GreenFin's (FIGCUTTINGS.COM) Winter Cutting Sale Posted (scam warning)

[don_sanders]

FYI for those who haven't seen it...GreenFin posted the page of his cutting sale for this season. Prices ($4-12 each) and number of varieties (230) have gone up.

How did the cuttings do for those that ordered the original $2 cuttings last year?

http://www.figcuttings.com/p/winter-...-for-sale.html


Edit by Gina - Scam warning - Over the past year, it has become evident that Greenfin cannot be trusted to deliver what you order and pay for.

[fitzski]

Has anyone received their trees yet?

[hammerwood]

He posted that he is running behind schedule on when the trees will be ready for shipping. Here os an excerpt

The $7 fig trees that were due to begin shipping on July 1st are growing well, but are a bit behind schedule. They appear to be about 6-8 weeks away from being ready, so shipping should begin around the end of August. We apologize very much for this delay, and will ship your trees as soon as possible.

[maimai2]

I have placed a big order but do not receive anything yet !

[Junglewild]

NO! Waiting six months now. He won't even return phone calls or emails. Just takes your money and disappears. I'm beginning to think James Sperman aka GreenFinGardens.Com aka FigCuttings.Com aka KansasTilapia.Com is a big scam. BUYER BEWARE!

[exoticplants1]

I ordered two ponte tresa for next year.great deal!

[Rewton]

I just noticed that a Ponte Tresa tree on ebay has been bid up to $430 with a day or so to go. Those prices obviously won't last.

[COGardener]

The collectors are pretty well saturated with Ponte Tresa trees now, I suspect that many cutting will be available this fall with everyone trying to cash in. Then the following year there will be many, many trees for sale which will push the price down. I think it will stay a high end tree for a few more years as long as it lives up to the hype when grown in the various climates in the US.

[Brian M]

Let's see how this works out..

[Schnablfig]

I am thinking of ordering some. Can anyone who has recieved theirs from figcuttings.com give a review?
Thank you.

[Junglewild]

Waiting over six months now just for cuttings. He won't even return phone calls or emails. Just takes your money and disappears. I'm beginning to think James Sperman aka GreenFinGardens.Com aka FigCuttings.Com aka KansasTilapia.Com is a big scam. BUYER BEWARE!

[COGardener]

So far, I don't think anyone has received anything.

[Junglewild]

Been waiting over six months now just for cuttings. He won't even return phone calls or emails. Just takes your money and disappears. I'm beginning to think James Sperman aka GreenFinGardens.Com aka FigCuttings.Com aka KansasTilapia.Com is a big scam. BUYER BEWARE!

[RegencyLass]

How did the cuttings do for those that ordered the original $2 cuttings last year?

I ordered almost 100 cuttings from him last year, and most all of them developed nice roots and leaves. Unfortunately I fell ill shortly afterward and, as no one was around to water them, they all expired. Needless to say I was heartbroken. So I'm having to start over from nothing, but this time I invested in a self-watering system, just in case.

[don_sanders]

Junglewild I believe that he delivered on his first order of cuttings in a timely fashion but has since not delivered anything to my knowledge. It's hard to say at this point if or when anything else will be delivered. Some have been able to receive refunds by sending him messages with Refund clearly stated in the subject.

[Junglewild]

I requested a refund twice and included it in the subject. I just get ignored.

[RegencyLass]

I received them within just a couple of weeks of placing my order.

[drew51]

I ordered cuttings last year and they were top rate. Every variety at least rooted one. Although prices seem high compared to a rooted tree. I'll wait for the sale.

[NativeSun]

I used Ponte Tresa fig trees as a "real life example" of economic bubbles while we were studying the great Dutch "Tulip Craze" of the 17th century. My kids now think of Frank/FMD as a modern day Scarface, lol

[SMMfarmer]

I am looking for starts and options for online orders to california seem limited. Found the fig cuttings.com website out of Kansas. Anyone know anything about them?
Thanks,
SMMF

[Junglewild]

Today (Sunday the 18th) I received an email update from FigCuttings.com. Of course, it was just another B.S. update of photos and said nothing about shipping out anything. Just another tease and quite frankly, an insult to those who have been waiting for a year or more for their plants and cuttings. As far as I know, NOBODY has received any of the items they ordered and James is continuing to take orders for future deliveries that most likely will never be shipped out. If you recently placed an order I would immediately start the refund process. Don't count on James refunding anything. He is a thief and a liar. He just takes the money and then ignores you. I'm surprised the man is not behind bars or six feet under by now for ripping off so many people. BUYER BEWARE!!

