EdBurton said:

I have the results back from my shipping frozen pollen in the dead of winter from Wisconsin to Texas.
My friend says he has pods all over the place using the pollen I sent him.
It seems that sending the pollen in winter may be the answer to success.
If anything else on the subject comes to my attention I will post that also.
Ed Burton

@EdBurton I Posting this here just because I wasn't sure where else to put it at the moment. I was putting my husbands insulin away after it arrived the other day and your talk of shipping pollen in the dead of winter came to mind. I am not sure on the shipping charges but when they ship his insulin it comes in a outer cardboard box and inside it has a Styrofoam box with frozen packs (Therma-Frost Packs) inside with the insulin. You would obviously need a smaller size of boxes to ship pollen but was wondering how that would work to ship other than in the dead of winter? I am attaching a couple of photos just so you can picture what I am talking about.


Not sure how it would work but it is just a thought. The packs are re-freezable so they can be re-used when needed. For that matter so could the Styrofoam boxes.

Superb idea! As long as the pollen stays protected from any moisture as the packs melt, I would think it would really extend the possibilities.

Probably would have to do a quick shipping! If you were shipping several containers of pollen it would be worth it!!

Cat
None of our summer shipping test were done using freezer packs such as the ones you posted.
I would think as long as pollen stays dry and cold that this may work, possible rather well.

Having no experience with shipping with freezer packs, I'm wondering if the melting freezer packs over the time frame of the shipping would create a condensation effect that could render the pollen useless.
It sure would be interesting to find out though.
I hope that you can test this out, it would be nice to know if pollen could safely be transferred in season at a reasonable cost.
If it did work, I think the most economical way would be to get as much pollen as possible in one container, the freezer packs, shipping box, and whatever you use to protect pollen will be needed for each shipment no matter how many pollen tubes, etc are included.
Ed

Ed,

I am willing to test it out. I need to do a little research on some smaller Styrofoam containers and such but I am willing to try it out and see what happens.

My comments on re-using the freeze packs and Styrofoam boxes were in the case of shipping pollen back and forth. Say for example I ship pollen to you and you re-use freeze packs and Styrofoam box to ship pollen to me. Wouldn't always be the case but could help cut costs in some situations.

If a transaction via the LA doesn't seem to be going well, at what point would you contact the admin? Earlier the better or better later after all hope is gone?

You should first try to work it out with the seller or buyer. When it does not seem to be going well, contact admin. They WILL get involved.

I had a situation myself and it got resolved very quickly once admin got involved.

I agree, altho I wold not try to work it out more than once. I would for sure contact Mike and let him know whats going on. The way the Emails are handled now on the LA, at least there is a print trail of what has been conspiring.

Ive got a seed seller Im not happy about this year, not sure what Im going to do. I think, just let my wallet do the talking.

Thanks Becky,

I'm in the 'working out' stage. 2nd stage for that matter, and will certainly give it more time to get resolved. I'm just not comfortable with it at this point, but not yet willing to pull in the admin. Historically, I tend to wait too long on these things and that has not been good either. So I just wondered how others dealt with it - how soon and other takes.

Pam! There is the wallet part, isn't there? Well, at least that's not large enough to be a cause of too much anxiety though I'm not fond of unintentionally parting with the change, either.

I don't know that money is the entire issue on a poor transaction.

The disregard of another figures in there somewhere.

Here is how I looked at it ....

I felt that I got duped. I had to track the seller down. I found the seller through a different name because the original name did not respond. Mike caught on and chimed in. It was settled VERY quickly after that.

I hesitated about following up on this, but then I thought about others who might also be taken advantage of and if no one asked for accountability, then this seller might continue to do the same and make money off of many others. LA tries to uphold a good reputation. They can only do that by being informed. A good seller will make it right. A good buyer will also try to do right.

A settlement should happen within a week. Any longer than that, contact Mike.

