Fast-Growing-Trees.com Review

I was looking to purchase 50 thuja trees, advertised to be at least 5' tall each, to provide a privacy hedge on my property. I found Fast Growing Trees online through Google Adwords since local nurseries did not have enough trees in stock and available.

This is what Fast Growing Trees featured on their web site about the green giant thujas they sell:

They have pictures of beautiful thuja trees that accompany this description. They supposedly normally charge about $1,000 for freight alone on such order, which appeared as a reasonable rate to ship 50 trees (a truckload under normal conditions). When I placed my order for 50 thuja trees, 4-6' tall - they confirmed over the phone they trees would be a good 5' tall, they had a free shipping promotion -- which, I see now, is an ongoing part of the "marketing tricks" because it expires always on the same day at midnight, but it is still there the next day.This creates a false sense of urgency to "encourage" the client to place the order "today;" othewise, the free shipping might be gone tomorrow.

I called the company before I placed the order to see if they have enough trees available, they sure did. They shipped the order within a few days. When I received FedEx shipping confirmation, I became really suspicious because they were shipping 9 boxes, size about 10x13x80, 40 lbs each box, and each box contained 6 trees. This made no sense since thujas are rather "chubby" trees in the shape of a cone. A 5' tree cannot really be easily embraced by a grown person due to the amount of foliage the tree has. I called the company's sales and asked about the shipment. They said not to worry because that's how they normally ship them. Once I received the packages, it turned out that they shipped a bunch of branches with hardly any foliage on them - no wonder they can pack 6 pieces in a narrow box. The thin stick with a sparse greenery on them do not provide any privacy at all, and they don't even stand upright as a normal potted thuja tree would. I emailed the company a couple of times with pictures to report this misrepresentation. They did not reply at all. I called and could not get through to a live customer support. I left messages. They never called back. In the end, I called sales again pretending to be a new customer, and I was connected to a life operator, Allyson. She said they did not take anything back and that 'the trees grow fast.' She said she did not suggest that I did any disputes through the credit card because she handled those very successfully. In the end she hung up on me because she was unable to tell me the expected average diameter of a 5' thuja tree.

After the fruitless conversation with Allyson, I filed a dispute through my credit card to get my money back. In response to my dispute, the credit card summarized that 'The merchant was or is willing to work with you towards a resolution,' which was totally inaccurate. Allyson was not willing to work with me at all.

The whole situation was extremely frustrating since I didn't want to plant branches and wait for many years before they grew enough foliage to be called trees. If they were not cared for and eventually planted, they would die and I did not want to be charged $3,373 for 50 miserable branches ($67.46 per 'tree').

Then I started searching online, and I found I was not the first person going through such ordeal with this 'Fast Growing Trees' company. How is this kind of scam even possible to continue? They have even created a network of websites with tree reviews where they post probably invented and misleading information about their own products to attract more unsuspected clients and try to sell them more 'trees.'

The trees are falsely advertised, that is totally unacceptable, and false adverstisment is ILLEGAL as far as know. Customer service - if you are not satisfied - is non-existent when I called to report that the branches cannot be really considered a fair product I paid for. They blocked my emails so that they are returned as 'undeliverable' to avoid any contact with me.

UPDATE 1: After I called the credit card to find out the status of the dispute, they sent a short statement that after the merchant's response, the dispute was closed without any recourse to the client. I requested copies of the paperwork sent by the merchant. Over a week later, I received a stack of paperwork of an invented story. The only item that was correct was the $$$ amount. Everything else (including the name, email, and dates) was totally inaccurate.

Apparently, in response to the credit card dispute, Fast Growing Trees sent false or incorrect documents to support their story. The credit card's personnel never even read the paperwork (apologizing me for that now) and transferred my money back to Fast Growing Trees based on their false information.

UPDATE 2: After I filed a complaint with BBB for false advertising, Fast Growing Trees finally issued a return authorization, so I eventually shipped the branches back at my own expense and have a written confirmation they were delivered. All I have ever wanted to get was a full refund of my money since the product was misadvertised and did not meet the description posted on Fast Growing Trees web site. The branches were returned in early December, I had to wait 2 weeks and file a complaint with the North Carolina Consumer Protection Department to get a partial refund.

