It’s bad enough when something you order shows up looking absolutely nothing like the picture you referenced when buying it, but when that happens twice, and you’re told, “Hey, tough luck, we tried twice!” — well, that’s just plain crappy.

Consumerist reader Jeff K. is a nice guy, and as such, wanted to send his girlfriend a pick-me-up in the form of flowers. He chose a nice arrangement using Flowers For You, the “tulip rainbow,” and even went with the deluxe option in his attempt to bring some cheer to his lady.

But then it all went sad and wrong with two subsequent paltry arrangements of flowers. Surprisingly, neither resembled a rainbow!

He writes:

Dear Consumerist,
I thought you might like to know about my awful experience ordering flowers from From You Flowers so that you can warn your readers to stay away from them.

My girlfriend is in the midst of her finals and I decided to surprise her with some flowers. I have used a couple of online flower companies to send flowers in the past, with varying results. This time, I decided to order the flowers from From You Flowers because they work with local florists to fulfill their orders and offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee.

I found a pretty arrangement of tulips called “Tulip Rainbow”. The arrangement promised 15 tulips in a variety of colors. (See attached picture.) I decided to upgrade the arrangement to the deluxe version because, according to the description, it would “contain more flowers in the style and color of the original arrangement.” However, it is not clear what deluxe actually means because a different part of the arrangement description that I did not see before I placed the order says that the Regular, Deluxe, and Premium versions all contain 15 tulips.

A local florist in my girlfriend’s area fulfilled the order the next day. However, the arrangement she received did not resemble the arrangement picture on From Your Flowers’ website. (See attached picture.) The arrangement did not contain 15 tulips, the mix of flowers was red and yellow only, and the flowers were not trimmed for the vase, thus many were significantly drooping. I called From You Flowers Customer Service. They were apologetic and re-sent the order through a different florist for delivery the next day. They also said that my girlfriend could keep the original arrangement. I felt that this was a reasonable solution because she would still receive the arrangement that I ordered, albeit a day later than planned, and would not have to waste time returning the original.

However, the replacement was downright ugly and still not what I ordered. (See attached picture.) While it contained the correct number of tulips, only three had color and most were white. I called customer service again but this time they were not helpful. A representative told me that she could not do anything. A manager told me she was sorry but their policy was to only replace an arrangement once, regardless of how bad the replacement was. She insisted that the replacement was acceptable because it contained three colors of tulips (white, yellow, and purple). She also told me that “Tulip Rainbow” was just a name and I should not have expected the actual version to contain tulips in a variety of colors. I told her that I felt it was a bait and switch to call the arrangement “Tulip Rainbow”, show a picture of it with several colors of tulips on their website, and then tell me that it was acceptable for my order to not even slightly resemble either the name or picture.

She offered me a small gift card and a slight discount on the arrangement. However, this would not fix the situation, so I declined and told her that I would be contacting my credit card company and the New York State Attorney General’s office.

Needless to say, I will not be ordering flowers from From You Flowers again. My girlfriend never received the arrangement I ordered and I believe that From You Flowers’ refusal to fix the situation is unacceptable. Also, the company did not stand behind its 100% satisfaction guarantee. All I want is for them to send my girlfriend the arrangement I ordered and if this is not possible, give me a refund.

Check out both tries below and judge for yourself against the above picture used to advertise:

Both of those bouquets are like the opposite of happiness. Who else feels like crying at the sight of such wilty blooms?

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