Frequently Asked Questions of White River Source

Frequently Asked Questions

Trees & Shrubs Botanical Index	Trees & Shrubs Common Name Index	Trees & Shrubs Seed Germination Tips	Growers Accessories
Vegetable Seed	Flower Seed	Herb Seed	Home

Where do I get questions answered?

First, look through the following frequently asked questions for the answer.
Also our catalog pages linked above have Product, Price, and Shipping schedule information.
There are links at the bottom of this page to our Terms of sale, Policies, and to confirm our PayPal Verified status.
For all other questions, send email to: questions@whiteriversource.com

How much is shipping and handling?

Place your complete order on the shopping cart by clicking on the 'Add to Cart' buttons. Your shipping and handling charge will be displayed before you approve the amount and 'check out'. The tree shipping and handling cost are good for all 50 U.S. and generally the seed costs are good for worldwide. If you are ordering low cost bulk seeds, our shipping and handling costs reflects our cost of handling small orders and you may find that you can add more items without increasing this costs. If you have a mixed order of large trees and small seeds, you may see large changes in the shipping and handling costs by adding or subtracting one item from your order. Orders placed by post should use the shipping and handling chart on the order form.

When will I receive my goods?

Allow time for your order to be delivered based on the posted delivery schedule on the catalog pages.
If you are in doubt, send an email which includes which items will be on your order and your shipping address, for delivery schedule information.
If you are sure that you want the items and your inquiry about the shipping schedule does not affect your purchase decision, we recommend placing your order before sending your inquiry to get a faster response and avoid our selling out of your item before we have time to respond during the busy seasons.

Scheduling and Availability

To check the availability or check the estimated shipping schedule of any items, please use the email to shipdept@whiteriversource.com
Also see: Live Plant Availability and Shipping Schedules

How to place an order:

Click on the 'Add to Cart' button for each item that you wish to purchase. At any time when you are in the whiteriversource.com, you can Click the 'View Cart Button' and then close the PayPal popup window to go back to shopping at White River Source; or when when you are finished shopping, Click the 'View Cart Button' and proceed to 'Check Out'. This part of the transaction is handled by PayPal. PayPal is a secure transactions processor trusted by more than 100 million users. You can use credit cards or your checking account to make your payment on line. Items will ship as soon as possible, (check availability schedules on the catalog pages).
More about PayPal
PayPal is a secure transaction processor for White River Source. When you add an item to your 'Cart', a new secure window will pop up to confirm that you wish to order this item. The PayPal secure site url begins with "https://www.paypal.com". Your cookies must be enabled, and your browser and security packages must allow pop-ups. Your browser must be 128 bit encryption capable; (eg. Explorer 5 must be upgraded, Netscape 6 works).
If you are having trouble with these shopping cart buttons, or using the PayPal forms, please send an email to us describing the problem.
Or by Post
You can also order by post. Use our Order Form with check or money-order and mail to address shown on the form.

Who is my Account Rep

After placing your first order, agricultural businesses should send an email describing their business to us to receive wholesale services such as special shipping and handling rates on multiple itemed orders, large quantity quotes, special orders and brokerage services. Be sure to use the same email address that you have used with PayPal for your prior purchases. Your account is filed under this email and you may not receive a response from us on these types of inquiries if you have not made prior purchases. Please do not ask for an Account Rep if you are a first time customer; one will be assigned to you after we have an established relationship.

Order tracking

To check on an existing order, check the estimated shipping schedule, get shipper tracking numbers, etc. send email to: shipdept@whiteriversource.com
Also see: Email Response time

Care and Planting instructions

We will sometime include care and planting instructions along with an order for certain items. For special care, growing, propagation, etc. questions, send email to: mastergardener@whiteriversource.com put your order # in subject heading.

Seed & Plant VARIETY NAMES / CATEGORIES

Do you have a variety that I can't find in the online catalog?
Often times the variety that you seek may be listed under a different name; Look in both our Common Name Index and our Botanical Name Index

Printed Catalog

Can I get a printed seed and plant catalog?
We strive to be able to provide the most extensive selection of heirloom and antique varieties of vegetables, fruits, herbs, flowers, and trees. We have our most comprehensive product catalog published on this web site. We are constantly updating this to reflect changes in availability. This site will always be the best place to select seeds and plants.
We occasionally print and mail partial lists and product information to our customers. If you would like to be included in these mailings, send your name and postal mailing address to maillist@whiteriversource.com
You can also sign up for our email Newsletter here: newsletter@whiteriversource.com

