Frequently Asked Questions at richfarmgarden

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HELP / Frequently Asked Questions

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PRODUCTS and SERVICES Catalog Ordering Instructions

Where do I get questions answered?

First, look through the following frequently asked questions for the answer.
For all other questions, send email to: questions@richfarmgarden.com

Shipping and handling charges

This will be added automatically to orders using the shopping cart. Continue to checkout and enter your address to see the amount before completing the transaction.
For amounts to enclose by check or money-order, see: Shipping and Handling Fee Charts
You can also email sales@richfarmgarden.com for a quote; be sure to include your order form information including what items and quantity that you wish to order, and your shipping address.

Order-Confirmation/Receipts

When you complete the ordering process using our shopping cart, an itemized Order-Confirmation/Receipt will be sent to your email address. (sender: service@paypal.com SUBJECT: "Receipt for your payment to Rich".)
When you place orders by mail or by phone, keep a copy of the order form for your records. If you have completed payment to us for this order, your order will be processed. When your shipment arrives, there will be a Packing-List/Receipt in, or attached to, the box.

Scheduling and Availability

To check the availability or check the estimated shipping schedule of any items, please use the email to shipdept@richfarmgarden.com
Also see: Live Plant Availability and Shipping Schedules

Order tracking

To check on an existing order, check the estimated shipping schedule, get shipper tracking numbers, etc. send email to: shipdept@richfarmgarden.com

Care and Planting instructions

We will sometime include care and planting instructions along with an order for certain items. If you need this, it is also a good idea to explicitly request it with your order, to be sure that it will be included. Unique conditions? for special care, growing, propagation, etc. questions, send email to: mastergardener@richfarmgarden.com

Looking for...

If you are looking for an item that you can not find in the catalog, please email to: sales@richfarmgarden.com

More information about a catalog item

If you would like more information about an item that you see in the catalog, please email to: sales@richfarmgarden.com

Shopping Cart Problems

If you are having a problem with the shopping cart functioning, usually it is something simple like: Your cookies need to be enabled, Pop-ups need to be unblocked, etc. or a temporary problem, try again in a few minutes. (But it is also simple to order from us through the mail, see: Ordering Instructions) For more information about the Shopping Cart, see: Shopping Cart Help

Our Business Hours / Time Zone

We are in the North American Eastern Time Zone. We operate on Eastern Standard Time in winter months and observe a one hour shift to Daylight Savings Time in the summer months. Our store is open Monday through Saturday 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM and Sunday 10:00 AM to 5:00PM

We close for holidays only 3 days a year. The manpower available to answer telephone calls may be limited seasonally. Email can be down for short periods during storms and power outages. The store is open regular hours through all.

Site Navigation

richfarmgarden.com is an extensive web site and data base. If you have entered this site and do not have a navigation bar in a window along the left side of your screen, then -->Click Here to Get a Navigation Bar

Seed & Plant VARIETY NAMES / CATEGORIES

Do you have a variety that I can't find in the online catalog?
Often times the variety that you seek may be listed under a different name; and not all plant and seed varieties are listed in every possible category that they could fall under. Check for different / alternate names for it. Also check the Comprehensive Alphabetical Seed & Plant List If you still don't see it, email to sales@richfarmgarden.com to check our miscellaneous, odd, and small stock items.

Printed Catalog

Can I get a printed seed and plant catalog?
We strive to be able to provide the most extensive selection of heirloom and antique varieties of vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, and trees. We have our most comprehensive product catalog published on this web site. We are constantly updating this to reflect changes in availability. With a printed hardcopy of our catalog, this would not be possible. So for the most complete and up-to-date catalog, GoTo Seeds & Plants This will always be the best place to select seeds and plants.
We occasionally print and mail partial lists and product information to our customers. If you would like to be included in these mailings, send your name and postal mailing address to maillist@richfarmgarden.com
You can also sign up for our email Newsletter here: newsletter@richfarmgarden.com

