After a cold first couple of weeks at the beginning of February, it's turned much milder with the temperature reaching a very pleasant 13.8°C (56.8°F) on Saturday afternoon.
For many years now we’ve ordered the bulk of our seeds from Kings Seeds through the National Allotment Scheme.
The advantage of this scheme is that it is part of a bulk order for the allotment site and the seeds are around half of the normal selling price. With 5 allotments to fill we make a considerable saving. For as long as I can remember this scheme has worked really well but of course we’re now in Covid times.
Apparently, Kings Seeds have advised us that due to COVID restrictions seed deliveries will be delayed by up to twelve weeks. This I can understand but they are putting allotment deliveries to the back of the queue and delivering to all other customers first. That means it could be the end of February or the beginning of March before our seeds arrive. I would have thought the fairest way would be to deal with orders based on the dates Kings received the orders.
Our order was placed with Kings Seeds on 02 January and the one thing they have done very efficiently is to take our money. Kings Seeds are uncontactable by phone or email so we have no idea when our seeds might arrive.
It's now come round to the time when I want to be sowing some early carrot seeds in containers for an early crop grown in the greenhouse. I'm now having to buy seeds from our local garden centre in order to sow some early crops. Interestingly I could order all the same Kings seeds from our local garden centre today and get them delivered for free within 5 working days. I'm wondering how many of this year's seeds I will have to double buy.
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That is just awful client care! Myself I had a job logging in online because they reset everyone's passwords. (The reset link ended up in my spam filter.) But once I was back online my order went through and was delivered within 10 working days. The decision to put bulk orders from loyal customers to the back of the queue was a bad decision.
ReplyDeleteI’m not sure it’s really a bulk order Mal. It’s a large order because a group of about 6 people order through the allotment association. But everybody does their own order online and all the orders are delivered to our address. I did our order towards the end of December and paid for our seeds. It’s no different to the way you will have ordered your seeds from Kings. So for Kings I don’t see the problem. They process six individual orders and send them all to the same address.
DeleteNonsensical! (Just a thought. Did you order any potatoes, shallots or onion sets or were they all dry seeds?) When it comes to potatoes I now go to Wilco's because: I can see before I buy, they have Charlotte and Rooster and the price is 2.50 instead of £5 per bag from garden centres etc. Last year it was 3 for 3 too. (Yes it is certified seed). I would still pay full price for some Epicure, Ballydoon, Pink Fir Apple but have probably got more than enough already.
ReplyDeleteWe only ordered seeds from Kings. We got our potatoes from our local garden centre. They usually have around 40 varieties to choose from with prices varying from £2.00 to £3.50 for a bag depending on variety and weight in bag. Much better value than Kings. We also bought our shallots and onion sets at the garden centre.
DeleteMake that 3 for the price of 2!
ReplyDelete