Kitchen Garden Forum

Anybody having delivery issues from King Seeds?

Placed my order November through the allotment system for seeds & spuds with no sign of anything.

They are saying covid has been an issue which I can fully understand, but with seed sowing due to start in two weeks, spuds being available in local shop then I get Brown's latest catalogue offering special offers wondering if I should look else ware?

I think all suppliers are probably having issues of various sorts Colin. Don't think many of them will have recovered from the previous lockdowns. Probably better to order and get from elsewhere rather than end up with nothing as you could then end up losing a whole growing season.
I think supplies going forward with lockdown continuing may mean that there will be people around happy to take any surplus off your hands.

I went through my seed boxes yesterday and decided I will make use of what I've got left over from previous times rather than trying to order fresh stuff. I had a few problems ordering odd packets of seeds during the first lockdown so don't want that hassle again.

I ordered some seeds from Kings and DT Browns in November and both arrived before Christmas.

No sign of them from the allotment order. Got excited as shop door was open when last down but they were just doing a stock take. I can imagine they are pretty busy especially when doing large multiple orders. Our previous supplier just sent one big lot & the committee sorted out who ordered what but they changed to Kings as send in individual batches.

Thanks for the feed back.

I heard that independent orders (like Monika's) placed in November were delivered before Christmas.

Checked Browns website for delivery issues and they are not inspiring me to place an order, seems daft to offer discounts which will increase their workload which they are having difficulty with.

Guess I will have to use old seed.

Like Monika had good service from DT Brown before Christmas, in fact earlier than that as I ordered from the various offers around Black ('Brown') Friday. Ordered from Simpsons Seeds at the same time and also got quick delivery. A small order to Moles was left with one item to follow that has never appeared, they have closed their online service and posted this message:

"We hope to re-open the website and phone lines very soon but please minimise messages and calls chasing orders or asking when the website will be open because this is adding to the workload and reducing the volume of orders we can ship."

Since then I have had a few things from Premier Seeds Direct and Simply Seeds without any trouble.

I had a phone call from a committee guy this afternoon - our Kings seed & spud orders are in. Fingers crossed for you Colin yours won't be too far away. I'm wondering it they took a break to get these big orders out of the way, which I expect take consideraable space & then they will focus on those waiting for individual orders- maybe??

This is copy from Charles Dowding email

"Better news on seeds! I have heard from Kings Seeds that the problems currently are less about any shortage of seeds, which is not the case, and more about the difficulties of meeting strong demand. They are facing a perfect storm of large and also panic buying, triggered partly by Covid and also hampered by Covid, which means they cannot pack so quickly. They and the other seed companies I have spoken to are apologetic for this and are doing their best."

I’ve just had my seed potatoes delivered 14 kilos for £14 we order them from the hut in Newton lee willows it costs £5 a year for membership all profit is put back inn they have all my needs, seeds ,compost ,everything ,only problem is they have had difficulties obtaining some types and have had to substitute them but I’m happy

Just put another order in at D.T.Browns, from the little catalogue that came in the K.G.Magazine....mostly Runner Beans but, still got over an £18 discount so, well worth having......

Good luck with your Browns order. Shredded my book and put in compost.

I only got the seeds not the spuds - 2 weeks apparently!

Of all the seed catalogues. Wonder how many are owned by one Company.

Suttons and Dobies are one, as are Marshalls and Unwins.

I buy from Dobies rather than Suttons if possible. More seeds, much cheaper and the packets are plain rather than having pretty pictures.

Had a reply from Kings saying "...estimate that your order should be sent in the next week or so.

The potatoes are despatched separately, again in date order. They are going out at the moment but we do have a very large number to send out and this can take approximately three to four weeks to complete."

With the email it included "Check out our special offers"

I cannot understand why they are promoting special offers when they are struggling to complete normal orders made November last year.