Alot of Etsy sellers like to show large beautiful plants when they are selling a node, buyer beware and read everything including shipping costs before hitting that complete purchase button.
Omg some of the stuff I’ve seen on Etsy and eBay is a JOKE!!! Like a bad joke, and I hate that i see “X people have bought this” - ESPECIALLY “monstera variegated all seeds” ugh… actually so many BS posts on Etsy… I can’t even pick the worst…
Omg I have recented started buying plants online and I have gotten SOOO many that started dying off quickly and come to find out there weren't ANY roots!!! I also won't buy from FB anymore bc the plants are always knocking on heavens door lol.
Too bad someone doesn’t make a list of some reputable sellers so people can stay away from the sketchy ones and not become one of the scammers victims. UA-cam creators unite and make a list for us people who have no idea of a good or bad seller. People they buy from and have a good successful experience with. I understand that a UA-cam creator can’t be held responsible for a one off bad transaction, but you guys know who you can trust or if someone should back away from a seller. ❄️💚🙃
There are fb groups for that, at least here in Australia. But scammers are clever and keep changing their names, profiles etc. there are big international syndicates set up to scam people all over the world out of money essentially using plants as bait. It's not the buyer's fault, and often is unavoidable, they really do their research and stay one step ahead.
Hi ! First of all, I am so excited because I just ordered Delatanks mix!!!!!!!!🎉 Also the only down I have had was buying a Hoya carnosa crimson princess from Walmart with mealy worms, which I am not surprised I guess. It was just such a big plant. Plus side : I now have experience with mealys 😬😬😬
I bought an edible fig (PAID for an edible fig I should say), when it showed up in the mail, it looked weird, but only had 3-4 leaves on it, so I didn't think much of it. After growing for a few months through spring/ summer in a pot outside (I missed transplanting time) I realized it had grown PIN straight with zero branching. It was then I realized it wasn't an edible fig, and was in fact a FIDDLE leaf fig. It's now about 6.5 feet tall living by my sliding glass door, one of my favorites! An L turned into a W. This was a fun video!
I totally agree in regards to local plant shops, they know about the internet hyped plants and some shops will put ridiculous prices on plants knowing that someone will buy them. We really have to pay attention to how the prices compare at different shops. We also have to think about how quickly the plant grows in optimal conditions and what experience people have with it. In my area I know that once a "rare" plant shows up in one spot it's only a matter of time before it is everywhere. Especially if it is a fast grower. From there I decide a price I'm willing to pay for it and wait. I check out my local nurseries and the farmers market. If I never find it at the price I want then so be it, I already have plenty of plants to care for. It's okay to walk away from a plant. You'll come across a bigger healthier, cheaper specimen later on and maybe you'll be able to offer the plant more as a caretaker.
Confession time!! I accidentally sold a plant with snails!!?? It wasn't doing well after I brought it home from a reputable nursery. It was a Dischida Ovata Varigated. It was beautiful! But I have a bad track record with succulent trailing plants, so I thought it was bc of me. I left it in the nursery pot and thought I had a good watering schedule, but it was still doing bad. I sold it as a rehab for maybe $5 (it still had the $30 price tag on it). The lady that bought it was so happy and said she does rehab all the time. She sent me pics of the little snails, and I was shocked! I have never heard of snails being a pest for houseplants. I checked all the other plants I bought that trip, and they were fine. I still felt really bad though. It had some long trails left, so she was able to propagate those and start again, thank goodness.
I bought a plant once and discovered snails on it, only a couple. I felt so bad…they didn’t seem like the kind of pest I should throw out in the garbage, so I posted them online for someone to take for free 😂 surprisingly someone did take them. They were so tiny and cute. 😄
I bought a hydrangea 2 years ago that was infested with centipedes, I called and told the store but was afraid to put it back into my car to take it back. That was a 40.00 loss for me, I planted it but it died anyway.
If the substrate was moss or peat heavy it being infested with snails isn’t super surprising. If you raise orchids you’ll find snails are common and they love eating roots/leaves lol 😅
Found a scammer this week. New Etsy shop had 20 sales an gorgeous plants, M. Aurea awesome price. I messaged about a pic of the exact plant. They responded, “ will send pic when I get home” the next day I checked they had 80 sales. Still no pic the next day so I checked an the shop was gone! Poof! Always check how many sales an the reviews. 💚
Wow! I am a seller on Etsy & this kind of content is invaluable to me! To hear all of these nightmare stories breaks my heart! I take so much pride in my plants & truly love to care for all of them! There is so much joy involved for me in growing a beautiful plant or prop & then being able to list the plant & share them with people all over the US! I can't imagine ever doing any of these thing to people. I have so many people that will come back & repurchase & that is my biggest compliment. The one thing that shocks me as a seller is the lack of communication between seller & buyer. When you purchase from me, I always try to reach out & let them know I have seen their order & will start working on getting it shipped. What surprises me is how often I hear how much people appreciate the communication. I don't think sellers ever talk to customers because people always act shocked & amazed that I reached out. That always boggles my mind because it isn't hard to say to your customer, hey... thanks for purchasing from me & I will get your plant on its way! Thanks for doing this video, Becca. It is like doing research for me to know some of the struggles of my customers!
@@ThugSoda that’s no good! I’m sorry you had some bad experiences. Their purchase protection plan is pretty good so I’m sorry to hear that! I hope your experiences get better from here out. Plants should be fun, not scary & scammy! Good luck on your journey!! 💚💚
The mealy bug/SOH was crazy because I think if she had posted it being honest abt the mealies and asked for $20 she probably would have gotten that. It’s a sizeable plant and there are people out there who would take a chance on fixing it. Not me but someone 😂
Isopropyl alcohol sprayed on any pest on a plant works! Cheap and effective! Some plants are sensitive to it but as a whole you can save a plant 100% maybe losing a few leaves! Spray on leave 5 minutes then rinse. Repeat 1a week for 2-3 weeks.
