Well....I was bitten in the butt big time this Valentines Day.

I kept hearing all these ads on the radio for Proflowers.com so I decided what the heck, I'll give them a try. Their prices were a little too good to be true and I guess there's a reason for that. Apparently they contract directly with the growers and they "Oursource" their delivery with big shipping companies like UPS and FedEx. What this equates to is a lack of personal service.

I placed my order two weeks ago to have a dozen red roses shipped to my wife at her work. This company is so great that I had to pay a premium to ensure that my order arrived on Valentines day. Naturally since UPS was running the show they were unable to locate my wife's company, even though it is an extremely large corporation in Northern California. They never attempted to contact myself or my wife with their questions even though they had our information.

I don't think the fault neccesarily lies in the hands of UPS because I would argue that they aren't neccesarily the best choice for delivering fragile perishable goods on a super strict timeline. I think the fault lies with Proflowers for choosing to do a very personal service with a very ill equipped business partner (IMO). So in the end I look like a jerk for not getting my wife flowers and she looks like a pathetic loser for being the only person at her work to not get something special for Valentines Day. See this great clip from The Office: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJeD2EJ6TlA

So now I'm personally boycotting Proflowers. In the future I highly recommend a company like Teleflora.com. This is the company I've always used in the past and was stupid for not using on a day like today. You pay a slight premium to order through them, but they outsource with ACTUAL florists in the area you're making your delivery to. They deliver the flowers by hand and in most instances the cards I've attached with my flowers have been hand-written as well.

I was able to get a refund from Proflowers, but now I have nothing to show for it. It's as if I never made the effort to do anything special at all.

Alright....I'm off my soap box.
I'm headed to Trader Joes to pic up flowers for my sweet pea. Hope they aren't out

Happy Valentines Day everybody.

well, I'm am VERY sure that your wife knows how hard you tried!
And I hope Trader Joe's wasn't out!

I'm going to preface this by saying that I used to work for Proflowers so yes, I'm a little biased, BUT...I can tell you that it's UPS that has the problem, not Proflowers. I was on the customer service team last Valentine's Day, and man oh man, it was ridiculous how many orders UPS messed up. The funny thing was, we only had like 2% of the messed up orders be from FedEx.

The reason they have to use big companies like UPS and FedEx is because they ship overnight direct from the fields...they don't stockpile the flowers for a few days like 1800flowers does (I dunno about Teleflora) and no small company can do the amount of shipping from as many locations as UPS and FedEx. And, as a result, Proflowers' flowers have a guaranteed life of at LEAST 7 days.

Ok, I'm sorry, I've gone on quite a ramble here, and I absolutely hate sounding like an advertisement, but I just love the flowers I get from them and had to point out that they aren't so terrible.

PS-I AM really sorry that that happened though, I took a lot of calls last year from guys that had the same thing happen to them and it always broke my heart for them.

you mean outsourcing key components of your business to large corporations sometimes leads to a less than desirable result and poor customer service? that's a strange idea.

sorry that this happened to you, but maybe you can offer to make it up to her tonight that's a win-win type situation

I actually can relate to how you are feeling. When my oldest son was born six and half years ago. My sister sent flowers through proflowers to us. Well we live in S.Louisiana and in the summer time it is hotter then an over here.
My sister had asked for the flower to be delivered the day after we were to come home from the hospital. Well they had arrived the day before we got home and had been sitting outside in 100 degree Fahrenheit. So I suppose normally I would be a thrilled customer if they showed up early, but inthis case the flowers looked pretty sad by the time we came home from the hospital. They were delivered by fedex.

I am sure your wife understand this is not your fault. Sucks though ,especially as you really did plan this way ahead of time.

large belly laugh Luke-thank you!

sorry about the situation with pro flowers Mark-
giving flowers to your wife is a wonderful idea that
is not downplayed by the hassle.....(in her eyes anyway:)
very sweet-

My experience with them has always been great-
The flowers seem really fresh when they arrive!

cheers-
lisa

Funny. My Fiance's company fairly recently switched to UPS from FedEx for parts deliveries and it has been nothing but an uphill battle. He used to complain about FedEx, but now bites his tongue as they were FAR BETTER than what they're getting now with UPS.

That's a bummer Mark,

I'm sure she loves you and forgives you...now do as Luke says and make it up to her tonight!

Thanks for all the understanding comments everybody.

