Flying Flowers Nightmare

Craftyblue

Hi Everyone,

I hope I'm posting in the right place and thank you in advance for any advice you can give.

On Sunday I ordered flowers, from Flying Flowers, to be sent to my partner's mother for a special birthday this Friday. I chose a lovely bouquet with sunflowers in as they're her favourite-

http://www.flyingflowers.co.uk/autumn-delights/Flowers/FA01782F-M,default,pd.html?cgid=

I then recieved an email on Monday afternoon to say that because we live soooo far away (Aberdeen) they were unable to deliver the flowers we had chosen as they didn't have a long life. They also informed me that they were making a substitution, which it says in their T&C's that they are allowed to do, as long as it's of equal or greater value, which it was.

I was disappointed but not too bothered until I saw their chosen substitution-

http://www.flyingflowers.co.uk/carnation-classic/Flowers/FC01312F-M,default,pd.html?cgid=

To me, these flowers look barely better than ones you can get from a petrol station and I wasn't happy for them to be sent. I emailed back to tell them that. I recieved a reply on Tuesday afternoon to say that they were refunding half of what I had paid as a good-will gesture, but that they were entitled to make a substitution and the order had already been sent to the supplier.

I then phone the hotline and spoke to a woman who told me that she would email the suppliers to try and get them to cancel the order. She asked me to phone back at 11am the next day (Wednesday). I phoned back to be told that the order had already been dispatched, so that was that.

My partner then got a message from his mum later on that day to say that the flowers had arrived! :eek: So after saying they couldn't despatch the ones we chose because of the time it would take, the rubbishy flowers arrived two days early!

The thing I really don't understand is why they would accept an order that they knew they couldn't fulfil? When I asked this question on the phone I was pretty much fobbed off. Also, all their deliveries are by Royal Mail, who can deliver to Aberdeen in a day if it's First Class.

I'm planning on writing a letter to their head office to complain, but it's just been such a farce that I wondered whether any of you knowledgable people would have an idea about what else I could do?

It's not really about the money, more the embarrasment that those horrid flowers were sent to a member of our family on such a special day.

Thanks.
Julie x

flyingflowers

Hi Julie

Thank you for your comments regarding your flower delivery.

Further to our telephone conversation earlier today regarding your delivery to Aberdeen, I confirm that as agreed I have issued a full refund to your account.

I hope that after our conversation you have a clearer understanding of why this happened and the measures we are taking to ensure this doesn't happen in the future.

Once again, my sincere apologies for any dissapointment caused.

Kind regards

Debi

vuvuzela

Nice response and customer service, but best read http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/site/forum-faqs#companyrep flyingflowers

Craftyblue

As Debi says above I did speak to her earlier today, she was very helpful and gave me a refund. Although that wasn't really the issue, more
The fact that they accepted an order they couldn't fulfil. However she did explain to me that they took over the company relatively recently and are planning to change the website so that you can see which bouquets are available to deliver to your area so that situations like the one I encountered shouldn't happen.
Again I appreciate that Debi took the time to get in touch with me and I consider the matter to be resolved now.