True North is a cannabis seed bank based in Toronto, Canada. In this review of the online seed bank True North, we’ll be going over how things look during the order process, their website, seed selection, and customer service. Folks sharing unpleasant experiences with this reseller of cannabis seeds are making themselves heard within the online community, which in turn can raise flags as to whether True North is a scam.
Let’s take a closer look at what’s going on here and whether things have improved recently.
Tip: Looking for something more concise, reviewing and multiple seed banks at once, including True North? > Comparison of the best Canadian seed banks.
Finding That Perfect Strain
The True North Seed Bank website has clearly labeled and organized sections, where you can browse strains by sex, variety, cultivation, type or color.
An image is worth a thousand words. It also saves me from having to type out all the filters that can be used to narrow things down to the strain of your dreams. Tadaa!
If this impressive amount of filters won’t help you make a choice, I don’t know what will. đ
Stock Status
When the cursor hovers over the image of a strain on the main page, the words out of stock pop up in faint white type where applicable. It is a good time-saver to be able to see which strains are out-of-stock in the search results, before clinking through to the strain-specific page.
For the sake of expectation management, I should mention the overall stock status at True North is a little disappointing. A large number of strains are marked out of stock at any given time.
In a glass-half-full kind of way, it might mean they have a decent turnover and you’ll get fresh merchandise. Of course, the glass is also half empty – as in, it ultimately doesn’t help you get the strain you actually want. True North carries lots of different strains, so the probability of finding something similar is there.
Brands/Breeders in Store at True North
The True North seed catalog consists of a large variety of nationally and internationally bred strains. You’ll find seeds from the following breeders, in alphabetical order:
- Ace Seeds
- Auto Seeds
- Barney’s Farm
- BC Bud Depot
- BlimBurn Seeds
- Bomb Seeds
- Brothers Grimm Seeds
- Buddha Seeds
- Cali Connection
- Canuk Seeds
- CBD Botanic
- CBD Crew
- Delicious Seeds
- Digital Genetics
- Dinafem
- DJ Short
- DNA Genetics
- Dungeons Vault Genetics
- Dutch Passion
- Emerald Triangle Seeds
- Equinox Seed Co.
- EVA Seeds
- Female Seeds
- Flash Seeds
- G13 Labs
- House of The Great Gardener
- Humboldt Seed Organization
- Medical Marijuana Genetics
- Mephisto Genetics
- Nirvana Seeds
- Oasis Genetics
- Paradise Seeds
- Positronics Seeds
- Pyramid Seeds
- Reserva Privada
- Resin Seeds
- Royal Queen Seeds
- Samsara Seeds
- Sensi Seeds
- Serious Seeds
- Shortstuff Seeds
- Sweet Seeds
- T.H.Seeds
Shipping Costs
Shipping (worldwide) is free when the tab hits CA$525, which converts to approx. US$420. Below are the shipping charges for orders smaller than that amount. (Please note these numbers are purely informative, we work hard to keep everything up to date but reserve the right to make mistakes.)
- Canada, USA â CA$20
- Europe â CA$35
- Australia, New Zealand â CA$75
- Costa Rica â CA$55
- Africa â CA$180
- Other â CA$70
Discretion
Mail from True North Seed Bank has your delivery address, the tracking bar code and no specification of contents or any other link back to the company. If seeds are returned to the sender, for whatever reason this may be, they will be lost.
Guarantees
Guaranteed delivery insurance is CA$15 and only available to Canada and the USA. Your order will be reshipped if it goes missing.
Seed banks that offer some kind of guarantee on the sprouting of seeds are rare. They do exist, but True North is not one of them.
Tip: For cannabis seeds with guaranteed germination, head this way.
Anonymity & Payment
True North accepts many different payment methods. There are a few caveats to the various ways in which you can pay for your order, which we’ll go over below.
Accepted forms of payment
- Credit and Debit cards can be used to order online or via phone, by USA customers only. Make sure your card is activated for international use. Transactions show as âNASBâ, âNorth America Sâ or âTrue North Internationalâ and there is a 7.5% card processing fee.
- International money order (USD and CAD only)
- Cash (mailing cash is at your own risk)
- Bank transfer (for a CAD 17.50 fee)
- E-Transfer (Canada only)
- Cryptocurrencies
More details for each payment method can be found on the website. Especially cryptocurrencies are promoted heavily by marijuana seed banks who sell online – True North is no different here.
If the cryptocurrency scene pretty much sounds like abracadabra, it can be helpful to know that you can buy Bitcoins with a credit card for full anonymity, or that there are over 300 ways to buy and sell Bitcoin.
Additional Services & Refund Policy
Something True North calls âextra safe stealth shippingâ refers to adding a T-shirt or accessory to your order. This would be an additional purchase to make, and itâs simply something they recommend, especially for customers from North America and Australia.
True North reserves the right to change your âextra safe shipping itemâ to something else if that means a safer or quicker delivery.
They have a customer-friendly refund and exchange policy, according to their own description. Refunds and exchanges are of course time-sensitive, and True North needs to be contacted first to make arrangements.
An impartial look at the many True North Seed Bank reviews online begs the question of how customer-friendly this vendor really is. More on that below.
NASB vs. True North Seed Bank
You may have come across the abbreviation NASB, which stands for North American Seed Bank.
Wondering whether that’s the same company as True North?
Yes, it appears so.
While we haven’t been able to map out the exact relationship between the two business names (DBA…?) it is quite clear that NASB and True North are one and the same.
True North Coupon Codes & Sales
When subscribing to their newsletter, True North will email you a 20% coupon code. Following the pop-up that appears when visiting the website is the easiest way to jump on board.
