Complaint Review: 1800Flowers - Internet

I'm always dismayed when THE PUBLIC gets duped into using AN 800 FLORAL or DOT.CON MIDDLEMAN rather than using their own LOCAL REAL FLORIST. Companies like those merely CAPTURE YOUR SALE at the FULL 100% plus their $10.95 SERVICE CHARGE and then, SUBCONTRACT your order out to a FLORIST who is expected to fill it at seventy cents on your dollar less their delivery costs. That's because, THE MIDDLEMEN keep almost 30% of YOUR DOLLARS as a COMMISSION and KEEP YOUR SERVICE CHARGE as well for DOING NOTHING. It's also sad when they give the consumer FALSE CONFIDENCE that THEY WILL DELIVER TODAY and up till 2:00 PM. In fact, and since THEY ARE NOT DELIVERING THE FLOWERS THEMSELVES, they cannot speak for the florist who they subcontracted. Floral Consumers should plan to visit FLORIST DETECTIVE for the full story on NON LOCAL PHONIES who scam the public each and everyday. http://www.floristdetective.com I speak from experience as both my wife, and I, are REAL FLORISTS for over 36 years and we refuse to work as the subcontracted FREE LABOR FORCE for any these MIDDLEMEN. In addition, we refuse to RIP OFF the customer by filling their orders for ONLY SEVENTY CENTS ON THEIR DOLLAR.

I'm always dismayed when THE PUBLIC gets duped into using AN 800 FLORAL or DOT.CON MIDDLEMAN rather than using their own LOCAL REAL FLORIST. Companies like those merely CAPTURE YOUR SALE at the FULL 100% plus their $10.95 SERVICE CHARGE and then, SUBCONTRACT your order out to a FLORIST who is expected to fill it at seventy cents on your dollar less their delivery costs. That's because, THE MIDDLEMEN keep almost 30% of YOUR DOLLARS as a COMMISSION and KEEP YOUR SERVICE CHARGE as well for DOING NOTHING. It's also sad when they give the consumer FALSE CONFIDENCE that THEY WILL DELIVER TODAY and up till 2:00 PM. In fact, and since THEY ARE NOT DELIVERING THE FLOWERS THEMSELVES, they cannot speak for the florist who they subcontracted. Floral Consumers should plan to visit FLORIST DETECTIVE for the full story on NON LOCAL PHONIES who scam the public each and everyday. http://www.floristdetective.com I speak from experience as both my wife, and I, are REAL FLORISTS for over 36 years and we refuse to work as the subcontracted FREE LABOR FORCE for any these MIDDLEMEN. In addition, we refuse to RIP OFF the customer by filling their orders for ONLY SEVENTY CENTS ON THEIR DOLLAR.

I'm always dismayed when THE PUBLIC gets duped into using AN 800 FLORAL or DOT.CON MIDDLEMAN rather than using their own LOCAL REAL FLORIST. Companies like those merely CAPTURE YOUR SALE at the FULL 100% plus their $10.95 SERVICE CHARGE and then, SUBCONTRACT your order out to a FLORIST who is expected to fill it at seventy cents on your dollar less their delivery costs. That's because, THE MIDDLEMEN keep almost 30% of YOUR DOLLARS as a COMMISSION and KEEP YOUR SERVICE CHARGE as well for DOING NOTHING. It's also sad when they give the consumer FALSE CONFIDENCE that THEY WILL DELIVER TODAY and up till 2:00 PM. In fact, and since THEY ARE NOT DELIVERING THE FLOWERS THEMSELVES, they cannot speak for the florist who they subcontracted. Floral Consumers should plan to visit FLORIST DETECTIVE for the full story on NON LOCAL PHONIES who scam the public each and everyday. http://www.floristdetective.com I speak from experience as both my wife, and I, are REAL FLORISTS for over 36 years and we refuse to work as the subcontracted FREE LABOR FORCE for any these MIDDLEMEN. In addition, we refuse to RIP OFF the customer by filling their orders for ONLY SEVENTY CENTS ON THEIR DOLLAR.

The first mistake you made was using a company like 1800flowers. This company is an order gathering company who just takes your order and then tries to find a real florist to fill it and deliver it. They have no clout at all with the florist. If you take a look at what you paid for the flower order you will also find out you got ripped off. They charge you a fee to take the order from you. This fee on average is $9.95. Then they pocket 20% of your order for just calling a real florist to fill the order. In some cases the florist they call thake this 20% out of the flower order to cover the expense. Use your head and only use a real retail florist located in the area you want the order delivered in. A wonderful site to use if www.localflowershop.com Consumer beware!!!! FTD.com, Teleflora.com, 800flowers.com are all con jobs. That .com really means .con

August 2, 2005 at 11:30 AM central: Second Update: I just received a call from a woman named Sharon at 1800Flowers. She stated they received my fax that I had sent yesterday and that my bank account was credited back everything on July 30th. Ok, I personally know half was credited back on the 31st of July and half on the 1st of August - as separate transactions - but that's neither here nor there. I thought the call was to apologize to me for what happened and that would be it. She did apologize and offered to send our Daughter free flowers today. However when I turned down the free flower offer she became belligerent with me. We were lucky enough to find a local florist in our Daughter's area who handled delivering other flowers for us on Monday morning, once she was home from the hospital. So there was no need to send her more flowers. After turning down Sharon's offer repeatedly, she made a few more belligerent remarks and finally hung up! Let's hope this is the end of it now. By the way Robert, the 30th that they now "claim" they refunded my money on was a Saturday. When in actuality they refunded half my money on the 31st, a Sunday, and the balance on the 1st, a Monday. Obviously they believed the offer of "free flowers" now would make it all acceptable business pratices, which it most certainly is not.

You expected the merchant to somehow get you your money back on a Sunday. Not going to happen with a credit card processor...they are all closed. The 1/2 refund you got was processed correctly as they said they would on Friday. Monday morning you come in here ranting like a nut because on Sunday, a whole 12-18 hours earlier(when no bank or processor is open), you were not refunded your money. DUH! It was Sunday! You are amazing at best. I am sooooo glad I do not have you for a customer. You must be a real pleasure to deal with. In fact, I don't have ANY customers like you. Mine are all at the upper levels of intellect and civillity.

After monitoring our bank account we noticed that HALF of what 1800Flowers owed us was credited back to our bank account on July 31st, 2005. The other half was not credited back to our bank account until August 1st, 2005. Of course by then I had notified our bank regarding the problem we were having with 1800Flowers, had faxed a complaint letter to 1800Flowers corporate office demanding a full refund and had filed on-line complaints as well. If 1800Flowers owes you money then my advice is to stay on top of the situation to make sure you get the FULL amount credited back and to work closely with your bank or credit card company.