F1 hybrids - a bit of a con ?

[Big Al]

I went to the real seed catalogue and bout about £9 ish from memory and got over 20 odd different seeds

I used to use these people as well, unfortunately they upped their postage to £7.50 (compared to 95p for Dobies) ... your £9 worth of seeds would have cost me £16.50

Hmmm, You have confused me now..... not hard I know but I'd better check what I paid so as not to mislead peeps....

Having said that if anyone wants to do a sort of seed collective then I'm willing to act as organiser , co ordinator and postman ... ( don't you just love a good starched uniform.)

[Odsox]

Hmmm, You have confused me now..... not hard I know but I'd better check what I paid so as not to mislead peeps....

That's European postage Big Al, not UK.

[Big Al]

Hmmm, You have confused me now..... not hard I know but I'd better check what I paid so as not to mislead peeps....

That's European postage Big Al, not UK.

Ah I see. Still it shouldn't cost that much to bung a few seeds in an envelope etc ( thinking of me doing it not a company ) I know how prohibitive it was for me to send candles to Eire as opposed to NI.

[Odsox]

This isn't an arguement against F1 hybrids,but a citicism of this seed company's quality control in the packing dept.Contact them ,show them the pics. and demand a refund,with luck,you'll also get a load of freebie seed for next year.

UPDATE ... I can now name names

First off, I also had some trouble with a grape vine.
I bought one last year from Dobies which was supposed to be a "virtually seedless white grape". Well this year it had one bunch of extremely seeded BLACK grapes. (I wanted to have a go at drying them for home produced sultanas)
I emailed them and they replied the same day, profusely apologising and said they would send me the correct one in November.

Getting back to my F1butternuts, I got the seed from THOMPSON & MORGAN and emailed them last Monday with the photo attached and got no reply. So I thought maybe an attachment caused my email to be dumped as spam, so I emailed them again on Wednesday on my different email address without the attached photo and emailed them on yet another of my email addresses on Friday, and so far I haven't even got a notification that they have received it and passed it on to the relevant department.

So, guess which seed company WON'T be getting my custom next year ?
I always find T&M seeds a bit expensive compared to other seed companies anyway, so it won't be any great hardship to part company with them.

[oldjerry]

Well that is lousy customer relations to add to the original problem! Call me a bolshy old git but I wouldn't leave it at that and just avoid them in future,get them to sort it THEN avoid them in future,they're more expensive as you say,and you should get something for it.I know it's gonna cost a bit from Eire, but have you thought about phoning them on their customer services and giving them a verbal kicking?

[Odsox]

Nah, I probably won't bother ... I think publishing their name on a public forum will give them a bit of publicity of the type they might not like.
A friend wrote to them last year (yeah, with pen and paper !) because she bought a packet of THOMSON & MORGAN seed with absolutely no seed in it at all. Would you believe they sent her a voucher that expired the day before she got it.
No, I think enough is enough, there are plenty and better seed companies out there.

[Millymollymandy]

Right well I'd better ask what seed companies to use then who will send to France cos I was going to do an order with T&M because out of the online companies I know of, they are the cheapest (postage wise) and have more choice than the French online seed cos. - and the whole point of ordering online is to get the veg that is not known/grown in France - or I would buy the seed here, obviously!

I wasn't too pleased with the amount of seed in packets of T&M seeds to be honest and mentioned this years back when I last ordered seeds online.

Oh hang on I am going to England next year before the growing season - silly me, I can just go and buy curly kale etc seeds in a SHOP!

[Green Aura]

The ad below is Thompson and Morgan

I haven't bought from them for years - I find their fruit and veg section small and uninteresting, considering the size of the flipping catalogue!

[Millymollymandy]

No, they have a humungous range of seeds for veg - I only look online and get their special offers emails all the time. Compared to French companies who have only just discovered things like butternut and sweetcorn and offer maybe one variety, you can get loads of diff varieties from T&M! I fall asleep going through things like peas, lettuce and bean varieties cos there's too many.

The mail order catalogue is prob like the ones I get bombarded with here - hundreds of spring bulbs and a small selection of fruit (not seeds) and perenial plants and shrubs? Or plug plants? Suttons seem to have started up in France now too but it's plug plant city and I'm not paying good money for annuals I can grow from seed, then they self seed after that for years!!!

[Green Aura]

The ad below is Thompson and Morgan

It's still there and now it's on the side too!

[Odsox]

Right well I'd better ask what seed companies to use then who will send to France cos I was going to do an order with T&M because out of the online companies I know of, they are the cheapest (postage wise)

Have you seen these people, EU delivery £1.75
http://www.eseeds.com/

[Odsox]

The ad below is Thompson and Morgan

It's still there and now it's on the side too!

Maggie, I think everybody gets different adverts, mine are usually all for Irish firms although I have seen the T&M ad as well.
I do think it's very clever how they pick up key words in our posts and display fairly relevant ads

[Millymollymandy]

Mine's French poufs down the bottom!

I'll look at that link, cheers Tony!

[battybird]

I thought I was being really thick about the adverts as mine was for the RSPB! Did not realise they changed I have got T&M now so what do I read into it??
That seed link was useful!

[Green Aura]

Maggie, I think everybody gets different adverts

I know honey - don't you remember the cup of tea campaign?

I just found it hysterical, every time I clicked on this thread there seemed to be more ads for T&M.

I usually get slimming ads - how do they know