In addition to this introductory discount, they often have sales and specials. Depending on the occasion, these are store-wide or for a select number of strains such as for example a specific brand.
Two great times to snatch awesome discounts are during the Black Friday sale or the so-called “420 sale” in April. There are other sales on a regular basis throughout the year though, so keep an eye on your inbox for random deals.
True North also has clearance items, special offers, and freebies (free cannabis seeds with every order), which is obviously really cool.
Subscribe to their newsletter to score a 20% discount code.
Where is True North Seed Bank located?
The official address featured on their Facebook page is 384 Royal York Road in Toronto, Ontario.
While being a Canadian seed bank, True North has an additional European distribution center, located in the United Kingdom.
True North Seed Bank Reviews
I’m a total review-junkie and typically dive in deep before purchasing anything, both online and off.
It’s worth remembering that reviews, in general, have a few issues.
- Unhappy people scream louder than happy ones. Reviews can be skewed in favor of the ‘negative’ side.
- We don’t always know what happens after a negative review. Has the customer been contacted by customer service? Was it resolved? The review often does not get updated.
- We also don’t know whether a positive reviewer is acquainted with the company. Impossible to tell for sure.
Unfortunately, True North has a fairly high number of negative reviews. They also have positive ones. The negative reviews beat the positive ones in number, especially on the Facebook page.
Okay then – I think we can all agree this doesn’t look good. Browsing the individual stories makes it worse if that’s even possible. Here are some screenshots. The posts are dated 2017, 2018 and 2019.
On to positive reviews on Facebook. They are in the minority, but they’re there.
Notice how Seedsman gets praise here, while in an earlier review someone says the exact opposite? It seems most seed banks have some negative reviews. Most, but not all… I’ve never heard/read any complaints about ilovegrowingmarijuana, they are pretty awesome.
Potential future customers ask the Reddit community for input on True North, after seeing the Facebook complaints and being on the fence… This is where other satisfied customers chime in with good experiences.
Older vs. Newer Experiences
When looking closely at the dates of all reviews in various locations, it stands out that both the older and more recent ones can be positive or negative. However, negative experiences with especially the delivery and customer service are more recent.
That’s one observation. Another is even more unfortunate.
Radio Silence
What many people complain about is not getting any reply at all. So instead of the issues being due to some kind of conflict or disagreements between a customer and the company on what might be the “right” way to solve something, the problem typically is with a complete lack of response. True North customer service dropping off the radar when one reaches out.
Cash vs. electronics
I’d like to share a thought on the concept of mailing cash because I came across this in some of the reviews. I don’t have much experience with money orders or MoneyGram, barely know how they work – just enough to not want to use them, really.
Somewhere, someone says their money disappeared a.k.a. got stolen. Of course, I’m not saying this is their own fault. Not at all. In an ideal world, everyone involved in a transaction is trustworthy and all is done as it should be. Different systems have different vulnerabilities.
What I am saying is if you’re going to use old-fashioned ways to pay, such as mailing or sending cash, using “humans”, it isn’t very surprising that if or when a problem occurs, it’s an old-fashioned one such as theft somewhere along the way. If one uses modern payment methods such as the electronic ones, if or when there’s an issue, it will also be a modern one. Hacking, credit card fraud.
I.m.h.o. using modern payment methods makes funds just a little harder to be stolen. The desire to order anonymously is understandable but reading someone’s complaint about their cash payment causing issues kind of makes me roll my eyes.
Again, it’s just a thought and nothing other than a personal opinion. đ
Personal experience
On that note – personal experiences with True North Seed Bank, of either friends/family members or myself, have been along the same lines.
Some employees were nice enough. I’ve also been ignored (via email) and been on hold for ages (on the phone). They either don’t care enough or – to give them the benefit of the doubt – are terribly overwhelmed and underpaid. The response time via email has been much longer than desirable throughout our various correspondences, up to not getting a response at all. I can confirm they have serious communication issues.
We have not had the misfortune of an order from True North going missing, so I can’t attest first (or second) hand to how exactly that is handled.
In comparison
True North may very well be legit but sure has a frighteningly large track record of erratic behavior. In comparison, my experience with the customer service of other seed banks has been excellent.
There are so many great online seed banks who operate with excellent customer care, both before and after a purchase is made, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to waste time and funds on one that may or may not report present when needed.
On the flip side
Are there any reasons to order from True North Seed Bank or NASB?
Sure!
True North is merely the retailer of a long list of brands/breeders. As far as the actual product goes, just because the customer service leaves to be desired, doesn’t mean the seeds are bad. It can be hard to get certain strains. This is a place to get seeds from breeders that do sell online but don’t ship worldwide. (Royal Queen Seeds, or Dutch Passion, for example.)
They ship worldwide and accept pretty much all payment methods you can think of.
The special offers and sales can also make a difference.
True North carries a lot of different strains. Even if the store is not sufficiently stocked, they may just happen to have what you’re after.
True North Seed Bank Review – Summary
In summary, it looks as though your satisfaction with True North Seed Bank could go either way.
Is True North Seed Bank legit?
If you came here wondering whether True North Seed Bank is legit, the answer is yes – they are. They may not be the most reliable option out there, at least according to the above-average number of negative reviews, but they’re an online seed bank, selling cannabis seeds.
True North is not a scam.
We’ve taken a closer look at the bad reviews from disgruntled or downright angry customers, and also covered potential reasons to choose True North for your purchase of cannabis seeds online.
Even my personal experiences are mixed. An order placed by a family member made it without any issues. Customer service has let me down, but that was not related to a purchase.
The bottom line? A crappy review is not necessarily a problem (it can happen to the best) thought the sheer amount of them, in this case, is cause for vigilance. If you’d rather bet on a seed bank with a more solid reputation, that would be understandable.
