Tuesday 21 February 2012

Don’t buy flowers from ReadyFlowers

I usually don’t blog about my personal shopping experience, but a recent experience forced me to publish this post. I travel a lot for business, so for Valentine’s Day I decided to order a bouquet of flowers for my wife. Well knowing that online flower delivery is a trivial online commodity these days, I opened up Google and searched for “flower delivery”. One of the first hits was an allegedly Australian company, ReadyFlowers.com.au, which promoted their special same-day Valentine’s Day delivery of high quality roses. Order before 1pm and the flowers will be delivered the same day all over Australia, the company advertises proudly. Valentine’s Day is on February 14 and I put in my order for “6 long stem premium roses” (product link) on February 13 before lunch. According to ReadyFlowers, everything was all good and on track for delivery:



I was away for business on Valentine’s Day, so I ordered the flowers to be delivered to our apartment in the city as a surprise for my wife when she returned home after a long day at work. The flowers never arrived. I waited for her reaction throughout the day, but nothing happened. When I called her at night, I asked her: “So did the flowers arrive?” Puzzled and surprised she told me that she had not seen even a dry flower leaf at the doorstep.

Actually, the flowers did not arrive the next day – or the following day. On Friday February 17, I received a call from my concierge that somebody had dropped off a bouquet of flowers in the reception. When I got home, this is what I found:




They had sent my wife six small, dry roses without any water (normally, florists deliver flowers with a temporary water container so they remain fresh for the day). They were by no comparison the “six long stem roses” I had ordered. The flower heads were dry and mistreated. The wrapping was crushed. The obviously careless florist had added six dry leaves into the bouquet, most likely to compensate for the lack of fresh flowers and long stems. The greeting card, for which I was asked to add a friendly note during online order, was crushed. My wife’s name was not spelled correctly.

Unsurprisingly, I was furious. Not only had the company decided to charge me AUD $ 90.90 (almost DKK 500) for this pathetic so-called “bouquet” of dry, mistreated roses. They also delivered them three days too late without sending me a single notification of delay. Even half-decent companies send a quick apology and an estimated time of delivery to their clients if orders are stuck or delayed. But ReadyFlowers? Zip, nil, zero, nothing. As I was waiting for the flowers to arrive, I called ReadyFlowers’ so-called customer service centre three times (a 1 800 number) with no luck. Both times I was stuck in the waiting queue as number 23 or 33 with “an estimated holding time of 65 minutes”. Go figure. At least I knew that I was not alone in my pointless endeavour to trace up my missing flower delivery. The third time I called, I was in the queue for 20 minutes before I was diverted to a voice mail with the friendly message that ReadyFlowers had taken their customer service  offline due to a high number of calls! I What kind of company pulls the plug on their customer support during expected peak periods?

Friday, I called the company on the Friday the flowers had arrived. Instead of going into the “enquire about existing orders” I selected the third option for local distributors. This time I got straight through to a ReadyFlowers employee within two minutes. I explained my story and complaint to the customer “service” officer (named Leo) who obviously couldn’t care less about their recent atrocity. I explained to him that I expected them to come and pick up the flowers and that I wanted an immediate refund. Leo, who was probably working in a call centre far away from Sydney, responded that his managers had “left work for today” without any kind of apology or desire to help me. He asked me to send them an email with pictures of the flowers (which I did) and they would get back to me as soon as possible. This, of course, turned out to be a pure scam -- five days have gone by without a single reply from the ReadyFlowers service desk. I have sent multiple requests to their support email address – still with no reply.

I can’t emphasise this enough: ReadyFlowers is a scam, a fraudulent company that should be penalised by the ACCC. They simply to not deliver what they promise on their web site and they overcharge their clients for products that do not meet the expected, decent level of quality and timeliness. Save yourself time and money – avoid ReadyFlowers at all costs.

My next step is taking this case to the ACCC, NSW Fair Trading, and, if necessary, the NSW police. 

78 comments:

  1. UPDATE:
    Two additional news sources -- one in Sydney Morning Herald and one in The West:

    http://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/-/newshome/12943249/brickbats-for-big-flower-firm-over-late-bouquets/

    http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/flower-site-wilts-under-complaint-deluge-20120217-1td0o.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. READY FLOWERS REVIEW

    http://Fair-Trading.com/reports/ready-flowers.html

    http://ReadyFlowersReview.hk

    http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/flower-site-wilts-under-complaint-deluge-20120217-1td0o.html

    COMPLAIN HERE : http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/54217

    ReplyDelete
  3. I had exactly the same issue with them.. but no flowers arrived at all. We are now 3 weeks past from Valentines day and they believed they have delivered them. The Flower shop advised they have delivered them personally and not by courier. I then asked her what my house color was and she then chose to tell us it was by courier and that they will call back with the house color. This site is a fraud and it is a call center in Manilla some where. I have spoken with our bank and they have disputed the transaction for our money back. Karma will catch up with you Ready Flowers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've ordered flowers from them on Valentines Day as well except it was delivered and the roses were great. I do believe it does depend on which florist they assign your order to. I don't want to put the blame on those people who works in the call centers because I'm guessing they are there to assign florist, NOT delivery them to your house personally.

