I won 4th prize in the raffle and chose the $50 gift certificate but alas over a month later, I've heard nothing from them. Dave has contacted them again so it looks like they flaked out on us. Not a company I want to do business with and I hope friends of garden.org remember this, too.

What company was this, Ivan?

Looking at the title of his post, it must be Great Garden Plants.

I have a feeling that this certificate became lost in the mail. That is assuming they sent it promptly!
Waiting over a month to get your prize does not seem overly outlandish. I would feel differently if live plant material was lost.

But if you registered this shortcoming with Dave, I have every confidence that it will be corrected. There is a chance however that this company backed out of an agreement to provide a gift certificate. Dave may have taken their word that they would provide your prize.
I just think that we should let Dave work his magic. Who knows why they would back out and risk hurting their reputation.
Now if it is 6 months later and still no prize, then I would say it is not coming but I would give it more time.

My gift basket was not what I expected, but what I received was ok. According to the write up, I was supposed to get a cobra head weeder and seeds, and received neither. But hey, it was free! I did like the candles I received.

Just checked back about my prize, definitely did not receive all the items that were listed.

Personally, and this is simply my observation after being in the "business" for 7 yr., whether something is purchased or is gifted, the supplier should ship promptly. There is simply no excuse for a company to delay shipping for a month or more. @gardenfish, there is also no excuse for a company not to honor what was said to be the gift. In a worse-case scenario, let's say an item(s) was no longer available, the company should at the very least tell the recipient what happened to cause a change in the prize, and better yet, give that winner choices for a substitute prize.

I used a bunch of acorns to buy tickets and did not win a thing, so I guess I would be satisfied with anything I won. I have confidence that Dave will check into it and hopefully things will get all worked out. I do SO love candles!

@drdawg - agreed!

I was one of the last drawn and won a NGA ball cap. Nice quality cap which I am enjoying wearing but I wish the lettering were larger and more readable.

Great Garden Plants has a couple of nice recommendations in our green pages (blue link) so hopefully there's just been a mix up of some sort and they will indeed make good on their gift offer.

plantladylin said:https://garden.org/greenpages/view/307/Great-Garden-Plants/ has a couple of nice recommendations in our green pages (blue link) so hopefully there's just been a mix up of some sort and they will indeed make good on their gift offer.

Not sure how big of an organization Great Garden Plants is or where they are located, but I do know from personal experience that sometimes serious illness (hospitalization), severe weather, or whatever the case may be, gets in the way of our normal business activities. I would definitely give this more time.

I guess it would be frustrating, but considering that the contest and prizes are both totally free, I would hesitate to say anything bad until an explanation was given.

Dave will get it sorted out. He's good handling "issues".

Great Garden Plants is located in Michigan and I believe that area of the country has been having cold weather already which could cause a delay. Hopefully it was just a glitch with contacting Ivan and they will be in touch soon. Dave will let you know what he finds out.

I live in Michigan and September and October were very nice. Only in very late October did the Northern half and the U.P. Get a dusting of snow. I went to 35 just west of Detroit.
Starting in a day or two, I am heading down in the low to mid 20's with upper 30's to low 40's as highs. Wet snow flurries are forecasted for a day or two.
But really there has been no indication of any accumulating snow in the state that would have prevented the mailing of a gift certificate.
On the other hand, I mailed a Birthday card to my son on Long Island last year at this time. That card went missing!
I sent another card with a duplicate check some ten days later. His birthday was the 13th. The lost card actually showed up before the replacement! Both early in December.

They do send nice plants. Been years since I ordered from them though. I bet just a oops, it'll get sorted out.

I just looked and Great Garden Plants is located in Grand Haven, Michigan; weather reports for that city show low temps with snow showers. If an unexpected cold front came through, it might well have caused them a lot of work to prepare their greenhouses for protecting plants.

I find only one issue with that theory. Up here, locals know when the weather is going to change. Local nurseries by me have been battening down the hatches since a week after Labor Day.
I would think that they need to be ready by October 15th here. But up North, maybe October 1st. They can't afford not to be ready. If it turns out that we get a warm weather stretch, they could enjoy some unscheduled down time. They go by average weather dates, first frost, first snowfall etc. they can't afford not to take those dates seriously.

Jim.