UPDATE 3: On December 20, 2010, the merchant refunded 75% of the paid amount. When asked why not 100% - since they received all the plants back as they sent them - the man, presumably the owner of the company, my husband spoke with replied that 'The plants have been beaten up in transit so we cannot sell them any more.' 50 'trees' packed in two cardboard boxes on a wooden pallet beaten up? Note: that reply was given after the customer service person had told us the day before that the 'trees' were delivered in a perfect condition because they personally checked them before accepting the return and they signed proof of delivery free of any damages. That means they just made about $850 on our transaction in unjustified restocking fees alone (normally a reputable mearchant does not charge a restocking fee if they shipped a wrong/misadvertised product!). At that point we are still left with nothing but $850 less in our account! If they had just one such a customer a day simple mathematical calculation yields $310,250 a year made on the restocking transactions alone for "accepting back" misadvertised products!

Funny enough, in their response, Fast Growing Trees claimed that most of those returned trees were unsellable. That only confirms my complaint because I say none of them were/are sellable as trees because they were/are NOT TREES.

UPDATE 4: The complaint with the Department of Consumer Protection in North Carolina turned out to be pretty fruitless. The Department of Consumer Protection responded that there is nothing they can force the company to do. In reply to my inquiry how they "protect consumers" in such case, they replied "they take action in the name of the State to prevent harm to large number of citizens." I am now finding out what that exactly means.

UPDATE 5: It's nearly the end of January 2011. I have received a letter from Dozier Internet Law, P.C., so-called 'Cease and Desist letter' - in plain language a threat from a lawyer hired by Fast Growing Trees that if I don't take this web page down, they will sue me for defamation. In the letter, they call themselves a "respected business." I would think that a respected company would send an apology letter if they messed up this badly and really wanted to make it right somehow. But instead they just want me to shut up since the experience is not very pleasing to read. I have taken so much of my time to share this experience with others only because the company was completely ignoring me and did not want to take any responsibility for the misadvertised product, and wanted to make money through unfair and unjust business practices. I wish to warn other people and spare them similar experiences; I surely would have appreciated being warned before I had to deal with this company.

On a side note, I wondered why all of a sudden this web page started to bother Fast Growing Trees now more than ever although it has been up for only a few weeks now, and it certainly is only one of the many online complaints against this company. It turnes out, the credit card reversed the charges from Fast Growing Trees after I brought to their attention that the documents from the merchant were completely wrong, so now Fast Growing Trees is in a hard place. They have to ask me to refund their money - that is the 75% portion they had such a hard time to refund to me after I returned the merchandise.

Instead of doing it politely, they selected to do what apparently all "respected companies" do - threaten with a lawsuit. By the way, the man we spoke with offered a full refund ON CONDITION THAT we take this web page down. They don't like the negative publicity, it seems. It would have been so easy to make it a positive experience - just ship what clients pay for and you so beautifully describe on your web sites. Nothing more, nothing less.

HOW TO FIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTS, GET A REFUND, AND/OR PREVENT ONLINE FRAUD?

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1. Request copies of documents provided by the merchant to the credit card's disputes department to be forwarded to you. There are very good chances Fast Growing Trees has provided false / forged / inaccurate documents and statements to support their claim.

2. Contact the North Carolina Attorney General by filling out a complaint form: North Carolina Consumer COMPLAINT FORM.

3. Contact the FTC (Federal Trade Comission): FTC COMPLAINT FORM.

4. Contact the U.S. Department of Justice: U.S. Department of Justice Fraud.

5. Report Internet crime (false advertising about trees and plants + deceptive Terms and Conditions) to: Internet CRIME COMPLAINT CENTER.

6. If you were scammed for less than $5,000, start a small claims case in your state. It's a simple, inexpensive, and VERY effective process (and you don't need a legal advisor to represent you; you can easily do it yourself). SMALL CLAIMS CASE INFORMATION.

