I'm glad I didn't have problems like this with my MIL's bouquet. I would usually rather call a local florist and handle it that way but I'm always hesitant to do that. You never know about quality either way.

FTD.com everytime, no problems. I learned the hard way. I tried 1800flowers ONCE. My mom actually called me and asked what I did different. The flowers were a mess and had been left out on her walkway.

Don't use FTD or 1-800-FLOWERS. The upcharge isn't worth the hassle. Just google "florsts " and call one of the businesses that come up. I learned this one year when I sent my mom a 1-800-FLOWERS bouquet in the shape of a cornucopia for Thanksgiving. The florist that was assigned my order didn't have any of the cornucopia holders from the 1-800-FLOWERS website, so he called my mom to ask if he could do a custom order. My mom (surprised, because they were SUPPOSED to be a surprise) agreed. He upped the bouquet size and gave her a beautiful Grecian urn to boot. He also told her to have me call him directly next time - that the $75.00 I paid would have gotten me way more flowers than the $40 (!) or so he got from it.

That is why I always try to contact a local florist personally - with this thing called the Internet these days, I can find local phone numbers to many different florist and order directly through them.

Usually I will explain that I live far away, and try to throw in there that if they make something nice I hope to continue to do business with them for other things... that way hopefully they do a little extra to make it look nice since they know that me (the person paying for them) will most likely not even see them, and the person getting them will thank me no matter how nice or bad they look like.

The thing is - with local florists posing as 800Flowers, FTD, Teleflora or any other number of "florists"...saying "I won't do 800FLOWERS" doesn't help you at all.

The sad thing is that you really can't even use White Pages to find a local florist - you'll likely get a phone number that says it's a local florist, but goes to a black-box that is essentially another version of the same. The best bet would have been asking Mom if she knew of a florist in town that was definitely locally owned and operated and calling them direct.

I will say that I know 800FLOWERS ships roses and tulips direct from their warehouse around Valentines day and Mother's Day, so those deliveries have always been solid. Otherwise, you're at the mercy of third-party fulfillment, and that always gets dicey. I feel for the reps, because they basically can verify that the florist got the order and then are stuck waiting to see if the florist is following the agreement, has updated the order and will only ever have so much control over them.

@pecan 3.14159265_Pi on the run: That's true. But I still never use 1-800-Flowers. I search for a florist online and if their website looks professional and they sound good on the phone, I'll trust them to do their jobs well on arranging and delivery.

@ReaveT: [www.google.com]

@Stephmo: Can you clarify, especially about the phone number? My impression is that affiliates will often offer many of the network-created options, because that's just easier, but that doesn't mean they're not a local florist; one of my locals, for instance, offers the FTD range on their website, but I've called the local number and it's definitely local. I'm not too bothered if they have to go through the network as long as I'm talking to the people who are actually putting the flowers together and delivering them, but it sounds like you're familiar with situations where even that isn't the case?

ha. I can top that. It doesn't even matter if they're closed! I ordered my mother flowers from 1-800-flowers, and she didn't even know they were delivered because A: her porch is so big and B: she already had so many plants out there! I had to call her because I didn't hear from her after they were delivered.

I learned the hard way not to trust 1800Flowers. I tried to order flowers for my Grandma's funeral in a small town in North Dakota. I felt awful enough that I couldn't be at the funeral, but then 1800Flowers informed me that they couldn't make the delivery because they couldn't find a florist within 25 miles. No kidding! It's rural North Dakota! I'm pretty sure that florists in Fargo make deilveries more than 25 miles away. On the plus side, 1800Flowers did refund my money. I was still pretty upset, though.

I grow my own flowers at home.

No but really, I agree with the other commenters who say you should deal with florists directly. I usually try to find some reviews, maybe Yelp or something, to make sure the florist is good. Then I can actually speak with someone who knows what they're capable of, what flowers they have, etc. I can tell the florist exactly what I want, s/he can give some suggestions ... it's just all-around better than going through an intermediary.

I feel like 1800Flowers, Teleflora and similar schemes were a lot more useful before the Internet.

@floraposte: When you're on White Pages searching Florists in a town you're not familiar with, you can't always be certain that you're being routed to a local florist.

