MSE News: Flower firm fails lovers on Valentine's Day

Pooohbear

You'll notice they have now removed the thread from their Facebook page so you can't make comments to get you blocked any more. Having spoken to lots of people on Facebook who have been affected by this problem alot of people are getting a refund and 24 red roses as compensation but it seems that not everyone is getting this

colino

Ah well, that's all done and dusted then. Arena finally refunded my CC money, but after a very long time and what did they not do?
They never sent any flowers, not the ones ordered or the ones they fancifully claimed in their PR puff to be compensating their customers with.
They never, ever, answered their phone. Wonderful for a business in the 21st Century.
They never replied to my emails, no stock apology, no individual note of concern, no nothing.
I can take it from my one and only experience of Arena Flowers that they are 100% incompetent. From items shown to me from social media explaining how they were coping with the problem - they are liars.
I hope anyone interested in buying their business system takes note. It is unfinished, incomplete and unreliable.
Perhaps with it being such a busy time of year it is easier to blame both unnamed suppliers and couriers without being specific on anything. Much better to take in a very large amount of cash and deliver on none of your promises. Gives a boost to an ailing cash flow and tars the name of brands such as MSE by association.

JonBack

Just to provide balance to some of the more negative posts, my experience has been - since the deep disappointment of Valentine's Day - remarkably positive.

To begin with, I was as irked & angry as any; I was a long way from my wife & I received no warning email.

I moaned, both on here & on Twitter.

I also emailed Arena, annoyingly having been unable to get through to them.

But from that moment on, their 'recovery' service has been excellent - & I use the word in its proper sense; they have excelled.

My PayPal monies were returned promptly & just over a week later (the date was at my request), what was simply the best bunch of flowers I have ever seen was delivered to my wife (I did tweet a photo if you'd like to see).

I was also provided with a 50% off code for future orders (they were asked to remove the offer from apology emails to MSE customers for fear of being seen to profit from disaster).

This service was improved further by a number of personal, certainly-not-copied-&-pasted emails apologising, explaining & helping.

It's actually taught me a lesson about judging people too quickly - this was clearly a business catastrophe brought about by a succession of problems & errors, but before this, Arena were (I understand) one of the top-rated flower companies in the country.

It's easy to instantly 'cathart' on the internet, but it's not always helpful. Don't be suprised if your barrage of angry insults see the rectification of your problem slip down the priority list when the problems of more constructive critics are being dealt with first; it's human nature.

So, many thanks to Arena for what they've done since - for me their personal attempts to rectify the situation have been an exemplar - customer service of the very highest order.

My Mothers' Day orders are already in!

stbutler

Yet others still haven't received their refund, any flowers or even the common courtesy of a reply to an email sent on the 15th Feb.

How long do they need?

NAR

Right which company is dragging MSE down with a Morher's Day offer? :rotfl: :rotfl:

Mr.Boy

looking4luck wrote: »

Two weeks later, still no refund...

I sent a straightforward "nothing's arrived I'd like a refund" email on around the 18th and got a reply a day later apologising and promising a refund, which appeared on my CC soon after.

So it was a shame but no real harm done.

colino

Disappointing most of all now is the persistence of MSE just retyping Arena press releases and deleting posts instead of defending their own reputation and asking straight questions of this dubious company. First sign of MSE losing its editorial independence through its new commercial owners?

sharnad

JonBack wrote: »

Just to provide balance to some of the more negative posts, my experience has been - since the deep disappointment of Valentine's Day - remarkably positive.

To begin with, I was as irked & angry as any; I was a long way from my wife & I received no warning email.

I moaned, both on here & on Twitter.

I also emailed Arena, annoyingly having been unable to get through to them.

But from that moment on, their 'recovery' service has been excellent - & I use the word in its proper sense; they have excelled.

My PayPal monies were returned promptly & just over a week later (the date was at my request), what was simply the best bunch of flowers I have ever seen was delivered to my wife (I did tweet a photo if you'd like to see).

I was also provided with a 50% off code for future orders (they were asked to remove the offer from apology emails to MSE customers for fear of being seen to profit from disaster).

This service was improved further by a number of personal, certainly-not-copied-&-pasted emails apologising, explaining & helping.

It's actually taught me a lesson about judging people too quickly - this was clearly a business catastrophe brought about by a succession of problems & errors, but before this, Arena were (I understand) one of the top-rated flower companies in the country.

It's easy to instantly 'cathart' on the internet, but it's not always helpful. Don't be suprised if your barrage of angry insults see the rectification of your problem slip down the priority list when the problems of more constructive critics are being dealt with first; it's human nature.

So, many thanks to Arena for what they've done since - for me their personal attempts to rectify the situation have been an exemplar - customer service of the very highest order.

My Mothers' Day orders are already in!

Co e back and tell us if they come

Ogster

Just a quick update for other users.

I took up the MSE offer and then the Arena offer of a refund on the 15th of February. Despite what was posted on here by MSE the '24 roses regardless' didn't appear but I wasn't too worried about that so let it be.

I didn't actually check my bank balance until this Monday (its an account only used occasionally) and found that the refund hadn't been paid in so I sent off an email to Arena customer services straightaway. Now its Thursday and no reply and still no refund so another email has been dispatched without much hope of a conclusion to this.

Cant say I'll be rushing back to use Arena again as this is leaving a rather nasty taste in the mouth. :mad:

LisaLou1982

i posted last week after my order with Arena didnt show up for Mothers Day!! this is following from the order on valentines that didnt show

the response i got from 1 mse member was that it was my fault for giving the company a second chance. I disagree with that - it is NEVER the customers fault for a company's incompetance.

I certainly would never ever use arena flowers again