If you were scammed for more than $5,000 you need to start a civil case. CIVIL CASE INFORMATION. In both scenarios, once there is a judgement against them you should be able to collect your money through an execution against property or a bank account (a lien on property / levy a bank account) or garnishment of wages.

7. Report ALL their domains (including: fast-growing-trees.com) to the Google Adwords Team for false and misleading advertising: Google False Advertising COMPLAINT FORM (on the form select: Business advertised through AdWords) and to the BING Microsoft adCenter.

Roughly 90% of their victims find them on the Internet through search engines; if they are banned from advertising on search engines they will no longer be able to scam people.

8. Contact the BBB (Better Business Bureau): BBB Fast Growing Trees COMPLAINT FORM.

9. Send a link to this page: http://www.poloniainfo.com/fast-growing-trees-scam.html to all lawyers and legal advocates you know; they may be interested in starting a class action lawsuit against this unethical company. The lawsuit would involve hundreds if not thousands of victims.

10. Link to this page (from your Facebook/Twitter etc. accounts) and warn prospective customers as well as the media about this deceptive company run by dishonest people.

SELL PLANTS ONLINE! - A Recipe for a Perfect Online Business Scam Exempt from Any Laws

First of all, do not worry, you are not required to grow anything, it's all about marketing skills!

1. Create a network of websites (including 'non' profit) that are linked together and one of them sells plants. This might require hiring a creative content writer and a web designer if you are not an expert in those areas. The theme should be: plants, trees, shrubs, flowers, and any other landscape growing items you can think of. Make sure not to copy content since that might trigger search engines and penalize your websites.

Why plants?

It's quite simple - plants sold online are exempt from most insurance and laws (including credit card laws). When buying plants online the client (not you - the merchant) takes all the risk associated with the sale.

The more websites the better because they will "clog up" search engines results and prevent future customers from seeing any negative comments on your company on other websites. Create as many fake reviews from "happy customers" as possible; at least a couple of dozens is advisable for each product. This will keep visitors from leaving your website (and making a smart decision to buy trees and other plants from their local nurseries). After all, they can easily notice that you've had hundreds of "happy customers" so what more reassurance they would need..

2. Use perfect pictures of existing mature landscapes - this might require a photographer, but if you can drive around, take pictures yourself, and have basic editing skills in Photoshop (still, you might do without it). Claim on your websites that the plants you sell look (or will look) like the ones in the pictures. Alternatively, you can copy or buy photographs from other web sites. Do not be shy in using superlatives in your descriptions of the products.

3. Make sure to overprice the products at least twice and explain that you sell the best of the best in the market, so they (obviously) must cost more. Quadruple the shipping charges to create an impression that what you ship is huge and heavy hence it must cost a lot of money. Run a never-ending promotion and offer free shipping on orders over $99.

4. When you get orders, ship to your clients basically anything that resembles a plant - you can easily get those from local nurseries for a nominal fee or you could cut up in your backyard. Pack and ship those 'plants' - whether live of dead - and regardless what they've ordered. As long as you ship anything that remotely resembles a plant, you are covered from any legal recourse. If there is an issue on the size or type, you can always say that 'the plants grow fast!'

5. Make sure that your Terms and Conditions do not cover orders that you ship wrong, and do not allow any returns without a properly obtained return authorization. If you do that, the clients cannot return anything to you because this will violate your Terms and Conditions. Even if they do, you can reject the shipment or refuse any credit. In your Terms and Conditions write that any return is subject to a 25% restocking charge and deduction of shipping charges. That way, even if you ship wrong items, you still make money on shipping (which you are overcharging multiple times) and restocking fees. In result, you make money even if you never ship anything that was ordered or all of the orders are returned to you. To be clear here, the formula is that in reality you pay, let's say, $100 for shipping to customer, but you write you paid $400+ for shipping. If the client returns the order, you deduct $400 from their money - that's a profit of $300 on shipping alone. If you add 25% restocking fees, you've made good money on the order regardless if you had a successful sale or not!

6. The 25% restocking fee you charge will not only make you free money, but it will also cover your meek cost of getting the plants from other sources and disposing of the returns if you cannot recycle them and resell to other clients anymore because they get totally broken from constant transit forth and back while they are in the purchasing cycles.

