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Places to buy Venus Flytraps and other carnivorous plants.

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By FBIMOBSTER
Posts:  116
Joined:  Tue Jan 25, 2011 3:43 pm
#119534
I forgot to mention that I order the Nepenthes Mikei on pre-order sale and when I got my order the Nepenthes Villosa was marked out and the Nepenthes Mikei had next to it "STORE CREDIT INV17926LU"!! That was $50 NOTHING for the shipping that adds for everything you put in your cart! So I got a something else and had $12.57 left on that code. Now I tried to use it; it does't work I tried to email him with this when I emailed him with the problem with the Nepenthes Villosa when he finally emailed me back about the Nepenthes Villosa NOTHING about my STORE CREDIT CODE so I just let it go and I WILL NEVER BUY FROM WWW.DEADFLYTRAP.COM AGAIN!!!
Thanks for reading again and hope you don't have the same problems as me!
By Eric
Posts:  1143
Joined:  Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:23 am
#119562
stitz25b wrote:send them a complaint with this link
That's what I did. He replied by saying,

"Hi Eric -

I wanted to send you a personal note here regarding the message you posted on the PetFlyTrap.com Facebook Wall. While I have not read the entire message that the guys at flytrapshop posted, I have already deleted your post, primarily because it doesn't look very professional to have speculative messages posted. Here's why I say that their forum post is speculative:

1) The plants that flytrapshop ordered from us were within our usual standards for the sizes they ordered. The 'Bohemian Garnet' plant they received from us is EASILY a plant capable of flowering and producing seeds, and therefore qualifies as a Medium/Large plant. Notice that we do not differentiate between medium and large; that way we can send out the largest plants we have available at any given time.

2) I am POSITIVE that they do not send out plants like what they show in the picture of their plant. The plant they show is MANY years old, and in my opinion it doesn't look like a 'Bohemian Garnet' at all. More than likely, this may be one of their 'Crimson Sawtooth' varieties, which gets MUCH larger than the TRUE Bohemian Garnet. According to the actual original scientific description of Bohemian Garnet, it is noted that this plant only gets to be 4 to 6 centimeters in diameter; I can send you the link to the description if you like. The round pot that our plant is potted in is 3 inches (7.62 cm) in diameter, and the plant they claim is a 'Bohemian Garnet' is much bigger than that. So you tell ME what they're showing in the picture...and as a young adult no less!

3) I'm not sure why (except because we are one of the (if not the) largest and best carnivorous plant nurseries in the nation), but Matt and Steve have been trying to draw me into online verbal battles on their forums for quite some time now. And while I did post a few comments on one thread, I refuse to do so any more. It is obvious that they intend nothing more than to try and discredit PetFlyTrap.com. Using the tactic of ordering other suppliers' products and then trying to compare them to plants that don't even fit the description of the plant they ordered is a horrible way to run a business if you ask me. it's like comparing apples to oranges. It's a shame when a business has to get customers by trying (and I do mean trying) to discredit other businesses, rather than trying to speak positively about their OWN business...

I will be happy to answer any questions you may have, but would appreciate it if you would send them to me as a message, rather than as a post on the PetFlyTrap.com FB wall. While I do appreciate you bringing this to my attention, posting it on our FB page is not the way to do so.

I'm not sure what has gotten into the guys at flytrapstore, but they seem to have it out for us. the plants they received were not specially pulled FOR them; these were our typical 'for sale' plants. I hope they can do as well if I decide to place an order with them!

And it's definitely not right to put up a picture of a different kind of flytrap that naturally gets bigger, and CLAIM that our plants are not adult plants. That is the epitomy of low if you ask me.

Regards,

Mike"


Can you believe his response?!?! He obviously does not know how flytrapstore works. :evil:
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By Matt
Location: 
Posts:  22523
Joined:  Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:28 pm
#119590
Thanks for posting Mike's resonse Eric.

