Sarah Raven

I think Sarah Raven seeds are rather pricey, but I was given a gift voucher for my birthday last year and finally got round to getting my order in last week. The seeds arrived yesterday, but there was a packet missing. I emailed them late last night, and I had a response around 2pm today. They apologised and have immediately arranged to send the missing seeds.

So (assuming that the missing seeds do come) they get a thumbs up on the customer service front at least! Some of the bigger companies could learn from their example...

I've only ordered a couple of things from SR, and they've been very pricey, but the plants have been very good quality. I wouldn't buy seeds from them - they price themselves out!

I have to retract my recommendation for Sarah Raven. I spent around £40 worth of gift vouchers with them last year. Overall, the quality of the seed has been poor. Germination has been very erratic, if not non-existent but I really lost it over the Icelandic poppy seeds I spent £6.50 on (I know, I know, but they looked very pretty and I had a gift voucher and I expected to be able to save seed from them in future). Hardly any seeds (to be fair, I knew this when I ordered) and not a single one has germinated. Icelandic poppy seeds from Lidl sown on the same day in the same way had a fantastic germination. So, I emailed and demanded a refund. It's been almost a month and I still don't have a refund. They did agree to one fairly quickly, but actually getting the money out of them has been a nightmare and every new response from them takes five working days to arrive. They are now saying they have refunded the original gift voucher, but I don't want to buy anything else from them (especially as most of the refund will be swallowed up by P&P) and have had to email them back again to ask for the money as I won't be buying from them again. I've checked their T&Cs and it doesn't say anywhere that if you purchase with a giftcard, you'll be held hostage over any returns.

So, bad overpriced seed and very slow and useless customer services. One to avoid!

A company I've never bought from before and never will. If I remember correctly they are just Johnson's seeds with her name and face on the packet? Reading their website it also looks like they also don't grow any of the plants themselves. So they are just a middle(wo)man making over £1 million in profit per year.

I'm with you, TMTT. I have bought some of her seeds when they were in the Wyevale end of season sale but I wouldn't pay full price for them. I also don't like her cardigan and beads image.

... I emailed and demanded a refund. It's been almost a month and I still don't have a refund. They did agree to one fairly quickly, but actually getting the money out of them has been a nightmare and every new response from them takes five working days to arrive. They are now saying they have refunded the original gift voucher, but I don't want to buy anything else from them (especially as most of the refund will be swallowed up by P&P) and have had to email them back again to ask for the money as I won't be buying from them again. I've checked their T&Cs and it doesn't say anywhere that if you purchase with a giftcard, you'll be held hostage over any returns. 

Expecting them to exchange a gift voucher for cash is a no hoper. You paid with a gift voucher, so that's how you'll be refunded. If they refunded you cash they would in effect have "lost" the original gift voucher sale, i.e. if you had £40 gift voucher and they refunded you £20 cash, they have lost a £20 sale, in effect ending up only having sold £20 worth of vouchers, and they know you will not be spending that cash back with them.

I'm with you, TMTT. I have bought some of her seeds when they were in the Wyevale end of season sale but I wouldn't pay full price for them. I also don't like her cardigan and beads image.

It's like James Wong & Suttons or David Domoney & MrF. I'm not paying more just because it's got a name and face on the packet. Would definitely buy them for buttons in a sale though 

If they stated in their T&C's that gift voucher purchases would only be refunded to a gift voucher, then I might not have grounds to argue. However, they don't state that at all. I'm also not asking for a refund because I changed my mind about their product, but because the products they are selling are faulty. I'd be happy for them to refund the purchaser of the gift voucher instead, but I've only had actual cash refunds for gift voucher purchases from other companies in the past so I don't accept they can't do it.

SR's review on TrustPilot is a meagre 2 Stars out of 5.
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.sarahraven.com

A company I've never bought from before and never will. If I remember correctly they are just Johnson's seeds with her name and face on the packet? Reading their website it also looks like they also don't grow any of the plants themselves. So they are just a middle(wo)man making over £1 million in profit per year.

Same thought for me - over priced rubbish that use her as a front woman.