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Any contact to James (GreenFin)???

Madoff did the same thing. Withdrawals were paid by new monies that were invested. Ponzi.

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Originally Posted by Figfanatic57
This is part of the email pertaining to refunds:

"So after putting in about 7,000 hours of hard work (70-100 hrs/wk, every day with no days off ever), not only didn't I make money, I'm actually at a large loss. As things currently stand I have a large number of extra fig trees (beyond those reserved for remaining customers), and I have to sell those extra trees to raise money for refunds and for shipping out the remaining orders (all the shipping money that I had set aside for those orders was sucked up by refund requests). So hopefully I can get you and everyone else taken care of sometime in the next 2-3 months as I sell them off. "
James/Greenfin Gardens
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This isn't good. I only bought a few trees and paid in Dec. 2015. Never received one email from him. Sounds like the reason why nothing is getting shipped is because he doesn't have the shipping costs to pay for it.

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Originally Posted by Nickdef
This isn't good. I only bought a few trees and paid in Dec. 2015. Never received one email from him. Sounds like the reason why nothing is getting shipped is because he doesn't have the shipping costs to pay for it.


I also ordered a few trees in Dec 2015 which I have never received... But that wasn't my first order from James, back in Sept of the same year I ordered cuttings from him, for which I promptly received. He was even good about replying to my emails when I asked him to change my shipping address. The fact that I've ordered from him in the past, and my next order was followed up with a non-delivery (and possible theft of my money) has left me completely perplexed by this whole situation.

If all it takes is a small additional charge for shipping to ensure I finally get my plants, in theory I'd be fine with that. Unfortunately due to his lack of communication and constant delays/excuses he may have burned off any trust this community has in him as a business owner.
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Supposing that were true, do you think he would ship you your trees if you sent him the shipping costs?

My problem with the situation is, trees only remain small and in cups for so long.  Once they grow too big, the option of shipping bare-root trees in a cup has disappeared.  So the window is constantly opening and closing as he goes through grow cycles.  Any maybe different trees are ready at different times.  The plan of shipping them all together to save on shipping may just not be feasible.

I'm not suggesting anyone plan to put any more money into this, obviously.  Just curious what he would say if you offered.
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Originally Posted by ScottA
I got the same email from greenfin. I responded with a refund request. He responded back with a long explanation that he does not have the ability to provide any refunds. He claims that he is still taking orders so that can get money to provide refunds on previous orders.


sounds like a ponzi scheme

I'm still waiting on my December 2015 order...
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Fidgeater- You are nothing here but a Troll..
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Hell of a business model.. I can offer refunds and ship out orders if only more people would order from me and send me more money?

For those of you that already have an order in you really have no choice but to wait.
Here's an idea though. If you have a substantial amount of money already into this than maybe try contacting him to see what it would take to ship your order. If its only an extra 15 or 20 bucks it might be worth the extra shipping fee to get your stuff shipped.
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STOP throwing good money after bad!
Everyone paid for S&H once already?!?
Where has that gotten anyone these
last couple of YEARS?!? 
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anyone get a hold of him lately? I tried emailing him a week ago asking for updates on when trees should ship, but no reply...
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I don't think many of us are even trying to contact him anymore.
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Ponzi scheme! Enough said!
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but, but...there's a video and all!
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Based on his last update, there seems to be some significant fig wood being grown of a number of varieties.... That wood will come to market in some manner and likely priced to recoup losses as quickly as possible... certainly not at $7 a tree... but sold under what identity is the question... I would imagine that a new selling identity would be needed since the current identity is somewhat tarnished and baggage laden. Perhaps an intermediary to "launder" the fig wood through? Will be interesting to watch...
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I think he made it clear that he cant ship due to to many refunds. Now he needs to sell more trees so he can ship the originals. Maybe he will sell cuttings this fall. If he does, maybe everyone can ask him to ship first and we will send the money later. Like in 2 years.
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And people are going to trust his varieties are true to type after this?
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ALERT!

Check out the website. 3 gallon trees for sale. Getem while they're hot.
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OH SNAP! What are the cheerleaders gonna say now! This 'gonna be EPIC!

