Reasons not to order from BucePlant

[Becca]

So, I waited a day before posting this to see if customer service would actually respond to my inquiry. I did get a request to rate my purchase, but no actual response to my inquiry or to the PayPal dispute I initiated.

I placed an order with BucePlant last Friday afternoon. It wasn't huge, but it wasn't small, either, about $80 worth of plants: 3 bunches, 4 TCs, and a "large cup" of moss. The order shipped on Monday and arrived and was immediately brought indoors yesterday. When I finished work, I unpacked it.

On initial review, things looked a bit browner than expected, particularly the rotala "orange juice" and the moss, but I didn't find out just how bad things were until I started to open and unpack the little plastic flat-packs they came in.

When I opened the Ludwigia, most of the leaves stuck to the packing, as I gently peeled it off of the plants. Additionally, the tops of the stems were thoroughly rotted and basically disintegrated as I tried to remove the plants from the packing. When I took the sponge and lead weight off the bottoms, underneath was complete mush and rot. When I'd trimmed the rot and gently rinsed the plants, I had 6-8 2-3" long stems with a total of maybe 4 leaves among them. I doubt any of these will make it.

The rotala was in a similar condition, except that the stems were only 2-3" long to begin with and the wrapping and lead weight covered about half of that length. While a few more leaves managed to cling to the rotala, about half of the 8-10 stems were completely rotted.

The red tiger lotus was in slightly better shape. While the leaves were pretty beat up and bruised, they were at least mostly still attached to stems. The tissue cultures were acceptable, though the Monte Carlo had some rot and the dwarf hair grass was awfully yellow for just 2 days in shipping. The moss, on the other hand, did not come in a cup. It came flattened and vacuum packed. It was mostly brown and yellow and, whereas I'd paid for the $13.99 "large cup" what I got looked more like maybe 1.5 golf-balls' worth ($5.99 if I'd chosen the small portion). In other words - more than 2x the price but not even 2x the product.

The only really positive thing I can say is that the refunded me at shipping for the plant that was "out of stock" but is still listed as in-stock on their website. I've reached out via both their customer service email and PayPal. Like I said, no response, but they did send me a review form with a 5-star "Excellent" rating pre-selected. Needless to say, I changed it to 1 star.

I've received a lot of aquarium plants by mail - sometimes professionally packed, sometimes not - at all times of year. This was hands down my most disappointing experience ordering plants. I've gotten donations for BFD that sat in my office for 3 days after shipping and looked better than these at unpacking.

[Linus_Cello]

Any updates?

I had the opposite problem. I ordered plants in December and the heat pack was cold and next to the top of the box, but the bottom of the box had space that was open to the cold and all the plants were exposed to the hole/space. Upon receipt the plants were cold. The plants eventually survived, but I didn’t understand why bubble wrap wasn’t used for the bottom of the box to block the hole/space.

[Becca]

They haven't responded to me or to PayPal. Terrible business.

[halak]

Thanks, Becca and Linus, for the info.

[JLW]

Any updates?

I had the opposite problem. I ordered plants in December and the heat pack was cold and next to the top of the box, but the bottom of the box had space that was open to the cold and all the plants were exposed to the hole/space. Upon receipt the plants were cold. The plants eventually survived, but I didn’t understand why bubble wrap wasn’t used for the bottom of the box to block the hole/space.

I've had plant shipments show up after getting lost in winter. It's pretty hard to kill the plants, short of freezing them solid, with cold. They'll survive it.
But, heat? They just can't handle it.

Same is true of fish, too. Short of freezing them, they'll usually /survive,/ though they might not be happy, and heat packs help... but in summer, it's no bueno.

[Becca]

Any updates?

I had the opposite problem. I ordered plants in December and the heat pack was cold and next to the top of the box, but the bottom of the box had space that was open to the cold and all the plants were exposed to the hole/space. Upon receipt the plants were cold. The plants eventually survived, but I didn’t understand why bubble wrap wasn’t used for the bottom of the box to block the hole/space.

I've had plant shipments show up after getting lost in winter. It's pretty hard to kill the plants, short of freezing them solid, with cold. They'll survive it.
But, heat? They just can't handle it.

Same is true of fish, too. Short of freezing them, they'll usually /survive,/ though they might not be happy, and heat packs help... but in summer, it's no bueno.

I actually checked forecasts before ordering - last week was exceptionally cool for August.

[Becca]

Update - they finally replied via PayPal and offered to "refund" a $5 store credit for almost $30 worth of dead plants.

[Becca]

I did finally get a refund from these guys. It took posting a public and scathing review on Facebook to get their attention.