Moon Valley Nurseries Craig Harrison, Toni Cruse Sold me a bunch of trees and never delivered them. Wouldn't return my phone calls for over a month, Bait and Switch, horrible customer service! Riverside, Escondido CA

TIMELINE

February 15, 2019 - I purchased 10 Indian Laurels and 2 ficus trees from Craig Harrison at Moon Valley Nursery in Riverside. I paid $200 each for the Indian Laurels and $150 each for the ficus trees. I told him that I wanted 15 footers that were in the 15 gal buckets that he had shown me a few days earlier. It was very important that those trees get tagged to save for me since they were 15 feet. The trees are to be used for a property that I am remodeling and are to be used to block out an eyesore (a run down apartment building). He said don’t worry-- he would take care of it and to call him 1 week prior so he could schedule the trees for delivery. Moon Valley Nurseries then charged my card $2,478.25

February 19, 2019 - I had a question and possibly wanted to add some additional trees to my order. Called and left Craig a message but he never returned my call.

February 21, 2019 - I called Craig again, this time he answered the phone but said he was unloading a truck and he would call me back, but he never did.

February 22, 2019 - I called Craig again, left a message, but no return phone call.

February 22, 2019 - I texted Craig, no return text.

February 23, 2019 - I called Craig. This time he picked up the phone and I talked with him about the other trees and he said he would text me a picture of them when he got to the yard, but he never did.

February 24, 2019 - I called texted Craig and asked him to send me the picture. He never did.

March 4, 2019 - I called Craig and left a message to schedule the trees for delivery. He never called me back.

March 8, 2019 - I called the Escondido office to complain about not getting any call backs and to let them know that I have been trying to schedule my order for delivery. I talked to Ricky Fox and he said that he would call me back sometime that day and would have Patrick from customer service call me as well. Never got a call back from Ricky or Patrick in customer service.

March 10, 2019 - I called the Escondido office again. This time I talked with Adam and he said he would get with Craig and Ricky and would get my order scheduled and he would call me back. Once again, didn’t get a call back from anyone.

March 12, 2019 - I called the Manager at the Huntington Beach office (Adrian) and told him about the problem I was having. He was very helpful and contacted Craig for me and told him to call me. Even after this happened Craig still did not call.

March 13, 2019 - Adrian contacted me back via text and asked if the matter had been taken care of and I said no. He told me he was going to contact his Manager.

March 13, 2019 - Craig called me and told me that my trees I had purchased and paid for were never tagged and they had been sold. He told me to go over to over to the Huntington Beach office and they would take care of me. When over to the HB yard and they told me they did have any trees that size in 15 gal bucket and the only ones they had were in 24" and 32" boxes and they wanted over a $1000 bucks for them. The person I spoke with at the yard was very apologetic and said he could lose his job if he were to sell me any of those sized trees for that cheap. He contacted his Manager Toni Cruse and she said tell him we are sorry and she then refunded my credit card.

March 13, 2019 - I contacted Toni Cruse who is the California Manager and told her the story of what had happened. She asked me if I could wait till Monday the 18th and she would go out to the farm and see what she could do.

March 18, 2019 - She contacted me and sent me pictures of some other trees that were 15 feet tall. I told her I don’t care what kind of tree it is as long as its 15ft tall, it blocks the view of the apartment building and is in a15 gal bucket so it is easy to plant. She said she was also going to get some pictures sent over of bamboo for me.

March 25, 2019 - I contacted Toni and told her I never got any bamboo pictures from her and also asked her if she would like for me to come and meet up with her at the yard so we could get this resolved.

March 27, 2019 - I met Toni at the yard in Riverside. She was very polite and nice, however she took me over to some trees that I thought looked very thin and you could see right through them. I expressed to her my concerns and she said if you use the Indian Laurels that they would lose their leaves in a few weeks because the ones they have are for production. She said these would probably be fine and if I didn’t like them she would take them back.

March 27, 2019 – After I met with Toni I drove to the property where the trees were to be delivered. I took some more pictures and then sent the pictures to Toni and asked her do you really think that the trees will block out this ugly apartment building across the way? She looked at the pictures and said that she would send 3 extra trees with the delivery. She then charged my card, this time for $2,573.07

April 1, 2019 – The trees were delivered and you could see right through them. Took pictures and sent them to Toni and sent the trees back with the driver. Called her and told her that she needed to fix this problem. Her company, Moon Valley Nursery had now wasted over a month and a half of my time cost me a bunch of money. She stated that if she would have sent the Indina Laurels that in 2 weeks all of the leaves will fall off. I then told her, if her company would have returned my phone calls, and scheduled the trees for the delivery time I wanted that the leaves would have fallen off and grown back by now and everyone would have been happy. Her exact words were “I Know”. She said she would try and figure something out and get back to me.

April 3, 2019 – I texted her and told her we needed to get this problem resolved and for her to call me sometime today. She never texted back nor did she call.

With the exception of the Huntington Beach yard, this-- by a landslide-- is the worst business I have every dealt with! This is classic bait and switch (which is illegal)and horriible customer service. I have no clue how these guys are in business. My advice is: Stay away from these guys! Unfortunately, Moon Valley still has my money.