Hi there 👋I'm the one with the root issues on plants from local sellers. The Hoya kerrii was sold to me by an older lady who I'm convinced had no idea that she was giving away a plant that was soon to be dead, so I never reached out to her after I found out. The person who sold the Hoya carnosa tricolor with half dead/half unrooted cuttings also sold me a Hoya heuschkeliana variegata which had root rot. While trying to reroot the plants I also found out they had flat mites. I should have contacted the seller immediately but put it off since I'm rather shy and try to avoid confrontation. When I finally felt ready to do it, the seller had deleted their profile. But, silver lining, I'm now pretty good at rooting plants and just buy unrooted cuttings 😄
This video was fun to watch and very informative. You should definitely do a part 2! Also yesss, mealy bugs have no chill. I've had them for 4 years now, once you have them, you have them forever lol. My plants are still healthy I just have to make sure my plants are cleaned often and the population doesn't get out of control.
i had mealy bugs and kill them all with "pyrethre" don't know the name in english ( btw i'm belgian) the only thing it's you must be extra carefull cause it can kill bees ans other benevolent bug ... a tent, some time, and soapy water to wash the plant after the treatment.😁
Only scam I ever been close to was people reselling plants from the store, peeling off the tag and reselling for double the value acting like they grew them
Oh my, what sad stories. I have never bought plants online and am totally skittish to do so. It would be so horrifying to bring a new pest home in a trade. Why are folks so greedy to do those things? And really, I don’t feel a need to spend the kind of money in some of these stories on something that might die. I’ll just stick with my mostly common plants.
The only thing that works for me with mealies is those pest controll sticks you stick directly into the soil. Plants take up the chemical in their sap and sap sucking pests get poisoned. It also lasts for a while so potential offspring gets killed as well. I try to go the more natural and less chemical way with most other pests, but for mealy bugs I just can't!
100% agree with it being worth it to pay a but more for larger mature plants. I’ve learned this recently and it’s changed my enjoyment of plants. Also just being patient and waiting for a plant you love, that’s the size you want to the right level of variegation. So much more satisfying and happy in the long run
Wow, this video made me feel so much better after my Alocasia African Mask died from root rot that I bought from a local nursery in AZ for $30. I never watered the plant either before I realized, 2 weeks later and it was too late. These poor people loosing so much money over something that they were hoping (or did) bought them joy. I'm manifesting their favorite plant in their collection is thriving beautifully.
not necessarily me being scammed in the normal sense but i was selling plants locally on facebook and someone commented they wanted ALL of the cuttings i had for sale that were not yet claimed. it something like 9 cuttings of philodendron bipennifolium that i was selling for $2/piece (i had around 16 cuttings total). i was like okay this i amazing no problem, got paid for it via venmo and everything but was out of town before they got a chance to pickup so i just kept them rooting in water. i then got a message from someone who i had sold plants to previously warning me that the person who wanted all those cuttings is a known flipper in the local community...so i messaged them and said they declined while i was away and didn't feel comfortable selling them and refunded. and now that person who warned me about the flipper is one of my absolute best plant friends!
I bought a little monstera peru at a local plant shop that I noticed wasn't growing and then realized it was not rooted! I think you can root in soil but I wasn't aware it was unrooted, luckily I didn't spend too much but still, I would've liked it they told me!
Thrips are not as noticeable as you think. I get them about once every year and I always spot the thrips before I spot the damage. In fact, I’ve only had one plant in the last few years with the noticeable silver markings you hear about and that was only because the infestation went unnoticed inside a closed prop container. And only one leaf had the markings. I think people have thrips longer than they think when they have noticeable damage. I usually notice it at the start of the infestation or after it’s spread to a few plants. I will also say it’s very possible to have a plant full of thrips eggs with no damage. I once bought a plant online that was perfect upon arrival but within a week of receiving it it was covered in thrips larvae. Luckily I noticed before they reach maturity and it only took one treatment to get rid of them The plant looked perfect upon arrival.
Hi Becca, such a great video and topic! So how about a Monstera albo absolutely beautiful photos onlin, selling for around150.00 fOr a 3 leaf cutting with roots, fast forward to receiving and opening the plant and what do we get?? A green Monstera with White Out painted on it!
Oh that mealy story... I took some ivy cuttings to a plant swap once and I swapped them all--then 3 days later I saw that the mother plant was completely COVERED in spider mites and I had completely missed them when I was taking the cuttings!! I will never recover from the embarrassment.
It’s so sad that people do this to each other. I feel so badly for folks who’ve been scammed. But honestly-I swear we have a local shop that sells things under false pretenses and they have so many customers. They sell unrooted plants without disclosing that. I bought a moana loa cutting for $80 from them online, and I went to pick it up and it was totally shriveled up and sue was going on and on about how amazing it was. It’s just sad. She sells things that aren’t labeled correctly, and people are always calling her out for that. And she’s still here. I don’t get it!! Thank you for listening! ❤❤❤
Honestly, with the ZZ plant and the philo ring of fire, I think the seller thought that they would just root up in the soil. They did way too much effort with (I assume) putting holes in the mugs, I don't think it was a scam. The seller should have told them it was unrooted though, they could have put them in water.
For the tea: there are heating mats/pads for tea cups. They're not too expensive on amazon. You can put any mug on it. Simply nailogical made me aware of these
Oh my gosh these are crazy stories. I bought a scindapsus from a local shop and it looked great but when I got it home to report it they were all fresh cuttings with very little roots. I was surprised because I bought it thinking it was a nature plant…definitely wasn’t. Really enjoyed the video. Part 2 please! 💙
Terrible. There are bad people out there no matter what they sell. Money is always the main reason for selling and bad people take advantage. I have had several great sellers in regards to sick plants, forgotten orders to smaller than expected cuttings from eBay to Etsy that blew my mind! I can't wait to hear your video on the buyers' compassionate sellers experience. I've got some stories to tell! Thanks for sharing. New York
ooo about the tea cooling thing! Ceramic is a terrible conductor of heat, which is why most mugs are ceramic, so the drink cools to an acceptable temperature. It's not great if you drink your hot drinks slowly (like myself) so maybe try a glass mug or get a smaller thermos type mug to ensure your drink will stay hot enough for you 30 minutes from when you make your drink.
