Lead the Good Life - www.leadthegoodlife.com

I have tried on several occasions to order a set of 4 x 12" green easy fill hanging baskets but its ridiculous, you constantly receive a weird message saying no you can only order 1 off items, how the hell do you order the set of 4, after which one obviously tried to contact them to get help but there seems no way, it will not allow use to use any link and get the email address, i imagine they loose a fortune due to a non functional online web site. if you read this get your on line site fixed IMMEDIATELY

I ordered A VegTrug and cover (£98.72 including delivery) from this firm on 10 July. They emailed an order confirmation and promised that I would be notified as soon as the items were dispatched, which would be within 7 to 14 working days. They also swiftly debited my credit card.

After that, nothing but problems. When I had not received the items by the end of the 14 day slot, I contacted "Good Life" by email, which received only an automated reply. After a couple of days, I emailed again, and received another automated reply, interestingly bearing the same reference number as the first.

Suspecting that the email was defunct, or perhaps set up deliberately to deflect problems away from customer services for a few days, I telephoned, to be told that the goods had been lost, were no longer in stock and that I would therefore be given a full refund within ten working days.

Instead, a week later, I received a letter under the letterhead of another company (Ideal Shopping Direct) claiming that the goods had in fact been delivered and signed for - enclosed was a signature of a heavily crossed out and unrecognizable name as "evidence". I was asked to sign and return a declaration that the goods had not been received, and this I did by return.

Some time elapsed before a refund of just £18.74 appeared on my credit card statement.

I have telephoned several times since, but have yet to receive the balance of £79.98 or any explanation from the company of their inability to settle the matter in a business-like way.

I can only advise anyone potential customers to stay well away from this misnamed outfit - dealing with them has been the opposite of Ideal and in no way a glimpse of the Good Life.

Received three identical orange blossom plants in March. The three appeared to be lifeless. Contacted company and they said monitor to make sure plants were only dormant. Contacted them again a couple of times as two showed signs of life but one is dead. Did three bark tests as suggested over a period of time. The company told me to wait until June/July to see if any improvement - the plant is definitely dead. They have now said they will replace free of charge if I send £9.99 to cover insurance and postage! They have said this is because my complaint is now outside the 30 day return period! But they told me to monitor the plants over a period of time. I am disgusted and they repeatedly send me the same email asking for the £9.99. I will never deal with them again. I wasn't bothered about a replacement but it has become a point of principle now. The other two plants are barely hanging on - never again.

I have had some orders of fruit trees and shrubs, many of which have never grown. At the moment I have tried to email ltgl many times only to have my emails rejected. Asked customer services about this and told that the email address shown is wrong and it should be read in capitals and not lowercase, tried this with the same results. Am still waiting for a refund on Tower Pots which were cancelled with no notification to me. What a'shower'. My advice to anyone considering buying ..... just DON'T DON't DON'T unless you have money to waste. I should have looked at reviews and not at what I thought was going to be a bargain, they put out such good adverts that you feel it must be a good buy.

I ordered a shrub collection, 3 buddlias and 3 lavenders. I hadn't received anything and then all of a sudden received a refund of £30. Turns out the shrub collection wasn't available after all! If I'd know I would have cancelled the whole order. Then the buddleas arrived - terrible, all broken and yellow leaves. I asked for a refund via email. Every email took around a week to reply to. I then get another email saying actually the lavender is out of stock as well!! On various emails it is clear that the people do NOT READ or UDNERSTAND the correspondence as I was offered replacements instead of the agreed refund. I then phoned instead of emailing and guess what, you get through to India! The lady would not speak to me as she said my delivery and billing address did not match what she had on here system! I was ready to burst! She kept saying she could not transfer me, I could not speak to someone in the UK and I could not go through to any other number to complain. Eventually I gave her such a hard time through frustration that she DID transfer me to another Indian lady who then went through the refunds I was waiting for! I WOULD NEVER USE THIS COMPANY AGAIN!

After sales service is non-existent. Ordered pre-planted hanging baskets and when they were delivered one of the baskets was broken but the plants were fine. So emailed them as per their website instructions giving them the details. Got a reply that they would be in contact and was given a reference number. After waiting for 3 days I got fed up and gave them a ring. When the person at the contact centre answered the phone I tried to give them the enquire reference number but the contact centre person was not at all interested in that. Instead I was asked to explain the whole situation again and was told that the replacement basket would be sent within 7-14 working days and not before that. This was despite me telling them that the plants will not survive that long as the basket was broken. It's now been almost 20 working days and I have received nothing from them.........

Just received my yellow bamboo spent over £80.00 very poor quality roots none existent on one one was snapped they tell you to contact ideal world what a waste of a very expensive phone call they say it's nothing to do with them even though my bank statement bill is paid to them. Phoned lead the good life useless . Never again

Purchased "hardy" Acer plant. Arrived looking very weak specimen. It looked like it died but kept for this spring to see if it revived, as it was supposed to be hardy. This spring nothing so after a while contacted this company only to be told 30 days was their guarantee so basically hard luck unless I paid £9.95 packaging for a new plant.!!!!!' Don't use this company they are a rip off and very arrogant. Would never use them again. Obviously supply only 2nd rate plants that are NOT fit for purpose. Hardy plants should have much longer guarantee or be good quality.

Purchased "hardy" Acer plant. Arrived looking very weak specimen. It looked like it died but kept for this spring to see if it revived, as it was supposed to be hardy. This spring nothing so after a while contacted this company only to be told 30 days was their guarantee so basically hard luck unless I paid £9.95 packaging for a new plant.!!!!!' Don't use this company they are a rip off and very arrogant. Would never use them again. Obviously supply only 2nd rate plants that are NOT fit for purpose. Hardy plants should have much longer guarantee or be good quality.

Having purchased a large and neglected garden in 2013, I purchased a lot of plants from this Company at what I considered to be reasonable prices. Some of the plants thrived but a lot didn't. A year later I am still battling with this Company to get a refund/replacements. Every time I contact them by phone/e-mail I get a different response. All totally unsatisfactory. I wouldn't touch them again with a barge pole. Ideal World should be ashamed of themselves.