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Mojosan

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I recently purchased a small JBP pre-bonsai from a well known BP expert. The tree was listed on his website, I contacted him and asked about it - purchased it. After about 3-4 days without further contact, I emailed and asked about shipping. He had been in Florida and hadn't been able to ship. He would ship within a couple of days. Ok, understandable.
After another week, no contact. So I email again. He said his wife had told him that the post office was closed on Good-Friday (???) and he would ship the next Monday. (turned out to be Wed. )

So, the tree arrives - in a box, with most of the soil loose and out of the pot. The tree had just been layed flat in the box of shipping peanuts, without any attempt to contain the soil or secure the tree. The pot itself was falling apart - like plastic does after a long time exposure to UV. It was in several pieces.
After salvaging as much of the soil as possible and covering the roots, I was astonished to see that there was a large diameter copper wire (not seen in the photos) on the upper portion of the trunk that had obviously been there for some time - it literally had almost cut the trunk in half in several places. Now this was not your normal annealed wire, this was like 12 gauge house wiring with the insulation stripped off. It was almost fully buried into the bark.
Now I could understand if this was applied to the lower trunk - let it bite in and/or be covered by bark to artificially thicken the lower trunk - but this was the upper trunk and leader. :mad:

So, I email the seller, and tell him how disappointed, dissatisfied and shocked I am at the condition of the tree. That was nearly a month ago and I have heard nothing from him.

Now this was not an expensive tree, but I was expecting someone who bills himself as 'king of Black Pines' to show more care in not only the treatment of the stock he sells, but also in the treatment of his customers.


Now, in comparison - about the same time, I contacted Bill Valavanis regarding purchasing a JBP. He informed me that there were none left of this years stock. BUT, he had one that he had already trimmed and wired, and he would sell it to me for the same price. To me, a no brainer!
Not only did he ship immediately, but the tree arrived very well packed and in excellent condition. It exceeded my expectations in both health and quality.

So my whole point here is, don't be lured into thinking that just because the seller is 'a name' and has been around a long time, that you will be treated well or be satisfied with your purchase.
 

mcpesq817

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If I was in a similar position and had waited a month for a response without ever receiving one, I'd make sure to make the seller's name public. :mad:
 

rockm

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As you have found out, EXPERT can be a relative thing, sometimes existing only as rumor or in the "expert's" mind.
 

cquinn

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I would like the name, so i don't order from them.
 

milehigh_7

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So my whole point here is, don't be lured into thinking that just because the seller is 'a name' and has been around a long time, that you will be treated well or be satisfied with your purchase.

It seems like you did this in this case however I always like to make several attempts at allowing a person the opportunity to "make it right". I have no problem with turning up the heat on each attempt. I'm just sayin that honest mistakes happen...
;)
 

irene_b

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What is the company name?
Whether the tree cost a lot or little is no reason to get the shaft or the run around!
 

the3rdon

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If I was in a similar position and had waited a month for a response without ever receiving one, I'd make sure to make the seller's name public. :mad:

Hey Mike, maybe we should GO public.. Your the 3rd person that has had a bad experience with our common bonsai dealer.. I even recieved an email basically saying he doesn't replace pots.. LOL!

Don
 

mcpesq817

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Hey Mike, maybe we should GO public.. Your the 3rd person that has had a bad experience with our common bonsai dealer.. I even recieved an email basically saying he doesn't replace pots.. LOL!

Don

I have a feeling Mojosan might be dealing with a different vendor. Hope this doesn't turn into another Ichiban thread :rolleyes:
 

Barry

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Are we by any chance talking about the vendor in South Carolina that took almost three months to deliver my purchase?
 

Mojosan

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Are we by any chance talking about the vendor in South Carolina that took almost three months to deliver my purchase?

Sounds like it..................
 

johng

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Are we by any chance talking about the vendor in South Carolina that took almost three months to deliver my purchase?

Sounds like it..................

I recently purchased a small JBP pre-bonsai from a well known BP expert.

but I was expecting someone who bills himself as 'king of Black Pines'


Are you sure you are talking about someone from South Carolina? Barry might be but I don't think mojosan is??? If you are going to point out a negative experience lets make sure there is no confusion about who it is...otherwise you are only part of the problem and not the solution.
 

Mojosan

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You're right John. The dealer I'm talking about is in NC.

Here's some pics for Mom.
 

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I have to agree... if people are having problems that you feel should be aired with the community, you should just be pretty straight up with who it is...

There are several reputable bonsai folks in NC who would likely appreciate it. Though from what I can gather Steve Pilacik must be who the hubbub is about. Correct me if I am wrong.

Kindest regards,

Victrinia
 

Barry

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Victrinia unfortunately that's exactly who I was referring to. I was very surprised my experience was very similar to Mojosan's. My Shimpaku also had very deeply embedded wire.
 
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Bob... I'm glad I wasn't the only one who found that appalling. lol

And if that's what makes one the Pine King in America... you all have been looking in the direction of the wrong coast. :p It's not a slam, just an observation based on experiance - and the photos used on his site.

Kindest regards,

Victrinia
 

irene_b

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You're right John. The dealer I'm talking about is in NC.

Here's some pics for Mom.

How horrible!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I would be on the phone demanding my money back!!!!!!!!!
False advertizing.....What a lemon!!!!
 

Tachigi

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Mojo,

If it makes you feel better (and I'm sure it won't) your not the only one. :mad:

Years and years ago I had the same experience with the same vendor....Twice! First time he was selling yews and I decided to purchase one. When it arrived it had been reduced by over half to fit the box. It was unceremoniously just dropped in the box...no packing...no nothing. Just the yew in a box and in a plastic nursery pot. During the coarse of shipment it punched a whole through the box and when it arrived, half the yew was through the hole and the yew was out of the pot. After bring this to the attention of the vendor I was dismissed with the statement that I was a noobie and that was how all trees were shipped. That statement amused me a bit and chalked it up to a bad experience as it wasn't to terribly expensive nor a exceptional piece of material

A few years passed, and never being one to hold one mistake as a bench mark, I found a couple of JPB he had, that appeared to be of good quality. I mustarded up the courage after speaking to him about what I expected about packing and shipping. I then ordered the trees and his video.

Well when the trees arrived they were packed reasonably well...but...to my dismay I found that each of the trees had wire deeply embedded in them. This is something that the pictures didn't show. After some discussion with my teacher at the time, I decided to plant these out to try and remedy in some way the lack of care that they received from this vendor. (Below I will show the progress.)

I also watched the video that I had ordered, something I wish I had done long before I ever ordered any tree. It became very apparent to me while watching this video that this fellow didn't have a clue. The sequence of him potting a pine literally made me gasp loud enough to make my wife ask from another room if I was alright.

Bottom line is that as bonsai in the USA grows people that provide inferior products will be eliminated over time. Also as enthusiast's share experiences it will help reduce future incidents from happening.

Anyway, as mentioned above I took the trees and planted them out. After some time it became apparent that on two of the three that layering the tops would be the only coarse of action to try and preserve some sort of economic value. I did leave the third in the ground and grew it out. (Something you may want to consider if reimbursement is not an option) The Pine has absorbed the wire reasonably well though not completely. You can see the arrows where the wire was embedded. It was lifted from the ground a year ago to work on the nebari a bit and will return to the ground for another duration to see if those remaining marks can be minimized more.
 

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