The biggest hint is that you won't see a physical address listed for the florist, but that they've provided a local number and a convenient 800 number for out-of-towners to use them - those are the most obvious ones.

Unfortunately, some figured this out and will have a "phyiscal address" that's really a mail-drop. The thing is, it's not just internet - some will buy physical yellow page ads.

Examples of stories:

[cbs13.com]

If that weren't enough, the FTC issued an alert on the practice:

[www.ftc.gov]

1800Flowers did pretty much the same thing to me a long time ago. Glad to see they haven't figured it out yet.

The last time I had to send flowers, I looked at 1800Flowers and FTD to figure out what I wanted to send, then called the florist directly, described the arrangement, and asked if they could do it. They could, it was cheaper, and it damn well got there on time.

@ReaveT: I agree. I used to use 1-800-flowers for everything, but when the flowers arrived, they were filled by the local florist.

Since 1-800-Flowers doesn't operate for free, I was paying more to go through them, plus get the joy of fussing with their delivery schedule options.

Now I call a single florist who is centrally located to my mother and aunts. I call her in spring, place four orders for four different events and she takes care of it for less cost and hassle.

@MostlyHarmless: "Did you mean: florists "?

I've used proflowers.com a few times and have had pretty good luck. The flowers are always nice, the one time I had to call customer support (an error on my part) was a good experience.

@Stephmo: They might be in the FTD or 1-800 network, but they are still local florists.

They offer the network standard offerings, but they also do something that the network doesn't. I can call a local florist and ask for *anything*. I am not limited to the network offerings.

So I call a local florist and tell her specifically what flowers I want in a bouquet, what color and how much I want to spend and they deliver exactly that.

FTD may not offer my mother's favorite flowers in a bouquet, but her local florist still carries them. They don't sit around by the FTD hotline waiting for it to ring to get business.

I would never use services that use local florists again (the ones that mail you flowers are fine). At work we once ordered a set of flowers for our boss that looked pretty online and cost $80. When the florist delivered the flowers they looked nothing like the arrangement that we had ordered and barely contained any flowers.

We were all disappointed and decided to return the order and go to a local florist instead. The return went fine and one of my coworkers went to the closest florist. She was telling the florist about the situation and it ended up being the same business that fulfilled the Teleflora order. The florist said they were basically tied to however the arrangement looked and most the time they had to make do with what they had; the online companies never really care if the florist has the right flowers and vases or not.

The florist ended up giving us a giant arrangement for half of what the original arrangement cost, which makes me think Teleflora overcharges too.

@Stephmo: Ah, okay, I see what you're saying. I didn't realize that this was happening, though it makes sleazy sense. It's not that real local florists are an issue, it's that I need to get an external confirmation (like Yelp reviews or something) that it's a real local florist. Thanks for the tip!

@xspook: I've had the opposite experience, nothing but hassle with FTD and brilliant ease with 1-800Flowers. Twice now, I've tried to order flowers on relatively short notice through FTD only to have them take half-an-hour on the phone to decide that they couldn't actually fulfill my order. Same day or next day delivery with 1-800-Flowers was a quick order that worked perfectly both times.

Perhaps I just got lucky. Or perhaps you just got unlucky. It seems that our sample size of 2 is insufficient to draw any conclusions.

@floraposte: Exactly. Just because they appear in the search doesn't mean they're anywhere near the community is the main takeaway.

And that's the main issue I have with this practice. They prey on people thinking they have awesome Google-fu (well, it started back in the day when folks would call information and ask for local florists - if you notice, the FTC warning is old). They further hope people will go, "OH, this florist probably is local, but does business with the national florists."

But that's not it - you're dealing with someone calling themselves "Greenville Florists" who is nowhere near Greenville, who couldn't even tell you where Greenville is or a single fact about Greenville. You're just calling a cut-rate version of 800Flowers, FTD or Teleflora who is scamming you into thinking that they're local.

@RedCatLinux: Actually, they're not local florists. That's the whole scam. You should read the links I provided.

