How many ways can FTD screw up (a customer service rant)

The BBQ Pit
1

Thursday, Feb 12: went onto FTD.com and ordered a Valentine’s bouquet for my wife, to be delivered to our home on Friday, Feb 13 (beating the rush! plus, my wife was going to be working from home.) Picked out a lovely arrangement, paid, got confirmation that it would be delivered on 2/13.

Friday, 2/13: no flowers. No calls, no emails.

Saturday, 2/14: no flowers, no calls, no emails. Late that evening, I called the FTD 800 number (24/7 support!) The CSR – who never deviated from her script, as far as I can tell – never explained what happened to cause the delay, or why I was never notified that there was a problem. But she put me on hold for a minute, and then said that they would send me an upgraded arrangement. To be delivered “today”. I said “Today?? It’s 11:00 PM”. CSR: “Oh. Tomorrow, then.”

A few hours later, I got the email that I should have received on 2/13 – there was a problem with delivering my order and please accept our abject apologies.

Sunday, 2/15: Around 11:00 AM; no flowers. My wife and I are about to leave town and won’t be back until late, so I call FTD to postpone the delivery. I’m informed that they were unable to deliver today anyway, and that the flowers will be delivered Monday, 2/16. I tell them they’re amazingly incompetent.

Monday, 2/16: I receive an email saying that they’re sorry, but won’t be able to deliver my arrangement today as promised.

I go on to ftd.com to cancel my order, and in the comments section give a scathing review of the process so far.

In reply, I get an email saying that they’re unable to cancel my order because it’s in the process of being delivered.

My head explodes.

We go out to movies & dinner (Imitation Game). During which I get an email that my order has been delivered. Lo and behold, there are flowers on the porch when we get home.

I think the bottom line is that FTD has no clue what is going on with the florist they contract with to fill their orders. In the future I’ll go old school: call my local florist directly.

2

Why would you think that ordering on-line on Feb.12 for a Feb. 13 delivery is going to by-pass all the people who ordered on Feb.1 for a Feb. 13 or 14 delivery?

3

didn’t need to read any further really 'cause

Please do that. As well as screwing you over they took a nice hefty percentage off the top of what you paid for the privilege. Do not ever order flowers via any of the ‘services’ like FTD, Teleflora, or god forbid 1 800 flowers. Go on the internet (I know you have internet 'cause you’re posting on SMDB), find a florist where you want to send the flowers. Call or email or go to their website and order the flowers direct. You will get better service, better flowers, more value for your money and an actual real live person who will take responsibility you can bitch at if they screw up. And if they do you can use a different florist next time.

Oh, and protip - order Valentines Day flowers at least a week in advance. Am former florist.

4

Because – one would think – that a web site that takes orders and promises delivery dates has a clue, and isn’t just saying “sure! sounds good!” with no basis in reality. If the web site had said “sorry, we can’t guarantee your order will be delivered on time” I would have accepted and understood. It’s the disconnect between promise and delivery that’s the problem.

5

I’ve had good results over the years with ProFlowers (though I’m sure they screw over the little guy just as much as the others slumtrimpet mentions.) My wife’s flowers have always been delivered on time and they’ve always been lovely. The sole exception was 7 or 8 years ago when they arrived slightly dead. They had a replacement arrangement delivered within three hours of my angry phone call.

6

Yeah, FTD is notoriously bad. Local florists need the money more anyway, IMO.

7

“Happy Valentine’s Day! Here, watch these die. Like our love.”

8

The bolded part really is the best option. Online flower delivery services really don’t know what is going on with the florists they contract with, and they hurt the florists’ bottom line.

If you don’t know what florist to use, call a local funeral home and ask them for recommendations. The receptionist probably has a list of places that give good prices, nice arrangements and timely service. Someone here also suggested calling the local hospice. I haven’t tried that, but I would think you would get good results going that route as well.

9

Do local florists deliver?

10

I can’t imagine how one that didn’t could possibly stay in business.

11

Some do. The one near my house does (it’s affiliated with FTD) and there is a large local florist that does. HyVee delivers flowers (and groceries!).

12

Next time, if you pay someone for something and they don’t deliver what you paid for, and won’t let you cancel the order, the next step is to contact your credit card company and tell them to stop payment. Or, if you can get in touch with an actual human at the company that’s ripping you off, tell them you’re about to do that as your next step, and see how quickly they fix it then.

13

I ordered my mother a turquoise necklace from Southwest Indian Foundation Thanksgiving weekend. I got an email December 23rd telling me that item and been discontinued and apologizing for not contacting me sooner. :mad: And that email was in response to an email I sent them. So yeah, I’ve never being anything from then again.

14

For international delivery, ask for a florist in the town where your recipient lives. There are multiple fees for FTD. The handling fees are minimal, the closer you are to the florist. The credit card company may give some trouble once, but if you do it more often they catch up.

15

My mother lives in Australia, and i sometimes send her flowers on occasions like birthdays.

She moved a couple of years ago, from a mid-sized country town (Goulburn, for the Aussies) to a small beach community (north of Coffs Harbor). In both cases, i just Googled for local florists, called them on the telephone, gave my credit card number over the phone, and set up a delivery time when i knew my mother would be home.

Works great, and in both cases the florists were super friendly and helpful, and were happy to describe what flowers that had gotten in that day, and to work with me about size, colors, varieties, etc. I’ve heard too many stories about the bullshit you get with the big flower delivery services to ever use them.

16

Bingo^^ We have a winner. :slight_smile:

17

My store makes gift baskets so we get a lot of calls from floral shops that get Telefora/FTD requests for that kinda stuff, so I get a small feel for how it works. OTOH, when people call me and say (I’m in Wisconsin) “Can you get a gift basket to Florida in two days/tomorrow” My response is “Well, I can, but shipping is going to be about $70*” and then listen for the huge gasp and then tell them “a better idea, as much as I hate to lose the business, is to call [flower shop down the road] and order it from them, they’ll wire it to a local flower shop in that area and it’ll probably get there today yet”.
Then I always tell the person that whatever they wanted to spend, tack on about $20 or $30 because both flower shops, Teleflora and whatever store [version of me] that gets used at the other end are all going to take a few dollars along the way. So if they were ordering a $50 basket from me, call the flower shop and make it an $80 basket and hope a $45 basket shows up…but it’ll get there today and not be all beat up from shipping.

OR, just call some place local to them. Especially if they didn’t know me, if I was just some random name they found in the phone book, just pick some random place down there.

*because I said 2Day/next day, ground is cheaper, I only suggest this when they need it there now.

18

This is my motto about flowers almost verbatim. Mine is, “Here are some flowers that will die just like my love for you.”

19

What I’ve done is to find the free weekly newspaper for the area in which the recipient lives (e.g., the New Haven Advocate). In my experience, such papers usually do an annual reader poll, seeking votes for the best pizza, best dry cleaner, best Chinese restaurant, etc. I’ve then called either the number one or number two winner of the poll for best florist and asked them to deliver flowers. (I also ask the recipient to email a photo of what they receive, just so I can see what I paid for.) Many of the big names like FTD are going to give the order to a local florist to fulfill anyhow (after taking a cut of maybe twenty percent), so why not let the local guy get all of the money?

20

And of course the OP was foolish to think that placing an order on February 12 for the next day wasn’t taking a risk of non-delivery. It’s probably the busiest day of the year for florists.