South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Has anyone every heard of or purchased from South Florida Bamboo Farm (South Florida Bamboo Farm-Home). They are selling 2-3 foot banana plants for $10-20 including shipping. I am thinking of ordering, but have not heard of them before.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

They sure have some nice Bamboo!

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Let us know about the plants you order after their arrival.

FWIW I just called their number in Ft. Lauderdale to see if I could visit that facility and the fellow who answered the phone said they were wholesale only, sold through the internet, and did not allow customers to visit their physical site.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

I placed an order earlier in the day for a Praying Hands, not knowing it was a wholesale dealer. The payment already went through. He emailed me and said it would ship within 1-2 days. I will keep you posted on the status.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Maybe they are working from home. I say that because of this comment on the site about their Buddha Belly.

"The specimen that we keep in our landscape is kept trimmed to about 8 feet in height and pruned to show off its special character."

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

I placed an order with South Florida Bamboo
Farm one month ago. I have received nothing. An e-mail query from me brought a brief reply that my order would be sent in a few days.
Still nothing.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

I recently ordered some plants from another company in south FL, Banana Plants and Banana Trees

They were having a sale and I got 3 plants for about $12 each and 6.95 for shipping all 3. They were backed up because of the sale, but I got them in a little over a week.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

I've ordered through them before. A little slow, but no problems. Plants were in good shape too.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

I have purchased from them several times. They also replaced two plants that died (I may have over watered them). They are a good seller!

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

I am glad to hear that! They seem to be pretty reliable. Did you receive good size plants?

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Yes! I was actually surprised at their size and they were very healthy. I would definitely purchase from them again.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

I wonder if I am being impatient, but a month to deliver a plant a few miles up the road seems excessive. The order was paid immediately and SFBF has the money, according to Paypal.
. . .
The Better Business Bureau, at my request, sent this: "There are no results for 'South Florida Bamboo Farm' within FL."

??

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

That doesn't sound good....

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Yeah a month is unreasonable especially being in such close range of the dealer. Did you try calling the number?? I am becoming uncertain. I think I am going to wait until the end of next week and hope they follow through. If not hopefully I can do something about it.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Well good luck
I hope it works out for you.
Stinks when things like that don't

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Seems like we're talking about two different companies, here, and possibly getting them mixed up. Is one good and one bad, both good, or both bad?

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Green Earth Inc. AKA Banana Planta and Banana Trees is good and is not afiliated with South Florida Bamboo Farm.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

I think when the BBB has no record, that's a good thing right?

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Correct. They track complaints. Or, that was their method historically.

I believe that it is now possible for a business (perhaps it is only online businesses) to proactively register, pay a fee, and display a BBB logo.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Hi everyone , what Mr Mathews failed to tell you is that plants were shipped 2 weeks ago and he failed to pick them up at the post office, they were returned to us D.O.A on Wednesday. We have issued a full refund to Mr Mathews.

and yes we are a legitimate company with no BBB complaints

Mr Bamboo
South Florida Bamboo Farm
South Florida Bamboo Farm-Home

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Thanks for coming in and clearing everything up. ;)

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Your quite welcome ! Please feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions about our business

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

If my order -- as Mr. Bamboo says -- was not delivered by the post office and returned to Mr.Bamboo, why didn't he notify me?

To update:
The refund money for the plant (only one) came back today -- a month after this all began -- from Paypal, with which I had registered the dispute.
The money for another order (seeds) has not come back and no seeds have been received by me yet.

As you know, I was unable to find out anything from BBB -- good or bad about this company.

This is probably enough said about this.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Sometimes it just some postal employees don't care as long as they are paid on time so thats their only concern! Our Post Masters know almost everyone by name, so they are held to higher standard coz its a hand full of people that work there! Plus some places have so many machines doing the work.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

The seeds never were returned, But I will see to it we send out another packet to you tomorrow , I will also send you some other seeds for you to grow for your inconvenience in the matter ...nuff said Mahalo

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Sounds like a more than reasonable offer to me, so I'll be placing an order with them in the near future.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Mrbamboo (I feel silly calling you that), maybe you could let us know your actual name? :)

I'm just currious, is it true you don't allow customers to visit your space/garden/wharehouse/shipping center, whatever you want to call it? If so are you working from home? Either way feel free to share some pictures of your landscaping. From what I saw on your website you have some great looking plants!

