I hear ya. But in my defense:
Silly me, I thought the words “guaranteed next day delivery” actually meant something.
February 14 might be the busiest day of the year. I thought February 13 might be kind of quiet.
Unfortunately, there are 5 million other guys thinking the same thing (just like there are 10,000 other people in every stadium who try to “beat the traffic”.)
I’ve never worked as a florist, but I’ll bet they’re busy the whole week leading up to Valentine’s Day (and for a few days following). Next-day delivery might work during the rest of the year, but not then. And the “guarantee” probably just means that they’ll refund your money since they failed.
FTD is so old, telephones, never mind long distance, were still magic. (What’s a credit card?)
Jeez. A cross-continent phone call costs less than a cup of coffee. FTD is only a pay-us-money middleman, and flowers by wire come out all squashed anyway.
Besides:
That’s why on Valentine’s Day, y’all should offer your beloved a potato. It means so many things.
Like : “if you leave potatoes alone, they’ll germinate and sprout more potatoes - a single potato lasts for fucking ever. Like our love”. Or “potatoes are ugly and misshapen, but they’re still awesome - like you !”. Or “there’s a million ways to cook potatoes, each of which are fantastic ; much like there are a million ways we show our love to each other on any given day !”.
Face it : semiologically speaking, the humble 'tater kicks the rose’s arse any day of the week.
They said “why don’t you both just sleep on it tonight,
And you will see that in the morning, FTD will make it right”
Then they dismissed me, and I realized the likelihood was slight
They must have fifty ways to lose your order.
It just slipped off the stack, Jack
Put in the wrong van, Stan
Or it never deployed, Roy
(Just guessing, you see)
It fell off the truck, Buck
Don’t plead, it’s your tough luck!
Hit the wrong key, Lee
And there’s no guarantee.
As Dewey said, it’s just a busy week in general, any holiday week is. Also, you have to remember that V-Day was on a Saturday which means anyone that wanted to send flowers to someone at work (that holds a M-F job) had to do it on Friday. You can confirm this by scrolling back in your facebook feed to Friday 2/13 and seeing how many of your female facebook friends posted pictures of flowers while at work.
[golf clap] Bravo!
Had similar issue with similar company in the past, complete with inability to cancel because order “was in process of being delivered” Called them, told them what I ordered was delivery by a certain date, and that was not what I got, and that a discount or an upgrade did nothing for me. I wanted them to refund, or I was going to dispute the charge. Was refunded the charge immediately. This was days after the flowers I didn’t want anymore arrived, so it may be worth to try this.
I know that this has already been suggested, but posting this 'cause it in fact worked for me.
But, as the OP said, the problem isn’t the delivery delay, it’s the broken promise.
Customers shouldn’t have to know anything about the logistics of a business to patronize it. Florists know that Valentine’s day is the busiest day of the year, and they can either prepare for the flood or turn away business they can’t handle. Taking the order with (apparently) no reasonable expectation of filling it is bullshit.
Dec 24th is the busiest day of the year for deliveries in general, yet it’s hard to go to a single website to place an order for something any time in the month of December without seeing a giant “Orders must be placed by <deadline> to guarantee delivery by Dec. 24th!” banner.
As much as I am late to this bitch-fest party and as much as I think “Valentines Day” is a scourge upon this earth…
That is cold dude. Stone dead cold.
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(but it did make me smile a crooked smile)
Local florists aren’t necessarily better. I ordered some flowers from a local florist a few years ago for my wife. She likes tulips. I ordered the “upgraded” arrangement, which would have 24 blooms instead of 12. They arrive, and it looks skimpy, because there’s only 12 blooms. Okay, so, I call the florist and say that I paid extra for more flowers, and I’d like to get what I paid for. They respond that they’re out of tulips, but they’ll deliver a different variety. Fine, I’ll give them a chance to make it right.
They deliver the most depressing, deadest-looking “fresh” flowers I’ve ever seen. It should have come with a “Congratulations On Your Suicide” card. Dreadful. So I call again, and they say that’s all they have, but maybe they can offer me $20 off my next order. Nope, I say, not gonna order from you again, so that’s pointless.
My office sent me some flowers after my dad passed away. The florist, for whatever reason, decided it would be a good idea to deliver them to my neighbor and leave me a note telling me they were at the neighbor’s house (since I wasn’t home at the time). I don’t know if this is just my introverted nature acting up, but the last thing I wanted to do was have to have the same sad conversation with yet another acquaintance.
Was it odd for the florist to do that, or is it just me?
Whenever I ordered flowers (long distance from another city), the person on the other end always asked if I could supply a next-door house address or apartment number.
But I always used the same, dependable florist.
Hilarious! You should consider a career in standup. 
Didn’t get this in time for the edit window, but I like to send my husband something for his birthday, and the route I take is balloon bouquets. You can pick the balloons you want to send a special message, and when the balloons start to sag, you can inhale the helium and tell the recipient in person how much you adore them. Also, you can reuse the spent balloons to make a festive wrapper for future birthday gifts.
Another benefit to using a local florist is that if you develop a rapport with them, they will also do stuff like repotting plants for you (which is great if you live in an apartment and don’t have room for bags of potting soil). They will charge you some nominal fee for this, but it’s worth it have it done right.
A friend wasn’t able to attend a funeral, so he arranged to have flowers delivered to the service. Plans changed, and he was able to go after all. And what was delivered was not what he ordered. At all. The florist must have thought they could skimp because he wouldn’t be there to check. With all the badmouthing my friend did, they probably lost much more in lost business than they saved by providing a half-assed arrangement.