iFlorist: don't take any notice of website promise

PhylPho

Oh dear. Why can't ecommerce businesses sort out their own business?

Was looking to buy a small hamper at iFlorist today seeing as they're currently offering:

FREE STANDARD DELIVERY on all flowers and gifts ordered online

http://www.iflorist.co.uk/christmas-hampers-EN.html

Chose the 'Teatime Treats' selection for UK mainland delivery, a selection which has FREE STANDARD DELIVERY emblazoned over it. Checked out the T&Cs of the offer and iFlorist says: 'Just choose standard delivery and there will be no charge'.

Chose the item, am offered a choice of delivery dates, selected Friday December 7th, went to check-out and am being asked to pay by credit / debit card:

Sub-total £22.90, standard delivery: £3.90, total £26.80.

Go to Live Help and get a CS called Sharneen. Ask for clarification of how come FREE DELIVERY is being billed at £3.90??

Sharneen apologises for any inconvenience caused. There isn't any free delivery.

Ah, well. . .

PinkLipgloss

That sounds very dodgy!

Perhaps they are hoping people won't notice or will simply pay it rather than the inconvenience of shopping elsewhere? I'll certainly be avoiding them!

Stephb1986_2

I once ordered from iflorist it was a local florist that supplied the flowers they were dead within 3 days I spent £35 so I wasn't chuffed I called iflorist but got no where with them so I called the florist direct and they said I killed them!

I wouldn't bother ordering from there.

Steph xx

PhylPho

Amazingly enough -- or perhaps, not amazingly enough -- iFlorist seems to be still at it tonight:

http://www.iflorist.co.uk/christmas-hampers-EN.html

Yesterday -- i.e., around 30 hours ago -- I was told that my concerns, er, "concerned' iFlorist. And that they wished to apologize for "any inconvenience caused" but that no, after Customer Services had looked into this, it turned out that the 'free delivery' offer no longer applied

iFlorist is a firm which proudly emblazons its emails and website with the following:

The Queen's Award for Enterprise 2012 We are extremely proud to have been awarded The Queen's Award for Enterprise in International Trade. This prestigious seal of approval is testament to the hard work and commitment of our entire team

So now The Queen's Award is going to an outfit resorting to the sleaziest scamming tricks around -- enticing customers to the point of check-out and then hoping they'll just. . . drift. . . through without noticing they're forking out on their credit or debit card for something they've been promised for nothing. . .?

Surely not.

Hopefully CS was wrong last night. I think I might just try again . And discover that iFlorist is a reputable firm that is definitely worthy of its oh-so prestigious Royal award.. .:)

Edit: iFlorist Customer Services is, quite reasonably, not working at this hour. I have left a message with it to the effect that (a) iFlorist is still enticing customers with promises of free delivery but (b) has just tried to get me to pay £3.90 via my credit card for that delivery at the online check-out. I'll be interested to learn what they have to say when they get back to me.:)

PhylPho

Quick wrap up. It seems iFlorist is knowingly offering free delivery to hook in customers but has no intention of honouring that offer. A message received from Customer Services today reads:

Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience you may have experienced. We would like to inform you that there is no free delivery till the end of December due to festive season.

Regards
iflorist.

The iFlorist website continues on unchanged as do the individual product images emblazoned with 'Free Delivery'.

The fact that a relatively small sum of money is involved (£3.90) is not the point; abuse of consumer trust most certainly is.

keyser666

Have you mentioned this shouldn't be removed if it isnt the case? Have you reported it

piglet25

Iflorist take 30% of any order value sent to a florist, plus they keep any delivery charge. So your £35 becomes £24.40, and the florist has to supply and deliver the flowers specified and still make a profit. Iflorist also charge a monthly membership fee to florists, so that has to be covered too.
Best idea? Call your local florist directly cos Iflorist don't care if you get a bag of rubbish, and they tell their florists that if someone orders flowers you don't have in stock that you can substitute for any others as its in the small print. So technically you could order roses and receive gerberas, and Iflorist wont want to know.

LMH67

Do I need to be concerned now? I ordered the annual christmas plant for my aunt last night with iflorist. 16% cashback through Quidco (already tracking) with £5 off and free delivery.

All seems to have gone through OK so guess will have to wait and see.......

pmduk

I'd make a screenprint and send it to the Standards Authority.

Schick3

So i realized quite quickly that this company were not going to honour ALL the advertising of "Free delivery"
Not impressed - its false advertising plain and simple.

Commented on their facebook page - no response...oh they even DELETED the comment. Clearly only positive comments stay.

So i posted a lovely scathing comment pointing out how awful a company they are doing that.

And used a competitor.

Don't fall for iFlorists lies. DELIVERY IS NOT FREE

Schick3

PS : thanks to this page I didn't go ahead and order the gift thinking maybe I'd misunderstood something! So THANK YOU!