Customer Etiquette
OUR PLEDGE: We pledge to treat every living being, except mosquitoes, with respect, kindness, dignity and integrity. We welcome folks from all walks of life to be part of our flower family. We care deeply about acceptance and inclusion. Character is what matters most to us. Regardless of your skin color, gender, beliefs, religion, race, or who you love - you are welcome here. Minus the a-holes and the grouches - they can go sit on a tack. Hate, belittlement and entitlement have no place here. If you feel that the negativity of the world is making you hateful and you feel like you might need a hug, we are here with open arms!
We have established an amazing group of customers and consider many of you family. Thank you so much for supporting our little farm and for taking the time to connect with us. We value you more than words can express. 2024 was a brutal year for our farm, our family and the dahlia community. We learned a lot of lessons. The following terms address some behaviors that most of you would never even contemplate. However, we had to update our terms and establish some boundaries to address the handful of folks that exhibit the behaviors mentioned below.
A famous person once said: "What you decide to tolerate more than once will inevitably become a repeated pattern. By not setting clear boundaries, you teach others - and yourself - that certain behaviors are acceptable, even if they make you uncomfortable or harm you. Every time you allow something that goes against your principles or well-being, you open the door for it to happen again. Setting boundaries is not just a matter if firmness, but of self-respect."
By visiting our site, you agree to and understand the following terms:
#1 Rule: Don’t be a 🍆!
We are always happy to answer your genuine questions and concerns (please read our FAQ, Terms & Conditions and Tuber Appearance & Expectations pages first). Please don’t let these terms make you hesitant to reach out to us with genuine questions - we want to assist and we want to provide outstanding customer service! We are human and we are not perfect. We will take accountability and make it right if we make a mistake. We want each customer to feel valued and appreciated, and we want to maintain our reputation as a business with integrity and excellent customer service.
Social Media Conduct: Please do not ask questions about your order or the status of your order on social media. Even a seemingly innocent question on social media can cast doubt on a farm. There are a number of “experts” that will give you inaccurate advice that could impact your dahlia journey for years. It causes a ripple effect of assumptions. If you feel that you do want the opinion of social media, please do not mention the seller’s name, do not include pictures of logos or labels that could indicate who the seller is, and simply ask your question without any implication of wrongdoing.
The following are often seemingly innocent requests, but we get flooded with them and it pushes us way behind schedule. To help us work together more efficiently, please refrain from:
- Shipping demands - We know you’re anxious to get your box of goodies! We totally get it! We are working long hours to get all of the orders pulled and shipped. We ship mid-April THROUGH May. We are located in MICHIGAN, so please take that into consideration in regards to shipping. If you will be traveling, please let us know when you'll be out of town and we will be happy to hold your order until you return. We cannot ship early or on demand to accommodate your schedule. Please refrain from messages such as "You need to ship my order NOW!" Please speak to us as you wish to be spoken to.
- Requesting order updates - It's perfectly normal to be excited and curious about when you'll receive your order. We simply ask that you refrain from requesting order updates since we cannot give you a specific date because Mother Nature has a tendency to be a bit bipolar. Our shipping information is posted on the website. We ship mid-April THROUGH May. If we run into any delays with processing orders, we will send out email updates. Please make sure you’re subscribed to our emails, or you will NOT receive updates. Please also check your spam folder and/or add “Christine@DragonflyDahlias.com” to your contacts to avoid missing our emails.
- Expecting immediate responses - Please understand, we’re not Amazon. We have only one person (me, Christine) that manages the website, communications, social media, the dahlias and farm duties (hubby does help with the heavy lifting, but he also works 50+ hours a week at his full-time job). Please allow 24-72+ hours (outside of weekends) for a response. During extremely busy times of the year, it may take longer for us to respond. 99% of questions asked are already answered in our FAQ, our Terms & Conditions, and our Tuber Appearance & Expectations guideline. Sometimes, I will answer quite quickly and sometimes it's so quickly that you might not realize I've replied. Before re-sending your email or getting upset, please check your spam folder and search your email inbox for "Christine Dragonfly Dahlias" to make sure I haven't already replied.
- Insisting on a direct email or reply even if the auto-email answered your questions - An auto-email IS a reply. There is no need for us to manually email you if the auto-reply answered your questions. We WILL directly reply to you if the auto-reply does not answer your questions.
Is it true that there’s a secret "blacklist" for bad customers?
