Lori

Kathy

After receiving emails from other traders in the WoW swap, I have learned that sealed larger baggies of pkgd seeds, some even stapled closed, that were intended for me, were opened and any uncommon seeds were not there. But there were no larger baggies, sealed, stapled or otherwise, in the envelope that was sent back to me.. There was even a pkg of seeds promised in the thread, (so they couldn’t very well NOT arrive) that had only 4 seeds left in it. The sender had put in 12-20 seeds in all of her packages. Sadly, I also found that many seeds I sent in, that were intended for other traders, ended up elsewhere and not with those they were sent in for.

Unfortunately, far too many seeds, that I sent in specifically for others, as well as seeds that were labeled specifically for me, disappeared or went astray. I will not trade with or participate in any swap she is hosting. I suggest if a member has 'special' seeds specifically for another member, they send them directly to that member and not via this member as a hostess.

She was an active participant, fun to have in the swap, offered a wonderful selection of plants and fulilled all her obligations to other members of the swap.

thanks for making the swap possible.

Tammy

Tammy

cindy

I mailed in 60 healthy, well rooted plants.(Fran commented they were the best she'd ever seen)

I received less than 25 plants.
1/3 were in some what to pretty good shape
1/3 were very sad to might not make it
1/3 were dead.

I contacted Fran and told her about the dead plants and she replied that she knew they were so bad she should have "tossed them but didn't know what else to do" so she sent them to me.

Fran also said I should sent in extra postage incase my box was heavier to return. plus $1.00 cash.

as of yet no mention from Fran on returning my $3.60 overage.

I truly wished to settle this privately with Fran, But she is unresponsive to my last few emails

I would NOT trade with Fran again.
Beware first time swappers. Fran knew I never traded or swapped before and I feel she took it to her advantage.

My Husband has stressed to me the importance of writing this review. He says he may not know plants but he knows this was far from a fair trade.
Laura
(biggest looser in this swap)

1. The return of our boxes was delayed for several days. Boxes were mailed out NINE days after Fran received my box of plants.

Fran did not have the money to mail them out. She took the money I sent for shipping and deposited it in her bank account. Then said there was a transaction problem with her debit card.

*************
2. I was owed $11.35 in change for postage. It was not returned in my box. A couple of weeks later, I received a note with a money order for $6.35. I had emailed Fran and asked her about the $11.35, but I have never heard back from her. SHE STILL OWES ME $5.
*************

3. I shipped more than 33 large, healthy plants at a cost of $34. I received back 18 plants that were shipped for $14.65. They arrived crispy and blackened. So many of the plant offers were taken by other traders that Fran had told me not to worry, she would fill my box so the trade would be even. But the extra plants I received were plants that I offered in the trade. I also did not receive all the plants I had been promised. Many plants were misdirected.

4. The trade has proved more divisive and dramatic than I could have imagined.

Ick!

This was my first large group swap like this so I did a quick study of the game and determined that you must choose the same number of plants that you would be sending in and not wait around to have the host decide what I would be recieving. It worked out fairly decently for me because I requested around 50 and sent in 50 that people had requested from me. I also sent in about 10 extras total of 60. I told Fran to just send me what I had requested and give the extras to others who did not have many requests.

I did lose about 25% of the plants I received. But I also expected some of them not to make it. Because it was August and it was SO HOT. Anyway, I figure I will be trading on here for awhile and I am sure I will see the same plants offered for trade.

I would trade with Fran again in another swap but not in It is just too hot for the plants. I would also ask that if she hosted that she would have deadlines where people in the swaps would have to send plant by a certain date. NO EXCEPTIONS!!! The long turn around was not all her faught. There were people in the swap that did not send in their plants on time causing the ones that got there in time to sit even longer out of soil:(

This was just my experience. I can't speak for anyone else.

Denise

Fran started the Birthday Bash swap, and after receiving her boxes in March (hers was one of the first birthdays), she only sent out 1 box- THAT I KNOW OF. If others were received, I do not remember them being posted about on the BB thread, but do remember that Fran kept posting about being "sorry" about being late, and that she promised to get her boxes out soon.
I do know that I never received anything from her in my birthday month (which was moved up from September to June), but she did say many times that she was "thinking" on what to send. She did apologize for not sending, saying she was either swamped in the other swaps she was hosting, or that she was strapped financially.

I received 3 boxes during my month- it should have been 5. Neither Fran nor Kym sent. Fran did say that she "did not know what happened to Kym", but did not try to follow through with finding out why she dropped without letting anyone know. (I was not the only one Kym did not send to) As a hostess, I think that is one of the responsibilities- making sure that other members fulfill their obligations.
But then...Fran didn't fulfill hers, either.

It was a very disappointing swap, and I will never join in a year-long swap again because of it.

Wish her and all well.

Bea