A Greenhouse Gone Wrong

I wanted a greenhouse with the plastic inserts for walls. Or whatever that stuff is made from. I ordered an 8×8 greenhouse online from a local home improvement store, it arrived, and the project began.

My sixty-three-year-old husband cleared and leveled an area over by the apiary for the new greenhouse which initially involved moving heavy oak crates and a firewood pile. We purchased pressure treated posts to attach the greenhouse to because of the high winds we have here. We also purchased large pavers to place between the soil and the posts for an additional layer of protection.

We got as far as squaring the bottom pieces on the pressure treated posts and the initial four corner pieces and found that we were missing one of the side structure pieces. So I contacted the manufacturer only to be told that we wouldn’t receive the piece for a week. I called the home improvement place to see if they could verify it would be here today and when the customer service representative did so, she was told they had no idea who I was and no order was placed for any replacement part. On top of that, the rep was told that the piece was out of stock.

I hate liars.

The piece that’s missing is for the left side of the greenhouse. It looks like the example in the picture below. Without it, we’re dead in the water. The plastic panels fit into channels on the frame pieces and without it, we can’t finish the installation.

My husband is livid.

The customer service representative suggested that I return the product and reorder it with a discount. Odd suggestion. Not happening. So she arranged for a trucking company to pick the greenhouse up on Monday with a refund coming within three to five days. I’ll be watching.

I really wanted this greenhouse. But online ordering of anything substantial is so risky. I remember ordering the coolest looking gazebo from another online source and received only one piece of it. Just one. It took forever to send it back because the online site makes contacting them fairly onerous.

But this is just awful. We have money, time, and labor invested and for what exactly? I don’t have the greenhouse I wanted and I have to wait for my refund. My husband re-injured his knee while moving the oak pallets and he’s not happy about any of this.

I don’t blame him.

I realize not everything is perfect in this world and that sometimes things like this happen. It just seems as if it’s the norm anymore, to lie with no real consequences felt by anyone but the customer. I appreciate what the customer service rep tried to do to fix this situation, but clearly, no one was listening to her.

So I’m done. Good thing he cleared a spot for me to start seeds indoors. I had such hope for a lovely little greenhouse in which to putter about. My other one is falling apart and it would have been so nice to have this.

This is such a disappointment.