I find this thread bothersome and I would like to address some matters here.
First off, I am the US Distributor for the source of this plant. The owner of the forums can vouch for me if you wish to question the validity of this.
I will be the first to admit that there were problems with this most recent shipment, however the attitude being taken here is, quite honestly, childish and immature. And the wrath is being directed at entirely the wrong person.
So let me set some things straight.
Typically, these shipment leave their point of origin shipped via UPS International Express on a Monday, are processed through UPS and delivered to USDA where they are inspected and released and then FedEx'd to me and arrive either Thursday or Friday. I package them over the weekend and then ship them out to individuals on the following Monday. This is the usual time frame.
This past shipment however was fraught with problems beyond the control of myself or the vendor of these plants. The main shipment was sent out from the point of origin on May 21st. The shipment arrived in the US on May 22nd and was then held by UPS for a full week with no explanation. After this, the shipment was delayed a day in its delivery to USDA where it was held for an additional three days, again with no explanation. The shipment finally left USDA on Friday, June 1st and the vendor had the palnts sent from USDA by FedEx PriorityOvernight with Saturday Delivery to ensure they arrived with me with all possible haste. I packaged everything up and delivered all the orders to the post office on Monday, June 4th.
The above information should not be new to someone who ordered directly from the vendor because I know for a fact that he sent out the following email to every customer:
Dear …,
I think you should have received your plants by now.
Plants were delayed both in US customs and at US dept of agriculture and after I had a few reports of dead plants, I feel they were not treated too nice as well.
As you know, I fully guarantee for healthy arrival of plants I ship to the USA and 100% stand behind this promise.
In case any plant you received was not in good health, please send me a picture and I will either refund or reship with the next shipment due in late June.
I'm very sorry, but both US agencies did not give a reason for delaying and in the end released the plants without any objection.
I guess, these things just happen but luckily this was the first significant delay I had in the last few years. Usually the import procedure runs very smooth.
So all I can do is to fix the problem by reshipping plants that were affected.
Honestly, it's sad to see a picture of a plant completely black, that was recently growing nicely here and was packed perfectly healthy with lots of care. It's also frustrationg to pay a lot of money for express shipments of plants that suffer from sheer neglect later during the inspection they have to go through...
All the best
As you can see, the vendor was fully aware of the poor shape these plants may be in and explicitly said that he would replace plants lost due to the delay. I have known many others that would not be willing to refund/replace items because they claim they cannot be held accountable for problems caused by forces outside of their control. But this vendor is a stand-up individual and he wants to make it right. He is doing a good thing and should not be hauled over the coals.
Now, I have reason to believe that the OP has not been fully honest about matters regarding this plant.
You see, I made all the USPS labels using Click'N Ship so I am easily able to go into my records and see that there were only three orders that were delivered to the state of Massachusetts, none of these shipments was to Boston, however. Click'N Ship also provides tracking for free which allows me to say with 100% certainty that those three packages were delivered to their destinations on the 6th and 7th of June. I also have the packing lists for all the orders and
none of the Massachusetts orders contained this plant. In point of fact, there were only two of these plants in the entire shipment and they both went to California (and that package was delivered at 11:45am on June 6th).
All of these factors taken together indicates to me that in all likelihood the OP did not order this plant directly from the vendor but instead had someone else order it for him. Based on the OP not receiving the plant until the 13th it is also obvious that the "proxy" took
an additional five days to ship the plant out. I also think it quite likely that this "proxy" did not bother to inform the OP of the email that was sent out by the vendor so the OP was totally clueless as to the delays that had occurred and why it was that the plant was in poor condition. It does not take a genius to recognize that the additional five-day delay incurred by the "proxy" on top of the two-week delay simply pushed a weak plant over the edge. It is also a rather short step to see that the most likely reason the OP is not willing to contact the vendor is because the vendor will have no record of selling this plant to the OP.
So, taking all of this into consideration, as has been brought up by numerous people, this passive-aggressive, highly public bash-fest is, quite simply put, completely uncalled for and wholly inappropriate.
To the OP, I recognize that you are upset about the loss of the plant. I would suggest that you contact your proxy and have him report to the vendor the loss of this plant. Or perhaps you yourself could try contact the vendor and explain the situation to him and see what he says. I seriously doubt that he will be evil or antagonistic about it. I honestly do not know what he will say if the situation is as I have speculated but you never know until you try. And it is the more adult way to handle the situation to be perfectly honest.