The Original Potted Christmas Tree Company

Two years later, the owner finally got back in touch with me about our experience and refunded our money. Not exactly timely, but at least he eventually honored his promise to do right by us.

I have used this company for the last three Christmases. I can honestly say that having a tree from TOPCTC is a highlight of my holiday season. Delivery and pick up have always been prompt. The trees are lovely. The price is a bargain. I look forward to choosing my tree every year and I love the surprise of seeing what it looks like in person.
I noticed that there are quite a few negative reviews on this site. I also noticed that the owner has responded to some of the feedback both by writing responses on Unilocal and by altering his business practices. Specifically, he no longer delivers to apartments or condos with secure main entrances/​doors. This is a wise decision on his part because it seems like some of the negative reviews are coming from people in apartments and condos.
If you order from TOPCTC, it’s best that you not have a specific schedule in mind for tree delivery. If your family is coming into town and you need a tree by a certain date and kids will be heartbroken if they don’t have their tree by a specific date, you should probably not use this company. It you need to be at the house when they deliver, you probably shouldn’t use this company. And if you absolutely must have your tree removed from your property by a certain date, look elsewhere for a tree. But if your Christmas spirit is more laid back, TOPCTC is a perfect fit for you!

Terrible, non-​existent customer service. late tree delivery by almost a week. refusal to refund $. significantly reduced my enjoyment of christmas this year, since i only got the tree for ONE WEEK instead of the customary and promised, 3 weeks.
i will NOT be doing business with this company again. save your money and go elsewhere.

I had a terrible experience with this company this year, and a so-​so experience two years ago. Let’s talk about this year. Long story short: tree delivered late, picked up late, absolutely zero communication from the company, and utter disrespect for customers. I don’t normally write negative reviews, but these guys earned it.
So my wife signed up for the early-​bird special, ordering in October at a discount. She paid using PayPal (this will become significant later). A few days before the agreed upon delivery time came in late December, the company emailed us and said they had problems due to frozen ground, and did we actually need the tree on the day they’d promised us, or could they wait three days? We promptly replied that yes, we did need it on the promised day (we had family coming into town). We heard nothing back.
The tree did not arrive on the day they promised, though I stayed home all day waiting for it. So we sent them an email asking what was up. There was no answer.
So we waited the extra three days, and still — no tree (and again, I stayed around all day waiting for it then). That’s when we sent another email asking for our money back, and looked at the timing of this whole scheme. Christmas was just a few days away. It turns out that when you order something on PayPal, you have a limited time to get your money back from them — and that time had passed well before Christmas rolled around. We had no options for a refund, and the company was completely silent.
We finally got the tree four days late (it just appeared on the porch one day), and the company never responded to any emails at all. The tree was dry and a bit lopsided, but an okay tree I suppose. It’s not what I would have picked, if I could have looked at the available stock.
The company also failed to pick up the tree when they promised. We went through this whole process to take the tree down in time for their prescribed pickup date, only to have it sit on our porch for over a week. The company emailed the day it was supposed to pick up, saying there was another delay. So – if we had known that in advance, we would’ve had our tree in our house longer. But no, communication is not a priority here. Oh yeah, and when the guy came to pick up the tree, he slammed it around down my steps and damaged the porch. (I went out and said hello to him, and he said «Happy new year!» as he literally ran off to his truck.) Totally bizarre. I then looked down and saw that he’d scraped the paint off my front porch using his dolly.
So:
Communication — F
Delivery/​Pick on Time — F
Quality of Service (meaning, not messing up my porch and front steps) — D
Pricing — B (frankly this is their strong suit)
Tree Quality — C
I will never buy from this company again, and I strongly encourage you to think twice before you plop down your money. It’s a great IDEA for a business, but an extremely poor implementation of that idea.

We had a great experience with the Original Living Christmas Tree company. They deliver, were fast, responsive, and the tree smelled amazing!!! It’s potted, after all!
I also love the fact that the tree is replanted and can be saved. No trees chopped down just for a couple of weeks, which always breaks my heart!
It is true that this service is much easier if you live in a house, but it also works in an apartment.
The Original Living Christmas Tree is a dream for every Portlander who wants a real tree for Christmas!

I highly recommend people in condos DO NOT consider this service. If you live in a house and can have your tree delivered and picked up on your front step, great. But if you live in a downtown condo like I do, don’t even think about it.
My experience was not enjoyable. From paying on paypal and then going DAYS until I heard something from the owner (I was convinced I was out $ 95) to the delivery fiasco, the whole thing sucked. (I sound so bah-humbug…I’m not. I love Christmas, I just really want this GD tree gone.)
We were told our tree would be delivered on a Friday evening, which seemed great. My husband and I would both be home from work to receive the tree and get the guy into the building.
What really happened? 2 days prior to the scheduled delivery, someone showed up to deliver the tree in the middle of the day, while I was in NYC and my husband was at work. We got a call from our front desk and my husband ran home to find the tree in the hallway of our condo.
When I emailed John to let him know that was a huge hassle and I wanted to schedule a real window of time for the pickup, he said no problem.
Well, here I am, January 2^nd and I’ve attempted to schedule a pickup twice to no avail. I have no faith that he’s actually going to get the tree at a time that works for us. I felt like a good citizen getting a tree that could be planted again, but in reality, I’ll probably end up dragging it down to the dumpsters for pickup with the rest of the tress in my building. (FYI — the tree weighs a zillion pounds.)

«sorry — I’m busy tonight… I’m getting my TREE delivered»
Count on Portland to have a way that I can RENT, and therefore SAVE a tree this holiday season. For 16 years this local company has been delivering planted trees that families can decorate and enjoy for $ 65 dollars. When the season ends, they pick the tree back up and have it planted by groups like watershed councils, parks departments, churches and schools.
They leave printed care instructions (none of this pouring vodka on the tree-​trick that my family has infamously embodied) so your tree has a good survival rate when it gets back into the «real world».
Looking for a simple way to make a big difference? It doesn’t get any easier than The Original Living Christmas Tree.