flowers delivery

[stormie]

Do NOT order from fromyouflowers.com.

So, my oldest sister was unexpectedly in the hospital Friday, so I thought I'd send her some flowers. I found a place online that does same-day delivery, and placed an order. There was no contingency explained or other notices regarding if the flowers could not be delivered. I thought all was fine.

So, I have a load of messages and emails on my work phone and computer this morning from this place saying that they were unable to deliver the flowers and to call them back. And when I call them, they say that they were unable to find the exact flowers I ordered, so just didn't deliver anything. What the hell!?

Long story short, my sister never got any flowers. At least I was able to get a refund. Though I'm withholding judgement until after I see my CC statement.

So, again, do NOT order from fromyouflowers.com.

[JohnH]

First, sorry to hear about your sister.  Hopefully she's OK.

So just to clarify - rather than deliver something you didn't ask for, and instead of risking sending something you didn't want them to send, they attempted (several times it sounds) to contact you to resolve the situation.  Then when they didn't deliver as promised they gave you a refund.

And this is a problem? 

No business can be perfect all the time, and it sounds like they did everything in their power to make things right.  I only wish more companies would act like this.

John

[Jesse James]

I don't mean to pile-on, and getting a service screwed up by anyone is a problem for sure Stormie so I agree the hastle sucks, but I actually still do some flower delivery for a friend's floral shop and sometimes it's the time of year you're in that can impact service.  This past week into this weekend is busy for Mother's Day (I know because I got called to help out), and so it does impact routine deliveries sometimes.  It's kind of like the mail at Christmas time, or whatever.

Not to diminish what sucked about your situation by any means either, it sucks...  But they did try getting ahold of you the only ways they knew how, and gave you a full refund.  They could've/should've maybe offered something free to you as well, but that's neither here nor there.  Usually those places are contracted to local florists and things, so ultimately I think you're better off stopping at the local florist shop and placing your order rather than going through the service to put the order in...  It adds a step that complicates it and can result in this outcome I figure.

I'd contact them with my disappointment and maybe they'll offer you a free arrangement you can send to a family member or loved one just as a random gift?  Sometimes they'll do that I think.

[stormie]

Yeah, all good points.

I suppose I'm a bit more peeved (perhaps irrationally) just because I failed to get some flowers to my sister. 

The flowers were a last-minute idea and I ordered them just before 3pm on Friday (which was the cut-off time for same-day delivery---guaranteed if ordered by 3pm). The messages they left were after 6pm and stated that they would like to arrange delivery of something different on Monday (not Friday, not Saturday, not even Sunday). So, even if they had gotten ahold of me on Friday night, they still wouldn't have been able to deliver anything on Friday...which is what they guaranteed and what I mainly wanted.

I don't deny that they're busy and doing their best, and I'm glad that I got a refund; however, I think they need to revise their same-day delivery guarantee. Either allow the customer to pick some alternate flowers in case the first choice isn't available, or state that something/anything will be delivered free of charge or severely discounted if the customers' choices aren't available. At least let the customer have the option of getting something delivered that day. I didn't have that option.

I do think it's a good idea for the future, though, to go local. My sister's in a different city about a hundred miles away, but I could've easily found a local florist close to the hospital (or maybe even in the hospital) that maybe could've gotten some flowers to her on Friday.

[Jesse James]

You often can actually do the order at your local florist and THEY will make sure it happens at the distant florist then.  I hightly recommend that because if your florist is like ours, it's a small business and they're aiming to please.  You talk to a human, you see what they're going to make and they put the order through and everything.  To me it's just way easier and more reliable.  There's umpteen floral companies out there like FTD and things.

I totally hope your sister's doing better Stormie, and like I said I'd push for some kind of compensation for not following through on the deal.  They refunded you but that doesn't cover the dissatisfaction with the service so I can see where they owe you something more...  A free arrangement or whatever.  I bet they'd be willing to work with you to keep your business.

[stormie]

Thanks, Jesse. I'm going to give some feedback to the company and let 'em know what happened. I don't want any compensation, but I do think it's in their best interest to know I'm dissatisfied. Thanks, again.