Ok, today I ordered flowers for a special person in my life. Long story short, they didn’t get delivered. At all. This flower delivery service was one of those deals where local florists are used but the ordering, billing, etc is outsourced to what sounded like China.
After about a half hour past the guaranteed delivery time, I began my efforts to confirm the delivery. I continued, unsuccessfully and in ever-increasing anger, for well over an hour. All of the customer service reps I talked to were extremely unhelpful, to say the least. These were people barely literate in English who were giving me the ultimate run-around when I asked for basic information re my order.
They couldn’t tell me anything, kept telling me they’d call me back (they never did, of course) because they had to email the “confirmation department”. :dubious: When I asked to speak to a supervisor, I was told a supervisor was not available. I asked for the phone number of this “confirmation department”, and the rep was glad to give it to me. It was the same fucking phone number!! :mad:
I told them I considered this theft and that I was going to report their service. When I said this, they offered to refund my money. I said ok, that would be fine. “Oh, we sorry sir, cancellation office closed.” You gotta be fucking kidding me. Cancellation office?! I just hung up the fucking phone.
So here I am. I would like advice on how I should proceed from this point. Like, who would I even report them to? If anybody has any experience or knowledge in this area, I would appreciate some advice. It wasn’t much money, only about $50. Still. It’s my money and they fucking stole it.
Make a big PDF of all your order histories, emails, etc. File a claim with your credit card company and/or PayPal. Send them the documentation when they request it. If you used neither a CC or PayPal… well, live and learn and don’t give money to random people on the Internet in the future
Always Google for reviews or “<businessname> scam” before buying next time
Yeah, I normally do my due diligence, this was a spur of the moment kind of thing and I just clicked on the first “flower delivery” service ad I found. I realize I’m probably not getting my money back, but if they is anything I can do, I will do it.
ETA: But yeah, I used a CC. I’ll do that. Thanks for the tip.
The flower company doesn’t give a shit about you. Your credit card company hopefully will! They’re usually pretty good about siding with cardholders, from what I hear.
If you do get a refund, please use a bit of the money to send the company a single black rose (but order it from someone else, of course).
Doesn’t even have to be considered fraud, just non-performance. If you can confirm to your CC issuer that the company did not deliver the agreed-upon service or product, and has refused to refund your money in a timely manner despite your good-faith effort to get them to do so, they’ll issue a chargeback; you’ll get your money back, and the company not only gets the money taken away from them, they also get hit with a significant fee by the CC company ($25-$50, IIRC).
Ambivalid, next time go local - reliable and very competitive prices. Vogts. I’ve used them a bunch (heh) of times over the last decade and zero complaints.
(Not spam! Local business. Unless Ambivalid has moved, he lives in the same county as me.)
I looked at your link and loved the pics. I happen to like colorful bouquets better than the standard bunch of roses. Good prices, too.
Another way to find a good florist if you don’t have someone helpful who knows is to call the local funeral home and ask who they recommend. Yeah, morbid at first glance, but those folks do know which florists deliver promptly and give good value.
I’ve been a hospice volunteer for years, that’s how come I know (well, have an opinion about anyway) local florists who actually deliver.
That’s a good idea going forward: calling funeral homes. Most florists are affiliated with nationwide services such as Teleflora, so it makes sense to start local.
That’s who I used for my second try. And it was successful. The weird thing is, a bouquet of flowers did get delivered from the first flower service but it wasn’t until the next morning and it was a completely different selection that what I had paid for.
