No Flowers For Algernon Nor For My Mother On Mother's Day! :-(

[+ Gar1eth]

I usually try to send my Mother flowers on Mother's Day. She likes them, and it's a real lifesaver when I've forgotten to send a card until it's too late to get there on time. The delay in sending cards would happen even in Texas. But it's worse being in Washington when regular mail can sometimes take 3 to 4 business days at least. What usually happens is I think about the card a week or so before it's due. But I feel that's too early to send it. Then it reoccurs to me two days prior to the holiday, and I'd be sunk without either express mail or flowers--but express mail is really expensive for a card--so I go for flowers. I've actually waited too late to send flowers though--I've ordered them before on a Friday or Saturday using the Internet--thought everything was ok. Then I receive an email on Mother's Day telling me they won't be able to fill it. GRRRRRRRR!!!! Once I did everything right and Edible Arrangements screwed up. My Mom and my Aunt had the same last name. They were spending Mother's Day together. I bought each of them a fruit arrangement. Even though their 1st names weren't the same--Edible Arrangements thought it was a duplicate order. They only delivered the arrangement for my mother. I wouldn't have even known that the reasonably expensive arrangement (already paid for) for my Aunt wasn't delivered or even going to be delivered (since Edible thought it was a mistake) if I hadn't called my Mother, and in the course of the conversation found out that my Aunt's Arrangement hadn't been delivered.

 

So this time--this year--while I wasn't ahead enough to send a card--I thought I was in plenty of time to order flowers. I tried a new website this year called SendFlowers.com. They seem to be headquartered on the East Coast. I ordered some flowers for my Mother Wednesday night a bit before midnight Pacific Time. I even was going to have them delivered early on Friday--so Mom could enjoy them sooner--and I figured it would avoid logjam of deliveries on Sunday. So here I am thinking I'm golden. Suddenly I see an email last night (Friday) at 10:30 pm which had been sent by Sendflowers 2 hours earlier. The email says they couldn't find a florist able to deliver the flowers until AFTER:mad::mad: the holiday. To make it up to me they will enclose a card explaining what happened and will add extra flowers to the arrangement:eek:.

 

I'm still not happy. When I call them to ok the Monday delivery, I'm going to discuss with them about refunding the delivery charge too as even picking Friday was an additional charge. I'm really po'ed. They waited until 8:30 pm my time--11:30 pm theirs to tell me. It's possible if I had known earlier Friday, I could have made alternate arrangements and had some flowers delivered sometime this weekend.

 

So I think I'm perfectly justified to ask for reimbursement of the delivery charge.

 

Gman

[Nvr2Thick]

A lot of the online sites are really just brokers for orders to local florists. I always just look in the yellow pages (remember them) or now online via Google Maps for a florist in the area. When I call I can usually get an assurance as to the date and time of delivery. You might even still have a shot at being a good son if you look for a florist now.

[+ poolboy48220]

A good friend married a guy who runs a large local florist. I use them exclusively and they're always top-notch; I don't know if there's a star next to my name on the account because of the relationship, or if they're this good with everyone.

 

But there's a downside for my friend - she has yet to enjoy a Mother's Day or Valentine's Day on the actual date because the florists are insanely busy those days. I do have sympathy for them. It reminds me of when I worked in a restaurant in college, and people showed up New Years Eve with no reservations. We were usuallly completely booked a week ahead of the holiday. We did our best to fit everyone in, but it was crazy

[Epigonos]

The bottom line here is really just what I stated earlier. Find a good local florist and order by telephone directly from them. If you like their work and order regularly they will go out of their way to satisfy you. However, you MUST also keep in mind that if you are ordering flowers for a special holiday you MUST order early PERIOD!!!

[+ Gar1eth]

Update-My flowers were supposed to be delivered on Friday. It was more expensive to deliver them today (Mother's Day). The apology email said they'd be delivered Monday with Tuesday as a back-up. But they delivered them today with what looks to me like more flowers than I ordered. So I'm guessing I shouldn't try to get them to refund the delivery fee since they actually delivered them on a more expensive day. It's interesting-they couldn't find anyone to deliver them on Friday which I picked. But they managed to get them delivered on a more expensive day.

 

Gman

[+ Gar1eth]

My mother texted me a picture of the flowers. It does look like I got more than the Regular-Sized arrangement I picked. So I can't be too unhappy.

 

 

 

I looked up the florist that delivered it. They only had a 2.4 rating out of 10 with 19 reviews-most of them bad with several relating that the flowers hadn't been delivered on time.

 

Gman