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

BUYER BEWARE!! Just wanted to give everyone an update with reguard to South Florida bamboo farm. After reading all the posts here I did order 2 plants that I never recieved, Total was 50$ through paypal. I e-mailed Mr Bamboo since I never got anything from him about shiping and got worried when I found adds on craigslist where he lost his lease and was liquidating. His reply to me was "I will send in the next day or so", that was 1 month ago.
To date I have nothing to show for my 50$$ and since the crook is broke , pay pal cant get me mt refund since he has no money in his pay pal account.
Since he doesnt have a nursery, as I live close and drove to his liquidation sale which is at his house to confirm someone elses post, I am thinking of closing my paypal account since I would not been out the 50$ had I used my credit card instead. Im going to call pay pal too, but wanted to warn everyone I can about this scam of a man.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

the fact of the matter is that we have 2 properties in miami and we are closing one location, Im moving alot of plants around and the property you came to is a rental property in broward that I use for storage , anyway , ,,,,after 3 years of business with paypal on July 25th , they locked our account , saying due to suspicious activity , we need to be re-verified, we have done everything they asked , but still our money is frozen along with 8 of our customers money....we are not the crooks ..paypal is ,,,after some research I found this happens to alot of paypal users ...PayPal Alternative - Pay Pal Lawsuits, PayPal Complaints & Fraud , as for your plants call me and I can make arrangement to pay you refund

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

The point of the post from me was not so much about the refund which I am entitled to and will be getting one way or another, but the fact that you never sent me the plants I paid for. After 3 years in the business as you said, one would think that when a person makes a purchase , makes the full payment and gets a conformation from the seller, they should in a reasonable amount of time recieve the items they purchased. I e-mailed you and was told they were shipping out. The fact that I didnt recieve them and after the second e-mail to you , you didnt even give me the courtesy or a response. This as you already know is BAD business practice. It doesnt seem so hard to pack something in a box and take it to the post office to ship it out to someone who not only paid for it, but was looking forward to getting it in the first place. The fact that you pubicly admitted to being broke , well I dont see this as a plus, nor is telling us that your paypal is frozen, obviously something isnt as it seems. If you want to make me happy, send me what I paid for, since you are still advertising it on craigslist and as I said its not so hard to pack something into a box, since my purchase included shipping and
not for nothing your "rental " whatever it is, isnt all that far from a UPS office.
While Im at it, if you dont have the plants I paid for then you already have my address, so why not send me a cashiers check for a refund??
Imagine if you paid for 2 rare bamboo plants , and your supplier shows up with a dandylion and said , "sorry we were to busy to plant bamboo this week so were giving you this instead, and we will keep your money as a gift from you to help us finance the next dandylion we plant." how would you feel?

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Im still waiting for you to email me directly with your address so I can send you a refund , or you can stop by and get it , I will also give you a Black bamboo for free for all your trouble ..no problem

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

that link is just a slick marketing campaign by National Merchant Bankcard. I have been using paypal since I don't know... forever. Never had an issue! Any giant company such as Paypal or ebay you are going to be able to find a story about someone having a problem and one time or another... but that site you qouted everything links back to postings on the same site!!!! Most people get their paypal locked up because of other people putting in a complaint or 2 many people putting a request for their money back...

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

OK I will weigh in on this. If you (South Fl. Bamboo) are willing to send some one a free black bamboo, how about sending me the sun burst bamboo that I paid for on July 19. I have bought several bamboo plants from you this summer - have been a regular repeat customer and would continue to be one (because you send good healthy plants at a fair price) if you would just answer your phone or return calls. An email woud be good. God knows I have sent you enough. I am to the point that I will take any clumping timber bamboo as a substitute if you don't have the one I ordered.
You have my phone number and my email.
Your attention to business would be appreciated.

Lonie McKoin
Lake Charles, La.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Martin, I don't know this person and just to be clear I'm not defending him, but I do understand the issue that can happen when using Paypal. I've spent many years selling on ebay and have heard about the Paypal horror stories for a very long time. The Paypal Sucks website is legit and has been around as long as I can remember. I've had friends have their accounts frozen from just one dispute, which then creates a chain reaction that's very frustrating and time consuming to deal with. I happen to know for fact that some of these disputes that ended in frozen accounts were not the vendors fault.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

YES LONNIE ,I HAVE RECEIVED YOUR MESSAGE AND WHEN WE SPOKE THE OTHER DAY I EXPLAINED ALL THIS TO YOU,WE ARE WORKING VERY HARD TO CLEAR THIS MESS UP..PLEASE BE PATIENT, PLEASE EMAIL ME YOUR ADDRESS BECAUSE I CAN EVEN ACCESS OUR RECORDS FROM PAYPAL

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Guess me and my brother have been fortunate as we have both had numerous ebay businesses one of which that my brother still runs selling cellphones and accessories with over 10,000 items sold and no issues with paypal, just issues with deadbeat bidders... haha

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

At least Mr Bamboo is on here communicating and making attempts to resolve these issues.

