1800Flowers.com; How Little They Value Their Customers

Would you like to see just how much or how little 1800Flowers.com values their customer?

I have been a 1800Flowers.com customer for many years, until today. I will never order from them again, taking my business to any of the many other flower sites online. On May 9th I ordered two flowers, one to be delivered to my mom on May 11th for Mothers Day, and one to be delivered to Lyndsey on May 17th for her graduation. Leading up to Mothers Day I received discount countless offers from 1800Flowers.com, including one that was a gift certificate for $10.00 off. Both flowers came for approximately $119 without the discount. The 1800Flowers.com shopping cart accepted the gift certificate, applying it to the first flower to be delivered to my mom. I received order confirmations for each delivery, my moms order clearly showing the discount and Lyndsey's showing no discount applied. Everything was cool.

On May 11th my mom received her flowers. On May 18th I asked Lyndsey what she thought of the flowers, she said she hadn't received any. I had not received any emails or phone calls notifying my of problems. Since I was in Toronto on business I couldn't investigate until the 19th. I log into 1800Flowers.com to check order status. My moms flowers were delivered just fine. Lyndsey's flowers show that they have not been delivered, but also do not say anything about why or what happened.

I pick up the phone to call customer service. They quickly inform me that the order is on hold because the gift certificate can't be applied to the order. They first told me I made a mistake in entering the gift certificate for the order. I explained I made no mistake, the order was entered successfully and the confirmation emails were just fine. I told them they had a problem with their system, it didn't notify me of any problem and now it is past the graduation, too late to deliver the flowers.

They acknowledged that it was their problem and kept apologizing. I was put on hold for a couple minutes while the rep talked to their "help desk." They returned and said they would discount my order for my moms flowers 20%, which would amount to about $8.00. I explained that is not good enough, I want a free order. They kept saying all they were authorized to do was a 20% discount. I could talk to a manager and explaining my situation and see if they would offer more. I was tired from flying all day and didn't want go through all of this again. I explained this, and said they could ask. To which they said no. At this point I said either resolve this with a manager or cancel my account and I will take my business elsewhere. I was informed that was all they could do. So, apparently a longtime customer is not worth more than $8.00.

After hanging up I sent the following email to customer service:

I want you to know that I am taking my business to Proflowers. The order above was for a graduation, and you never delivered it because there was a problem with the gift certificate used on the other delivery on this order. You never notified me of a problem so it could be resolved. You just put the order on hold. The graduation happened flowers were never delivered and I look really bad. I called and spoke with a CS rep on 5/19 and all they would do is apologize and take 20% off the order. You messed up bad on this and this is all you could do. I informed the rep to either do better, give me a free order, or I will cancel my account and take my business elsewhere. She wouldn't do anymore because that is all she was allowed to do. I didn't want to spend my time talking to managers and explain this again. She could do that if customer satisfaction is important to you. Since she didn't do anymore to resolve this and keep my business, my business is clearly not important to you. So, I will take my business elsewhere. I never expected this sort of service from you, I have always been please in the past. This one instance you messed up bad, wouldn't resolve to my satisfaction and therefore will loose my business.

I promptly received a generic reply that was meant to appear like it was personal to me. To which I responded:

Did you even read my email? I suspect not, that you just sent me a canned response, because it does nothing to relate to my problem.

I told you I am taking my business elsewhere and you respond with "look forward to serving your gifting needs in the future".

If anyone bothers to read this or cares, feel free to give me a real reply.

This email must have been read because then I received a response saying someone would call me. Ok, maybe someone will care a bit more about their customer and resolve this. They also stated, "Please be assured that the issue will be resolved to your complete satisfaction."

I did receive a call within about an hour. Sorry to say they didn't care any more this time then the initial call. Actually it was almost identical as the initial call... stating off my telling me made a mistake in entering the discount, and then apologizing and offering me 20% off the order and still sending the flowers to Lyndsey.

They made no additional effort to resolve the problem that they caused. They were more than willing to let a long standing customer leave, which is exactly what I told them I will do.

I then logged in to delete my account. Guess what, there is nothing online to delete your account, nothing in their HELP about how to delete your account. So, another email sent off asking how do this.

My last step to physically mail a letter to the 1800Flowers.com corporate office.

This is not an isolated case, check out the similar complaints from other customers, http://www.resellerratings.com/store/1800Flowers

More complaints, http://www0.dealtime.com/xMR-1-800%20Flowers~MRD-9466

More complaints, http://www.epinions.com/webs-Web_Services-All-Merchants-1_800_FLOWERS_COM/display_~reviews/pp_~1/sort_~date/sort_dir_~des/sec_~opinion_list#list

More complaints, http://www.consumeraffairs.com/online/1800flowers.html

What do I want?

1. Apologize
2. Don't imply that this was my fault.
3. Accept responsibility that 1800Flowers.com is at fault.
4. Give me a free order, for the value of the order messed up, next time.

That's it!