Thanks for doing this. I haven’t had a bad experience purchasing online but I’ve never attempted to purchase “rare” plants online. This has been an eye opener and an education. I feel for everyone who got shorted for just loving plants as I’m sure we all do. 🌱
my dad bought me an 'Ember' heated mug. I freakin love it!!!!! it has changed my coffee and tea drinking game! hot to the last drop....the best. Im telling you, get one!!!
Quite funny video, I think most of us got scammed in the past, but some of this storys are just sooo bad. Some years ago when I started with orchids I got scammed by an ebay seller with thousands of good ratings, bought one plant, it came in terrible conditions but I got an replacement, no issues here. When it bloomed first one year later it was not the plant from the picture I paid for, just a cheap no name hybrid. Later I found out this seller is known for not sending the plants you pay for, and he did this for several years. I don't know if he is still around...
I really enjoyed this video! I’ve had some problems with sellers 🤦🏼♀️ some of these stories could have been me two years ago when I first started out 😂
I totally agree with buying the mature plants. Back when Birkins were the new rare thing I bought a tiny immature one because I really wanted one but couldn’t afford the full size plant. Yeah it didn’t make it. Immature plants are so difficult unless you really know what you are doing
To me a wet stick is a cutting and cuttings are hit or miss. I bought cuttings of a fruit bearing fig tree and only 1 out 5 cuttings rooted. I think when buying cuttings, there are no guarantees they will take and that could feel like a bad experience when they fail. I think working with cuttings is more for the experienced hobbyist with time to spare. I will when possible buy a well established plants instead of cuttings to save myself the disappointment. After listening/watching to this, I am making mental notes... never mix business with friendships; no cuttings... avoid as much as possible; read reviews previous customers left of sellers; always do some research; where possible visit the local nursery instead; and someone you just met on social media, probably not your friend.
Hahaa great video!! You said your pest that never fully goes away is spider mites, mine are thrips. I feel like like ever since the first time I got thrips they’ve never truly left!🤣💀
I would be so interested in learning the stories from the other viewpoint as well! I'm sure the stories as told are true and the experiences suck. But... There is always another side to a story and I would love to hear from sellers their horror-buyer stories. Just to also have some more understanding on how a buyer can make things very difficult.
I can say i got very close to buying from some sketch sellers on etsy during 2020, however thankfully there were sever very good local shops near me that were not sure expensive yet and I bought from them. I did however buy from a seller more recently in mid 2022 on etsy. While not a scam , i did feel like the seller was advertising one thing but shipping something else. I purchased two plants . They were 4 inch pots , as i have a smallish space and didn’t want a large plant . What i got were two 8 inch pots with huge overgrown plants that were stressed and neglected. They had massive bug problems as well in the soil. The seller was very responsive but always skirted the issues , saying they gave me better plants than I ordered for the same price. I just threw them both out bc they weren’t going to be worth saving and the bugs were crazy. I realized a month later the plants weren’t even the same variety i had originally bought they were a variety that isnt even meant for the indoors!
I have purchased from various sellers in my local BST who claimed that what I was buying was established and fully rooted when they were not. In one case it was just the nodes with the start of aerial roots just stuck in the substrate. I think in a couple of the cases, it was just miscommunication on what they felt was fully rooted and established, compared to what I believe is. The one with no roots, well, I think that was just ridiculous. LOL
I don't buy online. Everything that can go wrong can go wrong. You don't know what you really get. You don't know how badly the postal service will handle it. You don't know when exactly will it arrive. You don't know $#!£. I can feel the anger and frustration just thinking about it. So I go to shops and look around fore something interesting. And I have few plants that don't often appear on the shelves and I have to be happy with it.
I've bought plants online, but I look for reputable sellers, and companies. I also suggest getting plants from plant shops and stores. This is why I do this, I check online for reviews and such. But do your homework. I've tried cutting my own wet sticks to try, and 1/3 of them rooted successfully, I tried it with something cheap. Good way to try it, but double check with plant shops there return policy. Planterina was successful, Amazon was successful. I have not tried Etsy or eBay, but double check sites for rules and regulations. Be safe
I bought small pots of Pothos and Philo plants (I like to grow them from babies) and got free thrips😱 It took me forever to get rid of them - and the damaged leaves. Thankfully they are doing well now but it put me off from buying off f/b marketplace
Haha oh Becca with your love/hate relationship with anthurium I would not go for an anthurium Metallicum! They are such wimps, like worse than queens. Anthurium Cirinoi velvet looks super similar and is better behaved (I’ve been able to acclimate it to open air and it thrived in my greenhouse) but still acts like an entitled anthurium.
I bought a begonia prismatocarpa on Etsy... it arrived and it was soaked. It was as though they watered it and immediately put it in the box. I showed it to my boyfriend who is not a plant person and he was like "you got scammed". As someone who has had plants for 3 years now and has been buying from Etsy frequently, I was disgusted. These sellers know how to take care of plants and should know you can't put a wet plant into a box and expect it to live. I think it was also fairly cold at the time. I left a review and to me 3 out of 5 stars was generous considering I received a soggy mess. They offered to send me 3 plants and I just had pay for shipping or something but it would have ended up costing more than I initially paid? I respectfully declined but what a mess!
