4 Tier mini greenhouse...not happy!!!

[karyn]

I bought a 4 tier mini greenhouse from the last catalogue, and have had no end of trouble with it. First, there were no instructions, so GE scanned some and emailed them to me. Then, there were parts missing, so GE sent those. Then, I discovered one of the existing parts was broken, and 3 others were unusable. So...GE sent me replacements for those. Now the cover doesn't fit...it's supposed to reach the ground and it's a good 30cms short. So they sent me a new one, which is exactly the same. I have compared mine with the one on the internet, and it looks slightly higher but is assembled correctly. So I'm waiting on yet another phone call to see if there are bigger covers. In the meantime, I thought since it's cold and raining, I'd put on the cover they sent me because at least it'd protect the higher shelves...AND THE DAMN ZIPPER BROKE!!! IT DOESN'T EVEN DO UP AROUND THE DAMN THING!!!

Not Happy, GE!!!!

[orchid40]

I've had zippers break on all those type of things, very frustrating

[Pam]

Not trying to minimise your comments in any way Karyn, but we bought one of those put-together type greenhouses a few years ago and also had trouble getting the cover to fit. Although we were careful in putting it together, it turned out we'd still managed to use the wrong tubes in the wrong spot.

[midgin]

Every time I have had one of these greenhouses I have had problems with the cover fitting...until TBD told me to put the cover in the sun for an hour or so and then fit it. It worked like a charm... because the plastic was more pliable it fitted like a glove..and no problems with the zip.
Maybe that is the way to go.

[The Estate]

Mr W gave me one for Xmas 5 years ago, elcheapo marked down at Kmart and I have just tossed it out and the plstic finally went after many years in the sun , and they same as Mids, waiting till the cover was soft and then puled it down lower, and as long as the shelfs are covered is all that matters and lets face it most dont come with instructions as such I rely on the pic on the box these days as all are made in China anyways

[Bulbinella]

Every time I have had one of these greenhouses I have had problems with the cover fitting...until TBD told me to put the cover in the sun for an hour or so and then fit it. It worked like a charm... because the plastic was more pliable it fitted like a glove..and no problems with the zip.
Maybe that is the way to go.

way to go .... thats what I did with mine, I've had it for almost 12 months and no probs with it.

[Mister Wisteria]

It seems that most of these type of things regardless of where you buy them are somewhat cheap and nasty, the one I bought Thee falls into this category. It did last 5 years (well sort of) but it never went together well and the cover was a bugger to get on and didn't fit properly any way. I think it cost about $40-00 at the time so I suppose we did okay. By the way, if it got caught in the slightest breeze it took off for far away places. I suspect that if you want one of these things you need to pay a fair bit more and buy a bit of quality.

[guzzigirl]

I have one that is more sturdy which I am very happy with (also cost a bit more.) You could get a winter (hothouse) cover or a shadcloth cover for summer for it. I am wanting a new winter cover now after many years but the place I bought it has shut down and I haven't been able to find anyone else that sells them

[karyn]

A few more happenings...I got home today and found it collapsed onto my grapevines and raspberry canes, taking with it all of the boxes holding my tubes of cuttings. So it's going into a box and going back and I DON'T recommend it to anyone! GE has given me a credit and has apologised (not their fault, it's obviously a crap product), but unfortunately there's nothing that can be done for my poor grapevine, correas, or grevilleas. Some of these were just starting to root and were very hard to strike so when I rang GE I was absolutely livid. All credit to Vanessa who was extremely helpful in the face of adversity!

[Mister Wisteria]

A few more happenings...I got home today and found it collapsed onto my grapevines and raspberry canes, taking with it all of the boxes holding my tubes of cuttings. So it's going into a box and going back and I DON'T recommend it to anyone! GE has given me a credit and has apologised (not their fault, it's obviously a crap product), but unfortunately there's nothing that can be done for my poor grapevine, correas, or grevilleas. Some of these were just starting to root and were very hard to strike so when I rang GE I was absolutely livid. All credit to Vanessa who was extremely helpful in the face of adversity!

What a Bummer.

[ian]

Sorry to hear about your poor plants. I had followed up with your original post and it seems that we received a batch from a new supplier that included ones that weren't to the standard we (and our customers) would expect. We offer a less expensive range knowing that not everyone wants to spend a lot on that sort of product but we still want it to work satisfactorily. When it doesn't we will at least stand by our guarantee - not the preferred outcome for anyone but its important to have it there when needed. If anyone has a problem please don't hesitate to let us know as it at least gives us a chance to do something about it.

[gnol]

I was going to buy something like one of those then I realised that I had what was essentially a frame laying about. So I bought some plastic sheeting and made a crude one.

I'm not really sure how well it works as I have never used a greenhouse before.

[jack]

i saw years ago now a good solution to the 4 tier plastic greenhouse and that was use bubblewrap and velcro tags. ie wrap in bubblewrap and the use velcro tags which are cheap and at most office supply joints to hold it closed, ie over wrap the bubblewrap a few feet past the join and you get a nice join.
you can use double sided tape or liquid nails if you want to fix to the frame on a permanent basis as well.

[Coustralee]

I got a cheap one of these from The Warehouse for $10, the cover ripped from a gust of wind, havent gotten around to patching it up, or if ill bother.. maybe ill make a better cover out of something thicker.

The other problem I had was it will blow over if you dont keep it stacked with something... the shelves aren't the most solid either once you start piling a few pots on.