Good Advice...where can I get some ?

Most people think that if you went to a large Hardware store rhyming with "Lemmings" - you would get some good advice.

In some cases you might - but how do you recognise it ?

Really this is a conundrum because staff can come across as really confident as they've been repeating the same answers to there customers queries for a long time, so they can sound quite knowledgeable.

I'm going to give you a couple of examples that might highlight what I'm talking about and the difficulty in finding genuinely good advice.

 For sometime now I have been renovating a place in the weekends (which is nearly finished) so I decided to build a fence.There I was happily digging fence post holes when of-course by the innate laws of renovating, I burst the mains water pipe. Naturally this is the pipe that also supplies the 2 units behind ours so I've turned the water off, informed the neighbours and gone off to the plumbing store.

Whilst at the plumbing store (a nationwide chain) I have explained to the chap behind the counter my problem and he has preceded to advise me to buy a joiner. Of Course a joiner, "great advise", couldn't be simpler. What a load of crap this advice turns out to be - having gone back i receive another part which i am suppose to use to fix my plumbing nightmare. 4 visits to the store later - I still have have a damaged mains water pipe.

Anyway the problem was fixed when i went to a different store and got the CORRECT ADVICE on how to fix my ruptured pipes - 5 hours later !!!

Who would have thought the customer service guy in the above example did not have a clue what he was talking about. Im sure that he even believed his own advice BECAUSE  (my point I wish to share is coming)
he had never actually followed his own advice, to repair a burst water main.
If he had, he would have known that his supposedly helpful advice cannot work. He was incapable of fixing my specific problem, although he worked in a store that sold the parts to fix it because he had no experience.

Lets get back to the reason i started writing this blog.

A customer just came in and said I've just been to "Lemmings",  they've said I need a large pot for my Yucca which i'm going to have in my office.

So I start to dig a little further...
Q: will the plant be near natural light in you office.
A: no

Q: what were you after.
A: something low maintenance that will survive indoors.

A couple more questions I knew from EXPERIENCE that he had been advised incorrectly for his requirements..

We recommended that he purchase a Raphis Palm and come back and see us for the pot.

Buying an Indoor plant should be simple - but only if you get good advice.

The normal chain of events,  should he have listened to "Lemmings" would be that he buys an inappropriate plant, it would have died because it was not the right product (for his particular requirements) and he would have wasted his money.

I don't like to waste my money or others to do the same - that is why we always strive to offer the correct advice, learnt through our own gardening and design experience's.

Good knowledgeable advice is hard to come by.

Happy gardening

CRAP online experience - always leaves me disappointed !

Here's the scenario - we're getting ourselves organised to do a tradeshow and we need some plants - to best show off our beautiful pots.

Every year - we have bought heaps of plants , Lilies, Clivias, Buxus balls and Ficus trees to best show off our merchandise and unfortunately, in our stampede to dismantle the stand get out of there when the shows done, we have often damaged plants beyond salvage or it is just not economically viable to transport them back to our warehouse from where ever we are.

This year was going to be different - I had a light bulb moment...
    " Why not use Artificial Plants ?"

Brillant idea I hear you murmur - so one may think BUT like all good Lessons on Life, my downfall was in the execution of my brillant idea.

O.k - i am getting carried away with my own use the written word so i better cut to the chase ...
     ORDERED some fake buxus balls off an OVERSEAS WEBSITE  ($800.oo worth) because yes i'll admit it they were the CHEAPEST OPTION. 

Needless to say - I'm sure you can guess the end result...they were CRAP and the Buxus Balls came FLATPACKED.

I was really disappointed ... again !!!

IMPOSSIBLE to pack a round object FLATLY i hear you scream - please refer photo.

Not only Flat Packed but self assembly as well.

Sometimes it is difficult to listen to your own advise, we always try to offer the BEST VALUE on Garden Pots &  Water-features but we get customers that cannot immediately recognise the differing quality of goods between stores so they buy the cheapest - only to find that the item barely retains its material & aesthetic properties after 12 months.

I tell them..." when we sell something, I want it to look good in your garden for years to come. That's why we sell quality products so you'll be happy and keep coming back to us."

So my tips for successful online shopping are:
 - buy off a business with a proper warehouse or shop address IN AUSTRALIA that you can return goods to if you are disappointed.
- an eBay store is not a physical store.
- buy off people that have a history and reputation in that field, that they do not want tarnished.
- cheapest in most instances is often the crappiest.
- use PayPal to try to protect yourself from fraud.
- don't buy the hype (reviews & ratings can be doctored)

As a side note - we do a huge amount of our business online and if anyone of our customers are not happy with there purchase, don't hesitate, call me so we can fix it - mob: 0457 988 808.

In 8 years and over 40,000 orders, we've only had to refund 6 people so yes I'm pretty proud of our product range and the exceptional value we offer.

Save Money - Buy Quality !

This post is not a paid advertisement by Gerry Harvey.

A Simple Tasteful Solution

Up the road from our Shop in sunny Hawthorn resides a lovely couple with a couple of young kids and a beautiful home - double fronted Edwardian with a modern extension at the rear.

We could describe them as an archetypal Hawthorn young family who were enjoying there everyday lives when they came to us with a problem that just had to be addressed.

" Help us Sheraz - We need some urns at the bottom of the steps for the front door that don't clash with the house ? "

Lucky for us - solving problems is second nature...

Yes we could have suggested Metal Urns BUT most plants do not do well in Iron or Metal  planters as the metal reacts very badly with the soil medium over time.

Our Solution was to recommend one of our MARBLE URNS (which are a mixture of concrete and crushed Marble) from our Marble & Sandstone Collection and... PAINT them the same color as the house.

Hey Presto - a simple, tasteful solution that is a fun weekend project for the whole family.

Simple , tasteful and it didn't blow the budget.