch of wire came out of the kiln. But I got it yesterday. The delay was in no way the fault of North Star, and I told Tom I saw it that way. But he told me he regretted the several extra weeks I waited, and to compensate me for that, on his own, he sent this along with my wire:


Now ... which pine or spruce should get this as its home?



So far I've been quite happy with the products and services at North Star Bonsai. Everyone makes mistakes, individuals and businesses. But in my experience, North Star will do everything they can to rectify a mistake and make sure their customers aren't left holding the short end of the stick.

I'm already compiling my next order.

P.S. Some of you may have seen this on one or both of two other fora.

__________________
Treebeard 55
Steve Moore
http://hoosierbonsai.blogspot.com

The most important bonsai tool is your brain.

Hawaiian77

Mahalo for the info. I'm planning to order a few bonsai pots for my bougies and it's good to know that they take care of there customers.

A Hui Hou,
-Tim

treebeard55

Hey, Tim. Like you, I use the same username on all bonsai fora, so I knew right away who you are.

Yes, Tom's good about taking care of his customers. The word that comes to mind is "integrity."

(He'll be embarrassed down to his socks if/when he reads this. )

__________________
Treebeard 55
Steve Moore
http://hoosierbonsai.blogspot.com

The most important bonsai tool is your brain.

Hawaiian77

Howzit Cuz,

You Know what..... Now-a-days it's hard to find places with that kind "integrity" in businesses and if you do find one, you stay with them. And use forums like this to spread the good word about them so everyone can benefit.

A Hui Hou,
-Tim

P.S. It's nice to know how you look like!

treebeard55

[QUOTE=Hawaiian77;8641]... Now-a-days it's hard to find places with that kind "integrity" in businesses and if you do find one, you stay with them. And use forums like this to spread the good word about them so everyone can benefit.[QUOTE]

You said it!

<pretending shock> You mean my avatar on Bonsai Vault doesn't do me justice?

__________________
Treebeard 55
Steve Moore
http://hoosierbonsai.blogspot.com

The most important bonsai tool is your brain.

Hawaiian77

I won't go there.....

A Hui Hou,
-Tim