How would you handle this?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m looking for a bit of advice on how to handle this situation, which is infuriating me at the moment.

Today is my Mom’s birthday. I was planning to go home and surprise her with a visit, but I’ve come down with some godawful uber-cold and decided it was in her best interest for me not to give her pneumonia for her birthday. Instead, I went to 1800-Flowers.com and sent her a nice little bouquet and stuffed bear with a note that promised her a nice dinner when I come home soon for Thanksgiving. I paid for it, and was charged the appropriate price.

I got a delivery notice in my email this morning, which said it had gotten there at 10:30 this morning and that the UPS driver had left the package at the front door. Now, this is not at all the case – the package never arrived. Since my mom was home all day today, and since she has a giant black lab that raises thirty different brands of hell whenever a vehicle pulls up, I’m fairly certain that the driver delivered the package to the wrong address. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to find out until Monday when s/he gets back to work and finds the note asking her to call me.

Now, the question is, if they did indeed deliver it to the wrong address, what am I supposed to do? I paid for, and was charged for, a birthday gift that wasn’t received, but the company I ordered it from got it to UPS just fine. UPS being the one that messed up, it would seem that they’d be liable for cleaning up their own mess. Basically, if it turns out that this package is long gone, who do I demand my money back from?

2

The flower company. They’re the ones that you asked to deliver the flowers. It’s not your problem that they hired someone else to do the actual delivery, and their subcontractor screwed up.

Plus, the flower company has an interest in making it right with you, so that you’ll continue to do business with them. And UPS has an interest in doing right by the flower company, so that the flower company will continue to do business with them.

This kind of stuff happens all the time; I’m sure the flower company has a set way to make it up to you.

Feel better.

3

What Campion said.

Plus, in legal terms, that’s exactly how the flow of responsibility is designed to operate.

4

Call 1-800-flowers, as they are the shipper and UPS acted as their agent, they’ll have to be the ones to run down what happened. Most likely (having had this happen) 1-800-Flowers will send out a replacement order immediately and deal with UPS on their own.

5

Hmm, you know, when you put it like that, it all seems so very obvious. Either I’m just taking the wrong classes, or this is the kind of stuff that they should really be teaching in college!

As it turns out, the package was indeed misdelivered, but to one of the nicer people in the town. He came by my mom’s place earlier today and dropped the package off. She loved it, and we’re both really happy that the guy took the time out of his day to right a wrong that wasn’t his fault.

However, I’m still going to have a word with 1800-Flowers come Monday. I paid a premium for overnight shipping, and since it arrived a day late and only through the good graces of a friendly neighbor, I want my effing money back for the expedited delivery fee.

Thanks for the help and the quick replies, everyone!
ETA: Now what in this thread could have possibly prompted the Google ad at the bottom of the page to tell me about the injustices of cluster bombs in Lebanon?

6

Or you could ask 1 800 Flowers to make it up by delivering a thank you bouquet to the neighbor. Just a thought.

7

Hey, how is that for a generous thought? God knows I never would have thought of that and it is the absolute right thing to do.

Other than that, what Campion said. UPS will only give you the run around as you are not the shipper (says the guy who worked for UPS).

8

That’s a really great idea! Unfortunately, the neighbor just came to the front porch and dropped it off. My mom recognized the truck as belonging to someone in the neighborhood, but we don’t know his name or exactly where he lives. Damn! I think I might have to send her out on a recon mission :stuck_out_tongue:

9

I’d suggest that you simply call them, explain what happened, and let them offer a fix. I’ve done business w/ them and I found them to be anxious to make things right. You’ll get further if you’re reasonable and matter of fact, than if you call them in anger and start demanding things.

10

All the mideast peace process needs is flowers?

What A.R. Cane said, by the way. The times I’ve dealt with those folks, they’ve been very nice and helpful. A friend had been ordering flowers from them for years, and they send you reminders of what you’ve ordered in the past (“remember – mom’s birthday’s coming up!”); and a couple weeks after she broke up with her boyfriend, they sent her a reminder that his birthday was coming up, because she’d ordered flowers for him the previous year. :eek:

She sent back a nicely-worded email about how she appreciated the reminder but it was kind of salt in the wound since they’d just broken up and could they please never mention his name again. They wrote back, told her they were very sorry, both about the reminder email and about the breakup, promised to erase his name, and offered her free delivery on her next order.