[pbs Misnamed bulbs
Kenneth Hixson (Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:49:02 PDT)
Rodger wrote:
This endemic dishonesty in the Dutch bulb trade is no new thing. I suspect the
substitution takes place where the bulbs are packaged.
We bulb enthusiasts are at a disadvantage because most Dutch bulbs are bought
by, at best, weekend gardeners who neither notice nor care that they've been
cheated. We enthusiasts simply don't have the power of numbers. However, in
most places the law puts the onus on retail sellers to make good mislabellings
of any sort,
In the USA, at least, this is considered mailorder fraud, and can be
dealt with as such. You paid more for something, assuming it was
true-to-name and disease free, and got unnamed seedlings, or diseased
plants, etc. Truth-in-advertising laws may also apply, if you bought
from a labeled package and kept the package--but you didn't, did you?
If you kept the catalog, and a copy of your order, be prepared to
provide them also. For diseased plants, you can complain to various
authorities, though the government is slow to react to one person's
complaints. The problem is that there may not be anything done because
the authorities do not have the funds to deal with small frauds.
Retailers are more sensitive to complaints, but only to a limited
extent. There is also the problem of evidence--was your plant
truly misnamed, or off color, etc, simply because of weather, recent
planting, etc. Incidentally, do not return diseased plant material,
shipping it interstate is illegal. Your retailer probably doesn't want
misnamed plants either, they are often warehouses, not gardens. If
they have been informed that the plants are misnamed, what are they to
do with it, resell it?
This is not a very satisfactory solution, but there are legal
grounds for making a complaint, and legal grounds to defend yourself
if someone reacts negatively when you do complain. The situation won't
change until you do complain.
A more likely avenue is to publicly announce who you dealt with,
the problem, and whatever response-if any-you got when you complained.
I don't know where you can post internet complaints--Garden Watchdog?
Someone could be helpful here by providing that information.
I don't buy Dutch bulbs if there are alternatives, precisely because you
don't know you are getting what you order, and while you can get your
money back, you can't get your time, undiseased garden, or color scheme
back. Knowing who sells Dutch bulbs is a problem also--far too many
retailers sell a colorful package, and don't care who they got it from
or if it is a quality product. They buy from the lowest priced
supplier, and will continue to do so until replacing misnamed/diseased
goods makes it too expensive to continue to do so.
Ken