OM-Gosh ppl are so scandalous 😮🥺 the mealies story with the string of hearts 🙁 Mealies in the greenhouse 😳 what!!!! They need to let some ladybugs or some kind of beneficial bugs go in that greenhouse!!!!
There’s a nursery local to me, I go there way to often to browse and I have found mealies, thrips and spider mites(at different times) on plants and tell them. It happens right? But sometimes they get an attitude when I tell them, some are very thankful.
There’s a small shop in town here where they sell yoga stuff, accessories, books and a lot of other stuff. They have also a relatively huge space filled with plants they‘re selling but they only come there to die. The day they restock the plants are gorgeous and a few days later they’re all on the brink of death 😅 seen an aweful lot of thrips there
He would go under a different name if he popped up again, so we can’t identify them until the pattern repeats :/ or maybe the pattern won’t repeat and we’ll all be confused haha
My daughter worked with a girl who loves plants as much as I do so I gave her some rooting cuttings . Although I don’t blame anyone maybe my self, I gave her the prop box I was propagating them in and didn’t get it back. My daughter no longer works with the girl so the only thing I’m out of is a smallish prop box. I truly hope the cuttings made some beautiful plants for her! 🙂❄️💚🙃
Being on UA-cam and showing your face doesn't mean you can trust them. There have been so many scammers busted here on UA-cam in different fields like health and fitness, plants, etc that ended up or are currently facing legal charges
I had to cut down my adansonii almost to the nub she is doing better now but yeah the mealyss suck the sad part was I had grown her leafs to be big and now she is a Lil baby again
Wow the most shocking thing in this vedeo was you not recognizing the euro sign, a literal letter E😂 no hate though, just genuinely didn't know that was a thing.
I will take mealies and spider mites over thrips any day. From this video we can see that the main bugbears to plant buyers are scam sellers, rot and pests. The last post was the worst one by far, free plant, bringing in thrips and a 3 year infestation as a result. Highly annoying. I was enjoying the video but you dismissing thrips like that makes me think you didn't have the worst thrip species when you had them. There's hundreds of them. Get the wrong variety of thrip and like you say they fly so they will spread like wildfire. And with the wrong one you don't notice the damage or see them till its far too late. Mealies are the size of ladybugs and as slow as a snail in comparison. It's like having a competition to a) catch a slug or b) catch a mouse. Which would you pick? Mealies worse than thrips? Ha. I know people get caught out by mealies all the time, I have been growing plants for 30 years, dealt with all the crawlies but thrips are the most resilient, their babies too small to even see, they fly so keep spreading. Mealies take weeks to spread to other plants and only if one lets their numbers get out of control. I mean if people let mealies kill their entire collection within a week, those mealies were multiplying for weeks already and mealies are hundred times bigger and slow and don't tend to hide as much. If people can't even control one of the easiest pest the mealie bug they have no chance with thrips. In fact I know endless growers that just have an endemic problem of thrips in their collections for years and they are completely unaware. They never ever see them so they insist there cannot be a problem but I see the damage but they insist if they have never seen them, they cannot be there and there is no problem or they like to believe they have harmless springtails and shouldn't be worrying. People often prefer to be ignorant and happy as a result instead of throwing out all ones plants because it would be impossible to deal with a problem one cannot see or even thinks one has and it certainly is tough. I am also still trying to get rid of the ones at mine for good. I had to invest in the most expensive industrial greenhouse sized pest control I could find and the buggers are not completely gone yet after the first treatment but I'm hopeful I'll get them this time round. Otherwise I will also have to resign to accepting they are unkillable and just ignore them like so many others.
Alot of Etsy sellers like to show large beautiful plants when they are selling a node, buyer beware and read everything including shipping costs before hitting that complete purchase button.
Omg some of the stuff I’ve seen on Etsy and eBay is a JOKE!!! Like a bad joke, and I hate that i see “X people have bought this” - ESPECIALLY “monstera variegated all seeds” ugh… actually so many BS posts on Etsy… I can’t even pick the worst…
Who was the Infamous Plant Scammer? 🌿
I want to know this too hahha
Omg I have recented started buying plants online and I have gotten SOOO many that started dying off quickly and come to find out there weren't ANY roots!!!
I also won't buy from FB anymore bc the plants are always knocking on heavens door lol.
Too bad someone doesn’t make a list of some reputable sellers so people can stay away from the sketchy ones and not become one of the scammers victims. UA-cam creators unite and make a list for us people who have no idea of a good or bad seller. People they buy from and have a good successful experience with. I understand that a UA-cam creator can’t be held responsible for a one off bad transaction, but you guys know who you can trust or if someone should back away from a seller. ❄️💚🙃
There’s a group on Facebook where people post reviews - good or bad! It’s really informative 😊
There are fb groups for that, at least here in Australia. But scammers are clever and keep changing their names, profiles etc. there are big international syndicates set up to scam people all over the world out of money essentially using plants as bait. It's not the buyer's fault, and often is unavoidable, they really do their research and stay one step ahead.
Hi ! First of all, I am so excited because I just ordered Delatanks mix!!!!!!!!🎉
Also the only down I have had was buying a Hoya carnosa crimson princess from Walmart with mealy worms, which I am not surprised I guess.
It was just such a big plant.
Plus side : I now have experience with mealys 😬😬😬
Etsy is by far the worst place to buy plants. Even ebay is better. Got sick of getting ripped off by home growers with bad cuttings.
If they only want friends and family payment run
I bought an edible fig (PAID for an edible fig I should say), when it showed up in the mail, it looked weird, but only had 3-4 leaves on it, so I didn't think much of it. After growing for a few months through spring/ summer in a pot outside (I missed transplanting time) I realized it had grown PIN straight with zero branching. It was then I realized it wasn't an edible fig, and was in fact a FIDDLE leaf fig. It's now about 6.5 feet tall living by my sliding glass door, one of my favorites! An L turned into a W. This was a fun video!