@xspook: Twice I used 1-800Flowers and they screwed it up--sent my grandmother a bouquet that was essentially a bunch of dead flowers. After convincing me to accept a 50% off coupon (which I used for the next time 3 months later), they screwed up and the florist didn't send the flowers until a week later.

I've been done with them for four years now, never had probs with FTD.

"I paid with PayPal"

MAJOR MISTAKE.

You never make purchases like this with Paypal. Had you used a credit card, you could have immediately put through a chargeback of the charge and once you explained the company did not fullfill the order as promised, gotten 100% back right away.

About five years ago I sent my mom flowers from an online source. The flowers got delivered on time for Mother's Day. Odd thing was I never got a call from my mom. Well,,I got busy and I figured that she got them. Fast-forward to another holiday and I asked her if she got her flowers. Of course she said, "What flowers?" Apparently, the flowers were delivered in an upright-type box left on her porch. She found the box, thinking it was a just another box she left on the porch. She used it in the living room to use as a base for "her" other flowers. Well I found the box and opened it up and sure enough, her flowers were in it. And surprisingly, the flowers were still alive and healthly.

@ReaveT: I was going to write the same thing. FTD and 1800Flowers gives the florists very little money and is a pain to deal with.

When I send my mom flowers on her birthday I call a flower shop I know near her, and order what I want and pay over the phone. I get more options-- my mother loves daisies so I often get a nice big bouquet of them for less than I'd pay online.

Local flower shops are the way to go!

She should continue to press for a full refund but it seems like 800Flowers has been trying to do right by her. With the exception of this Sam person, they seem to have been apologetic over this and assumed responsibility (which they should have) even though the multiple problems stemmed from one of their contractors, who I am pretty sure are supposed to be doing Saturday deliveries in the first place.

And they simply should have known that the contractor went out of business. The stars really aligned to make sure every flaw in the business model was shown.

That is not to lessen what a huge failure this was. But thankfully, they seem to be taking her dissatisfaction seriously.

For all the young people out there looking to impress a date, don't make the same mistake a lot of use have made -- find a reputable flower shop with quality items or else you'll get wholesale rejects or worse.

I haven't used 1-800-Flowers ever since I found out they spam the living daylights of every email address they can get their hands on. There's a strong correlation between spamming and other questionable business practices.

@PLATTWORX:

Agreed. Never use Paypal or a Debit card for stuff like this. Credit cards offer more protection in the event of a screw up.

FTD and 1800Flowers are just middlemen that serve no purpose in the age of easy Google searches. Use a local florist.

This company has had a shady history since the beginning. It was started by a squatter. Back in the dark ages, a company called itself "1-800-flowers" but had the phone number "1-800-florist" because, in those days, toll free numbers were only given out sequentially. A reserve was placed on the number. The company trademarked the name.

But another company was assigned 1-800-flowers by mistake, and once the owner discovered what he was sitting on, he started a competing business, and did all sorts of shady stuff to infringe on the trademark of the actual company.

After years of lawsuits, there was some sort of settlement, but the original company ended up getting screwed. This was all written about, probably 20 years ago, in Inc. magazine.

I can see that the original, shady business practices prevail.

Surely FTD should have a confirmation system that the florist has received the order and it didn't just go into a blackhole.

Again, I will take the effort to find a "local" florist near where I want the flowers delivered. I've never had any problems this way and so far everyone has been thrilled by the flowers. I like dealing with people directly. Big middle-men companies never seem to work out too well for me.

@thesadtomato: I have been burned by them in the past as well. I always try to find a local florist. BTW - At least in the florist business, a good website is not an indicator of the quality of the flowers or the service.

Several that I have found blindly by finding them on bigyellow.com had no website but knew the local area intimately and delivered beautiful flowers promptly.

@MostlyHarmless: I find it funny that there are 3 companies with 'florsts' as part of their names. Either that or they all had their names entered incorrectly.

ah yes..the job of 1-800-FLOWERS. The local florist they redirected to send leftless, brown, wilted flowers to a funeral for me. They looked like they were left in the hot sun more than a week, then run over by a truck. Great. That's the message I want to send to the family of a dead one.

