I’ve been using FTD for a couple of years now with no complaints. So naturally, when it was time to buy flowers for my girlfriend for Valentines day, I went back to FTD. My girlfriend couldn’t come visit this week due to being sick, and I wanted to surprise her with a nice bouquet. The website guaranteed that the flowers would arrive in time, so I didn’t give it a second thought.
On Valentines day, around late afternoon, I received an e-mail saying that my order was being postponed a day. I was pretty upset by that, and ended up telling my girlfriend that flowers were coming but that they wouldn’t be on Valentines day. But that’s okay, right? One more day can’t hurt too bad.
They never came.
Today I received an e-mail simply stating my order has been canceled. Nothing more. No explanation. I tried to call up FTD and couldn’t even reach their customer service line.
It seems I’m not the only one.
Has anyone else experienced this problem this Valentines day?
Update: With Mikey’s inspiration (see the comments) I’m opening this up to more general flower screwup stories.
hi
I was wondering if you still hack on leaftag. It sounded very promising and I would love to see it integrated into gnome
thanks
Well this really isn’t the correct place to talk about leaftag, but no, I haven’t lately. Waiting for Tracker or something to standardize more.
Back when I lived 3 hours away from my fiancée, I ordered flowers for her online and added a teddy bear holding a heart on checkout. I got a confused phone call from her on delivery day asking if I knew something she didn’t. The florist that fielded the order screwed up and gave her a bear holding onto a pink baby bottle that said “It’s A Girl!”.
Mikey: That’s hilarious 🙂 I guess if it was the other way around (you receiving it instead of her) it would have been a bit more worrisome.
And with that, I’d like to open this up to more general flower screwup stories.
Krissa’s flowers from Wednesday got delivered a day late, and to the billing address. I have no idea what they did with the shipping address. Nothing quite as amusing as ‘its a girl’, I’m afraid.
Your exact experience happened to me last year. I ordered a week or so in advance and was promised they would be delivered on time. Valentines came and went without flowers. I was told they were to busy and would deliver them the next day. Well that didn’t happen either. When I called to find out what was going on they said we can deliver them in tomorrow (now 2 days after Valentines). I cancelled my order and they sent me a coupon for 20% off which I threw in the trash. Anyways, I can’t believe how they can treat their customers like that.
That sucks.
However, disintermediate! Cut FTD out of the loop. Find a local florist near your friend, telephone them and order flower delivery directly from them with a credit card. Most florists are happy to cut out the FTD middle man and keep more of your money and deliver a better bouquet with the savings. FTD supposedly guarantees consistency and quality, but you’ve found out how little that’s worth.
Slimey search engine optimizers have got wise to this, so searching the Web for “Smallville florist [review|recommendation|local]” returns dozens of fake web pages from national florists, paid search sites, paid directory listings, scam sites, etc.; see my blog entry. So you need to look out for local florists when you’re physically in the area.
Happy Valentines Day, I KISS YOU!!!!!!! Who is want to come TURKEY I can invitate.
Yup, the old Valentines flower rip off! I ordered flowers through http://www.iflorist.co.uk/ and they did not arrive Valentines day. The next day after contacting their support line (which was good actually) I am told:
“however due to circumstances out of iFlorist’s control; the courier company could not deliver the order on time. We could not get an updated status on your delivery from the courier”
Not really helpful in getting my flowers out on time. Anyway, we’ve agreed on a new delivery date, not that it helps for Valentines.
I ordered flowers for my mom on Valentines day. They arrived on Friday, in a FedEx box, without the balloon, and they were brown – plus, they were not even CLOSE to being the right thing. I’m FINALLY on hold with FTD right now. Hopefully they will fix this.
Missy, sounds like you fell victim to ‘drop ship’ flowers. You have to read the fine print carefully. Those UPS and FedEx trucks aren’t warm, depending on where you live, it’s below freezing in them and guess what that does to flowers. Kills them dead.
If you want to see how bad it can be, check this video on youtube out…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNYGZHPKQgs
I oredered flowers for 2 weeks ago for Valentines day and they still haven’t been delivered yet and all get from their stupid customer service web site is the computer generated response. I believe they don’t care and feel that they are the only web or 800 number anyone will call to order flowers. I am presently looking for an attorney to get their attention. I will never order from them again and am encouraging all my friends and relatives to do the same.
THOUSANDS experienced this problem this valentines day… and there’s a little memorial to that fact… dontuseftd.com!
