- Report: #609958
Complaint Review: FTD - FTD.com - Internet
Reported By:
Chickalupe -
, North Carolina, United States of America
Submitted:
Updated:
-
Author Not Confirmed
Why?
FTD - FTD.com
Internet, United States of America
Phone:
Web:
www.ftd.com
Categories:
Business Rating:
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FTD - FTD.com - 1-800-SEND-FTD Takes Money, Delivers Flowers Whenever They Feel Like. Internet
I ordered some flowers for my Mom this past Mother's Day from FTD(dot)com. I have had problems ordering flowers in the past from other websites, but I thought I would be safe with what I thought was a reputable company. Imagine my chagrin and anger when the flowers I paid for never arrived on my Mom's special day.
I had placed the order that Thursday, four days before the holiday. Upset, but deciding to give them the benefit of the doubt; I waited to make a complaint until the flowers had still not been delivered on Monday, the day after Mother's Day. When my order had still not been delivered over 24 hours after the requested delivery time, I patiently followed the correct channels to send an email through the customer service contact listed on the website. The auto-generated email I got as a reply asked me to wait a further 48 hours for the processing of my complaint. After I had still not been contacted past the stated two days, I emailed again. Another 24 hours passed, and I finally broke down and called the telephone hotline; something I had been trying to avoid as I hate talking on the phone.
The representative I spoke to was not only difficult to understand because of her thick accent and habit of speaking in a deliberately quick manner, she was very flippant and unhelpful in regards to all of my concerns. No matter what I said during the entire phone call, she kept repeating the same two phrases again and again. "We apologize for the delay" and "Your flowers should be delivered soon"; these were all I could get her to say. When I specifically stated that I would like a refund of my money, or at the very least a coupon for a free future purchase, she told me to "Have a nice day," and hung up on me.
The flowers were finally, FINALLY delivered to my Mom on the Friday following Mother's Day, making it well over a week after I originally placed the order. The delivery woman's lame excuse for their tardiness, according to my Mom, was that they had "Run out" of flowers... Riiight. To top it all off and add insult to injury, my Mom took a picture of the flowers that arrived and emailed it to me, and the bouquet was wrong! The flowers in it barely matched the bouquet I had picked on the website, at a rate of about 50% correctness.
This company could not have gotten more things wrong with the overall experience had they been trying deliberately. I was foiled at every step of the way, and remain highly disgruntled even some weeks later. I am utterly and completely dissatisfied with the service of their website and company as a whole, and will never patronize them again. I expected better from such a well-known name in the flower game, and this is why I want to warn other consumers. I have more than half an inclination to contact the Better Business Bureau to at least warn them about these shoddy and deceitful business practices.
I try to forgive and forget, and probably would have eventually let it all go, had FTD not continued to push their luck. Bad enough that I somehow got signed up for their email newsletter by benefit of placing an order, a fact I have tried to correct no less than three times. No matter how much I 'unsubscribe', I still receive these emails once or twice a week about their coupons and specials. No, as if that weren't infuriating enough, they have moved to the next level. Yesterday I checked my in-box to find a blatant guilt-trip from FTD, asking plaintively why I had yet to fill out their customer satisfaction survey after my recent order. Oh, I filled it out all right, and let them know exactly how I feel without mincing words.
Now I have decided to take my story to others on the internet, so that maybe no one else will be treated as I was. Take heed, and DON'T order flowers from FTD... ever.
For shame, FTD! You ruined Mother's Day. I hope you go out of business.
I had placed the order that Thursday, four days before the holiday. Upset, but deciding to give them the benefit of the doubt; I waited to make a complaint until the flowers had still not been delivered on Monday, the day after Mother's Day. When my order had still not been delivered over 24 hours after the requested delivery time, I patiently followed the correct channels to send an email through the customer service contact listed on the website. The auto-generated email I got as a reply asked me to wait a further 48 hours for the processing of my complaint. After I had still not been contacted past the stated two days, I emailed again. Another 24 hours passed, and I finally broke down and called the telephone hotline; something I had been trying to avoid as I hate talking on the phone.