2009 has been a terrible year for many people due to the greed of a few, not saying that is the issue here but I have seen many business's including my own go down the tubes because of what is going on with the economy!

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

I thought I would say that I did recieve my order from SFBF, but my order was a mix up. I am probably the one you are talking about that received the free black bamboo. I contacted them, and they quickly gave me a full refund. I thought it was an honest mistake and they cleared it up well. Thanks for the bamboo!:woohoonaner:

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

I am sending you my info on private message on this site. As I said you send nice plants at a fair price. I look foreward to recieving a shipping notice.

Thank you,
Lonie

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

I wasn't going to bother to give you a response or rebuttal to your claim of never being paid from paypal, but since your pushing the issue and trying to save yourself, here is my response. I called you about 40 times and you never once answered the phone....NEVER, so why would you tell me to call you and waste my time listening to a phone ringing that you had no intention of ever picking up the call????
As I said in an earlier post that I would get my money back one way or another, I was issued a courtesy credit for the 50$ purchase from paypal, for my troubles with your so called company as your account is in the negitive numbers , and I felt it was unfair of paypal to allow the transaction to go through in the first place without you having enough money in your account to cover the possibility of issueing a refund if I wanted one. Apparently paypal after several e-mails continued to rule in my favor and issued me the courtesy credit as I told them this "If i was notified at the time of purchase that the seller had no money to cover a refund and my purchase wasnt guarenteed , I would have cancled the order ", However as thier policy inst like this they issued me the courtesy credit for the full amount, I was also contacted by thier executive department about wether you were paid or not, thier response was to tell me that you were paid on 7-27-09 in the amount of 50$ along with getting the shiping address.
I thought it was weird that when I e-mailed you on 7-29-09 you told me my plants were shiping in the next day or so, you never said you didnt get any info about who I am, what I ordered, and where to send it, you said your sending it, that Doesnt sound like as you claim, that you never got paid or didnt get the shiping info. Furthermore as you claim that your account is locked and you didnt get paid, nor get the shipping info from paypal, why on earth would you want to refund someone money and give them a plant when you claim that you were never paid in the first place??

Now the facts, I contacted The Florida Department of Agriculture as you claim to be a licensed grower , and the fact of the matter is your NOT licensed to grow anything in Florida. I also Contacted the American Bamboo Society Carriben chapter who you claim to be a member of, and the President Robert Saporito of the ABS Carribean chapters response to me was this " we have never heard of south florida bamboo farm, and he is not a member, nor a source of bamboo through the ABS". I have also contacted the BBB, who never heard of you along with the Federal Trade Commission as you claim to belong to all of these different entities the ABS, the Dept of Agriculture....etc , that you truthfully have no afiliation with. That is called FRAUD, claiming to be something your not.. these are the facts....not embelishments that Im stateing here. Your mantra should probably read something more like
Life sucks, people are stupid, Im a good thief!!
So as for a response from me.......here it is, you can take your free bamboo plant and your refund to me of 50$ that you claim you never get in the first place and shove it all up your ass!!!
NOW you got a response.....

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Conclusion unless proven otherwise South Florida Bamboo Farm is a scammer.

Or very lazy and not a logistical genious :D so everything gets mixed up.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

