1-800-Disappointment - UPDATED - Again
For mother’s day I ordered flowers for my mother in law from 1 800 Flowers.
Her favorite – red roses.
The Web page asked me to:
*Select delivery date.
Okay – Saturday May 10
*Sorry – you must choose a flexible delivery date.
I chose:
*Saturday May 10 Preferred – Friday May 9, Acceptable
I aniticipated the happy phone call thanking us for the flowers.
Friday – no flowers
Saturday – no flowers
Sunday – no flowers
Sunday morning I called 1-800-Flowers and was told – We will contact the florist and have the flowers delivered today.
Sunday evening – no flowers
I called again – “Oh – I’m so very sorry – The first florist we contacted did not have red roses. But we found a florist and the flowers will be delivered before 7 pm tonight or tomorrow, is that okay?”
“Ah, not really – what are my options?” says I.
“Well, we can cancel the order and give you a gift certificate for 20 percent off your next order.”
“Assuming there will be a next order – right?” I smile.
“(chuckles) Yeah, right. Sorry. Or I can give you 20 percent off of this order and the flowers will be delivered tomorrow.”
“20 percent – can’t you do better than that? – It’s mothers day and your company dropped the vase”. I cajole.
“Nope”
“Can you connect me with someone who could do better than 20 percent?” I query hopefully.
“Nope”
“Okay then, I guess I’ll take my 20 percent and my MIL will get her flowers tomorrow, right?” I’m not happy, but still polite.
“Yes ma’am”
“Okay” I sigh.
So I hung up the phone disappointed – but I live in the real world, I know stuff happens. I was prepared to just deal with it.
Monday afternoon – no flowers.
Okay, so now I’m starting to be a little less philosophical about the whole mess.
I call –
“My mother in law still does not have her flowers – can you help me?”
Long story short – 1 800 Flowers was sending the order to the same florist over and over. The florist rejected the order one time because she did not have red roses available and made the assumption that the following requests were just duplicates and could be ignored. SO – My MIL will not have her flowers until Tuesday at the earliest.
“Okay – so what can you do for me here? I’m truly a disappointed customer.” I ask.
“Well – a 20 percent discount with a coupon for 20 percent off your next order is our standard compensation.”
“Not good enough. You missed Mother’s Day for me.” I say firmly.
“Well, 50 percent?”
“Try again.” With conviction.
“I can’t”
“Connect me to someone who can.” I say kindly and quietly.
“I’ll try my supervisor – please hold.”
Insert Muzak here.
“My supervisor says 50 percent is the most we can do.”
“Hmmmm, well at least this gives me something to write about on my fairly popular blog.” I quip – totally bluffing.
She gulps.
“Thank you.” I chirp.
So to all five of you – whoops 4
(I'm a dork and subscribe to my own blog on google reader) Just a heads up –
1-800-Flowers still hasn’t delivered my MIL her red roses.
Contrast that to what happened with the flowers I ordered for my mother from GrowerFlowers.com.
Mom received her flowers on time at less expense – (half the cost to be exact). However, a couple roses were missing and two roses were broken. She called GrowerFlowers and this was her response –
“Oh dear, that is totally unacceptable – May we send you another dozen roses on Tuesday to compensate you for this mishap?”
Uh - Yeah, that’s more like it!
4pm Monday - STILL no flowers. Grrrrrr!
5:30pm Monday - FINALLY, and she says they are beautiful. Okay - It's over now.
