AeroGarden Strawberries

Follow-up Call from AeroGrow International

As mentioned in the letter that was sent out to those receiving the first shipments of Sweet Rubies strawberries, AeroGrow called me to follow up about the AeroGarden Strawberries.  The rep from AeroGrow called this evening at about 6:25pm Eastern to check the status of the strawberries.  As far as corporate telephone follow-ups go, I was very impressed by his candor.   He was very professional and made me feel like he truly cared about how my strawberry plants arrived.

He first identified himself as being from AeroGrow and that he was calling to follow up about the AeroGarden Strawberries.  Questions that AeroGrow asked me:

1. What day and time did you receive the item?
-I received the plants on February 13th via FedEx Standard Overnight.

2. What was the temperature outside during the delivery time?
-The temperature outside was about 45 degrees.

3. Did the plants remain outside for any period of time?
-No, the delivery was left indoors by the FedEx driver.

4. What were the conditions of the strawberry plants?
-Excellent condition.  No darkened areas on the leaves.

5. Did you plant your strawberries as soon as they arrived?
 -They were planted in the early evening of 2/13/2007.

“Thank you sir.  I also want to inform you that we are advising people to use the Herbs/Basil setting to grow their AeroGarden Strawberries, as when we designed the original AeroGarden and programmed the strawberry setting, we used a different breed of strawberries.”

-Interesting.

The gentleman then asked me if I had any other questions, which I did not.  He said that if I had any questions or problems during the growing process to call AeroGrow directly at 1-800-476-9669, email customerservice@aerogrow.com or visit AeroGarden help on the web at www.aerogrow.com/help..

All in all, a very good follow-up call by AeroGrow that was also enlightening.  They seem to be rather concerned about the conditions of the strawberry plants after shipment.  (Heck, I guess I would be too if I spent $27.99 to ship it!)

While problems could come up in colder climates, I feel that AeroGrow has taken multiple steps to ensure the survivability of the strawberry plants during the shipping stages.  The first level of protection is the AgriStar Star*Pac bag, followed by the foam envelope/bag and the sealed cardboard box with the HeatFactory Shipping Warmer to heat the internal temperature of the box.  With the combined three-tiers of protection, the plants are shielded from the elements and out of harm’s way during shipping.