Unwins Reviews 

Disgraceful business. I ordered 2 Tarragon Plants that were advertised on the website as being up to 2ft in height and which would be delivered in late May. I received 6 ropey looking plugs of about 2cm in height that were delivered at the end of June. When I called their customer services I was told that the height given was the height that they would grow to eventually and I should have know that they were plugs, even though it is not mentioned on the site. Definitely one to avoid. Higher quality plugs at cheaper prices can be bought via Amazon, and the suppliers there do not try to mislead you. I will certainly be going somewhere else for my next orders....

Bought 2 packs of Unwins Tomato Cherry Baby seeds costing 2.99 per pack. There were THREE SEEDS in the one pack and FOUR in the other - what a rip off. Cheaper to buy the tomatoes ready grown!
Seriously NOT impressed

Plants arrived in a jumbled mess, none were in their cells and four had snapped in half.
No response from customer services, have requested refund and to cancel the rest of the order.
First and last time I will be ordering from Unwins.

They replaced my broken bulb planter and also sent me a pack of free crocus bulbs, nice surprise. I also ordered 3 x packs of their "150 Days of Colour Collection" bulbs, which all arrived healthy. I will definitely use this company again.

Unexpected things can happen during delivery, especially when it comes to things which are alive, in this case, (very) young plants. One batch of my order did not arrive in good condition. I contacted Unwins and showed them the conditions of the plants with photos I have taken and asked whether Unwins will be able to replace these plants. Unwins dealt with my query very efficiently and promptly arranged for replacement of the plants. I always believe that Sellers should always be given a chance first to rectify any unintended incidents which have caused unsatisfactory conditions to the products they are selling, before a bad review is written about them. I did just that and the post-sale customer service I received from them was excellent. I will certainly buy from Unwins again, although they are not the cheapest in the market. For me as a consumer, it is the quality of the goods and the customer service that count. In both these categories, Unwins received a perfect score from me!!

I am very disappointed with the quality of products from Unwins this year. If I had seen the begonias that I received on a shelf in my local garden centre I would have left them there, as one was dead and the rest were not in tiptop condition. The sweet peas were described as highly scented but most had no smell and a few had a slight smell. They do not reply to my emails. Their customer service is non-existent. What sort of a Company just ignores complaints?

We placed an order for live plants and seeds with unwins.
We had a dispatch notice for one plant, and this arrived fine.
Later when we collected some missed deliveries from the post office we were surprised to find the remaining seeds all now dead.
No dispatch notice, and the delivery had notes to leave the item if we were not in.
Unwins have shunned their responsibility and told us there is nothing they will do about it, and were unbelievably rude on the phone.

Take your chances that you will get good products with this company, because if anything goes wrong in transport they will try and leave you out of pocket.

Stay well away, plenty of better alternatives that actually care.

Used for the third time and plants arrived in great condition.

Fruit tree was excellent and is now in full flower.

Very happy.

purchased moonlight runner beans seed from unwins.. discovered they are treated with some wierd chemical to improve germination... less than 50% germinated so what would they be without the added chemical.. contacted unwins who replaced them with identical seed which also wont grow... no mentsion of refund... please avoid this outdated company who has no customer care at all.. i certainly will

I have ordered bulbs from Unwins in the past and been happy with quality and service. On this occasion however they failed to deliver most of my order. I asked for the delivery to be refunded as I never would have placed the order if I was only ordering the 3 plants that arrived. They have refused. I will not buy from Unwins or Marshalls again. Far better customer service with Van Meuwen, JPARKERS and Sarah Raven.

I purchased various packets of seeds, took nearly two weeks to arrive and the Thyme packet was empty of seeds. Back to Thompson & Morgan for me thank you.

I bought a palm tree on their website only because it stated that delivery was fast and it would arrive in September. It has been already almost a month and I have not received my plant. The customer service is very poor. Basically they didn't know what was going on with my order, and gave me contradictory information about the plant being with the carrier or have not yet been dispatched. I am afraid that the plant will not arrive in good conditions. I do not recommend to anyone. Avoid buying products at their website. Their standards of service are really poor and they don't show any respect for the customers.