Yes I was kind of making a point with the "outsourcing" in case anybody didn't notice. Even though it really was UPS's fault (I agree with you Alyssa) this is still the way Proflowers has decided to operate their business. I was all fired up on my 1.5 hour commute home tonight (traffic was a bitch) so I decided to call the 1800 number again. They had already given me a refund on my purchase, but I still felt really shortsided. I went through the trouble of trying to do something nice for my wife but I had nothing to show for it. The customer service guy really wanted to argue. I tried to get him to admit that in the end it was Proflowers responsibility for the delivery but he refused. Initially he told me that I should be filing a complaint with UPS (which I had already done earlier) because they are simply a courier service and not a "business partner". Naturally I unleashed on him because that is preposterous. If this is the mode of delivery the company has chosen to deliver their goods to a customer they they should be held responsible for the final product. They should be the ones to argue with UPS over who's at fault, not the customer. I am still a firm believer in the customer is always right policy. 1 pissed off person can cause a heck of a lot more damage than 12 happy customers can cause good.

So after 15 minutes of arguing with this poor soul (I love to argue) and talking him into circles, I convinced him to send my wife another shipment of flowers on top of the order that's already out there....all for free. In the end I'm still pissed but at least this bit of consideration has helped me walk away from the situation with my head slightly up.

I guess the moral of this story is that if things don't go right for some reason we should put ourselves in our clients shoes. It's much better to appease them and give them some type of consideration rather than fire back. No matter how bad things might be, if a client can walk away happy in the end they will respect you and probably recommend you to others just due to the way you handled the situtation.

FYI: Trader Joes had flowers...and plenty of wine ...THANK GOD. Now she's going to have more flowers than she knows what to do with.

Hope everyone had a great night.


Too bad she's yelling at me to get the heck off OSP!
I'm on it right now
Nite!

That's what's cool about Proflowers (not that the dude argued with you...that's not cool!! Keep in mind he's been hearing this all day, poor soul. ) When they trained us, they gave us full authority to do whatever it takes to make the customer happy, including sending another shipment. :)hehe Complain enough and you can get basically anything out of them!

Y'all are missing a HUGE opportunity here. I've been doing this for years now. My wife gets tons of fresh flowers on V-day. Delivered, on time with a smile!

I say it over and over and over. NETWORK! I give 100s of pictures to vendors over the course of the year. Especially florists. They get all the free pics they could want. I just call in a little favor once a year around Valentine's day. Read more about it on my Blog

ooops! i LOVE proflowers!

i sent flowers to my mom & grandma last year (thier birthdays are within a couple of days fo each other). and like an idiot, i forgot that they had gone to Athens, GA to visit my aunt! well, i had already sent the flowers to be delivered the next day. i needed them to be re-routed, but i had no address! what a disaster! they put them on hold while i found the address and they re-routed the flowers to be delivered to them just in time for a big surprise party! it was like it was planned.

i send proflowers to my sister and best friend a lot, and i even GOT pro-flowers once! they are always super fresh and packed very well. and they last for a long time.

i'm sorry you had such a bad experience.

my hubby is a sweetheart ... sends flowers a lot. he uses proflowers a good bit, and most of the time they get it right. once they sent the wrong bouquet with no vase, and when i told him, he immediately called them. they aplogized and sent a free bouquet the next week. i can imagine on v-day it's crazy around there, but that guy should know better than to argue with a customer. even if they aren't right, customer service reps should at least pretend like they are!!

hope your wife enjoyed her flowers.

Mark, I feel for ya. Especially when you pre-planned and put so much effort into it. You could tell your wife that I didn't get ANY flowers, chocolate or card from my hubby. I don't remember if he SAID Happy Valentine's Day either. I got more love from OSPWers (and one non-Wer) Not looking for sympathy here, I'm just saying you did better than most even though there wasn't anything at her work. Maybe get a local florist to deliver a small bouquet for the next several Mondays. I'd rather get love throughout the year than JUST the one day that's 'expected'.

I have had nothing but great service from Proflowers. Sorry it had to happen on Valentines.

That's unfortunate about your flowers. I've lots of success with them and with our recent winter storms here in the midwest, I was wondering if the flowers for this VDay would come on time. Fortunately they did and my wife was very happy.

Aww, sorry that happened to you .

I have had good success with ProFlowers though. The flowers are always fresh. My sweetie ordered some roses for me for valentine's day. There's something I love about getting that long box full of flowers .