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1-800-Flowers.com Complaint - Ruined Mother's Day - Same-Day Floral Delivery

Same-Day Floral Delivery - Complaint
Review by GetWhatchuPayFor on 2011-05-07
CARLE PLACE, NEW YORK -- Figuring there might be problems with deliveries on Mother's Day (5/8/11), I thought I'd try to get ahead of the rush. On May 5, 2011 I placed an order with 1800Flowers.com for two identical items one going to my mother and one to my daughter-in-law. Both of these individuals live in the same county, in the same state. The order confirmation I received at 10:05 AM indicated normal delivery hours were 9 AM to 7 PM - I figured great, that gives them roughly 9 hours - shouldn't be any problem getting them delivered.

I got a delivery confirmation for one of the orders later that night (5/5) but nothing regarding the second order. The next day (5/6) I used the 'Track Orders' option on the 1800Flowers.com website and saw there wasn't delivery information for order number two. I noticed a note on the webpage that indicated sometimes the independent florists do not notify them quickly so there could be a delay in the information shown. Fair Enough.

I called the 1800Flowers.com customer service number at 11 AM and spoke to Kayla in customer service. After being on hold for 10 minutes, Kayla came back online and told me they could not get in touch with the florist to either confirm delivery or let me know the order hadn't been delivered. I explained to Kayla how frustrating this was and now the only thing I could do was contact either my son or daughter-in-law to find out if delivery was made.

I contacted my son and he let me know there had been no delivery as of 1:30 PM on 5/6. I sent an email to customer service via their 'Contact Us' page and explained all the details and posted a 'not-so-nice' comment on their Facebook page. Someone named Tina Flowers with the company sent me a private message on Facebook asking for the details and said she would try to help me. After some back and forth she apologized and said delivery would happen Saturday (5/7) and they would give me a 50% credit for the delivery - not great but...okay. The flowers would get there by Mother's Day at least. She could not tell me A) Why the flowers were not delivered on 5/5 or B) Why the flowers were not going to be delivered that day (5/6).

Later that evening I received an email from a Michael Hinds with 1800Flowers.com customer service who apologized (so that's 3 people telling me how sorry they are but no resolution....) and that the florist had been contacted and delivery WOULD happen on Saturday 5/7.

Guess what?!?! As of 8:45 PM on 5/7 - there's NO FLOWERS! I immediately called customer service and got another Michael who was, not surprisingly, the 4th person to apologize and put me on hold to check on the order.

When he came back online, he informed me again that he was sorry for the inconvenience and proceeded to tell me the delivery would be scheduled for TUESDAY, MAY 10TH! Almost 1 WEEK after the original SAME-DAY delivery order was placed on MAY 5TH!!

By this time I am furious and tell him this is unacceptable and to just cancel the order and refund the charge. He says he understands and can cancel the order and I "should" NOT WILL but "should" see a credit in 5-7 business days. Really? REALLY?? When the order was placed on 5/5, my card was hit on 5/5 for the order and NOW he's saying it "should" be refunded in over a week???

Moral of the story is, I will NEVER use this company again and I will make sure my family, friends and colleagues understand just what type of service 1800Flowers.com provides. I'll be spending my Mother's Day disputing the charge...joy! (sarcasm)

/rant!
Comments:
Posted by ejack053824 on 2011-05-07:
Here's my suggestion. Instead of 800-Flowers...call a local florist in your mom's and daughter-in-laws area and order directly from them. Thats what I do for my mother and grandmother who live in Pinckney, MI.
Posted by spiderman2 on 2011-05-07:
I do the same thing too ejack. I call the local florist and get great service. As a bonus, it actually costs me less money to get a better arrangement than I would get through FTD and I know the florist will take great care to get the arrangment where it is going at the right time!
Posted by trmn8r on 2011-05-07:
I'm with the previous commenter. I have always contacted florists local to the recipient, and arranged over the phone for delivery and payment. These internet and 1800 florist operations inevitably put an additional layer of administration and aggravation between the parties.

As far as the refund, it is pretty standard to take several days up to 2 weeks, because of the way transactions are queued. I would wait at least a week or two to get involved with disputing the charge - there is no rush and it will just be one more thing to do.
Posted by olie on 2011-05-08:
I'm with the other posters. Clearly, you are Internet-savvy. Google your mom's and DIL's cities, and then look for florists.

Florists whose entries list an actual street address, not just a website or 800 number.

Call one of these florists directly--even if you have to pay a few cents per minute for long distance. Tell them what you're looking for, and see what they can provide.
Posted by CrazyRedHead on 2011-05-08:
Mother's day isn't ruined, at least you still have your mother. My mom'm mom passed away a couple of years ago, now she lives all alone. I'm a few states away and can't get there to see my mom. I sent her a card but no flowers and I feel bad about it, but with no job it's not easy to come up with extra money.
Posted by Nohandle on 2011-05-08:
We get this same complaint every year on special occasions. I know personally of a local florist that doesn't even answer the telephone because they already have more orders than they can handle. My gripe is why even pay the fees to belong to a national organization if you can't deliver the order, yet that is in your agreement to belong.

I order flowers directly but sometimes it isn't as easy as it sounds if a florist has not been recommended to you and you have no clue as to the type of work they provide. Back home I call the florist I want to use and they understand it best be perfect.
Posted by terps530 on 2011-05-10:
Almost the same thing just happened to us for Mothers day from them. They said they will give us a refund for the order (which still wasn't delivered as of Monday the 9th). We asked when they will be delivered then, and the guy said he didn't know, and then we find out that they cancelled the order! Furious. I am getting ready to call them up now about this.

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