email Help

If you have an order with us already, be sure to use the same return email address as was used through PayPal when orders were placed. If you do not receive a response to your email within 48 hours, double check that our email address is entered correctly. Also, please check your return address on your mail server. Your spam filters may be interfering with our return mail. We do not necessarily respond from the same email address to which you sent the question. Also, we do not register in security systems, or send separate messages to security or spam filter robots. Scripts, graphics, animations, attachments, etc. may interfere with our ability to receive your email; try sending the message in text only. If you have checked the above items and have reset your system, send another email to us telling us so. If you are receiving a message that the email is undeliverable, the most likely cause is that you have sent to the wrong email address or have typed it incorrectly. This can also be caused by system or network problems and should never last long, possibly a few seconds, so retry, if you have checked the address. If you are still having trouble, there is always the Postal service. If you have sent the exact same message more than once, or if you have sent multiple messages in a very short period of time, your mail may be blocked by our system. If you realize that this may have happened, you will need to use the postal service to contact us.
Email Replies
Our response time to your email will vary based on our seasonal business volume, staff availability, email traffic, etc. For fastest response, be sure to use the same return email address as was used through PayPal when orders were placed, and make sure that your question is addressed to the correct department, (read above questions for correct email addresses). Please include a copy of the on-going message string, and state your name in each message. Be sure that you have explored our website entirely; when we are in our busiest season, questions by email that are answered on the web site, may not receive a reply.
Spam
Our security systems are continually monitored. We pursue spammers by varied but, human controlled means. If you are receiving unwanted mail from us, please email one time to REMOVE@whiteriversource.com for each email address receiving this mail. If you continue to receive such email after 48 hours, it is not from us. Find posers by checking IP addresses, or consult with your service provider, but another email to us is not necessary; we will be working from your first message.

Minimum Order

Is there a minimum size order?
No. However there is a minimum shipping and handling charge. You may find that if you are ordering small quantities of low cost items, that you can add many more items to your order without increasing the shipping and handling.

Back Orders

Will you back order items if I can't get them immediately?
Some seeds and plants are on a season availability schedule. We encourage our customers to order early. Many items have limited availability each season.
If there is one, or a few items that are not ready to ship, on a larger order, we will ship immediately what we can and back-order the rest. Items will remain on back-order and will ship as soon as possible. You will receive an email with the shipping schedule of items that are not immediately available, and you can then accept the schedule or request a refund on these items. If you are ordering for the coming season, please send an email to us as soon as you have made your order, to keep shipdept from refunding the out of season items. To make changes to an order such as cancel a back-order or request a substitution, please send email straight to shipdept@whiteriversource.com Send all back-order schedule queries to: shipdept@whiteriversource.com

Live Plant Availability and Shipping Schedules

Does Plant availability change?
We sell our live plants to those who place their orders earliest. The schedules for delivery are developed from our production plans for the season and your early orders, and are later affected by our best predictions for all necessary conditions to ship the live plants. Delivery schedules are also based on weather conditions from shipping point to destination; and based on special instructions that you may provide. We can not guarantee delivery before or on a specific date. If necessary, please specify a date before which you would not want to receive the plant, in special instructions and we will let you know if there is a problem. If we are experiencing a problem with a specific lot of plants or a seed lot, the customers who ordered early will receive priority on future lots to be shipped. This can mean that shipping schedules will change, and that it is possible that some orders may be shipped by different methods as the weather may require and such orders will be filled as soon as possible or you can request a substitution or refund. For the current estimated shipment date of your order, send email to: shipdept@whiteriversource.com

Documentation

Your product will arrive with a Packing List / Receipt which will list each item that is in the shipment as well as shipping and handling charges and total charges. Please be sure that you have found all items that were in the box and attached to outside of the box before disposing of any packing material. Shipments to outside the U.S. will have basic Customs form with Shipper's name and address, Buyer's name and address, simple product description and statement of value in dollars.

Sales Tax
Buyers requesting shipments to destinations in Indiana will automatically be charged sales tax upon check-out. Indiana farmers who are exempt should complete the check-out process and then immediately send an email to accounting@whiteriversource.com requesting an exemption form. We must receive your reply email with your completed exemption form before your order is shipped for you to receive your refund of this automatic charge.

Growing in my area

For care and planting instructions that may be special to your conditions, and growing, propagation, etc. questions, send email to: mastergardener@whiteriversource.com Be sure to use the same email address as when your order was placed.

Business Hours
You can place your order using this website 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, all year long. Email is processed in batches which could be anytime 24 hours, 7 days. If you have not received a response to your email after 48 hrs. see: Email Response time The Main Street address is staffed only for mail, shipping and receiving. There are no sales and no customer service at this address. White River Source is not open to the public. Farm tours for contract growers and buyers are by appointment arranged through your sales rep.

Shipping across borders

We limit certain shipments of specific items to specific localities based on our experience and knowledge of problems with these. This may affect availability of our catalog item to you, or may affect your delivery schedule. We will inform you of these as necessary. Generally, we ship our seeds worldwide, we ship our plants within 50 states of USA. You are responsible for checking local regulation and paying all taxes, duties, etc. on shipments.

Other questions