I ordered online from Floral originals.com a standing spray for a funeral in Paradise California. I provide the name of the deceased the Mortuary name and address and payed by credit card a total of $119. Two weeks later I speak to my sister in law who was the surviving child of the deceased. The flowers never came, the card of course was not there either, but the charge remains on my credit card. I contact the florist, who is located in all places…beverly hills ca. No response. I contact FTD, hoping that they at least have a code of ethics for their member florists, their response…, go back to floral originals.com. Chances are that I will never see my money again. The nerve of these florist providing a customer satisfaction guarentee. The only guarentee is that they will rip you off.
Consumers and Real Florists were both hurt this past Valentine’s Day. It wasn’t the first time and certainly will not be the last.
Real Florists represent the interest of you, the consumer, and as someone mentioned above in a previous post, no longer have any use for any middleman.
A Real Florist fills your order to value, does not add any hidden charges or gimmicks and does the job the way it’s supposed to be done.
Drop shipping via Fedex, UPS & DHL just doesn’t cut it in the real world and never will.
Visit FloristDetective.com for much more information. You’ll be glad you did !
FTD just ruined my Valentine. I do not see my boyfriend often and he decided to send me balloons and flowers. he ordered 7 balloons which I got on valentines day. but i did not receive the Tulips he ordered until the next day…Feb 15, 2006. I received them alright, but..they were wilted and 6 short!!! We tried to call to complain almost everyday but the phone will just ring forever, so there was no way to leave a message. then we tried to leave a message online but stupid complaints window will not accept my complaint because the order number i put did not exist in their system..Im really upset and we will never use FTD ever again. I will reporte them to Better Buisness Bearau!!!
I am just fed up with online flower companies. For Valentines day, i ordered roses for my wife and flower arrangeents for the three lovely women i work with (friends only!) from 1800FLOWERS. These orders were placed several weeks before the big day. The orders were shipping to two different addresses. Guess what? NONE of the flowers made it on Valentines Day!! Here i am with egg on my face with FOUR women accusing me of not getting them flowers! I have to admit that at the very least,1800flowers did credit me back both orders very promptly.
NOW…Today,04/24/07 is my 14th wedding anniversary….I ordered flowers for my lovely wife at FLOWERSUSA, which by the way is owned by FTD. Can you guess what happened?? I’l bet you can…NO FLOWERS SHOWED UP TODAY!!! They told me that the order must have gotten lost! its like its a huge national holiday today or anything. How is that even possible in todays internet age?
Do I look like an A**hole or what???
I give up! I cant win apparently. I will stick to local florists only. No more wil i give my jhard earned cash over the net to any flower order takers.
On May 8th 2007, I ordered flowers for My Mother from 1800Flowers. They were supposed to be delivered the next day (May 9th, 2007), well in time for Mother’s Day which was May 13, 2007. On May 16th, I got as call from my Mom. SHE NEVER RECEIVED THE FLOWERS!!!!
I contacted 1800Flowers that night. After arguing with them for several minutes, a Supervisor finally cam on and promised TO DELIVER THE FLOWERS AND GIVE A FULL REFUND.
I never received notification of the delivery, and I never saw my bank account credited anything. I called my Mother to find out that they finally were delivered on Saturday (TEN DAYS LATE, AND SIX DAYS PAST MOTHERS DAY).
I called 1800Flowers today (MAY 22nd) to find out what happened to my refund, as was told that they never refund the whole amount if the flowers are eventually delivered. They claimed that they had nothing in the notes about it.
I demanded to speak to a supervisor, and when I told him that I would tell everyone I know how I was treated, I was told to do whatever I had to do.
So, I am here to tell people not to do business with this company. THEY LIED TO ME. They ruined my Mother’s Mothers Day. They are not to be trusted, and I am telling everyone not to do business with them, unless they find such treatment acceptable.
all i can say is ..rip-offs..this company floral originals by gregory scotte are thieves. i placed my order online to send flowers to a firend of mine who was going thru kemo..the company took my money and NEVER made the delivery. when you call the co. all you get is their answering service who says they will forward the info. to the company and someone will call you back..no-one does..ive left at least 8 mess. before i gave up on that route. i contacted the bbb and they rated the flower shop an “F” they have lots of complaints there from other customers who this company did the exact same thing as me to them..also complaints on complaints.com and on the companys webpage customer reviews..all bad and all saying basically the same as me..i want people to know what i didnt at the time i place my order..dont order from these people they are rip-offs skeemers and thieves…
DONT ORDER FROM THE FLORIST..FLORAL ORIGINALS BY GREGORY SCOTTE..YOU WILL LOSE YOUR MONEY AND NO DELIVERY WILL BE MADE….
Well, FTD are the best one but still they have some latency in tehir service at peak time. I have used them a lot and never found any problem