This is the plant version of true crime 😂
I totally agree in regards to local plant shops, they know about the internet hyped plants and some shops will put ridiculous prices on plants knowing that someone will buy them.
We really have to pay attention to how the prices compare at different shops. We also have to think about how quickly the plant grows in optimal conditions and what experience people have with it.
In my area I know that once a "rare" plant shows up in one spot it's only a matter of time before it is everywhere. Especially if it is a fast grower. From there I decide a price I'm willing to pay for it and wait. I check out my local nurseries and the farmers market. If I never find it at the price I want then so be it, I already have plenty of plants to care for.
It's okay to walk away from a plant. You'll come across a bigger healthier, cheaper specimen later on and maybe you'll be able to offer the plant more as a caretaker.
Confession time!! I accidentally sold a plant with snails!!?? It wasn't doing well after I brought it home from a reputable nursery. It was a Dischida Ovata Varigated. It was beautiful! But I have a bad track record with succulent trailing plants, so I thought it was bc of me. I left it in the nursery pot and thought I had a good watering schedule, but it was still doing bad. I sold it as a rehab for maybe $5 (it still had the $30 price tag on it). The lady that bought it was so happy and said she does rehab all the time. She sent me pics of the little snails, and I was shocked! I have never heard of snails being a pest for houseplants. I checked all the other plants I bought that trip, and they were fine. I still felt really bad though. It had some long trails left, so she was able to propagate those and start again, thank goodness.
I bought a plant once and discovered snails on it, only a couple. I felt so bad…they didn’t seem like the kind of pest I should throw out in the garbage, so I posted them online for someone to take for free 😂 surprisingly someone did take them. They were so tiny and cute. 😄
I bought a hydrangea 2 years ago that was infested with centipedes, I called and told the store but was afraid to put it back into my car to take it back. That was a 40.00 loss for me, I planted it but it died anyway.
If the substrate was moss or peat heavy it being infested with snails isn’t super surprising. If you raise orchids you’ll find snails are common and they love eating roots/leaves lol 😅
Found a scammer this week. New Etsy shop had 20 sales an gorgeous plants, M. Aurea awesome price. I messaged about a pic of the exact plant. They responded, “ will send pic when I get home” the next day I checked they had 80 sales. Still no pic the next day so I checked an the shop was gone! Poof! Always check how many sales an the reviews. 💚
No way!!! Agh 😭
I wonder if it was the same seller I kept seeing. They only had reviews for beaded jewelry, none for plants. Then their shop disappeared.
Wow! I am a seller on Etsy & this kind of content is invaluable to me! To hear all of these nightmare stories breaks my heart! I take so much pride in my plants & truly love to care for all of them! There is so much joy involved for me in growing a beautiful plant or prop & then being able to list the plant & share them with people all over the US! I can't imagine ever doing any of these thing to people. I have so many people that will come back & repurchase & that is my biggest compliment.
The one thing that shocks me as a seller is the lack of communication between seller & buyer. When you purchase from me, I always try to reach out & let them know I have seen their order & will start working on getting it shipped. What surprises me is how often I hear how much people appreciate the communication. I don't think sellers ever talk to customers because people always act shocked & amazed that I reached out. That always boggles my mind because it isn't hard to say to your customer, hey... thanks for purchasing from me & I will get your plant on its way!
Thanks for doing this video, Becca. It is like doing research for me to know some of the struggles of my customers!
Etsy is so scary to spend money on right now! I’ve been scammed 4x
@@ThugSoda that’s no good! I’m sorry you had some bad experiences. Their purchase protection plan is pretty good so I’m sorry to hear that! I hope your experiences get better from here out. Plants should be fun, not scary & scammy! Good luck on your journey!! 💚💚
The mealy bug/SOH was crazy because I think if she had posted it being honest abt the mealies and asked for $20 she probably would have gotten that. It’s a sizeable plant and there are people out there who would take a chance on fixing it. Not me but someone 😂
Isopropyl alcohol sprayed on any pest on a plant works! Cheap and effective! Some plants are sensitive to it but as a whole you can save a plant 100% maybe losing a few leaves! Spray on leave 5 minutes then rinse. Repeat 1a week for 2-3 weeks.
Hi there 👋I'm the one with the root issues on plants from local sellers. The Hoya kerrii was sold to me by an older lady who I'm convinced had no idea that she was giving away a plant that was soon to be dead, so I never reached out to her after I found out. The person who sold the Hoya carnosa tricolor with half dead/half unrooted cuttings also sold me a Hoya heuschkeliana variegata which had root rot. While trying to reroot the plants I also found out they had flat mites. I should have contacted the seller immediately but put it off since I'm rather shy and try to avoid confrontation. When I finally felt ready to do it, the seller had deleted their profile. But, silver lining, I'm now pretty good at rooting plants and just buy unrooted cuttings 😄
I still see etsy adds for monstera albo seeds . I got scammed buying a thai constellation cutting, luckily etsy refunded the money
I still see albo seeds on Etsy.
This video was fun to watch and very informative. You should definitely do a part 2! Also yesss, mealy bugs have no chill. I've had them for 4 years now, once you have them, you have them forever lol. My plants are still healthy I just have to make sure my plants are cleaned often and the population doesn't get out of control.
i had mealy bugs and kill them all with "pyrethre" don't know the name in english ( btw i'm belgian) the only thing it's you must be extra carefull cause it can kill bees ans other benevolent bug ... a tent, some time, and soapy water to wash the plant after the treatment.😁
Only scam I ever been close to was people reselling plants from the store, peeling off the tag and reselling for double the value acting like they grew them
Oh my, what sad stories. I have never bought plants online and am totally skittish to do so. It would be so horrifying to bring a new pest home in a trade. Why are folks so greedy to do those things? And really, I don’t feel a need to spend the kind of money in some of these stories on something that might die. I’ll just stick with my mostly common plants.
