Laughing over here. I'm normally not much of a chatterbox on the phone, but Mike had me going on a pretty wide-ranging set of topics. Probably says as much about his intellectual curiosity than anything else. Anyway, happy to catch up with you as well, SavinaRed! Take care in the new year.SavinaRed said:Welcome to THP its a great community and I'm glad pepperjo is under new ownership/management. I look forward to doing business with you in the future Laura. If I call you I promise I will keep it short.
Hello from PepperJo of Pepper Joe's
- Thread starter Pepperjo
- Start date
Thanks for the welcome, Alchmystic! I confess to be a terminal optimist, so I am hopeful!Alchymystic said:to the THP forums from SC!!
Best wishes and success with your entrance and involvement into the whole 'Pepper Biz.' A new year and a new start!As has been mentioned, it might be a bit of an uphill battle to reestablish a good reputation (many will be biased upon even hearing the company name...), but word indeed does spread rather quickly about positive (& negative) sites/vendors, etc.. There will be plenty of people to set other people 'straight' about the 'new- not the 'Same ol' Joe' aspect of the company. As long as things go well (and this introduction is an excellent indicator of a great start)... people will come around and warm up to you! (even those biased one's will come and check you out... if they start to hear a bunch of accolades and positive mentions of the new 'PepperJo!') Here's to 2016 being an excellent year!
Great point JoynersHotPeppers. That's exactly what we're doing. It's not a simple process. We've done this before and are pretty sober about how much heavy-lifting it takes. If you like, I can send you a preview before it goes live?JoynersHotPeppers said:
Sure, I am no webmaster but I do play one on TV.Pepperjo said:
Best of luck!
Thanks Ozzy2001! I appreciate the open mind. That's all I can ask.Ozzy2001 said:
I'm still figuring out the forensics of that reputation issue myself. My hunch is that PJ may have had a bad batch of seed packing around 2012/13. If I look at the comments I've found, that seems to be a flare point. Shortly thereafter, Joe went quiet on THP. The issue lingered without any counterpoint into the next season.
From our own .02, we (including me) handled customer service from Aug 1 2015. Summer is the season when 2014-15 planted seeds came to fruition. The fact is we did not get inundated with customer issues about seed/pod quality. Really. Thousands and thousands of seeds sold, and very few customer complaints about growing true. We had gobs of questions about growing advice, but not the issues that are being hinted at here. Mostly it was a tremendously positive experience as our customers were so proud of their pepper bounty. (The experience is part of why I'm so positive on this category; it is inspirational to be part of a "growing" movement. It was such a warm and welcoming way to start our journey here.)
I will say that on Facebook we've seen the occasional harsh comment about PJ this fall. Sadly, when we researched the comments (e.g. to send a refund or free seeds), at least 50% were people who had never been actual PJ customers. That was pretty hard to take, given the caustic nature of many of the worst comments. It did make me ever so grateful to see positive comments come out to balance the tone.
So where do I net out? Still listening. Still thinking. But, my hunch is that there were some mistakes made in 2012/13. Having personally lived through the 2015 harvest, it feels like that may be behind us. If you have further thoughts or info, you can always message me directly here @ THP.
Take care,
PepperJo
Willkommen bei THP!!!
Pepperjo said:
While there are some very positive people on Facebook, I've found that it's a lot more of a mixed group than what you're going to find on THP.
But then, I talk with Chris and Nigel through Facebook more than anywhere else. Must be their fault.
:
If you posted what standards you hold your seed partners to, how you verify / test them i'm sure you would get feedback positive or negative and could go from there.Pepperjo said:
seed germination is easy to test but more people are worried about spending 5 months growing something only to get something different than what they ordered..
partnering means you always have a weak link in your supply chain where your partner could fail you for whatever reason without you necessarily knowing.
