Return Policy

	Make It Green Return Policy
	Return Policy Background Information

MAKE IT GREEN RETURN POLICY

During COVID 19 we were not be accepting any returns. All Sales were final. At this time Covid has not gone away but we are once again allowing some types of returns. If you have a warranty issue from a previous year please contact us and we will make arrangements.

Once things return to normal our return policy will resume as before as indicated below. Please check back for updates.

All returned items must be accompanied by receipt.

No Returns or Refunds will be done on Weekends (April – June) and Holidays or at all during a COVID 19 outbreak.

 Hardware:

No returns during COVID 19. Later, unused items accompanied by their receipt can be returned for refund within 3 days of purchase. Special order items will be subject to a 50% re-stocking fee. Some defective items accompanied by a receipt and returned within the warranty period will be immediately replaced. Some manufacturers require you to deal directly with them for warranty issues. Please contact us for details.

 Plant Material:

Due to the overwhelming amount of returns experienced in the last month (mid-May to early June 2022 - more than 2015 to 2019 combined) we will no longer be accepting returns on plant material. All plants that leave our lot are final sale. Plants left in our care (have not left the lot) are returnable for 3 days only if you haven't picked them up yet. As soon as they are picked up they are final sale. Too many people are staging houses, holding weddings or parties and then returning all of the plants they bought. Others are buying up to six times the plants they need so they can lay them out in their gardens and decide which ones to keep. Many of these people have had a significant amount of help from our horticulturists with choosing plants. The stressed plants they were bringing back have to be cared for a watched for a couple weeks to make sure they are saleable. We can't be a viable business if we are to be plant lenders instead of plant sellers.

 Non-returnable:

To protect all of our customers herbs, vegetables, annuals, tender perennials, tropicals, cedar hedge, nematodes, Myke, seeds (including grass seed), bulbs, organic pesticides/herbicides and certain liquid fertilizers are not returnable.

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RETURN POLICY BACKGROUND INFORMATION

We often get questions about our return policy. Sometimes customers are quite upset when we tell them that they can’t return certain products. The purpose of this document is to try and explain why we have time limits on returns and why certain items are deemed non-returnable. All garden centres are busiest during spring weekends. Most (ourselves included) don’t allow returns on those busy weekends because we are trying to make a living. A return takes about six times the resources of a sale. In addition to the increased workload on an already busy staff, customers making returns on busy days contribute to the impression that the store is just too busy to shop in and potential customers may decide to leave. An exit survey performed in the mid 90’s asked people why they were leaving a garden centre without purchasing anything. Very few of the respondents cited product availability or price issues. Over 92% stated that the store was too crowded or the lineups too long. Another interesting result of the survey was that 22% of the cars that drove in to the parking lot left without making a purchase. We staff heavily on weekends, have a great system and our customers are amazed at how quickly they get through the cash. If we processed 25 returns on a busy Saturday we might well lose the sales from 100 customers. In the spring we are open late during the week. We will be flexible if you are a day or two late with your return as we know that not accepting returns on the weekend could impact when you can get to the garden centre. A phone call or email is a great way to contact us and we will work out a mutually convenient schedule for the return.

There are no returns during COVID 19. Later, our return policy time limit is 3 days for hardgoods not excluded (all plant sales are final effective Jun 6, 2022 due to the incredibly large amount of returns). Although more and more stores are adopting this type of policy we still get asked why it isn’t longer and often hear the stories of product returned to a big box store months or years after the purchase (and without a receipt!). In the past some stores did have very liberal policies about returns. Those that are still in business today have tightened up their return policies (just ask them!). We are a seasonal business. Between Mother’s Day weekend and the first Monday in June we do half of our business for the year. By the end of June we have done up to 75%. When a product sells in May we try to replace it as soon as possible. Some products are a one time only purchase ordered months before. We are working with a tight timeline. When a customer brings back a product which we could have sold to someone else, or which we re-ordered since their purchase, it often hurts our bottom line. Even 3 days can be too much time and our opportunity to sell the returned product is gone. Every summer and fall we have people trying to return items like hanging baskets, planters and tomato cages because they didn’t get around to using them. I could go on about customers who do use product and bring it back because they have decided they like a different style, etc. Unfortunately the product is not much good to us until next year (or not at all in the case of used product) and it all goes back to the same thing – we are trying to make a living!

Every fall we have a clearance sale – over-wintering plants in pots is difficult. Our prices tend to drop as the selection goes down – the early bird gets the best choices. We also hit a wall when the weather gets cold and wet – sunny, warm falls are great for gardeners but they always come to an end. Customers seem to disappear like the birds going south for the winter. These are reasons why we can’t accept the return of clearance sale items. Again it’s that making a living thing. Plants not only have issues trying to survive the winter out of the ground, they also take a great deal of work to try to store for the winter and then to remove from storage in the spring. This policy also applies to plants left on our lot and not yet picked up/delivered. It’s not fair to us to have to tag and maintain your plant only to have you decide weeks later that you don’t want it after all.

There are several other items that are non-returnable. Cedar Hedge is a fresh dug product that looses some soil each time it is handled. Too much soil loss means that the cedars are no longer viable and will result in a problem for the next customer. Annuals (including herbs and vegetables) and tender perennials in containers require a great deal of care until they are planted (we discourage people from buying and placing plants in their garage until they think all danger of frost has passed). The season is short and plants not properly cared for can take time to recover (if they do). More than 40% of the annuals we sell are edible and many are certified organic. We cannot in good conscience sell returned annuals to someone else who may have issues with them. As most people who have houseplants can attest, it is often difficult to keep them free of insect issues. We face the same challenges in our greenhouse and re-introducing potentially infected plants could impact a number of our customers. For this reason tropical plants are non-returnable.

Seeds, bulbs, organic pesticides, Myke, nematodes and some liquid fertilizers are subject to damage from freezing and excessive heat. Left in your car on a hot/cold day they could have their viability compromised. Ultimately we have to look out for our customers and make sure that the product they are buying is in perfect condition.

We are trying to find a reasonable balance between customer needs and business viability and hope that you can appreciate this. We also want our customers to have 100% confidence that all of their purchases are in the best condition possible. All of our policies are posted in the store and items which cannot be returned are signed clearly.

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