Complaint Review: FTD.COM

I received a floral arrangement from my son for Mother's Day from FTD.com. They were dumped on my doorstep in Texas in full afternoon sun and 90+ degrees temperature. When I opened the arrangement, it was flowers taped in an empty vase with no source of moisture only instructions. The calla lilies had brown edges and the roses were drooping and wilty. I followed instruction even using "room temperature" water I had prepared to water my houseplants, cut the stems as directed, took a shot at arranging the flowers--had to look it up on line to get an idea what it was suppose to look like.

My son called and I thanked him for the flowers and told him they smelled wonderful. He said he thought I'd love the color of the roses and after a brief discussion, I realized the roses were no where close to the color he'd ordered. He was very upset, since he'd chosen something specific to my taste, so I decided to just mention slightly that the flowers came without moisture, and see if I couldn't revive them. The instructions did say it would take a few hours for the flowers to rehydrate and recover from shipping.

By the next day the Calla Lilies blooms were mostly brown and the stems right below the bloom had turned brown and soggy and the blooms had folded over on the stems--they had to be tossed. The roses were more shrivelled and I tried removing the outer petals that were completely dead and added fresh water, still hoping to save some of the arrangement. Within a couple of days of receipt the roses which never opened had died completely and were folded over on their stems.

My son was traveling for a few days and when he called, even though it made me feel like an ingrate, and I'm sure it made him feel really bad as well, I finally told him the truth about the arrangement and suggested he try to recover some of his money. 

After several weeks it was still bugging me about how little care had been used in packing this arrangement, so I called to register my complaint as well. First I was told my son would have had to complain within 7 days of the purchase, so now I realize for my son's sake, I should have immediately told him the flowers were a mess and not bothered with trying to salvage them and not hurt his feeling. If you consider it takes a couple of days from placing the order till the order is received you really don't have much time to see if the flowers will recover before your 7 days is up. So if they are in acceptable condition when you get them don't try to revive them. Write them off and get your money back!--which I'm sure they wont give you, probably just more lip service and cruddy basically dead flowers.

Customer service couldn't have cared less about the fact the flowers were packed improperly without moisture or water vials, I think even wet paper towels under the ends of the stems would have helped, or that the flowers weren't even what my son ordered. Worse my son believed he was ordering flowers to be delivered through a local florist, not some through the mail, do-it-yourself half dead box of flowers.

BOTTOM LINE: Don't not put yourself or your loved one in this position. Call a florist in the city where your loved one lives that has good online reviews. Don't waste your time, money or effort with this company that has no concern for its customers.

I WILL BADMOUTH FTD.com EVERY CHANCE I GET AND SINCE WE ARE IN A GROUP OF PEOPLE WHO OFTEN SEND FLOWERS I THINK IT WILL MAKE A DIFFERENCE. Please help spread the word about this lousy service.