The representative I spoke to was not only difficult to understand because of her thick accent and habit of speaking in a deliberately quick manner, she was very flippant and unhelpful in regards to all of my concerns. No matter what I said during the entire phone call, she kept repeating the same two phrases again and again. "We apologize for the delay" and "Your flowers should be delivered soon"; these were all I could get her to say. When I specifically stated that I would like a refund of my money, or at the very least a coupon for a free future purchase, she told me to "Have a nice day," and hung up on me.
The flowers were finally, FINALLY delivered to my Mom on the Friday following Mother's Day, making it well over a week after I originally placed the order. The delivery woman's lame excuse for their tardiness, according to my Mom, was that they had "Run out" of flowers... Riiight. To top it all off and add insult to injury, my Mom took a picture of the flowers that arrived and emailed it to me, and the bouquet was wrong! The flowers in it barely matched the bouquet I had picked on the website, at a rate of about 50% correctness.
This company could not have gotten more things wrong with the overall experience had they been trying deliberately. I was foiled at every step of the way, and remain highly disgruntled even some weeks later. I am utterly and completely dissatisfied with the service of their website and company as a whole, and will never patronize them again. I expected better from such a well-known name in the flower game, and this is why I want to warn other consumers. I have more than half an inclination to contact the Better Business Bureau to at least warn them about these shoddy and deceitful business practices.
I try to forgive and forget, and probably would have eventually let it all go, had FTD not continued to push their luck. Bad enough that I somehow got signed up for their email newsletter by benefit of placing an order, a fact I have tried to correct no less than three times. No matter how much I 'unsubscribe', I still receive these emails once or twice a week about their coupons and specials. No, as if that weren't infuriating enough, they have moved to the next level. Yesterday I checked my in-box to find a blatant guilt-trip from FTD, asking plaintively why I had yet to fill out their customer satisfaction survey after my recent order. Oh, I filled it out all right, and let them know exactly how I feel without mincing words.
Now I have decided to take my story to others on the internet, so that maybe no one else will be treated as I was. Take heed, and DON'T order flowers from FTD... ever.
For shame, FTD! You ruined Mother's Day. I hope you go out of business.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
M
78666,Texas,
United States of America
FTD, 1-800, Teleflora, ext
#2Consumer Suggestion
Thu, March 31, 2011
I am a local florist to my area and I belong to a wire service so I know how they work. I applaud you for ordering on Thursday for a Saturday delivery. Some people call on Sat morning and it is difficult to help them. I also appreciate that you know the value of sending flowers and am sorry you had such a bad experience with the wire services, (which is what FTD, 1-800-flowers, and Teleflora are called) but I am not surprised.
When you place an order with these companies or any one else but a local florist they then either send something in a box for your recipient to arrange or they send it on to a local florist who is part of their network. To be a part of their network all you have to do is own a flower shop, there are no requirements based on quality of the store or training to be a part of a wire services network. If there are more then one store in the area that are part of that particular wire service in the area then they rotate through the shops with the incoming orders. If there is no shops part of their network in that particular area then they will use another one's network (1-800 will send through Teleflora) and the last resort is to place the order through a flower shop in the area using one of their credit cards.
No matter what, when using their service you are going through a middle man who is taking a cut of the action. Some florists will therefor put those orders on a lower priority then the customers who call them direct. I have also experienced technical difficulties were an order has not printed off of the system for me to fulfill it. And I have brought these bugs to their attention and have not seen any fixes.
On top of this the wire gathers do not know what is in their florist's coolers, how close to an arrangement can be matched, and sometimes they have arrangements which none of the flowers are in season so the florist can not get a hold of flowers needed. If you order on line then there is no quality control except what is built into the website before the order is passed onto the florist. It is up to the florist's discretion to full the order as closely as possible. Now there are substitution rules we are suppose to go by - similar color, same or better flowers is the general rule of thumb. In my shop I do not carry carnations so they will get spray roses or Peruvian lilies instead, depending what is in my cooler an what matches the arrangement.
My advice is to use Google, find the local florist for that area by making sure they are on the google map for that area. Read the reviews and then speak to them personally. That way you can find out what is in their cooler, what is freshest, and if there is any substitutions needed then what is important to you and the recipient is part of the arrangement. If you are in doubt about who to choose then ask the local funeral home. They DO know who the best florists are, for they see their work all of the time. Hope this helps, and so sorry this happened to you. The wire services and order gatherers are ruining the floral industry.