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Aww thats nice of him to give you back the cuttings if pruned to fit in the box ... he's such a trustworthy guy i TotAlly believe he wont use it to propagate trees to fulfill previous orders since 2015 ... also i Love how s&h is 60 even if you buy only 1.... he cares about the customers not wasting money that he encourages you to buy 2 plants from him.... This GUY is a JOKE !!! BUYERS BEWARE
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Originally Posted by Ortegojeffrey
This is not check kiting. All the money is good. Simply theft by deception. Whether he intended to steal from everyone from the get go is a different story, and completely negligible.

You're right about it not being check kiting, but it's also not theft by deception.  Nefarious intent isn't negligible, it is required, and the fact of the matter is that my intentions have been nothing but good this entire time, and there has never been any intent to deceive or to steal anything whatsoever. 

This is simply a case of me being way behind on my estimated delivery dates due to a series of difficult setbacks.  My estimated delivery dates were always my honest best estimates given all the information available to me at the time, and they would have been accurate if not for unanticipated problems that derailed them.  Those dates were only estimates, not promises; the only promise I made was that I wouldn't quit, and I have absolutely kept that promise. 

I stopped communicating in April because it took every bit of time and energy I had to keep everything alive and growing, and also because if I hadn't blocked out all the nonstop hateful emails/pm's/phone calls, I might have been too tempted to spit the bit and quit.  Was it a mistake to not even post updates?  Yes.  The haters still would have hated, but the good folks out there would have appreciated it, and I feel bad about letting them down.  

I have given my word that I'll keep working in good faith until everyone gets their stuff (yes you can do substitutions) or their refund, whichever they want, and I continue to stand by it.
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Originally Posted by fygmalion
Based on his last update, there seems to be some significant fig wood being grown of a number of varieties.... That wood will come to market in some manner and likely priced to recoup losses as quickly as possible... certainly not at $7 a tree... but sold under what identity is the question... I would imagine that a new selling identity would be needed since the current identity is somewhat tarnished and baggage laden. Perhaps an intermediary to "launder" the fig wood through? Will be interesting to watch...

That wood is going towards the late orders ($7 trees, late orders for other trees, and late orders for cuttings), just like it should.
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Originally Posted by jaylyne
i Love how s&h is 60 even if you buy only 1.... he cares about the customers not wasting money that he encourages you to buy 2 plants from him

UPS charges the same regardless of whether there are 1 or 2 plants in the box.  They're charging for the box, not the contents.  Shipping 3gal size plants is expensive.
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Originally Posted by brianm
And people are going to trust his varieties are true to type after this?

I suppose that the people who were deceived by the long-running smear/defamation campaign against me might also be tricked into having unreasonable doubts about my varieties.  That is one of the chief goals of the smear campaign, is it not?

But I bet all the good folks out there who see through the smear campaign will continue to think for themselves and judge appropriately. 

Is my collection of ~250 varieties perfect?  I would probably wager that a mislabeled variety might have come in at some time and escaped my notice, same as what happens to every other collector.  But I certainly tried to mitigate against that by getting source material from the very best sources (~95% is from Harvey, Jon, drivewayfarmer, herman2, and kk), by getting important material from many different sources to allow for comparison (i.e. getting Black Madeira from 6 different sources, etc), and by researching/comparing online as much as possible. 

I've spent a ton of money on quality material (probably close to $20,000 with Harvey alone), and I certainly wouldn't have gone to such lengths if I didn't highly value accuracy.
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Well, like I said about your intent, that's another story, and I didn't try to tell your story which I think was fair and much nicer than many other things said or inferred about you. If you don't like that I said this whole situation could be considered theft by deception, well come on, look at the situation. It would serve you better to start shipping orders from 2015,2016, & 2017 before we get to a new year, than worrying about these comments.
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I'm still happily awaiting delivery of my order. No worries!
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  • TGO

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Originally Posted by GreenFin

I suppose that the people who were deceived by the long-running smear/defamation campaign against me might also be tricked into having unreasonable doubts about my varieties.  That is one of the chief goals of the smear campaign, is it not?

But I bet all the good folks out there who see through the smear campaign will continue to think for themselves and judge appropriately.

A long running smear campaign??? Really???
In addition to, at minimum, being incompetent at starting/expanding a business... it appears delusions are now working their way into the increasingly elaborate excuses! A complicated, long running effort to discredit a honest and responsive vendor... NO!!! Please! If we had heard about even a small percentage if shipments going out, well at least we could see effort. I was refunded my purchase amount SO I have been quiet BUT seeing this post about the dedicated long running effort to discredit this vendor literally made me chuckle up some soda😂

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