When I had to send flowers to a hospitalized relative, I took a chance and arranged it through the florist section at the Price Chopper. That worked out wonderfully well. I agree also, calling the funeral home for a recommendation is a great idea.
As someone who’s had a few (ha!) surgeries, I’ve found local florists have also forwarded me flowers to my house when I’ve left the hospital before they’d been delivered. That’s a very nice plus in my book.
They should have called to inform BF the flowers could not be delivered.
Absolutely. Aside from all the logistical and stylistic benefits of using the same florist(s), funeral home usually do not steer you wrong. They know that the bereaved can obsess over small details, and they are looking for repeat business.
Had a similar issue with Proflowers. Sent a girlfriend flowers on Feb 15th for Valentine’s Day (she was out of town for the 14th). After many phonecalls and broken promises and apologies they showed up late on the 17th. Last time I used Proflower.
But ProFlowers didn’t make the delivery; the USPS apparently did. So how would they have known that the package was refused?
Why would they use UPSP to deliver flowers? That makes no sense.
Why would they use any carrier they couldn’t track? It sounds like ProFlower is definitely a company to avoid.
You guys are making a lot of assumptions about a third-hand story. I’ve ordered from ProFlowers a handful of times and it’s always FedEx or UPS Next Day. These are fragile flowers we’re talking about; they don’t ship them USPS. I’m sure the poster was talking about a UPS location, not an actual Post Office.
Anyway, I’ve never had a problem with them, just that you have to know your loved one will receive a sealed box of fresh flowers, not a bouquet of flowers.
Huh. The times they’ve delivered stuff for me it’s been a private delivery service doing it.
Really? Like a regular florist? Maybe they’ve changed how they do business since I used them and are more like FTD now. Regardless, I seriously doubt they’ve ever used USPS.
ProFlowers corporate PR should get off their butts and monitor online chatter about them. You’d think they’d want to clarify all these complaints about them.
My problem with ProFlowers wasn’t the delivery of the actual flowers, but with the delivery to my house of unwanted crap. I must have missed clearing a checkbox somewhere during the order process, but apparently ProFlowers sells your name and address to one or more media marketing groups (m2marketing being one). This led to our being subscribed to random magazines (in my case Shape, Ebony, and American Baby). I’ve managed to kill the magazine subscriptions, but now we’re getting lots of mail with coupons for diapers and assorted baby stuff.
ProFlowers explained that all of these were gifts for being their customer. Gee, thanks.
Might be a regional thing. I live in a good-sized city.
But paying the prices they’re asking you’d expect a professionally made arrangement delivered and ready to display. That’s why I pay those kind of prices to florists. They know what the hell they’re doing arranging flowers in a vase, I don’t.
And who do you expect to cut and arrange these flowers when they’re delivered? The funeral director? Your friend who just came out of surgery? Your girlfriend at the corporate office? Grandma at the nursing home?
It’s like selling art online and they deliver you a blank canvas and a box of paint.
I have used PF probably a dozen times over the years. Never had a missed delivery, never had wilted flowers, and never the wrong arrangement delivered.
FTD on the other hand screwed up every order.
The prices are better at PF also.
My original assumption was that they should have called to say the flowers couldn’t be delivered …
Agh! This is what happens when I post on the Dope and then run off to do interesting things for the weekend.
To address the original question of what the flower company did wrong, I just felt like I was on the brunt of a distinct lack of communication between the service provider(s) and the customer.
For instance, the flower company knew that the flowers had not been delivered, but did not contact the customer to let him know.
Then the bouquet was thrown out, which admittedly was the delivery service’s doing, not the flower companies. It would not surprise me to learn that the flower company got wind of this information and did not inform my boyfriend. (It would also not surprise me if they did not know it was thrown out, but honestly, who throws out a package without notifying any of the parties involved?)
Finally, as someone upthread pointed out, local florists often have private delivery services. As a big chain, ProFlowers has instead partnered with a delivery service, and somewhere along the line, the consideration as to whether a customer actually receives the product intact was dropped. Perhaps this is just what you get for choosing a nationally recognized chain, but it still left me with a preference for local florists. For the record, my current boyfriend buys from a local florist, and not only is the service better, but the arrangements are much prettier.
We once got something from 800-FLOWERS that came via FedEx with assembly instructions. For those prices, you should be able to send someone something better than a floral kit. Not only did we need to put the container together, it was up to us to cut the stems to a good length and arrange them, all the while wondering what it was intended to look like.
Conversely, an arrangement that someone else ordered through a local florist was delivered as a done deal and all we had to do was pick a place to put it. Those flowers also lasted a couple days longer than the ones that were shipped.
Former florist weighing in.
FFS people, why are you using Proflowers or 1800flowers or even FTD or teleflora? You all seem to have internet access. Google a local flowershop. Most of them have websites where you can order (you don’t even have to talk to a human), or baring that, use the contact details listed to get on your cell phone and call them. They don’t bite. And you’ll get exactly what you want, when you want it and at a better price than through any of the crap providers mentioned above. And if they can’t give you the service you want, at least you’ll know why since they’re going to fill the order from the crap providers mentioned above anyway. All of the above crap providers are a HUGE ripoff.
Oh, and a little tip. If you have any faith in the flowershop you’ve picked, ask them for a ‘florist’s choice’ arrangement instead of the prescribed pictures on their website or (god forbid) FTD or teleflora or 1800 etc. Give them credit for knowing their craft and you’re more likely to get something special.
I use pro flowers because when I used FTD (pre-net days) the orders were uniformly:
Dead/dying flowers
Late
Not anything like what I had ordered.
Expensive
all of FTD orders are filled from local florists.
Sorry but I have had my full of small florist shops thinking he’s a thousand miles away, he will have no clue about the shit I’m going to send in his name. They completely forget that the recepiant will call me to tell me about the flowers.
Using PF I have always gotten fresh flowers, on time at a fair price.
YMMV
Well, part of that’s because FTD et al. keeps about 40% of what you paid for the flowers. That doesn’t leave much for the florist to work with. And, in my experience, florists in general hate FTD and teleflora and make minimal effort to fill their orders because yes, some of them are stoopid and think that you’ll have no clue about the shit that got sent in your name. That was before the internet and instant pictures. And that’s also why you should just call the local guy and place the order yourself now. That way you’re not a thousand miles away anymore, you’re on the other end of the phone. You become a customer of that shop, not some nameless yahoo. You’ll get better treatment, especially if you ask the shop what they would recommend/what they have fresh that day.
I sent flowers to my mother a few years ago for Mother’s Day or her birthday, so to find the best local florist, I researched the “Best Of” reader poll results from the local alternative weekly newspaper. She liked the flowers.