Marginal at Best
Written: Nov 15 '99
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First let me admit that a few months ago - far too long really, someone sent me flowers via 800FLOWERS. they were fresh, lovely and a day late, but they never told the sender, so the sender just thought i was a lazy ingrate. After they went through all that time and love to do me a solid, to say "I care" with flowers, one of my favorite things in the universe, they made me look bad because I didn't deliver my usual near immediate thank you. The flowers were beautiful and all, but I'm still a little mad they made me look ungrateful.
Now that I've ground that axe, let me take up another: Markup and bad filler flowers. Here's the thing: Mums and carnations. No! This is not a 1970s prom corsage, okay? Crysanthemums are great plants for the yard. They're hearty and will bloom well into the first frost if you're nice to them,but they do not belong in fancy flower arrangements. Nothing says "we're trying to increase our profit margin" like mums. I mean, if I was a florist and I was trying to up my take on bouquets, I'd be all over things like statice, white daisies, babys breath and greens. Pretty, elegant inexpensive filler. But no, mum city. What's up with that?
800Flowers selection is a sub selection of the FTD Book, which means heavy on gimmicks, lowbrow taste and really, there are only so many times you can send "Fields of Eurpoe" before you'd like a second alternative. On the web site there's no way to make special requests or provide additional information. There are, except for roses, no single flower arrangements offered. ie. I would really like, on occasion to send two dozen light pink tulips to my mother or myself (or better still have them sent to me.
Beef #2: Hothouse prices for trucked flowers. Seriously. If you're a real hothouse florist, it's worth the extra 20 bucks for fresh flowers that have not been exposed to the lements, sat outside in the florist market for a couple days before being sold to the florist. However, the florists who work with 800 flowers aren't greenhouse based.
Beef#3 - service: Last time I had a special request I called. Before I could even begin DISCUSSING my floral needs, they wanted and address of the recipient and a credit card number. "But I just have a question!"
"I'm sorry Ma'am, it's just our policy, you don't have to order it" 20 minutes of my life I'll never get back is what that was.
Beef#4 Markup. 15 dollar premium, plus delivery charge on 800 flowers. No. In less time, I prefer to use the net to look in the yellow pages of the recipient's city, then call a local florist directly. Then you can ask important questions like "what looks great today?" or "do you have this particular flower in this particular color? When I ordered peach roses from 800flowers, they were out so they substituted. "Equal or greater value"
Yeah, right. They sent white roses with red edging. Edging!! How absolutely garish. This ended my relationship with 800Flowers permanently. I think any tasteful solid would have been preferable. Yellow, pale pink, even white. Red and white on the same rose? Again, it looked as if I had sent a giant prom corsage that had been frozen in time since 1979. Unforgivable! I was almost relieved when they died in three days, which otherwise is unacceptably premature.
Dealing with 800FLOWERS is a mistake. I've sworn off it. While it may be the most recognized brand of floral services I'm hoping people start forgetting soon. Now that I've written this I feel I've done my part.
P.S. Please send me flowers.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
vanity
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Member: leslie harpold
Location: new york, ny
Reviews written: 18
Trusted by: 38 members
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