On the recommendation of my aunt, I placed an order with Unwins. For every rose that I ordered two of, I only received one. What sounded like a bored teenager in customer service didn't apologise, was supremely uninterested and suggested the replacements might be delivered in 10 days but she couldn't be sure. To be fair, when I complained, a manager responded with a firmer date and they were delivered. So I gave them another go and ordered some more plants. Of the order, 15 plants never arrived, there was no communication and when I finally got hold of customer service, after being hung up on twice, they said the plants were no longer in stock. They also claimed they had sent the plants and it was Royal Mail's fault, but since I received 1 lot from a 3-for-2 order, I highly doubt their claim. Said aunt also ordered me a Lemon Verbena about 6 months ago for my birthday to be delivered at the appropriate time and it never showed up. Apparently, when she got hold of Unwins, the plants they had this year were too poor quality to send out. Did they inform her without her chasing? No. So, that's 3 orders and every single one of them has been partially unfulfilled. Terrible. Never using them again.

I ordered my begonias in February and was told my plants would be dispatched Mid April. I contacted unwins by email many times and had either no response or had to wait a week for an email that was unhelpful.

When the plants did arrive they were small and in poor condition, they are not putting on growth as expected.

I have contacted them re the poor quality of the plants, yet to receive a reply.

Will never use unwins again due to terrible service.

Ordered 3 hanging basket clematis. Despatched Thursday before Bank Holiday Monday (too close for comfort). Sent email when they failed to arrive by the Saturday. Even by their 'reply within 4 days' terms I should have a response by today (Wednesday after BH). Plants still have not arrived and a phone call to customer services was both expensive (0844 number) and totally unproductive.

Saw the ad in Gardeners' World - I don't have a garden as such just a very small courtyard. These plants were ordered to go in hanging baskets and because delivery was mid May it meant that I could plant them immediately. No potting up etc because I didn't have the space. BUT what happened they arrived Mid April. I contacted the company telling them they were too early, and could I return them for a refund. Very unsympathetic they finally agreed but it's now week two and I still haven't received a refund.

My plants were posted on the Thursday before a Bank Holiday weekend. Guess what? You've got it. They arrived the following Wednesday, desiccated and completely useless. I opted for a refund rather than replacements and this took 3 weeks. When it appeared in my bank I found that the postage had not been refunded. Another phone call and, presumably, another 3 weeks wait.

Ordered some poppies, they finally arrived dead. Emailed customer services, after 2 days called them. Stroppy woman didn't apologise and said they'd send replacement and it'd take a week. 2 weeks later, no poppies!

As part of the order I had 15 other plants of 3 varieties. All of them are currently 3 weeks late. No notification, nothing.

I don't understand why they don't get on to emails more quickly, it's surely faster and more pleasant than dealing with annoyed customers on the phone.

If you want mail-order, use Suttons, they're nothing amazing, but they deliver when they say they will and if something is wrong they will fix it.

I think I'll go back to the garden centre.

I bought a packet of Unwins flower seeds at a local garden centre two weeks ago. The pack was marked average 8 seeds, the price was £3.99 so just short of 50 pence per seed. When I opened the pack to sow the seeds last week, I discovered there were only five seeds so the pack was 37.5% short. By no stretch of the imagination can 5 be considered acceptable when the pack is marked as average 8. I have ended up paying nearly 80pence per seed instead of the 50 pence (which is expensive enough, but I accepted that when I decided to purchase the particular variety). Since the seeds are almost the size of a small pea, they can quite easily be counted out by hand, so no excuse for short measure. I can understand where seeds are small and a pack contains several hundred, it would be packed by weight, and depending on the size / weight of seeds there would be a variation in seed count and +/- a couple of percent would be acceptable, but not in this case. I have contacted Unwins customer service through the contact form on their website last week when I first discovered the issue and again earlier today, but there has been no response whatsoever to either email.

All the small plants I ordered arrived in pristine condition ready to plant. Large plants: Problems with dispatch and packaging. Ordered 1 x fig and 2 x limes 10/05/13. In the event and after a week 1 x fig arrived and 1 x lime. Fig dead. Complained. Customer services argumentative but placed order again. Redispatched (took another week which for live plants seems ludicrous). Also packaging not sufficient to protect large plants during transit. Polythene bags. 4th June received 1 x lime no fig. At last managed to speak to a helpful customer services agent who is doing her best to remedy situation. I'll leave you to make your own judgement.