I don't have much time to respond right now because I'm on my way out the door for a day drip down to California.
Eric wrote:2) I am POSITIVE that they do not send out plants like what they show in the picture of their plant. The plant they show is MANY years old, and in my opinion it doesn't look like a 'Bohemian Garnet' at all.
I just wanted to quickly respond that the plants in the last photo are Bohemian Garnets. In fact, they were sourced from the same exact place that Mike Howlett's Bohemian Garnet plants were. Both Gary Gipson (the person Mike buys his tissue culture plants from) and I traded for a Bohemian Garnet culture at around the same time from the same person. From Mike's resonse, it's obvious that he hasn't grown one out to full size yet. The Bohemian Garnets in the last photo in the first post aren't even full sized yet. Bohemian Garnet can actually get fairly large, but it's definitely a smaller clone that most flytraps.

Additionally, they plants in the photo aren't many years old. It is possible to grow them to nearly full size in vitro before planting them out then it only takes 4 to 6 months to grow them to that size.

Further, the plants in the photo are the largest ones we had left after shipping about 6 of the largest ones and were being held to grow a bit more, so I suppose he is correct that we don't send out plants like the one in the photo. We actually send out larger plants than the one in the photo :D
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By SEB
Posts:  201
Joined:  Mon Aug 22, 2011 9:19 pm
#119625
I placed a large order for some rare nepenthes from Petflytrap, mostly because they were the only ones I could find selling these particular hybrinds. To begin with the pricing was very high but like I said they were the only ones selling them. In total I spent about $270.00.

10 minutes after I placed the order I realized I had added the wrong plant to my shopping cart and wanted to switch it with a more expensive one. You would think making more money would make them want to provide even a microscopic amount of customer service and swap the plant, but no. I emailed them 3 times, the first being 15 minutes after I placed the order. I even tried calling 3 or 4 times and nothing, no response. I waited and waited and finally 12 days after I placed my order the shipment showed up.

The packaging was terrible. For packaging they used shredded paper, probably print outs of emails of people complaining. That paper took me close to 2 hours to clean off the plants. It left a nasty white power all over everything! Of the 4 plants only one had pitchers, which were badly broken. The plants seemed so-so healthy but were much smaller than the sizing advertised. One of the mediums I ordered was bumped up to a "large" because there were no more mediums left I guess. This was written on the invoice as if to say "we hooked you up with a deal". So I ordered a "medium" and actually got a real medium.

anyway, that's just my experience with the company.
Last edited by SEB on Mon Sep 12, 2011 3:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
By markus13
Posts:  483
Joined:  Sun Apr 24, 2011 12:50 am
#119660
Wow, I can't believe that he said that Matt and Steve tried to draw him into online verbal battles! I thought they were quite polite and not in the least confrontational! All I can say to Mike is that paranoia will destroy you, but constructive conversation like Matt and Steve were participating in can only help(if taken the right way).
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By Matt
Location: 
Posts:  22523
Joined:  Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:28 pm
#119664
Just got back from the day trip to California and I have a bit more time to respond now.
Mike Howlett wrote:The 'Bohemian Garnet' plant they received from us is EASILY a plant capable of flowering and producing seeds, and therefore qualifies as a Medium/Large plant.
I don't agree with this. The "Medium/Large" sized Bohemian Garnet plant that I received from PetFlytrap.com is nothing more than a clump of small plants, not a Medium/Large plant. I would say that there is less than a 25% chance that any of those small plants will flower next spring. It's possible but highly doubtful that plants as small as the ones in that clump will flower.
Eric wrote:The plant they show is MANY years old, and in my opinion it doesn't look like a 'Bohemian Garnet' at all. More than likely, this may be one of their 'Crimson Sawtooth' varieties, which gets MUCH larger than the TRUE Bohemian Garnet.
There are several things that are incorrect in that statement:
1) It is definitely a Bohemian Garnet in the photo. I would swear my life on it.
2) It is not "MANY years old" but just came out of tissue culture sometime this spring.
2) "FTS Crimson Sawtooth" doesn't get much larger than a Bohemain Garnet. They are fairly similar-sized plants. FTS Crimson Sawtooth does get a bit larger and grows more upright, but my largest one isn't much larger than my largest Bohemain Garnet.