7. When your clients get the order and discover they have been cheated, they will try to contact you by email or phone. Ignore any of their attempts. This will get the client upset, but that's the goal here.

8. When the client is upset because they don't hear from you, they will probably contact their credit card to get their money back. Credit cards have 60-day limit on placing disputes, so the chances are you might be free from this possibility if you've stalled the client long enough and they are late for a dispute. Further, credit card laws and regulations do not cover purchases over 100 miles away from the client's residence. So as long as the client is 100 miles away from your business, their credit card will not aid them in refunding their money (especially when you nicely reply to the card that 'the client was not cooperative and you did everything in your power to resolve the issue').

9. If the client files a dispute in time, do not rush with a reply. Wait until the last day and reply that the client is not cooperating with you in solving their problem and the client is not complying with your Terms and Conditions. This will close the dispute in your favor with the client having no further recourse via credit card. The credit card will now work for you to collect the money from the client. After all, credit cards get 2-5% of the sale amount, so they want the sale to go through regardless any legitimate complaints.

10. When the client files complaints with any federal (FTC) and state agencies (Attorney General) that are supposed to protect clients, you again politely reply, just before the reply is due, that you have been working hard to resolve the issues with the client but instead of cooperating with you, they have been filing complaints left and right and not complying with your Terms and Conditions. Make sure to remain cool and collected. This creates an impression that you definitely are the "good guy," while your client is an unreasonable and crazy person.

11. Be sure to ignore the client all along these procedures. You can easily block their emails from getting to you, and not answer their phone calls - caller ID does a decent job on that. If the complaining client gets through by a chance, be very sweet and composed. Tell them you have been trying to resolve their problem, but they do not let you help them and hang up. If they tell you that they will start a dispute with their card, tell them that 'we are very successful in dealing with charge backs.' Remember, the more upset the client gets, the more in control of the situation you are.

12. Chances are that after some time your customers will wear out and fade away. You have their money after all, so now it's their problem to fight back for it. If the amount is not huge, the client might simply call you a bunch of names and give up. You win. If the amount is larger, you face the risk of a lawsuit. That, however, might take months or years in legal procedures, and in the end you have a good chance to go before the judge and say in a sweet voice that 'you had been trying to resolve the issue with the client but they were not cooperating with you.' The judge might not see far beyond your sweet voice, and thus you still have a good chance of winning.

13. Screw the clients! You get their money and you are a successful businessman! To prove your service to the community and lawmakers, give political donations and other charitable givings - you didn't work too hard for the money anyway. As long as the politicians get your donations and you pay Google to advertise, they all make money off your scam procedures and won't touch you.

14. Finally... Congratulations on your new online business adventure! To the best of our knowledge and our purchasing experience with this company, it has been partially utilized by Fast-Growing-Trees.com for years and is truly bullet-proof.

Prospective buyers... beware of Fast-Growing-Trees.com and the other marketing websites operated by CROWN POINT CAPITAL Inc. and TBK Inc. - they are apparently in business to take advantage of unsuspected customers like me and you!

UPDATE: November 2012. The Fast Growing Trees people have kindly informed us they changed their policies and improved their service to make sure their clients don't experience the problems we had to deal with.

Fast-Growing-Trees.com BUYERS BEWARE!

This is a personal opinion and experience with a company that is selling trees and other plants online.

"Fast Growing Trees" - BUY TREES ONLINE WARNING!

Warning: Avoid Questionable Business Practices of 'Fast Growing Trees'!

SELL PLANTS ONLINE! - A Recipe for a Perfect Online Business Scam Exempt from Any Laws

Fast-Growing-Trees.com BUYERS BEWARE! This is a personal opinion and experience with a company that is selling trees and other plants online.

"Fast Growing Trees" - BUY TREES ONLINE WARNING!

Warning: Avoid Questionable Business Practices of 'Fast Growing Trees'!

SELL PLANTS ONLINE! - A Recipe for a Perfect Online Business Scam Exempt from Any Laws

Fast-Growing-Trees.com BUYERS BEWARE!

This is a personal opinion and experience with a company that is selling trees and other plants online.