Every year, after the major flower-giving holidays, readers send us photos of what they ordered and what they actually received. It’s a dismaying scene, and what we really want is to never publish another of these features again. That’s why we’re sharing what we’ve learned about the flower business from readers and from florists in the 10 years that Consumerist has been around. [More]
FTD
Valentine’s Day Aftermath: Floral Disaster And Floral Delight
By 2.17.15
Valentine’s Day isn’t the biggest flower-sending holiday on the calendar. That would be Mothers’ Day. It remains an important flower-giving holiday, though, and one during which florists need to obtain massive quantities of red roses. Here’s one flower delivery that went terribly wrong, and one that turned out beautifully. [More]
Flower Power: FTD Buys ProFlowers, Shari’s Berries And More For $430M
By 7.30.14
Maybe someone should send FTD a bouquet of flowers to celebrate its recent expansion. Then again, the company probably has enough flowers now that it’s agreed to buy Provide Commerce, the company behind ProFlowers. [More]
Here’s Why Florists’ Websites And Reality Will Never Match Up
By 5.16.14
A common consumer complaint about flower deliveries is that the arrangements that show up on our loved ones’ doorsteps isn’t as tall or full as the pictures we saw of the arrangement online. A former florist wrote to Consumerist to explain why this is. The photos from FTD, Teleflora, and other Big Flower companies are staged to look nice for the camera, but real-life is three-dimensional. [More]
Florists Suffer Apparent Shortage Of Purple Blooms This Mother’s Day
By 5.13.14
Michelle placed her Mother’s Day order from a site that appears to be a fake local florist, aggregating orders and sending them to local shops affiliated with wire services after taking their cut. She didn’t know that, though, and chose an arrangement based on her mom’s love of purple roses. Got that? Purple. [More]
This Basket Of Flowers Is Okay, But Not What I Ordered
By 4.22.14
Someone Cathy is close to is in the hospital with a shattered femur, which sounds extremely unpleasant. To cheer this person up, cathy sent some flowers through FTD. The flowers are pretty enough, but Cathy doesn’t think they’re what she ordered. [More]
This FTD Flower Arrangement Says, “My Love For You Is Gnarled And Dessicated”
By 2.20.14
John’s husband ordered flowers for him for Valentine’s Day, using a Groupon voucher for FTD.com. That’s what a loving but frugal spouse does, right? Only what showed up on John’s doorstep were really dead. No, not buds that hadn’t opened yet. [More]
FTD Delivers Valentine’s Day Flowers Dead Or Late, Shrugs
By 2.19.14 — Updated: 2.14.17
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. [More]
Watch Out For The Customer Appreciation Price Penalty At FTD
By 5.6.13
Longtime readers know that we recommend going directly to your favorite independent local florist, but we won’t fault Rebecca for placing an order through the national FTD site. We’re cool like that, and the flowers her friend got were probably great. We do want to share her experience, though, to point out something interesting about FTD and many other retailers. Sometimes it pays to clear your Web browser’s cookies while browsing. It “pays” in a very literal sense. [More]
FTD Salvages Fiancée’s Birthday Present After Florist Tries To Kill Her With Lilies
By 3.1.13
Sometimes, it doesn’t matter all that much when a florist substitutes in a different flower from the one you ordered, and sometimes it matters very much. In the case of Andy’s fiancée, it’s actually kind of important for her to not get a certain kind of flower, because she’s allergic to it. It’s no fun to get flowers for your birthday if you can’t be in the same room as them. [More]
FTD Thinks ‘A Different Vase Is OK’ And ‘Change The Flowers Entirely’ Mean The Same Thing
By 2.25.13
At high-volume times like Valentine’s Day, and at any other time, really, flower-delivery services like FTD reserve the right to substitute something similar if they don’t have the exact item in stock that you want. Mark was upset shortly after Valentine’s Day because he ordered an arrangement that had a purple container, purple flowers, and some white lilies in it. Purple is her favorite color, you see, and lilies are her favorite flower. Isn’t Mark thoughtful? Speaking for the ladies of America, he is. He’s also really mad. [More]
Twitter Feeds For 1-800 Flowers, FTD Are Apologizing More Than Boyfriends Who Screwed Up Valentine’s Day
By 2.15.13
We’ve shown you some Valentine’s Day disasters from one floral delivery service, and we’re sorting through the many photos sent in by angry customers of other companies. But if you want to see just how peeved customers are, look no further than the Twitter feeds for FTD and 1-800 Flowers. [More]
FTD Kicks Off The Valentine’s Day Disappointment Season With Subpar Roses On February 11th
By 2.12.13
Alex tried to beat the rush. He had a dozen roses delivered to his lady’s workplace on Monday, February 11th, paying $96 for the privilege. Whatever he expected, it was not what appears in the photo that he sent: even properly lit, there’s a lot more green and a lot less luscious red rose in that picture than there should be. [More]
Not-So-Local Florist Disappoints My Mom With Subpar Roses
By 1.11.13
The Consumerist Garden of Discontent is a recurring theme on this site, because it seems that delivered flowers will never quite measure up to the photos in catalogs or on the website. In hindsight, Teresa wishes that she had just picked up a few bouquets at Trader Joe’s and presented them to her mom in person before she left town. She could have done some quality control, and the end result would have been a lot prettier. [More]
Florist Added Pretty Purple Ribbon, Subtracted Actual Attractive Flowers
By 12.10.12
Maybe MZ should have just picked up some flowers from Walmart or the grocery store instead. FTD sent the order to a local florist, but not a competent local florist. Maybe FTD should learn to search Yelp first. [More]
FTD.com Vs. Reality: Enjoy Your Mother's Day Chargeback
By 5.21.12
It’s not a major flower-giving holiday here at The Consumerist without an installment of the Garden of Discontent. Laura (not me, a different one) sent along this disappointing diptych of the lush bouquet that she ordered for her mom from FTD.com and the meager handful of plant matter that was actually delivered, a day late. [More]
FTD Delivers Wrong Roses And Wrong Stuffed Animal To Wrong Address At Wrong Time
By 7.21.11 — Updated: 3.1.13
When Joe ordered flowers for his fiancée’s birthday last week, his order wasn’t too fussy. He wanted 24 yellow and orange roses and a stuffed dog, delivered to her workplace, on her birthday. Things happen in the flower-delivery business, we know, and seasonal substitutions are normal and to be expected. What he didn’t expect, for his $70 or so, was to have half the amount of roses he ordered, in the wrong color and with the wrong stuffed animal, delivered to the wrong address, and nearly on the day after his fiancée’s birthday. [More]
FTD Sends Your Mom More Craptacular Flowers Than Expected
By 5.18.11
It’s not that we expect miracles from florists on major dead-plant-giving holidays. But the least we can expect is for the recipient–presumably, someone we give a crap about–to receive the item that we chose and paid for. Sarah’s mom’s birthday was the day before Mother’s Day this year, so she decided to use a LivingSocial coupon and order up some beautiful flowers to honor both occasions. [More]
