Daniel bought two FTD Groupons, using one to send flowers to his wife and the other to send a bouquet from himself and his sister to their mother. He was able to schedule the deliveries for Valentine’s Day, but actually getting Valentine’s Day delivery…that was another matter.

The local florist called his sister and offered delivery on Monday or Tuesday, but Friday wasn’t possible. Did they offer a refund? More blooms? An apology? Nope. Meanwhile, Daniel received a delivery confirmation e-mail and a phone call from the florist offering delivery on Monday or Tuesday. The flowers were both delivered and not delivered, according to representatives of FTD. How that could that be?

The flowers turned up on Monday, so that was good. FTD referred Daniel to the local florist to complain, and he did. He hasn’t heard back. We contacted FTD too.

Meanwhile, in a much warmer part of the country, reader Captain Pete reports that the flowers he ordered for his wife arrived pretty dead-looking. “The shipper in Texas didn’t notice we were having a heat wave in the middle of February here in New Mexico and my wife’s flowers arrived dead. Perhaps the trip from Elpaso in that toasty hot Fedex truck had something to do with it,” he wrote to Consumerist. Yes, that might have been involved somehow. “Next time I’ll buy some chocolate ice cream at the gas station….and print some pictures from their website and stick those on the carton.” Okay, but make sure you’re running the air conditioning in the car first.

See, that’s why local florists who have seen the current weather forecast are a better choice.

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