I also recently had another situation. A mistake was made by the seller. He emailed me to apologize. He asked what he could do to make it right. I suggested an option. He followed up on my suggestion. Despite my initial disappointment, we are now both happy. He made it right by me.

Things happen, we all know that. I believe that the majority of sellers on LA are honest and want their customers to be happy. A happy customer will come back time and time again to buy from them.

Well, I'm still in communication with the seller. Responses to mail aren't really quick, but not unreasonable either. However, it's the second time the order was shipped and it's had time to reach me after the second try. So I've asked them to check the address they are using and, this second time, I'm hoping they kept information for tracking which they couldn't find on the first shipment. I'm just uncomfortable with how things have gone. I'm easy though, so right now I'm still in 'giving them the benefit of doubt' mode. That's something that's hard to break if you're inclined that way and I am. I just wondered how others might approach it.

That doesn't sound right to me. If there was a problem the first time, why didn't they do confirmation mail to make sure it got to it's destination this second time around? If I was the seller, that's exactly what I would do. Most sellers would send you the confirmation number so that you could track it yourself. I've had sellers do that for me. How many days overdue to arrive is your order?

Every order I've gotten has arrived in just a few days and no more than a week.

The second order should have been here by Thursday, I think. No later than today. When it didn't arrive today, I advised them it hasn't shown up. There's tomorrow, of course. So I'm hoping it will be here then. Of course, I'm making assumptions on how it was shipped and I don't really know that. I had a shipment on the same day from upstate New York and it arrived here Thursday. That's a good many miles further, but I don't know how shipping routes might affect the time. I hope they can track it this time. A simple error in the zip code when labeling a package can cause havoc on delivery times. I know that from a previous workplace. Too many unknowns.

Donald - I personally would contact Mike on LA if it doesn't arrive by tomorrow. He will want any copies of any email correspondences (unless they are LA emails which he has access to). He will follow up on it pronto! And I guarantee you that it will be taken care of rather quickly, one way or the other. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

with Becky! If this is the second shipping and you still have not gotten either one (if I am understanding this right), something is Fishy! JMHO...

Xenacrockett said:
"I don't know that money is the entire issue on a poor transaction."

No. Money would be the least of it IMO. It's expectations that are falling through. There is even plenty of time. In neither of our areas is weather going to be a prohibitive constraint for weeks yet. I've just planned to have the plants based on when I was told they were shipped and I haven't any plants yet. If they are taking this long in shipment, when they get here they may need extra care. That non-arrival on a timely basis is the big part of the transaction.

Xenacrockett said:
"The disregard of another figures in there somewhere."

And this is the part I don't want to do to the seller unintentionally. I'll see what the mail brings tomorrow and what the LA mail may tell me after that. At the minute, communication is still the hoped for route leading ultimately to a satisfactory conclusion.

beckygardener said:Things happen, we all know that. I believe that the majority of sellers on LA are honest and want their customers to be happy.

My experience over 2 years is that there are some honest sellers but quite a few are not! I have bought a large number of seeds, mostly tets. and have so many dips from the first year you would think I only bought dips. A very large percent of seeds received last year were rotten on receipt. As for the plants, one turned out to be a Kwanso! I can't remember off the top of my head what it was supposed to be but I certainly never bought one of those. We Can Dance is in it's second year and the foliage is still only 4 inches tall, no flowers this year either and 6 other plants from 3 different sellers are all in an intensive care unit on life support! They are starting to look like they might survive but if this winter is as bad as last I doubt it. I had one seller invoice me 4 times for a seed win that I had paid for within an hour of the close of the auction, good thing I had my PayPal receipt. Then once she finally acknowledged I had paid, she claimed she had sent them the week of the auction. Of course I never received them till months after and they were all rotten anyway.

On the up side there are 3 plant sellers I'll have no problems purchasing from again and one seed seller that I have nothing but praises for that I will continue to buy from BUT as for the rest, I'm done with the auction.