email response/email Help

Our Email Response
Our response time to your email will vary based on our seasonal business volume, staff availability, email traffic, etc. For fastest response, make sure that your question is addressed to the correct department, (read above questions for correct email addresses). If you do not receive a response to your email within 48 hours, try sending it again; also state that you are repeating the message (Do Not send the exact same message). If your email address is hard to spell or nonintuitive and was given to us by phone, send an email to us so that we can see the address. Messages may be answered in batches by the third shift or weekend overtime. Our manpower is limited and we may be very busy at times. During our busiest seasons, we have found that if the inquiries to the shipping department are causing much of our time to be spent researching the ship dates on orders, it can slow the shipping time of orders in the queue: a perfect demonstration of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. When we see this effect, our priority will be to get orders packed and shipped before answering email. Also, during our busy times, email questions that have already been answered on the web site pages, may not receive an answer. If you are expecting an email from us that we have explicitly promised to send within a specified time, you should review the 'Email System Issues' below, and firstly send an email to us in case we have your address wrong. If you are looking for an email otherwise, you must consider both the system issues below, or that we may be busy.
Requests for More Details
We receive emails asking us to provide more specific information such as for more detailed product information or for more specific estimates for the timing of future events. We try to answer all emails but if we can not be more specific, we may not answer. This class of query is processed last. Please do not send these queries more than once.
Include in your Email
Please state your name in each message, and be concise. Include a copy of the on-going message string.
Do not send
Do not send pictures unless we have requested these. Attachments will not be read, send your message in text. If your emails have advertising attached, it will probably be treated as spam and unread. Scripts, graphics, animations, attachments, etc. may interfere with our ability to receive your email. If you have sent the exact same message more than once, or if you have sent multiple messages in a very short period of time, your mail may be blocked by our system. If you realize that this may have happened, you will need to use the postal service to contact us.
Email System Issues
If your email bounced back as undeliverable, it is most likely that you have misspelled our email address. It may bounce back also when various internet connections are down, which usually will be for very short periods; try again in a few minutes. Our response may not be reaching you if the return address on your email server is incorrect or if your spam filters are interfering. We do not necessarily respond from the same email address to which you sent the question. Also, we do not register in security systems, or send separate messages to security or spam filter systems. If you have checked the above items and have reset your system, send another email to us telling us so. Critical information can not be deemed delivered until we have acknowledged the specific message.
If you are still having trouble, please use the Postal service.

Minimum Order

Is there a minimum size order?
No. (The minimum Shipping and Handling amount is $8.95. See: shipping and handling chart)

Back Orders

Will you back order items if I can't get them immediately?
Some seeds and plants are on a season availability schedule. We encourage our customers to order early. Many items have limited availability each season.
If there is one, or a few items that are not ready to ship, on a larger order, we will ship immediately what we can and back-order the rest. When shipping was quoted for whole order, there is no additional shipping charge on items that were delayed. If you do not want to receive a partial shipment, please specify this in special instructions on your order form or send an email to us immediately upon checkout. Items will remain on back-order and will ship as soon as possible. To make changes to an order such as cancel a back-order or request a substitution, please send email straight to shipdept@richfarmgarden.com Send all back-order schedule queries to: shipdept@richfarmgarden.com

Live Plant Availability and Shipping Schedules

Does Plant availability change?
We sell our live plants to those who place their orders earliest. The schedules for delivery are developed from our production plans for the season and your early orders, and are later affected by our best predictions for all necessary conditions to ship the live plants. Delivery schedules are also based on weather conditions from shipping point to destination; and based on special instructions that you may provide. We can not guarantee delivery before or on a specific date. If necessary, please specify a date before which you would not want to receive the plant, in special instructions or send an email to us immediately upon checkout, and we will let you know if there is a problem. If we are experiencing a problem with a lot of plants or a seed lot, the customers who ordered early will receive priority on future lots to be shipped. This can mean that shipping schedules will change, and that it is possible that some orders may be shipped by different methods as the weather may require and such orders will be filled as soon as possible or you can request a substitution or refund. For the current estimated shipment date of your order, send email to: shipdept@richfarmgarden.com

Shipping Address Changes

Please be sure that the shipping address that you provide is correct. If PayPal has a former or outdated address for you, this should be corrected before using our shopping cart. If you must ship to an alternate address, this must be approved by shipdept@richfarmgarden.com before your order is placed. (If address change is not critical and you could receive the shipment at the address provided to PayPal, we suggest placing your order first, then request the address change approval for faster service. During our busiest seasons we may not be able to process address change requests.)

Documentation

Upon completion of the shopping cart ordering process, you will receive an itemized receipt by email. For orders by mail, we prefer to see our Order Form If you are placing your order by email, please use the order form to be prepared with the information that we require. Your product will arrive with a Packing List / Receipt which will list each item that is in the shipment as well as shipping and handling charges and total charges. Please be sure that you have found all items that were in the box and attached to outside of the box before disposing of any packing material. If you require any further documentation, please request this before placing your order.

Growing in my area

For care and planting instructions that may be special to your conditions, and growing, propagation, etc. questions, send email to: mastergardener@richfarmgarden.com
For nuisance and invasive species questions, contact your neighbors and check your library for local regulation.

Shipping across borders

We limit certain shipments of specific items to specific localities based on our experience and knowledge of problems with these. This may affect availability of our catalog item to you, or may affect your delivery schedule. We will inform you of these as necessary. Generally, we ship our seeds worldwide (see: Countries who order seeds), we ship our plants within 50 states of USA. You are responsible for checking local regulation and paying all taxes, duties, etc. on shipments. For other, unknown risks, we have shippers willing to insure delivery. This is sometimes an option, however, usually increases costs. Check with sales@richfarmgarden.com for shipment insurance options.

Other questions

For all other questions, send email to: questions@richfarmgarden.com

Thank you. We appreciate your business!

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