The only thing that works for me with mealies is those pest controll sticks you stick directly into the soil. Plants take up the chemical in their sap and sap sucking pests get poisoned. It also lasts for a while so potential offspring gets killed as well. I try to go the more natural and less chemical way with most other pests, but for mealy bugs I just can't!
100% agree with it being worth it to pay a but more for larger mature plants. I’ve learned this recently and it’s changed my enjoyment of plants. Also just being patient and waiting for a plant you love, that’s the size you want to the right level of variegation. So much more satisfying and happy in the long run
I just buy from sellers with over 500 sales and a 4.6 rating or better with most recents being 5 stars. It ensures me a great experience
Wow, this video made me feel so much better after my Alocasia African Mask died from root rot that I bought from a local nursery in AZ for $30. I never watered the plant either before I realized, 2 weeks later and it was too late. These poor people loosing so much money over something that they were hoping (or did) bought them joy. I'm manifesting their favorite plant in their collection is thriving beautifully.
This happened to me with a pea plant.. Soil stayed wet for weeks and I had never watered it TT
not necessarily me being scammed in the normal sense but i was selling plants locally on facebook and someone commented they wanted ALL of the cuttings i had for sale that were not yet claimed. it something like 9 cuttings of philodendron bipennifolium that i was selling for $2/piece (i had around 16 cuttings total). i was like okay this i amazing no problem, got paid for it via venmo and everything but was out of town before they got a chance to pickup so i just kept them rooting in water. i then got a message from someone who i had sold plants to previously warning me that the person who wanted all those cuttings is a known flipper in the local community...so i messaged them and said they declined while i was away and didn't feel comfortable selling them and refunded. and now that person who warned me about the flipper is one of my absolute best plant friends!
I bought a little monstera peru at a local plant shop that I noticed wasn't growing and then realized it was not rooted! I think you can root in soil but I wasn't aware it was unrooted, luckily I didn't spend too much but still, I would've liked it they told me!
Thrips are not as noticeable as you think. I get them about once every year and I always spot the thrips before I spot the damage. In fact, I’ve only had one plant in the last few years with the noticeable silver markings you hear about and that was only because the infestation went unnoticed inside a closed prop container. And only one leaf had the markings. I think people have thrips longer than they think when they have noticeable damage. I usually notice it at the start of the infestation or after it’s spread to a few plants.
I will also say it’s very possible to have a plant full of thrips eggs with no damage. I once bought a plant online that was perfect upon arrival but within a week of receiving it it was covered in thrips larvae. Luckily I noticed before they reach maturity and it only took one treatment to get rid of them The plant looked perfect upon arrival.
This happened with my PPP. No damage, looked at it one morning and lots of larvae. Washed them off and sprayed it with alcohol
Hi Becca, such a great video and topic! So how about a Monstera albo absolutely beautiful photos onlin, selling for around150.00 fOr a 3 leaf cutting with roots, fast forward to receiving and opening the plant and what do we get?? A green Monstera with White Out painted on it!
So sad that folks get scammed online. Those are yucky people for sure, and karma will eventually get them!
I kind of want to know the name of the redacted scammers now 😂😂
Oh that mealy story... I took some ivy cuttings to a plant swap once and I swapped them all--then 3 days later I saw that the mother plant was completely COVERED in spider mites and I had completely missed them when I was taking the cuttings!! I will never recover from the embarrassment.
you should definitly do more of these videos it was so fun to watch. Maybe a part 2 update if people answer the questions?
2nd video in this series should be called: The Call is Coming from Inside the Greenhouse!
Loool I love that!!!!
It’s so sad that people do this to each other. I feel so badly for folks who’ve been scammed. But honestly-I swear we have a local shop that sells things under false pretenses and they have so many customers. They sell unrooted plants without disclosing that. I bought a moana loa cutting for $80 from them online, and I went to pick it up and it was totally shriveled up and sue was going on and on about how amazing it was. It’s just sad. She sells things that aren’t labeled correctly, and people are always calling her out for that. And she’s still here. I don’t get it!!
Thank you for listening! ❤❤❤
Becca, thank you for saying that shaming is unproductive 👍
Honestly, with the ZZ plant and the philo ring of fire, I think the seller thought that they would just root up in the soil. They did way too much effort with (I assume) putting holes in the mugs, I don't think it was a scam. The seller should have told them it was unrooted though, they could have put them in water.
For the tea: there are heating mats/pads for tea cups. They're not too expensive on amazon. You can put any mug on it.
Simply nailogical made me aware of these
Oh my gosh these are crazy stories. I bought a scindapsus from a local shop and it looked great but when I got it home to report it they were all fresh cuttings with very little roots. I was surprised because I bought it thinking it was a nature plant…definitely wasn’t. Really enjoyed the video. Part 2 please! 💙
Terrible. There are bad people out there no matter what they sell. Money is always the main reason for selling and bad people take advantage. I have had several great sellers in regards to sick plants, forgotten orders to smaller than expected cuttings from eBay to Etsy that blew my mind! I can't wait to hear your video on the buyers' compassionate sellers experience. I've got some stories to tell! Thanks for sharing. New York
Okay ilysm I wanna know if we’re all talking about “the albo king” (delete if not allowed) he gives SUCH scammer vibes
I don’t know that one!! That’s not who was redacted 😅
Unethical I think is the word you were looking for. And I absolutely loved this content. More please!
ooo about the tea cooling thing! Ceramic is a terrible conductor of heat, which is why most mugs are ceramic, so the drink cools to an acceptable temperature. It's not great if you drink your hot drinks slowly (like myself) so maybe try a glass mug or get a smaller thermos type mug to ensure your drink will stay hot enough for you 30 minutes from when you make your drink.