Hi Juanitos, thanks for reaching out. Yes, partnering does require trust for sure. Makes the world a better place!juanitos said:
Our seed partners get seeds from us to grow. They have isolation approaches germane to their situations; typically nets or space. We do photo or skype check-ins every four weeks, and more communication as the pods get ripe. Only true-to-form pods are collected. Seed harvesting is done in isolation from other seeds. Pouch-packing is done by us in-house only. We have a dedicated team that does only pouch-packing, and is rigorous about QC with a dedicated manager and audits.
However... we are human and this is nature. This is not an anonymous factory operation, and we are not perfect. We have made mistakes and will make them in the future. Hopefully we'll learn from them and get better.
SadisticPeppers
Business Member
from sunny South Florida! 
Welcome!! Can't wait to check out your new website. I am interested now because you have some solid backing with Mike
We welcome you to our wealth of knowledge forum. Lots of experience, friendliness, and sharing.
Welcome!
Welcome!
Pepperjo said:
I know, after my post I looked at the site so now I wait eagerly like I did for Christmas........and just when I thought all the suspense was over
Welcome to THP PepperJo.
I had never ordered seed from the old PepperJoe but I do know of his bad reputation, it's well known here on THP. We all hope that you can turn this around which I think is easily achievable.
Like Juanitos has already pointed out, once you have pods set, it's only then you realize that you didn't get what you paid for. The price of the seeds is only a tiny portion of the disappointment here, it's the time spent germinating, raising, potting, planting, and feeding only to find out that what you have, is not what you ordered. Months of hard work down the drain, worst of all, it's always too late to start again because you're too far into the growing season already.
The only thing that your customers could possibly ask for is to get what they pay for. And if for some unknown reason a mistake is made, that you as the seller do your best to rectify the situation.
I wish you and your husband all the very best in your new endeavor, I'm sure you will do well in the future.
Best of luck,
SR.
I had never ordered seed from the old PepperJoe but I do know of his bad reputation, it's well known here on THP. We all hope that you can turn this around which I think is easily achievable.
Like Juanitos has already pointed out, once you have pods set, it's only then you realize that you didn't get what you paid for. The price of the seeds is only a tiny portion of the disappointment here, it's the time spent germinating, raising, potting, planting, and feeding only to find out that what you have, is not what you ordered. Months of hard work down the drain, worst of all, it's always too late to start again because you're too far into the growing season already.
The only thing that your customers could possibly ask for is to get what they pay for. And if for some unknown reason a mistake is made, that you as the seller do your best to rectify the situation.
I wish you and your husband all the very best in your new endeavor, I'm sure you will do well in the future.
Best of luck,
SR.
PJs does have a checkered past here on THP. I have personally bought seeds, was disappointed, and (kudos to PJ) he replaced them. The replacement seeds were no better, and I said lesson learned, and bought elsewhere 
In the midst of all that, he asked me to be a grower for him, and I got to sit in on some of the growers meetings until I made my decision (well a meeting). I asked specifically about isolation, and what I was told circa 2012 was that all he asked was a row of peppers, separated by a row of tomatos. My experiences made sense at that point.
I've always felt like PJ's asked premium prices - which is fine when receiving a premium product. But what I would get from him was decidedly not always premium.
Judy, or midwestchiliheads are less expensive, and I've had better experiences there.
I'm happy you guys are under new ownership. I'll be looking forward to seeing the new website, and making a purchase from you guys. I hope your business flourishes and that you guys are wildly successful.
In the midst of all that, he asked me to be a grower for him, and I got to sit in on some of the growers meetings until I made my decision (well a meeting). I asked specifically about isolation, and what I was told circa 2012 was that all he asked was a row of peppers, separated by a row of tomatos. My experiences made sense at that point.
I've always felt like PJ's asked premium prices - which is fine when receiving a premium product. But what I would get from him was decidedly not always premium.
Judy, or midwestchiliheads are less expensive, and I've had better experiences there.
I'm happy you guys are under new ownership. I'll be looking forward to seeing the new website, and making a purchase from you guys. I hope your business flourishes and that you guys are wildly successful.