Considering that Gary (Mike's supplier) and I just got Bohemian Garnet in tissue culture at the same time about a year ago (I think), I doubt that Mike has grown out a Bohemain Garnet to full size. My guess is that he hasn't grown a Bohemian Garnet plant even a full year yet. Also, I don't recall any orders from Mike Howlett or PetFlytrap.com, so I don't think he grows an FTS Crimson Sawtooth, so I'm not sure why he thinks it gets "MUCH" lager than Bohemian Garnet or why he is discussing the size of two plants which he hasn't personally grown long enough to really know how large they can get.
Mike Howlett wrote:According to the actual original scientific description of Bohemian Garnet, it is noted that this plant only gets to be 4 to 6 centimeters in diameter; I can send you the link to the description if you like. The round pot that our plant is potted in is 3 inches (7.62 cm) in diameter, and the plant they claim is a 'Bohemian Garnet' is much bigger than that. So you tell ME what they're showing in the picture...and as a young adult no less!
The "actual original scientific description" of Bohemian Garnet that Mike refers to is the ICPS registration found here:
http://www.carnivorousplants.org/cpn/Sp ... 68_70.html
Point three reads:
Adult plants are about 4-6 cm in diameter, only about half the size of most Dionaea (including Dionaea ‘Sawtooth’).
In my experience, Bohemian Garnet can get quite a bit larger than that will good growing. I'm sure that Steve could attest to this as well and I'd bet that his largest Bohemian Garnet is even larger than mine (he grows plants to large sizes very quickly). Below are a couple of photos (taken just tonight) of my oldest Bohemain garnet that I bought 3 years ago from BestCarnivorousPlants.com. I repotted it early this week, so that's why some of the older largest traps are blackening:
BG_mature1.jpg
BG_mature1.jpg (135.48 KiB) Viewed 9170 times
BG_mature2.jpg
BG_mature2.jpg (153.83 KiB) Viewed 9170 times
Notice that the plant is about 10cm across. I would consider this plant a "mature" or nearly "premium" sized plant if it were to be placed in stock in the FlytrapStore. And the plants in the photo that Mike is referring to are between a "young" and a "young adult" size:
Image
The pot that it's planted in is 2.5 inches (6.35 cm) across and the largest plant in the pot basically stretches side to side in the pot.
Mike Howlett wrote:I'm not sure why (except because we are one of the (if not the) largest and best carnivorous plant nurseries in the nation), but Matt and Steve have been trying to draw me into online verbal battles on their forums for quite some time now.
I know nothing about the size of the PetFlytrap.com carnivorous plant nursery, but I certainly didn't think that it was one of the largest in the nation. Honestly I thought it was one of the smaller ones. This was my first order with them, and from my experience, I would put them at the bottom of the list of all of the carnivorous plant vendors that I've ordered from (and I've ordered from quite a few), so I don't know what criteria he's using to say that PetFlytrap.com is one of the best CP nurseries in the nation. Judging by the number of posts on this forum expressing dissatisfaction with orders from PetFlytrap.com, I don't think I'm alone with my low evaluation of them.