[Nic40]

go to IC3.gov to file your complaint against this guy to get him charged and the website shut down. This is the only way To get new collectors from getting ripped off.

[COGardener]

We really don't need multible threads on this topic.

Lets let this one fade into oblivion.

[Junglewild]

Today (Sunday the 18th) I received an email update from FigCuttings.com. Of course, it was just another B.S. update of photos and said nothing about shipping out anything. Just another tease and quite frankly, an insult to those who have been waiting for a year or more for their plants and cuttings. As far as I know, NOBODY has received any of the items they ordered within the past year and a half and James is continuing to take orders for future deliveries that most likely will never be shipped out. If you recently placed an order I would immediately start the refund process. Don't count on James refunding anything. He is a thief and a liar. He just takes the money and then ignores you. I'm surprised the man is not behind bars or six feet under by now for ripping off so many people. BUYER BEWARE!!

[RunsSlow]

Apparently James failed to return several phone calls and emails sent by the Kansas State Attorney General, when they sent inquiries about his business transactions, so they have now sent a formal complaint to him.

If he is subsequently prosecuted, perhaps his conviction will include reimbursing we, his victims.

[randy/ga]

gm all, so glad i didnt fall for this. if not a refund at least the attorney general should be able to get him offline and prevent any further scamming. lets hope so! randy/ga

[Nic40]

I can't take this crap anymore I'm calling his local police station and I recommend you all do as well. This way he can be arrested and charged as a thief

[livetaswim06]

Police don't handle these disputes. If he literally took money from you then maybe, but anyone giving money willingly would have to go through the courts.

EDIT: I am no longer sure the above is true. Take it with a grain of salt.

[wellingtonbill]

Local Ourfigs Kansas forum leaders might consider going on a road trip to encourage James to make good on his business deals. I think a person or two on the other forum has stated they are going to do visit James' farm.

I am one of the very few that HAD orders dating back to late 2015 or early 2016 that requested and received a refund in 24 hours. My concern is for all the good people that have not received their refunds or figlets. I keep getting the FigCuttings.com newsletter and the pictures make me furious. Those who sold or provided cuttings to James "unintentionally" appeared to have helped create one ginormous Fig farm. Oh well, I feel a little be better.

[livetaswim06]

The real question since he isn't shipping anything is what he is doing with all these fig plants? If he tried selling them via any of the usual distribution channels people would notice. Is he actually just growing them to eat or something? Or building a fig jam empire? I just don't understand what to do with all these plants.

[COGardener]

I know this is a very emotional topic for everyone.

Civil discussion is fine, people have questions and would like answers.

If I was randomly searching the web and found James' site I'd be tempted and would want to know if it was legit as well.

So let's try to keep outbursts off of Ourfigs, keep them to yourself, PM each other or please put those posts on f4f.

We want Ourfigs to be a friendly family environment where everyone is welcome and hopefully not offended.

Thank you all for your help.

[Gina]

As of this morning, there were three threads on Ourfigs dealing with the Greenfin cutting/plant sales debacle. These have been merged into one thread (this one). No posts were deleted. The other longer thread (now merged with this one) was "Anyone buy from FIGCUTTINGS.COM? Please tell me your experiences..."

Ourfigs (Wills) wisely deleted James' original thread offering $7 rooted trees here. If, however, you want to post pertinent, helpful information to this thread, please do so. But if you want to further discuss anything about this in depth, or just vent your frustrations - as Scott said, please use PMs or post your legitimate frustrations at F4F in their active thread. Unfortunately they are not moderated, so wear your thickest skin....

Since James is apparently still taking orders and comes up high in google searches, this thread remains as a warning to anyone who finds his site and is looking for more information.

[blindesign]

FYI: The Kansas Attorney General's office requested that those of us affected should file complaints at the links below.

State AG - http://ag.ks.gov/file-a-complaint/consumer

FBI - https://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx