FTD.com forgot to deliver flowers to Tip’s girlfriend on Valentine’s Day, but that didn’t stop them from delivering the bill. When calls to FTD.com didn’t go through, Tip launched the fearsome Executive Email Carpet Bomb. He wrote:
Perhaps $75 is not a lot to you. Perhaps the happiness of your customers does not mean a lot to you either. Perhaps, for a company that’s been around for nearly 100 years, you simply forgot to mark your calendar that yesterday was Valentine’s Day.Well, $75 means a lot to me. What means even more is the happiness of my girlfriend. I was fully aware that yesterday was going to be Valentine’s Day…same day every year…which is why I thought ordering flowers for her to be delivered at work on 2/14…Valentine’s Day…was a good idea. Your site said it would be possible to deliver that day, even when the order was placed on the 12th. For those of us busy working in hi-tech companies across the land, ordering online from the florist that’s been around for nearly a century seemed like the thing to do at the time.
But yesterday came and went, and my girlfriend received no flowers. Calls to FedEx pointed the finger at FTD. And an email and calls to FTD Customer Service – 800-736-3383, option 3 – were pointless, as the calls were dropped due to “heavy demand” or some such nonsense. Kinda like the guy that owes you money not answering his door when the collector comes a’callin’. So…fair enough…no flowers. Valentine’s Day came and went. I purchased some flowers from a local store instead, and we went on to enjoy our special day, despite your efforts of sabotage. At least I wasn’t billed…
So what happens today…I check my bank to find out that YOU STILL CHARGED ME $75?! The cycle begins again. Another email to FTD Customer Service (just got the automated response). More calls to your failed Customer Service phone tree. And my blood pressure, typically low, is shooting through the roof.
Well, sir…I expect you to make this right. I want my money back. Immediately. Oh, and sending my girlfriend some flowers to make up for your failure wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
I would appreciate a prompt response.
- Tip
PS – Looks like 2007 was a pretty good year for you, Mr. Soenen… I see you sold off a LOT of shares, and I’m just going back through September of last year. How nice for you. I bet you and your family had a wonderful Christmas.
Taunting can be its own gift, but it won’t help your cause nearly as well as a chargeback. Let the bank fight FTD.com while you apologize to your girlfriend. Of course, FTD and the other florists hate issuing refunds, so don’t be surprised if the flowers arrive today.
Relying on internet outfits to express your love is not a winning strategy. Show you care by taking ten minutes to visit the local florist. You help a local business, speak to helpful people, and—this is the key part—walk away with flowers.
(Photo: Dr. Hemmert)
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I had a similar experience with 1-800 Flowers (non-valentines day). I ordered flowers for my wife, she didn’t get them. It was supposed to be a surprise, but I had to ask her if they arrived. 1-800-Flowers insisted that they were properly delivered and were signed for. My wife found them outside the door of a business in the same building.
I called and complained and they said they would call me back but never did. So, instead of writing a long letter to their CEO, I just never used 1-800-Flowers again.
hi all! i work in the flower industry. i have worked extensively with local flower shops all over the country (literally placing 350+ orders in 10 hours all over the country for valentine’s), as well as with both teleflora and ftd. let me tell you, as a company, ftd is about the bottom of the barrel to work with. quite frankly, they mess up an absurdly high percentage of the time, and they don’t really care. i’ve said it before, and i’ll say it again. if you want good quality flowers, don’t even bother on valentines. i work in a flower shop these days and this past thursday i made 70 arrangements in 9 hours. what that means is i don’t really have time to do a good job of it. the flowers might be bruised, opened, damaged, whatever, but i don’t have time to care. i just gotta pump ‘em out for the next lame ass who hasn’t noticed the constant kay jewelers commercials for the past 5 weeks and only just now realized he’d better get his ass to the flowershop.
valentine’s day is a made up holiday which exists only to enrich the hallmark corporation (believe me, florists are not getting rich here. i wish!). buy her some flowers at some other -any other- time of the year and it’ll be a 1,000x more special.
sorry for the screed. i’m still getting over the parade of idiots.
This also happened to me!
They charged me 3 TIMES I couldn’t eat for a week because they took so much money!
They never delivered the flowers, never even offered me free flowers!
They reversed the charges, but still did not deliver flowers, “borrowed my money”!
I got royally screwed for just trying to get flowers to my sick dad! THEY TOOK SO MUCH I COULDN’T EVEN VISIT HIM!
&@#k yourself, FTD!
File a complaint on their ass for mail fraud. Or sue in small claims court. If they don’t pay up, get a bench warrant for the CEO’s arrest. Or request the court’s permission to garnish checks.
I ordered my wife’s flowers through a local florist, and even better, they don’t expect payment until I come by to pick them up. It’s really kind of neat.
This was the way it worked even on an exotic order like I made (my wife prefers to receive birds of paradise over roses — she says everybody gets roses and she wants something else).
When I got to the shop, the place was, as you might imagine, hopping (this was on 2/14, and within an hour of the shop closing for the day). Had anything gone wrong, it would have ben a PR disaster for them not to make it right on the spot. This is the sort of advantage that the consumer does not get when ordering flowers for delivery, which, to use the IT term, fails silently.
“Relying on internet outfits to express your love is not a winning strategy. Show you care by taking ten minutes to visit the local florist.”
Most orders placed on FTD.com are in fact filled and delivered by local florists. FTD is an electronic ordering system that sends the orders to local FTD-affiliated florists. The FTD-affiliated florist looks at the FTD pattern book and makes the arrangement according to the specifications. They are kind of like the Ticketmaster of the floral business. Next time you’re at your local florist, look for the FTD logo sticker in their window. If you see it, then they’re filling FTD orders from online and the phone.