One more thing to clear up the Paypalsucks.com website that you sent us to , it is run by National merchant Bancard, if you scroll to the bottom of the page and click on paypal alternative , you come to this website PayPal Alternative, Alternatives To PayPal, Merchant Account, Accept Credit Cards Online - Home which is a bank who is trying to drum up business as an alternitive to paypal , and all of the palpal sucks type websites that are online are basically just that , a business who is trying to get the sellers to use thier companies as third party billers .... All big companies have thier problems and paypal isnt excluded, however it all starts with the seller who makes the agreement with paypal etc that they are legit and will live up to thier end of thier agreement with paypal to fulfill this service they advertise for. When the accounts are flaged, suspended, or frozen, its only after the seller doesn't fullfil thier end of the agreement. In the Paypal legal agreements page, the seller agrees to advertise legitimate information, and has the ability to answer back to buyer complaints. Both as to which South Florida Bamboo Farm violated, thier website claims that they are Licensed with the Dept Of Agriculture, they are not, also NOT a member of the American Bamboo society....which violated the paypal agreement, also when given the chance to fight my claim with paypal for non-reciept of goods, he didnt respond to paypal's inquiry to give the proof that he shiped my plants, because as we know , he got the money and thats where the buck basically sucked. So as for your defense of claiming that paypal was at fault, the fact is that after they paid you my 50$, you kept the money and didnt live up to your end of the agreement........else why would you issue me a refund publicly and free plant when you werent paid......paypalsucks.com is just a credit card company who manages the payment from a buyer to a seller. One of hundreds of paypal alternitives.....

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Wow ...you are a really angry person

1. I offered you a refund
2 . A free Bamboo for your trouble
3 , and yes we are a registered grower , I have the certicate to prove it.
4, The ABS membership is in my wifes personal name
5. Robert Saporito is a very good friend of mine , Ive probabably spent $25,000 with him in the last year and have the receipts to prove it...so I dont know where you came up with that?

6. Why dont you stop bitchin and just accept your refund and stop making something bigger that it is ,

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Thanx for all the great info, guys. I'm an avid & highly successful bamboo grower (not seller) myself. I've had great luck with Phyllostachys Viridis, Rubromarginata, Khasia, etc. If I had to draw a conclusion from what I've read I'd say:
Nobody's perfect, credential checks have to be a mutual venture to insure accuracy, time is money, & I'm rather impressed with any company that would go this far to resolve conflicts with their purchase agreements.

Working together, with a little time & patience, men have moved mountains.

I would also recall:
Central Florida Farms sold me a Ruby Siam. The order got somehow confused. I spoke with them & worked with them, all quite friendly, to attempt to resolve the problem. I had to wait until the following spring. I was understandably a little annoyed but agreed nonetheless.
The following spring, they sent, not one, but 2 Ruby Siams (with green striping in the leaves!) and a beautiful Silverstreak Ginger. They are healthy & thriving after a full summer here!
Despite their problems, I would easily consider doing business with them again.

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Just to clear things up I have uploaded several documents to prove that you are totally wrong

1. Picture from Florida Dept of Agricultures website listing "South Florida bamboo farm as a registered nursery and wholesaler .....


2.South Florida Bamboo Farm's Facebook page showing Robert Saporito as my friend........

3. Picture of the latest ABS member magazine sent to my farm .......

4. Picture of just one invoice which represents thousands of dollors spent at Robert Saporitos Tropical bamboo on a wholesale basis over the last few years .......


so I don't know where your getting your info from ...you obviously have been misinformed

Thanks

Marc aka Mr Bamboo

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Heres the direct link from florida Dept of Agriculture list of certified growers and nurseries, I noticed it was hard to read ....http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/plan..._nurseries.pdf

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

OK... on another note... Marc, how big of corms do you ship out on your Super Dwarf Cavendish?

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

Marc, actually I was angry 6 weeks ago when I didnt get what I paid for and didnt get what you promised to send. And as I said, I was going to leave it alone, however you continued to claim that I never contacted you about the refund you said you would give me , and as I said I called you about 40 times only to hear the phone ring.
As for my refund, I just told you in my earlier post , paypal gave me a 1 time courtesy credit of the 50$ I paid for the items I didnt recieve. So in all fairness ,there is no need for me to be refunded twice. I was going to drop the whole issue and leave it at the first 2 posts, and if you were a smart business man would have just left it alone and as someone else posted " People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel". However you continued to post that I refused to contact you about my refund, when the truth is you didnt answer your phone, 40 times.
Had you just chalked it up to expierence, this may have had a different outcome for you. Instead of telling me my 2 black bamboo were on the way, you should have said there is a problem and im issueing you a refund at that time. BUT what you said in your e-mail response to me after I questioned you about why I had not gotten any tracking info from you ,( although I did get a reciept from paypal for the 50$ transaction. Which by the way my payment to you was via my paypal cash account, and at the time of the transaction went from my cash account into your account. You apparently took the money and who knows what you did, because there were no funds left in your account to repay me or apparently the 8 other poeple as you told us here a refund for NON reciept of goods purchased.) And to date it seems as though there are 3 of us who didnt get what we paid for here posting on this website.... But what you told me in the first email on 7/29 after I questioned you about loosing your lease and having seen all your adds on craigslist was this "your ok, I have another property and didnt want to move my plants, im sending yours in the next day or so" this is your exact answer to me and I have your e-mail to prove it.My name address phone # and transaction reciept all were on the email, I sent you another e-mail
on 8/3/09 which was my response to your email from 7/29 . At that point I sent to you twice my transaction #,, my name , address etc....and you never responded. That is when I filed the dispute.

