Do Not Patronize 1-800-Flowers.com. They are crap.

Mother’s Day is coming. You can send your mom flowers but DO NOT utilize 1-800-flowers.com. They are total crap. Allow me to provide an example:

My Mother’s birthday is April 26. Realizing that April 26 was the finals of Nationals and I would be busy that day, and the days prior I decided to order her gift with plenty of time in advance. On April 14, I went to the 1800flowers.com web site and posted an order to deliver flowers to my mom on April 24, so that they would be early, or if anything went wrong, on time.

Here’s how the Saga unfolded:

First, they sent me this order confirmation on April 14 (Deceptive!):


Dear Courtney Kelly,
Below is a summary of your order W00542400310584. RECIPIENT(S) INFORMATION
Address
Barbara Kelly
11908 Woodland Way Road
Myersville,MD 21773

Gift(s)
GORGEOUS GERBERAS (SHIPPED)
(#16845)
Delivery Date
04/24/2007

Card MessageMOM, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM. I AM THINKING OF YOU FROM THE BOTTOM HALF OF THE WORLD. HAVE A GREAT DAY! LOVE, CK COURTNEY
BILLING INFORMATION
Address
Courtney Kelly
208 E. 6th St. Apt 29
New York, NY 10003
GORGEOUS GERBERAS (SHIPPED)(#16845)
$49.99
Subtotal:
$49.99
Total Shipping Charge:
$10.99
Tax:
$0.00
Order Total:
$60.98


I also confirmed that they charged my credit card.

Then, on the 26th, when I hadn’t heard from my mom that they were received, I check the order status online and saw that while there was a shipping number, the status for that shipping number came up ‘unshipped’. I posted the following comment to the online order status contact:

Customer Service Inquiry:

Request Date:04/26/2007 20:09:15
Customer Name:Courtney Kelly
Customer Email:courtneymkelly@yahoo.com
Customer Phone Number:610448430133
Order Number:W00542400310584
Order Date:04/14/2007 00:00:00
Recipient Name:Barbara Kelly
Category:Other
Comments:These Birthday flowers were ordered online on April 14 to be
delivered on April 24. My credit card has been charged they have not
been delivered! They are 3 days late. The birthday has been missed and
I am very disappointed. I cannot be reached via phone unless you call
me on my Australian mobile. Please deliver these flowers ASAP and
e-mail me with an explanation of this delay.


They replied with this semi-helpful response on the 27th:

Hello Courtney,

Thank you for shopping with 1-800-FLOWERS.COM.

We apologize for the inconvenience caused to you. We are very sorry
that your order was not delivered as scheduled. At this point in time,
we wish to inform you that we are in the process of confirming the
delivery details of your order. Please be assured that we will inform you
as soon as we have the requisite information.

Once again, we apologize for the inconvenience caused and thank you for
your patience and understanding in this regard.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to
contact us at the address listed below. You can also contact us at our
customer satisfaction number, 1-800-468-1141.

Sincerely,

Samita Khanna
Sales and Service Specialist
Custservice@1800flowers.com

Samita, you did me wrong!

After that I gave them a couple of days. After all, I was at nationals. I heard nothing more from them. When the online status still showed unshipped on 28/4. I sent another exasperated reply:

------------------------
Hello!

There has still been no update or explanation on this
order.

Now when I track the order on the website it says the
order has been cancelled.

What is going on? How did this happen? What is being
done to repair this?

I paid for these birthday flowers 10 days ago and they
were never delivered. This is TERRIBLE customer
service!

Please explain and rectify this situation.

~Courtney Kelly


From that, on the 29th now 5 days late, I received this incomprehensible response:

Hello Courtney,


Thank you for shopping with 1-800-FLOWERS.COM.

Unfortunately, your order never was picked up so it ended up getting
canceled and full credit was issued back to your credit card. We deeply
apologize that no one got in touch with you to let you know about the
situation. Would you like to place another order in which we could
offer you a discount? Also, we would be happy to send you a gift
certificate for the inconvenience. Can you please contact us and let us know
what you would like to do? Once again, we are so sorry.

We value your business and look forward to serving your future gifting
needs.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to
contact us at the address listed below. You can also contact us at our
customer satisfaction number, 1-800-468-1141.

Sincerely,


Robert Ligon
Sales and Service Specialist
Custservice@1800flowers.com


A pox on your head Robert Ligon! May you be stricken with polio!

“Never picked up”??!?!?!?! All they do, is take orders, and farm them out to florists. They are simply a router. This should be automated. This is their SOLE FUNCTION. How did they screw this up? Why couldn’t they replace and reroute the order.

You know me, and my tolerance incompetence, or for that matter, any thing that does not go my way. I resorted to threats:

Original Message Follows:
------------------------
I am baffled.

My order "never was picked up " so it was canceled?
How is this possible?
I received an order confirmation e-mail.
If I place a second order, what are the odds of that
one being "picked up"?

I do not understand how you could take an order,
confirm it and never process and deliver it. I cannot
believe you are now telling me the burden is on ME
THE CUSTOMER to place the order a SECOND TIME if I
really want it. I cannot believe this order has not
been rushed to the destination (now 5 days overdue.)

I will be forwarding this e-mail chain and my
complaints to the better business bureau and any
consumer group on the internet I can find that will
listen to complaints. I will also be forwarding this
OUTRAGEOUSLY TERRIBLE customer service to everyone in
my address book (Both personal and corporate) and
blogging about this terrible experience.

I will explain to my friends, family and everyone I
can forward the link to that 1-800-Flowers.com will
take your order and your money and NEVER DELIVER THE
FLOWERS. They will send you an order confirmation and
NEVER NOTIFY YOU of a problem.

An extremely disappointed customer,
Courtney Kelly


This post is that threat fulfilled. I sent mom some travel books instead from bn.com who were able to process the order without filling me with rage.