I purchased a Meyer Lemon Tree from Fast Growing Trees because their website advertised a 1-year warranty. When my tree failed, customer service suddenly told me the warranty was only 60 days. Instead of replacing the tree, they offered me a "$108 credit."
What they don't tell you is that this isn't actually a store credit. It's a promotional code.
The way they apply it is incredibly misleading:
The promo code reduces the product price before payment instead of acting like a gift card or account credit.
They apply the promo code before any sitewide discounts.
On a $114 replacement plant, they subtract the $108 first, leaving only $6.
Then they apply the 20% sale discount to that remaining $6 instead of to the full purchase price.
It gets worse. Because the promo code lowers the product value below their $99 free-shipping threshold, they then charge shipping fees and sales tax on the shipping.
It also became clear that this isn't a true store credit at all. If I use the $108 credit on a product that costs only $15, Fast Growing Trees doesn't simply apply the remaining balance to my account. Instead, because it's treated as a promotional code, I still have to pay shipping charges and sales tax on those shipping charges. A real store credit would function like payment and cover the purchase until the balance is exhausted. This "credit" functions as a discount code, which significantly reduces its actual value.
As a result, even though I was supposedly given a $108 "credit," I still ended up paying more than $28 out of pocket for a replacement.
What's really frustrating is that if I ignored both the warranty credit and the 20% promotional discount and simply bought the same $114 plant outright, my total would have been about $125. Yet somehow, after applying a $108 warranty credit and a 20% discount code, my final cost ends up around $136.
A warranty replacement should reduce what a customer pays, not increase it. The way Fast Growing Trees structures these "credits" makes them worth far less than their advertised value.
I followed their care instructions and did everything I reasonably could to keep the tree alive, yet it still died. The real disappointment came afterward. The advertised warranty did not work as expected, customer service gave conflicting information about coverage, and the so-called replacement "credit" was structured in a way that left me paying more than I would have paid without it.
A warranty should provide confidence that a company stands behind its products. My experience was the exact opposite. I feel misled by both the warranty advertising and the way the replacement credit was applied, and I will not be purchasing from Fast Growing Trees again. read more