2.23.2010

Here's a Tip...

As everyone knows, this is the month of hearts and flowers. Valentine's Day brings out the romantic in all of us and my husband is no exception. However, this year he decided to step it up a notch and order flowers from ProFlowers.com and when the UPS man showed up at my door with a box of roses, I was totally surprised. I called Peter as I opened the box, so we both got my first shocked reaction...some of the roses were smashed and out of the dozen, I only had 11 - one rose head was chopped off the stem.


Peter went on to tell me how he had ordered a "special" that he had seen on the site which told him that I would be getting 24 roses (with a red vase) for the price of 12. Once he checked out, he gagged at the cost of shipping, but decided that it was once a year and I'd be getting two dozen roses and a pretty glass vase, so he went ahead and placed the order. Now I had the box of flowers but instead of the "deal" he thought he got, I only received a dozen roses minus one. Let me just tell you, we were less than impressed. Although what was left of the roses were beautiful (see picture below), they weren't even close to being "worth" the money.


So...I got all the information I could from Peter and then I wrote an email of complaint to ProFlowers and included pictures of the de-headed rose and missing petal. I told them that for the price, we expected a lot more and would not be using them again. Within an hour I received a reply of apology and an offer of another order of roses with another vase (if I wanted - which, of course, I took them up on their offer!) and to let them know a date for delivery. I wrote back and told them to send the roses and the vase and that I wanted them prior to Valentine's Day. The week went by and Valentine's Day passed. No flowers. On Tuesday the 16th, I received a new box of (very beautiful) roses and another vase.


On a positive note, I was impressed by how much better these flowers were packed than the first set. However, we were not impressed by the delivery date, especially since it was their problem AND they asked when we wanted them delivered but ignored what we requested. I appreciate that they tried to make it right in some ways and I realize they didn't have to send new flowers, but considering that I only now have what Peter thought he was ordering to begin with, it's literally the very least they could do.

In the U.S., the (apparently old) standard for customer service is for the customer to walk away satisfied and ready to shop at the store again and recommend the store/company to their friends. ProFlowers might have gotten us to order from them again (even with the high cost of shipping) if they had gone out of their way to correct the mistakes (12 flowers instead of 24, bad packing, broken flowers), but since they didn't, I'm now writing a blog post about them. And, Peter and I have already decided that we won't be ordering from ProFlowers again in the future because of the cost of shipping vs. the value of the flowers.

On the plus side, I got a second vase out of the deal and two sets of roses, so when the first set dies (as they are beginning to do), the second set will still be around to enjoy. But at a cost like this, these flowers had better hang around for a long time... :-)


So, Here's a Tip...it's OK to complain when you don't get what you ordered or if it's not right when you receive it. Sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised and get great customer service and more than you expected. Sometimes you'll get some compensation but still walk away feeling like you got robbed. And sometimes you won't get any response or help at all...but you'll never know unless you ask (or complain). :-)

2 comments:

  1. Great tip and lovely flowers! Thank you, Carrie (and Peter)!

    Fyi, I found an online flower site that I've used exclusively for the past 2 years, and am VERY satisfied with it--"From You Flowers." Their prices are great!

    And here's a tip around their shipping costs: If you go to the website, do all the steps as if you're going to order, THEN, leave the site, within 10 minutes (or less), they'll send you an email back offering the SAME deal with FREE shipping. It works! I've done this several times!

    Only drawback--once you order, you get a lot of advertisement emails from them, but you can always unsubscribe.

    Btw, your flowers are beautiful--I love the colour variety!

    Another fantastic post!! Blessings!

    ReplyDelete
  2. PS. Last comment was from me, Linda Owen aka absolutegrace. My wordpress signin didn't work, so had to use my gmail.

    ReplyDelete

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