PhyTu Marketplace
Live Plant, Seasonal Shipping, Split-Shipment & Claims Policy
This policy governs ordinary live-plant orders — condition on arrival, seasonal and split shipments, and dead-on-arrival (DOA) claims. It is the full policy linked from checkout. Live animals, hatching eggs, fungi cultures, and other biological materials are governed by the separate Live Animals, Wildlife, Beneficial Organisms & Biological Materials Policy.
The independent vendor identified in each listing — not PhyTu — is responsible for the plant, its condition at fulfillment, packaging, shipment or pickup, and for reviewing and resolving claims. PhyTu provides the marketplace platform and does not grow, inspect, pack, or ship plants.
1. Live Plants Are Living, Perishable Goods
Plants are living and perishable and may arrive dormant or show normal transit effects — dormancy, temporary wilting, leaf drop, yellowing, cosmetic damage, soil displacement, shipping stress, acclimation stress, or seasonal dieback. These conditions alone do not mean a plant was dead or materially defective on arrival. Size, color, leaf count, bloom stage, and rooting may vary from photographs unless a listing expressly guarantees a specific characteristic.
2. Seasonal & Future Shipping
Many plants ship only within seasonal windows shown on the listing, in the cart, and at checkout. Items marked for seasonal or future shipping will not ship until their stated window. Examples include fall-only dormant bare-root stock and fall-and-spring shipping windows; the specific window for each item appears beside it at checkout. Local pickup may be available in the same windows in Bellevue, WA where a vendor offers it.
3. Split Shipments
An order may contain items from different vendors or with different shipping windows. Those items may ship separately, on different dates, by different carriers, under different tracking numbers. Delivery of one package does not mean items assigned to a later shipping window have shipped or are overdue. Your cart and order confirmation identify the shipping schedule for each item.
4. All Sales Final (Live Plants)
Except where a vendor listing expressly provides otherwise, a qualifying DOA claim is approved, or applicable law requires otherwise, live-plant purchases are final sale.
5. Dead-on-Arrival (DOA) & Shipping-Damage Claims
The applicable vendor — not PhyTu — reviews and resolves claims about the condition of that vendor's plant. Unless the listing provides a longer period, you must report a plant you believe was dead or materially damaged on arrival through the PhyTu order or messaging system within 24 hours after carrier-confirmed delivery or pickup.
To support a claim, you must:
- Retain the plant, shipping label, container, and all packaging while the claim is reviewed;
- Provide clear, unedited photographs or video showing the entire plant, the reported problem, the packaging, and the shipping label — taken before repotting, pruning, treating, or otherwise materially altering the plant; and
- Understand that photographs alone may not be sufficient — original image files, a verification video with a claim code, a live inspection, or return of the plant may be required.
Dormancy, temporary wilting, leaf drop, yellowing, cosmetic damage, soil displacement, seasonal dieback, shipping stress, and acclimation stress do not by themselves establish that a plant was dead on arrival. This policy does not waive any right that cannot legally be waived.
6. Address Accuracy & Delivery Evidence
You are responsible for providing a complete, accurate recipient name, address, unit number, email, and phone number, and for being available to receive or retrieve perishable plants promptly. The vendor and PhyTu may rely on carrier acceptance records, tracking history, delivery scans, delivery photographs, signatures, pickup confirmations, and location records when investigating a shipment or delivery concern.
7. Payment Reversals & Unshipped Items
If payment is refunded, reversed, charged back, or becomes unavailable, the applicable vendor may suspend fulfillment and cancel items not yet shipped or picked up, and a new paid order may be required. You agree to contact the vendor through the PhyTu order or messaging system and allow a reasonable opportunity to investigate before initiating a payment dispute. PhyTu may facilitate communications and review marketplace records but does not control decisions made by card issuers or banks.
8. How to Start a Claim
Open a claim through your order in the PhyTu order or messaging system within the window above, with your photos or video and the retained plant and packaging on hand. The relevant claim requirements are also re-displayed on the claim form. Claims are reviewed and resolved by the applicable vendor, subject to this policy and applicable law.
Contact
info@phytu.com · https://www.phytu.com
This policy works together with the PhyTu Terms of Service, Return & Refund Policy, Shipping Policy, Marketplace User Agreement, and Privacy Policy. Live animals and other biological materials are covered by the separate Live Animals, Wildlife, Beneficial Organisms & Biological Materials Policy. Where a mandatory law provides greater protection, that law controls.