I have had bad experiences with FTD, I would never use them again. I never received any sort of of apology from them. Don;t use them. I have had pretty good luck with Pro Flowers (they send using UPS or Mail), but best advice is call a local florist and be firm with what you want.
I too had a huge problem with FTD, but they in the end fixed the issue. I tracked down the CEO as well and even called his secratery. She got me in contact with a manager and was able to not only deliver the flowers to me on the day after Valentine’s day, but sent along a letter to my fiance apologizing to her and explaining that the shipping delay was their fault. They also did not charge me for the delivery. If you would like to call the CEO for FTD, aka Mr. Soenen, here is the website which I found. If this site goes down, I have a PDF copy of the page, and here is the phone number for Mr. Soenen 630-719-2504. His email address is
itself for Mr. Soe[www.ftdi.com]
I too had a huge problem with FTD, but they in the end fixed the issue. I tracked down the CEO as well and even called his secratery. She got me in contact with a manager and was able to not only deliver the flowers to me on the day after Valentine’s day, but sent along a letter to my fiance apologizing to her and explaining that the shipping delay was their fault. They also did not charge me for the delivery. If you would like to call the CEO for FTD, aka Mr. Soenen, here is the website which I found. If this site goes down, I have a PDF copy of the page, and here is the phone number for Mr. Soenen 630-719-2504. His email address is msoenen@ftdi.com
[www.ftdi.com]
Also, I would stress that it is vitaly important to remain firm but curteous. I did not raise my voice, curse, or treat them at any point with disrespect. To the original OP, I would not have written about the stock option, that kind of response only puts FTD on the defensive to start, remember you want them to rectify the situation, and fix the problem. The best way to get anyone to do what you want them to do is to make them feel guilty, not make them feel angry.
@snazz: If they’re not too busy to take your order and your money then they’re not too busy to fill the order or return your money.
From the female point of view I’m gonna go ahead and say it’s not less thoughtful to get flowers delivered to you by an online delivery system so the thought isn’t missing. Almost any woman would be happy to receive flowers at her office – I sure was. The last paragraph was unnecessary, and it could have been summed up in one paragraph stating “I ordered this product. It was not delivered. The money has come out of my account. Where is my product and/or refund?” the end.
And I’ll say it: http://www.proflowers.com – very good service and better pricing than most
Ugh, I sympathize… my boyfriend ordered, in person, my flowers through a florist who used FTD, several days before Valentines. FTD finally had them delivered at 8pm on Friday night (the 15th), to my office. The florist called at 630 and said they’d be there by 7. I asked if they could re-route them to my home, 6 miles away, and they refused. They came to the office at almost 8pm. Who expects someone to still be at the office at 8pm on a Friday?? Not only that, but I learned that I only got part of the flowers my boyfriend ordered… roses but NO lilies. But they had no trouble billing him for the entire order.
I learned that the delay was caused by the fact that FTD routed the order to 11 different florists before someone accepted it. FTD was complete rubbish, you’d think they’d have been prepared for Valentines Day.
My husband ordered flowers through FTD online on January 31 for delivery to the house on February 14. At 3:00 p.m. he checked the FTD website and found that the flowers were picked up for delivery in Miami at 1:32 p.m. which ment that I would not be receiving the flowers. He was busy at work and asked me to call FTD to find out about the order. After waiting on the phone for an hour the representative said that they had a problem with their vendor and the flowers would arrive tomorrow. Talking to 2 supervisors did not get me anywhere either. One supervisor stated that because our order was under $50.00 that they could not forward our order to a local florist for delivery (my husband’s order was $49.99 before tax and delivery charge). FTD is the largest floral delivery company in the world. They knew they had a problem with their vendor and did not even bother to notify my husband. They had his phone number and e-mail address. Shame – Shame – Shame on FTD. They not only did not follow up with my husband – they did not take steps to insure a Valentines Day Delivery. As a reminder to FTD – Valentines is once a year and always falls on February 14 – not February 15. Since you have been in business for over 100 years you would think that your calenders would be updated to that fact. My husband has requested a refund and contact with the CEO – still waiting!!!
@hexychick:
Proflowers.com, ftw. As I mentioned in a post on Thursday or Friday, I have used Proflowers lots of times and always been greatly satisfied with their products and service. They also give a 7-day freshness guarantee. Make sure to check out and use their coupon codes, you can normally get great deals on beautiful flowers.
I got an email from FTD today (Monday) saying “the order did not ship as planned,” they’d refunded my purchase in full and included a $20 gift certificate for a future purchase. Okay, first, not only did the order “not ship as planned,” it didn’t ship at all. Second, thanks a lot for refunding the $90 I paid for something you didn’t send. What a bunch of humanitarians. And third, if you botched this so badly, did so little to remedy it and waited so long to address it, what do you figure the odds are I’ll be taking advantage of your little gift certificate?
@Bonedaddy: Keep pressing them, see what comes out!!!
Then mention your cousin that they triple billed(ha!), and keep at it.
@moostrength: Thanks for the information on how to contact the CEO of FTD. The number was correct – although the CEO was not in the office my husband talked to the secretary and the head of customer service. They are making an effort to make things right. We will see if the replacement flowers arrive tomorrow and if the credit card is refunded. Thanks again for the info.
ProFlowers is NOT as terrific as everyone is claiming. My mom sent me a dozen roses on 2/13 and half of them were drooped, discoloured, and dying by 2/14. ProFlowers offered to send a replacement bouquet on 2/18, which they did, and half of THOSE roses were drooped and dying by the next day. What a waste of time.
I haven’t even gotten a chance to call FTD to complain at them for the bouquet I sent my mom, which was supposed to arrive 2/13 but was two days late and over half the roses were dead by the second day. Buying flowers from any of these online vendors is a complete waste of money.