Now your chaseing your tail around and trying to fix your screw up.... but only after the fact....


I am not the guilty party here, I lived up to my end of it and you got paid.....the only thing I am guilty of is not doing my homework before my purchase, and not putting as much stock into the Mrs Matthews original post where she also paid for something she didnt recieve. I honestly just thought things might have gotten mixed up and it was an oversight on your part that she didnt get what she paid for. I gave YOU the benifit of the doubt I had about you and your company, and gave you a fair chance to make good on your claim that she somehow didnt pick it up from the post office, however I now see clearly what she meant.....just as your trying to blame this on me paypal and who knows what else, you did the same to her....if you had just sent what we paid for and didnt make so many excuses after we called you to the carpet on it, maybe this wouldnt be an issue. But you blamed this on everyone but yourself....as for MR Bamboo communicateing with us here, had he just answered my e-mail after he promised to send my plants in a day or so, and never got and at that time offered me a refund, not 6 weeks later, and only after this all comes out into a public forum, and furthermore as he stated " his account was locked on 7-25, 2 days before my purchase, so after he got my 2 emails with all the info he could have possibly needed, why didnt he tell me then that there was a problem with paypal freezing his account, and offered me a refund before I contacted paypal for NON reciept of item purchased and before all of this became public knowledge....WE all would not be here bitching about it. I may have been angry 6 weeks ago, now honestly i'm over it......I have my money back and learned alot about doing my homework prior to internet shoping, and doing a through backround check on a new company I havent bought from before......
As for the ABS, I too have the same exact reciept for plants I purchased from Mr Saporito, which has absoultly nothing to do with the ABS as he is the president of ABS, and also owns a bamboo nursery , 2 totally different things. I also purchased bamboo plants from his nursery which I found on the American Bamboo Societys Fl chapter website as being a member and a reliable source of bamboo of which by the way I recieved a reciept and tracking info at the time of my transaction. My info with reguard to the ABS is from Tracy Calla, who as you might know is the manager at Tropical Bamboo Nursery and Garden, here is her response to my question about your being a member of the ABS "With regard to Mr. Bamboo/ South Florida Bamboo Farm, we do know who he is, but can neither confirm nor deny the reports about his business practices. I can tell you he was not a member of the American Bamboo Society as of March this year, according to the official roster of membership maintained by the ABS treasurer. He may have joined since then, but the treasurer would be the one to have that information." As for the Dept of Ag, I gave them your address , phone # ect......according to them with the address I have, your not a licensed grower.....however I see I made an error and gave them an address which I believe was your "loosing my lease , come and get it sale" that you are selling from on craigslist. I do see your name on the Dept of Ag list, under a different address.
Saying im sorry for something which I make an error on isnt a problem for me.
As I said, I would like to end this matter......I got my money back, people can read and decide for themselves whether or not they want to purchase from you based on what they read. I have made several purchases from Robert Saporito and Green Thumb Palms after this whole mess took place and recieved my plants when promised, healthy and affordable too. Its just ashame you didnt live up to your end of what you promised me as I would have liked the black bamboo from you, however I did get it from another company and it exceded my expectations. Good luck to you and lets please drop the matter as its tedious , boreing and OVER!!

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

I agree, This whole thing kinda makes you wonder who your friends really are...Tracy Calla I see 3x minimum a week , I guess even in the wonderful world of bamboo ..business is business ...cut throat like every thing else!!

you are still welcome to stop by and shake hands and pick a bamboo if you like...mahalo

But I stand behind my mantra "business is good ! people are nice and Life is wonderful !! and Paypal sucks!!

Re: South Florida Bamboo Farm
 

I readily second the motion that this thread be Officially considered "Derailed" & the matter closed.

:lurk: Great Mantra, Mrbamboo!