      Delete
  4. I see they didn't even care to deliver your flowers.

    I have finally managed to get them to reply to my support emails by calling their Manila hotline over and over for several days. Last week they agreed to acknowledge the refund and told me that I should see the money in my account after five-eight business days.

    Yesterday, ReadyFlowers then follow up on my original request and ask me to send them pictures of the flowers:

    "Dear Anders,

    Regarding to the Order [order no.] to be delivered to [name] in [address], SYDNEY, Australia on Tuesday, 14 Feb 2012. We would need you to send a photo of the flowers that the recipient received, so that we can investigate further regarding this matter.

    Thank you for your help and patience.

    Kind Regards,

    Ready Flowers Customer Service
    Kevin Angelo Peralta
    customer.service@readyflowers.com
    http://www.readyflowers.com/"

    I have already sent my pictures (which you see above in this blog post) to them twice. Now they keep stalling the process by "playing dumb" and asking for the evidence over and over.
    Last night they called me (from a Perth phone number) and told me that they are happy to "deliver me the right flowers tomorrow because we failed to deliver your order." I told them that I am by no means interested in this and that I had already requested a refund twice over the phone and via email. Now I am back to square one where they seem to ignore my emails AND don't care to process my refund request.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Hi, this blog is really amazing and provide me answers to all my questions. This is really informative and I will for sure refer my friends the same. I got the freebies with the Com Luvs premium and adding this now makes it all even juicier than ever.blooming flowers

    ReplyDelete
  6. FACTUAL COMMENT REMOVED FROM WIKIPEDIA http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_Flowers

    On 31 January 2009, Ready Flowers Pty Ltd of Perth Australia with Peter Hegarty as a director sold the Ready Flowers Online Business to the Hong Kong registered Ready Flowers Limited also with Peter Hegarty as its director. A term of the sale agreement executed by Peter Hegarty as buyer and seller, required that the sale be kept secret. The purpose of the secrecy was to have Australian consumers (wrongly) believe that they were dealing with an Australian business. The Ready Flowers Limited has failed to register itself as a foreign company conducting business in Australia, as is required under Australian Corporations Law.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Nice I also share with you something hope this helpful for you my friends . Celebrate today's special occasion with a flower delivery! From You Flowers offers beautiful flower arrangements for same day delivery by a local florist. Whether you need to send flowers to New York, Texas, or California, FromYouFlowers.com offers nationwide delivery from coast to coast. Want to make in a one-of-a-kind gift? Add a teddy bear, chocolates or a mylar balloon to your online flower order. We are the same day delivery experts; if you need flowers delivered today there is no better choice than From You Flowers! Check it out thanks.
    ethiopia flower delivery companies

    ReplyDelete
  8. Thanks for sharing this post I also share with you some tip hope you like. Find out which flowers are native to the area you live. For example, Black Eyed Susan are native to Georgia and so they will be more readily available there and also less expensive. Grow flowers year round in your garden or allotment. Find an online flower shop that has deep discounts. Ask family, friends and neighbors if they have any flowers to spare. If they have a garden and grow their own flowers, they may be only too happy to share them with you. You could always help out with the yard work in return. Visit your local florist and ask them if they have any left over flowers that you can take home. Many florists have flowers that they would much rather sell very cheaply or even give away rather than throw them into the trash.
    Ethiopia Sunday Flower Delivery

    ReplyDelete
  9. Online store for beautiful Flower delivery in Bangalore,make your someone more happy with My Flower Gift Flower bouquet.
    Flowers and Gifts to India

    ReplyDelete
  10. Nice post with nice images you have posted your information very beautifully. loved to read your postings thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  12. i wish i have read this sooner... i am in a similar situation i asked for my flowers to be delivered on the 14th of march, still haven't been delivered and its impossible for me to contact them.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I too wish I had seen these complaints earlier. I have learned a hard lesson. I ordered a bouquet to be delivered to my elderly mother the day BEFORE Mothers Day (10th May).... same day delivery As you guessed it, they were never delivered that day. I rang ReadyFlowers and was told the florist had delivery van problems and they would be delivered the next day, Mothers Day, with a complimentary box of chocolates. My mother waited in but NO FLOWERS. I rang again the next day and was told they could not fulfill my order, with no apology or reason why. BUT they had already withdrawn my money from my Credit card. I told them I wanted to cancel my order and demanded a full refund. After many phone calls and emails to their customer service and LIVE Chat, they said"they would refund my money and that it is in the queue for processing by 6th June" It is now 12th June and STILL NO REFUND. THEY ARE DESPICABLE LIARS AND THIEVES. I am warning everyone I know NEVER ORDER FROM READYFLOWERS.