"You're dead; let's disco"

@larrymac: He's just doing what ReaveT said to do and that was to google 'florsts'. The funny thing is that I noticed a few companies that used that exact term in their names. See my comment above.

@ReaveT: I agree, I had the same revelation myself. Last time I ordered flowers for my mother I thought "why am I going through a middle man who is going to charge for their service and has no idea what the local store has in inventory?". 30 seconds of google later I was on the phone with the local store owner who could tell me accurate pricing and delivery information.

We had a similar but more pathetic story about 800flowers. One of our dear friends passed away last year and our small group of friends decided to buy a nice funeral bouquet. I was the person in charge of ordering. I called 800flowers a few days before and placed an order. I should've known something wasn't right when the phone rep couldn't even spell "John" or "Helen". When I got the emal confirmation an hour later, some of the names that I spelled out for him were also wrong. I had to call back to correc them. That was the least of the problem. The funeral was set at 8am and I was promised a 7am delivery.

On that morning, we arrived at the funeral home around 7:30am and there were flowers everywhere. So I assumed ours were delivered. After walking around looking for our bouquet, I didn't find it. So I called 800flowers to see what's up. By then it was already 9am. The CSR first insisted the order was delivered. Then, after I pressed on, admitted that it was not. In fact, the local florist that handles their orders in that area doesn't open for business till 10am! He offered to have it delivered as soon as they open. But the funeral would be over by then! I asked him why the original rep didn't see this info and how come they don't contact me about this prior to the date of the funeral. He had no answer except to blame it on outsourced phone reps. He even asked me if the rep sounded Hispanic!

I was offered a refund and 20% discount on future orders. I told him there's no way I'm going to be using that discount seeing as they've lost me (and my group of friends) as a customer forever.

I had ordered flowers to be delivered to my fiancee at her work for her birthday. It was same day delivery, and they failed to get the flowers to her before her office closed at 5pm. The nearest 1800Flowers shop is literally 2 blocks away. She walks by them on her way to work every day. I'll never be using them again. A local florist has a web site I can order off of, I recommend going local to anyone now.

@ReaveT: I came here to say the same thing. There's no reason not to just call the local florist. They'll be much more helpful, and you'll get more for your money. Even picking one at random will be better than FTD or 1-800-Flowers, but a little research will usually reveal a long time local florist that will do a great job.

I haven't used an online florist since I found out that you can just go to a local florist and they'll use FTD, OR you can call the local florist in the destination service area and deal with them directly. You get better service on the latter because you're cutting out FTD fees they have to pay.

One other tip regarding searching for a florist. Search for "greenhouses". These will frequently be long established, locally owned businesses that sell flowers as well as other plants. I've always had good service and good flowers when I call those kind of places.

@sleze69: I'm not in the florist business, but anytime I have to find a business (restaurant, florist, hotel) I look at their website. A good website, plus some indication of what the store looks like, what kind of street it's on, etc, has been a safer bet of "this is a good merchant" than 1-800-flowers.

if anyone is looking for a direct pure play online florist shop, I've had success with farmfreshflowers.com

they advertise locally on the talk radio programs here in the SF Bay Area, and give discount codes for mentioning a certain talk show host or from where you heard the ad for.

I don't work for or have any side interest in them, just that I see the frustrations of finding a local florist in the area you need to give flowers would be a task. Farm fresh flowers are located in CA, and ship FedEx. Very reasonable with lots of flowers.

@xspook: I used 1800Flowers to deliver roses to various friends on Valentine's day. 1800Flowers completely screwed up the order, not delivering flowers to some and delivering dead roses to the rest. A friend called me crying asking what I had done to her that I'd send her dead roses on Valentine's day.

They tried to give me a 20% discount on future orders. After carefully explaining to them that I'd never order anything through them ever again, and failing to refund my money would result in a chargeback, they refunded the entire order.

Get angieslist
Use local contractors who have good ratings.

@Stephmo: Teleflora uses local florists. I know the florist they use in my area and he has been around long before his affiliation with Teleflora. All Teleflora does for him is give him a way to take internet orders.

@CompyPaq: I think they all use local florists, but they don't necessarily confirm that every florist they use is local to the area they claim to be in.