Teleflora.com Has Made the Fail List

So Saturday is Valentines Day. I am going to write my experience thus far. I happened to be watching the Super Bowl and saw this rather funny commercial toward the end of the game.

So I got thinking hey this sounds like a good idea. This site looks they do flowers correctly. I think I could make a great impression with flowers like this. So next day I went to Teleflora.com and ordered the.

Deluxe Teleflora’s Rubies & Roses Bouquet

They show the default flower setup to look like this.

I paid an extra $10 for the deluxe set which they show on the Upgrade your Gift Page to add the following.

I also tossed in some balloons and a medium box of chocolates to my order. Which added up in price rather quickly. I placed my order on Feb 2nd and 1:15pm EST according to the site. I requested delivery for today Thursday Feb 2nd.  Well that part goes of fine they delivered them today. But they forgot the Chocolates. They didn’t deliver them at all. I also was sent a picture of what my girlfriend had delivered to her office.

How in the world does that look like a Deluxe Flower Arrangement from what I ordered above. I can go to Safeway and get a better flower arrangenent then that for what I paid.  That doesn’t look deluxe at all.

The description on the site for this arrangement reads as follows.

This elegantly romantic bouquet is a win-win gift of love. You’ll win her heart with lush flowers in a ruby red heart vase she’ll treasure. And she could win gloriously real rubies in Teleflora’s Rubies & Roses Sweepstakes.*

• The radiant arrangement includes pink stargazer lilies, red roses, miniature pink carnations, red carnations and pink waxflower accented with lemon leaf and myrtle.
• Delivered in a stunning clear glass vase decorated with an etched “necklace” bearing a ruby red heart jewel.
• Bouquet is approximately 14.5” W X 17.5” H
• Item number: 09V100B

So according to this I am supposed to have a Clear Vase with a “necklace” on it. They appear to have not been able to construct what they are clearly trying to sell me. Hmm maybe there is some loophole I am missing. Let’s take a look at their fine print.

So they have a “Substitution Policy” that states.

Substitution Policy
Occasionally, substitutions of flowers or containers are necessary due to temporary, regional availability issues. If this is the case with the gift you’ve selected, our experienced florists will ensure that the style, theme and color scheme of your arrangement is preserved and will only substitute items of equal or higher value.

Hmmm this doesn’t appear to be the case. You state a “Clear Glass Vase” It appears I got a dark short vase. It just seems like very little fluff when I was expecting a great deal more. Part of me wonders if I am just suffering from that symptom I had as a child where I saw I got a Tony the Tiger diver on the outside of a Cereal box only to discover it was an Orange Tube. But I feel like I am paying a great deal more then $3 for a cereal box in this case.

So moving on I get a phone call from the girlfriend about how excited she is and thrilled to get the flowers and all of her coworkers were jealous. So I feel on one front mission accomplished. But on the other front I feel like I need to fight this battle. So Battle #1.

The Chocolates.

I ordered a “Medium Box of Chocolates” for $19.99. I could probably order a better set then what they had offered but I was going for the complete package solution. So I wasn’t exactly wanting to coordinate that delivery as well. So I went for this. So I get a phone call around 1:30pm saying “I love you so great my jaw dropped I am told.” I ask about what she got and she said 2 balloons and some flowers. I asked what about Chocolate? She said I didn’t get any. I got rather pissed off about this so I called the company.

Most websites don’t have numbers to call right on the front page. This made it easier so I call them up and press 2 to get to some guy that is hard to understand. I let him know about the situation and he apologizes and says they can refund my account and someone will call me from research. He first tries to refund $9.99. I am like no that’s what I paid for the two balloons you need to refund $19.99 for your “Medium Chocolates” he said no they are $9.99. I went to the site and logged in and I said I paid $74.95 for the flowers and $9.99 for the Balloons and $19.99 for the chocolates on top of all your other fees. He finally agree to refund the $19.99. I would have preferred they just tell their delivery guy. “Hey you screwed up. Go deliver the chocolates.” I would have rather had this and got my service fee refunded. Since that seems like a better deal to me. Because I am still paying for the screw up.

So now I wait for their research department to call me. I will post about that when they call me back. But until then.

Teleflora.com is on my Fail List. I need to bring that page back.

Update 2-13-2009: A day later I still have not heard anything back. I got to see the flowers in person last night and they were even more disappointing then I had expected. I am going to call and complain again today. I feel like I totally got ripped off with this.