Thanks for doing this. I haven’t had a bad experience purchasing online but I’ve never attempted to purchase “rare” plants online. This has been an eye opener and an education. I feel for everyone who got shorted for just loving plants as I’m sure we all do. 🌱
my dad bought me an 'Ember' heated mug. I freakin love it!!!!! it has changed my coffee and tea drinking game! hot to the last drop....the best. Im telling you, get one!!!
Quite funny video, I think most of us got scammed in the past, but some of this storys are just sooo bad. Some years ago when I started with orchids I got scammed by an ebay seller with thousands of good ratings, bought one plant, it came in terrible conditions but I got an replacement, no issues here. When it bloomed first one year later it was not the plant from the picture I paid for, just a cheap no name hybrid. Later I found out this seller is known for not sending the plants you pay for, and he did this for several years. I don't know if he is still around...
Omg no you should get insulated mugs!! They work so well I got some for my boyfriends mom and she’s obsessed!
Yes!!! Once you use one there no going back...
I really enjoyed this video! I’ve had some problems with sellers 🤦🏼♀️ some of these stories could have been me two years ago when I first started out 😂
I love how you drank tea as you spilled the tea ☕️ 🫖 😂
I really enjoyed this video! Thank you for sharing.
I totally agree with buying the mature plants. Back when Birkins were the new rare thing I bought a tiny immature one because I really wanted one but couldn’t afford the full size plant. Yeah it didn’t make it. Immature plants are so difficult unless you really know what you are doing
I actually prefer immature plants. I can acclimate them better to my home’s environment so they won’t be as picky.
That's why I buy from Steve's leaves, and Gabriella's plants. Actual nurseries with great customer service 🌱💚🌱💚
Oh Gabriella Plants is THE BEST!!!
To me a wet stick is a cutting and cuttings are hit or miss. I bought cuttings of a fruit bearing fig tree and only 1 out 5 cuttings rooted. I think when buying cuttings, there are no guarantees they will take and that could feel like a bad experience when they fail. I think working with cuttings is more for the experienced hobbyist with time to spare. I will when possible buy a well established plants instead of cuttings to save myself the disappointment. After listening/watching to this, I am making mental notes... never mix business with friendships; no cuttings... avoid as much as possible; read reviews previous customers left of sellers; always do some research; where possible visit the local nursery instead; and someone you just met on social media, probably not your friend.
I would love to see a part of 2!.
Hahaa great video!! You said your pest that never fully goes away is spider mites, mine are thrips. I feel like like ever since the first time I got thrips they’ve never truly left!🤣💀
This was so entertaining 🤣 You should make this a permanent series you do!!!
WAIT STOP. I JUST LOOKED UP WHAT THRIP DAMAGE LOOKS LIKE. I think…. I THINK I HAVE THRIPS. HOLY CRAP.
Oh no!!!! I’m glad you know but so sad you have them 😭😭
Welcome to team thrip ☠️ 🌱
I would be so interested in learning the stories from the other viewpoint as well! I'm sure the stories as told are true and the experiences suck. But... There is always another side to a story and I would love to hear from sellers their horror-buyer stories. Just to also have some more understanding on how a buyer can make things very difficult.
Oooh that’s a great idea!!! You are so right - always two sides 😄
I hope you do much more of these, quite interesting.❄️💚🙃
I can say i got very close to buying from some sketch sellers on etsy during 2020, however thankfully there were sever very good local shops near me that were not sure expensive yet and I bought from them. I did however buy from a seller more recently in mid 2022 on etsy. While not a scam , i did feel like the seller was advertising one thing but shipping something else. I purchased two plants . They were 4 inch pots , as i have a smallish space and didn’t want a large plant . What i got were two 8 inch pots with huge overgrown plants that were stressed and neglected. They had massive bug problems as well in the soil. The seller was very responsive but always skirted the issues , saying they gave me better plants than I ordered for the same price. I just threw them both out bc they weren’t going to be worth saving and the bugs were crazy. I realized a month later the plants weren’t even the same variety i had originally bought they were a variety that isnt even meant for the indoors!
This was a great video. Very informative.
This was a very good video, alot of information that is invaluable. A 2nd follow up or along the same line would be awesome.
I have purchased from various sellers in my local BST who claimed that what I was buying was established and fully rooted when they were not. In one case it was just the nodes with the start of aerial roots just stuck in the substrate. I think in a couple of the cases, it was just miscommunication on what they felt was fully rooted and established, compared to what I believe is. The one with no roots, well, I think that was just ridiculous. LOL
I don't buy online. Everything that can go wrong can go wrong. You don't know what you really get. You don't know how badly the postal service will handle it. You don't know when exactly will it arrive. You don't know $#!£. I can feel the anger and frustration just thinking about it. So I go to shops and look around fore something interesting. And I have few plants that don't often appear on the shelves and I have to be happy with it.
I've bought plants online, but I look for reputable sellers, and companies. I also suggest getting plants from plant shops and stores. This is why I do this, I check online for reviews and such. But do your homework. I've tried cutting my own wet sticks to try, and 1/3 of them rooted successfully, I tried it with something cheap. Good way to try it, but double check with plant shops there return policy. Planterina was successful, Amazon was successful. I have not tried Etsy or eBay, but double check sites for rules and regulations. Be safe
Thanks for another great informative video.
I bought small pots of Pothos and Philo plants (I like to grow them from babies) and got free thrips😱 It took me forever to get rid of them - and the damaged leaves. Thankfully they are doing well now but it put me off from buying off f/b marketplace
Super curious if anyone has had those plant subscription boxes and how they did. Never known anyone who actually purchased them
Haha oh Becca with your love/hate relationship with anthurium I would not go for an anthurium Metallicum! They are such wimps, like worse than queens. Anthurium Cirinoi velvet looks super similar and is better behaved (I’ve been able to acclimate it to open air and it thrived in my greenhouse) but still acts like an entitled anthurium.