And I don't know why Mike would feel that Steve and I have been trying to draw him into "online verbal battles" here on the forums for quite some time now. I recall only one other thread where Steve expressed his valid concern about the confusing (and possibly incorrect) naming of the "B52 F1" (B52 x B52 seedlings) that were being sold on PetFlytrap.com. It didn't seem like a personal attack in any way to me, but just a statement about the fact that the chosen nomenclature for that product listing would most likely be confusing to many customers.
Mike Howlett wrote:Using the tactic of ordering other suppliers' products and then trying to compare them to plants that don't even fit the description of the plant they ordered is a horrible way to run a business if you ask me. it's like comparing apples to oranges.
We're definitely comparing apples to apples here. Both of the plants in the photo are Bohemian Garnet flytraps from exactly the same source. Both Gary and I sourced our Bohemian Garnet cultures from user Xeno on these forums.
Mike Howlett wrote:It's a shame when a business has to get customers by trying (and I do mean trying) to discredit other businesses, rather than trying to speak positively about their OWN business...
My intent by writing this review wasn't to get customers for the FlytrapStore. My intent was to share with FlytrapCare forum members my poor experience and disappointment with PetFlytrap.com. It was the worst experience I've ever had when ordering carnivorous plants online.
Mike Howlett wrote:And it's definitely not right to put up a picture of a different kind of flytrap that naturally gets bigger, and CLAIM that our plants are not adult plants.
Again, that's not what happened. The Bohemian Garnet in the photo has now been sold as a "young" plant (not a "young adult") and it was definitely a Bohemian Garnet from the same exact original source that Mike Howlett obtained his plants from.
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By NepEthusiast
Location: 
Posts:  158
Joined:  Sun Nov 14, 2010 7:45 pm
#126061
This thread is kinda old but I would like to say this even though I'm probably going to get bashed by this...

I never had a problem with PetFlyTrap.com, last year I ordered a Veitchii and a Sanguinea, they were all were well packaged, but my order kinda dragged, but over all the Nepenthes were of good health and reasonable size. Maybe they're just good in the fly trap "department."
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By swat007j
Posts:  478
Joined:  Mon Aug 15, 2011 2:31 am
#126062
Reading this makes me feel happy that i chose this site to buy some of my first CP , I'm looking forward to buying more just waiting on Christmas for those gift-cards and money envelopes to come in :P
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By Matt
Location: 
Posts:  22523
Joined:  Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:28 pm
#126101
NepEthusiast wrote:I never had a problem with PetFlyTrap.com, last year I ordered a Veitchii and a Sanguinea, they were all were well packaged, but my order kinda dragged, but over all the Nepenthes were of good health and reasonable size. Maybe they're just good in the fly trap "department."
I've never ordered Nepenthes from PetFlytrap.com, so I can't comment on the quality of their Neps. But I do appreciate you giving your feedback here!
By BoothEatsBUGS
Posts:  438
Joined:  Thu Mar 15, 2012 5:41 am
#135361
GAH! I REALLY wish I would have researched this company before buying. I too recently spent SIXTY DOLLARS on 2 plants! I was so disappointed to unbox them! Look at this 40 dollar nepenthes I bought from them
Image

And a 10 dollar big mouth that is about the size of a penny.

I WILL NEVER BUY FROM THEM AGAIN! NEVER!
By CPcaregiver
Posts:  463
Joined:  Thu Aug 25, 2011 5:41 pm
#137774
Wow,all these negative comments about PetFlyTrap.
I ordered all my current plants from them and,unlike most of you,I can't complain. :D I ordered on small N ventricosa,and got 2.The sanguinea is getting huge with it's first pitcher of the year!
I suppose most Nepenthes bought from them are in good shape because PetFlyTrap is partnered with BorneoExotics,explaining the(mostly)high quality neps. I can't speak for VFTs though,I'm not much of a flytrap person.
By dantt99
Posts:  5045
Joined:  Sun Oct 17, 2010 4:48 am
#137778
Sorry to be bumping such an old thread. I ordered my first 3 flytraps from them. They were classified as medium. They came in one of those domes, about 4 cm in diameter. I was pissed/disappointed and refuse to order from them again.
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By Matt
Location: 
Posts:  22523
Joined:  Mon Apr 21, 2008 11:28 pm
#137786
CPcaregiver wrote:The sanguinea is getting huge with it's first pitcher of the year!
I suppose most Nepenthes bought from them are in good shape because PetFlyTrap is partnered with BorneoExotics,explaining the(mostly)high quality neps. I can't speak for VFTs though,I'm not much of a flytrap person.
That's probably why you had a decent experience. Their Nepenthes (ventricosa and sanguinea) probably came from Agristarts 3, a tissue culture company located in Florida, which sells quite large Nepenthes out of tissue culture. I suppose they could have come from BorneoExotics, but I'll bet those two species came from Agristarts since they sell them so cheaply wholesale.
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