Yes, EVERY business has one and we dahlia farmers have a shared list. We reserve the right to refuse service to anyone that crosses the boundaries listed below with us or a fellow dahlia seller. Please don’t let this make you hesitant to reach out to us with genuine questions - we want to assist and we want to provide outstanding customer service! However, we won’t be a doormat. Many of us dahlia growers have grown close and support each other by warning each other about the “dahlia Karens”. It’s very rare that someone is actually blacklisted, but below are some of the behaviors that we or our dahlia farmer friends have experienced that lead them to blacklist someone:
- Posting, or threatening to post, complaints on social media (we will see them even if we're blocked from the post). Other farms see those posts too and will add someone to the blacklist for an unwarranted public shaming of another farm. No single person has the right to destroy a legitimate business. Always contact the farm directly with concerns and resolve the issue privately.
- Repeatedly asking to buy outside of a live sale. We understand that the dahlia wars can be brutal and frustrating - we have to shop the dahlia wars too! While asking to pre-buy might seem innocent, it’s comparable to trying to cut to the front of the line at Wal-Mart on Black Friday. It's not acceptable.
- Filing or threatening to file a chargeback or encouraging others to do so. Chargebacks are only appropriate in cases of actual fraud. Filing a chargeback is a essentially guaranteed way to land a spot on the shared blacklist between growers.
- Rude, condescending or insulting tone used towards us. Please speak to us as you would want to be spoken to. We're grown-ups, we can be professional on both ends.
- “Tuber shamers” - these folks are often just uneducated, inexperienced and publicly criticize perfectly viable tubers because the tuber isn’t aesthetically pleasing. There are also some very experienced and educated dahlia people that are just judgy and insist on "beauty pageant" tubers. We will not cater to demands for refunds for perfectly good tubers because they don't meet unreasonable "beauty pageant" standards. There is no such thing as a tuber pageant for many reasons. Tubers are simply ROOTS of the dahlia plant. This mentality is spreading and we are working to address it with education. However, unwarranted public tuber shaming, or refund demands for unattractive - yet perfectly viable tubers, may land someone on the blacklist. Please see our Tuber Appearance & Expectations page for detailed information on what is, and what isn't, an acceptable tuber.
- Accusing farms of dishonesty, fraud, "bait and switch", or "funding their off season" because a tuber was canceled from your order. This is ill-educated an insult to our character. This is part of growing dahlias. We dislike having to refund orders as much as you do. We lose money when we have to refund because we are still charged the transaction fees.
- Threatening to or actually giving bad reviews if farms don’t accommodate unreasonable expectations, demands, or because a tuber/order had to be canceled due to storage failure. Bad reviews are typically only appropriate when a seller does not fulfill obligations that are actually within their control - not when it was something that was due to Mother Nature. If the seller refunds you for the part of your order they are unable to fulfill, that is not worthy of a bad review. Please try to look at these situations with understanding and common sense.
- Demanding refunds or replacements for tubers/cuttings that you neglected or did not inspect upon arrival. We guarantee that we will send you quality tubers and cuttings and we will honor that. But, it is the customer's responsibility to open, inspect, and report concerns within 24 hours of the package being delivered. We cannot be responsible for what you do with our tubers/cuttings beyond that timeframe.
- Public or private messages/comments/posts of “disappointment” because something sold out too quickly or because a tuber/cutting was canceled from your order. It's completely understandable to be disappointed, but making it public only damages the reputation of farms. Please don’t contact us or post on social media to express how disappointed you are with us. We have worked so hard and never have enough for everyone - this doesn’t give anyone the right to damage our reputation.
- Harassing growers with unwarranted complaints or insults, stating things such as:
~ “No one else has this issue"
~ “ABC farm is better”
~ “What a joke”
~ “You must be new”
~ “You should do the right thing and send me the tuber that was stolen from my cart”
- Accusations of “greed” regarding pricing or our offerings. My 2024 income averaged out to be just under $3 per hour, yes that’s THREE DOLLARS. Lots of 12-16 hour days. Our time is valuable and we work extremely hard. If you don’t like our prices or our offerings, you have the right to shop elsewhere or not at all. But please don’t call us greedy because you’re unfamiliar with this particular industry’s operating expenses and excessive amount of labor.
- Repeatedly harassing growers to answer questions they've already provided answers to, or not taking "no" for an answer. Please be respectful.
- Using a “bot” or auto-checkout software to essentially cheat on the dahlia wars. We’re adults - PLAY FAIRLY.