I bought a begonia prismatocarpa on Etsy... it arrived and it was soaked. It was as though they watered it and immediately put it in the box. I showed it to my boyfriend who is not a plant person and he was like "you got scammed". As someone who has had plants for 3 years now and has been buying from Etsy frequently, I was disgusted. These sellers know how to take care of plants and should know you can't put a wet plant into a box and expect it to live. I think it was also fairly cold at the time. I left a review and to me 3 out of 5 stars was generous considering I received a soggy mess. They offered to send me 3 plants and I just had pay for shipping or something but it would have ended up costing more than I initially paid? I respectfully declined but what a mess!
OM-Gosh ppl are so scandalous 😮🥺 the mealies story with the string of hearts 🙁
Mealies in the greenhouse 😳 what!!!! They need to let some ladybugs or some kind of beneficial bugs go in that greenhouse!!!!
Right!! So bad 😭🥲
i love this concept!
There’s a nursery local to me, I go there way to often to browse and I have found mealies, thrips and spider mites(at different times) on plants and tell them. It happens right? But sometimes they get an attitude when I tell them, some are very thankful.
Ugh. Hate that they give attitude, pests happen! Glad you tell them though
There’s a small shop in town here where they sell yoga stuff, accessories, books and a lot of other stuff. They have also a relatively huge space filled with plants they‘re selling but they only come there to die. The day they restock the plants are gorgeous and a few days later they’re all on the brink of death 😅 seen an aweful lot of thrips there
The last rooted cutting i got rotted so fast 😭
This was a super fun video. I definitely can’t wait for part 2.
This is a good video thank you also I bought your soil it was three best
Love! Yes please for part 2!
who is the well known scammer? i’m new to the plant community and don’t want to get scammed :((((
He would go under a different name if he popped up again, so we can’t identify them until the pattern repeats :/ or maybe the pattern won’t repeat and we’ll all be confused haha
Thank you Becca .❄️💚🙃
Thrips are the worst, I hate them.
I bought monstera aurea wet sticks. After I got it grow. Turned out to be pothos. Ugh. Unable to find seller now
Oh noooo!!
So I guess Etsy doesn’t vett their plant sellers?❄️💚🙃
Where can we send you our stories for part 2 😂
Oh never mind, you said at the very end!
This was a fun video, subbing 😂😂
Welcome to the party!!
Great video btw
This is my favorite video of yours.
Thank you so much!! Glad you enjoyed :)
My daughter worked with a girl who loves plants as much as I do so I gave her some rooting cuttings . Although I don’t blame anyone maybe my self, I gave her the prop box I was propagating them in and didn’t get it back. My daughter no longer works with the girl so the only thing I’m out of is a smallish prop box. I truly hope the cuttings made some beautiful plants for her! 🙂❄️💚🙃
Did she know to return the box? I think you’re very nice to wish her plants well😇
This was really fun to watch :)
Part 2 pls!!!
love this!
Being on UA-cam and showing your face doesn't mean you can trust them. There have been so many scammers busted here on UA-cam in different fields like health and fitness, plants, etc that ended up or are currently facing legal charges
You’re so right 🙃
I had to cut down my adansonii almost to the nub she is doing better now but yeah the mealyss suck the sad part was I had grown her leafs to be big and now she is a Lil baby again
There are TONS of plant scams on Etsy now. You purchase a plant and then the page will disappear. Be sure to check reviews before purchasing 🙁
I still see Albo "seeds " on Etsy as well :(
@@jmf322 "Albo" seeds? I know nothing about this, is it impossible to have seeds of an albo plant?
@@Darenim yes that is not possible, you cannot grow Albo monstera from seed. It's a scam
@@jmf322 Good to know, thanks!
Me too
Wow the most shocking thing in this vedeo was you not recognizing the euro sign, a literal letter E😂 no hate though, just genuinely didn't know that was a thing.
Part II!
Let us know how we can get our stories to you
am i the only who who wants to know the guy that was scamming others 👀
💚💚
Floralisco
I will take mealies and spider mites over thrips any day. From this video we can see that the main bugbears to plant buyers are scam sellers, rot and pests. The last post was the worst one by far, free plant, bringing in thrips and a 3 year infestation as a result. Highly annoying. I was enjoying the video but you dismissing thrips like that makes me think you didn't have the worst thrip species when you had them. There's hundreds of them. Get the wrong variety of thrip and like you say they fly so they will spread like wildfire. And with the wrong one you don't notice the damage or see them till its far too late. Mealies are the size of ladybugs and as slow as a snail in comparison. It's like having a competition to a) catch a slug or b) catch a mouse. Which would you pick? Mealies worse than thrips? Ha. I know people get caught out by mealies all the time, I have been growing plants for 30 years, dealt with all the crawlies but thrips are the most resilient, their babies too small to even see, they fly so keep spreading. Mealies take weeks to spread to other plants and only if one lets their numbers get out of control. I mean if people let mealies kill their entire collection within a week, those mealies were multiplying for weeks already and mealies are hundred times bigger and slow and don't tend to hide as much. If people can't even control one of the easiest pest the mealie bug they have no chance with thrips. In fact I know endless growers that just have an endemic problem of thrips in their collections for years and they are completely unaware. They never ever see them so they insist there cannot be a problem but I see the damage but they insist if they have never seen them, they cannot be there and there is no problem or they like to believe they have harmless springtails and shouldn't be worrying. People often prefer to be ignorant and happy as a result instead of throwing out all ones plants because it would be impossible to deal with a problem one cannot see or even thinks one has and it certainly is tough. I am also still trying to get rid of the ones at mine for good. I had to invest in the most expensive industrial greenhouse sized pest control I could find and the buggers are not completely gone yet after the first treatment but I'm hopeful I'll get them this time round. Otherwise I will also have to resign to accepting they are unkillable and just ignore them like so many others.
thrips are just burning hell raised evil🥲
1€ for riding the bus. I wish 🥲