    ReplyDelete
  14. I was lucky. The Ready Flowers turned up only two days late however the delay caused the bust up of a romance. I was drafting up a letter of complaint to Consumer Affairs when word came through the 'Blueberry Night @ $129.75' had arrived on the intended doorstep.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Thanks for the post Anders. I always like to stay abreast of what is happening in my industry. Thanks for keeping the consumers aware as well! Sally

    ReplyDelete
  16. Awesome post.. Thanks for sharing . Keep Updating

    ReplyDelete
  17. This company is quite appalling. Despite a previous late delivery, I ordered flowers for my daughter's birthday, and a balloon, to be delivered in Wellington NZ. The flowers were delivered on time but were not fresh and not as described. There was no balloon. They promised a refund. This was in October 2014 and I am still waiting. Now they do not reply to my emails. Wish I had the address of someone like UK Trading Standards to complain to.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anne has been working with flowers for the past 25 years and was blessed to work with many lovely couples to transform their special day into breathtaking wedding sites. From classic and elegant to bold and dramatic, Weddings by Anne will custom design your dream event to match your vision and budget. Each bride and groom are unique and we believe your flowers and decor should be too. We will work with you to come up with a theme
    and design based around your wedding dress, colour palette, atmosphere, location, and season.
    http://weddingsbyanne.com.au/

    ReplyDelete
  19. Weddings by Anne Perth Florist providing elegant, beautiful and affordable wedding bouquets and flower arrangements. Each bride and groom are unique and we believe your flowers and decor should be too.We will work with you to come up with a theme and design based around your wedding dress, colour palette, atmosphere, location, and season.
    http://weddingsbyanne.com.au

    ReplyDelete
  20. Totally disgusted flowers arrived 4 days late for Mother's Day a few sprigs of flowers not what was ordered and after 2 days they are dying. Try several times to see what happened to them and tried to cancel. Would NEVER ever use them again BEWARE not value for money

    ReplyDelete
  21. AVOID USING THIS COMPANY, DONT BELIEVE THE HYPE
    Thought I would give this company a try as a change is always good - how wrong was I
    I Ordered sunflowers plus chocolates at $120 PLUS delivery for Mum this Mothers Day in NZ from London UK.
    Delivery consisted of Gerberas only and no chocolates, very disappointed.
    When I contacted them by email I received an email 48hrs later to say Sunflowers were unavailable due to out of season !! They will look into why chocolates were not delivered.

    When questioned by email why they listed out of season flowers and then substituted cheaper flowers offering no partial refund they blamed their agent!!!
    Still waiting a week later for explanation on chocolate non delivery and refund-not holding my breath!!

    This company has no idea of customer service and does not care if things go wrong and certainly do not believe in refunds.

    I shall be going back to "Roses are Red" who offer quality products and service with a photo of the flowers delivered by email, oh and free delivery in Auckland area.

    ReplyDelete
  22. I like flowers delivery but I never imagined that the flowers can be undelivered. Very sad story :)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Same experience here. Not delivered. No reply to requests for refund. Basically terrible customer service 101. Pretty sure you have to try really hard to be that heartless on the most romantic day of the year.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Wedding flowers buy new Albany make your great moment.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I will be back in a day or two. thanks for a great site.
    www.honeydewflorist.com

    ReplyDelete
  26. BEWARE OF TAKING ORDERS FROM READY FLOWERS
    THEY OWE FLORISTS TENS OF THOUSANDS
    THEY REFUSE TO REFUND CONSUMERS
    http://readyflowersreview.hk/READY-FLOWERS-UNRAVELS.html

    READY FLOWERS REVIEW
    Consumer Complaints - Newspaper Articles - Radio Interviews
    http://readyflowersreview.hk

    ReplyDelete
  27. Flower delivery is available from Send Flowers to Lahore with same day, next day and for those who like to plan ahead, future delivery. Once we have received your order and our expert florists have created your stunning flower gift it will be delivered by hand with the care and sentiment that it deserves.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Take a look at this informative piece about Crystal Rose London's fresh roses online delivery.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Peter Hegarty and his family are getting sued for defamation.
    https://www.floristcollective.report

    ReplyDelete
  30. Online Flower Delivery India - Planning to Send Cakes, Flowers, Gifts to India. Our Fresh Cakes, Flowers Arrangements are Available.flowers online

    ReplyDelete
  31. Very useful article, I like all, Thanks for this good blog. send gifts to pakistan

    ReplyDelete

  32. Our online store at Global Gift Delivery understands the need and charm of gifts that you usually take into use in order to surprise all your closed ones. Thus, we at this portal aim to create the best gift baskets, gifts, Flowers, Cakes so that your plan of making all your loved ones happy and joyful meets a big success. In Newyork, Chicago Los Angles etc all the cities of USA , we provide you Same day and midnight Delivery with Free Shipping.By getting in touch with the online services provided by us, you can carry out the same-day gift basket delivery of all your chosen gifts to anyone – your friend, brother and sister throughout the United States of America. ORDER NOW!! Call & Wats app us on +13462755828
    https://www.globalgiftdelivery.com/

    ReplyDelete
  33. Nice Stuff shared by Writer. If are you looking for Best Flower Arranging in Brisbane So you can visit our online Flower Delivery service

    Our Search Queries
    ------------------

    Flower Delivery Brisbane
    Flower Arranging Class Brisbane
    Floral White
    https://www.floralwhite.com.au/

    ReplyDelete
  34. Hello Dear,

    I Like Your Blog Very Much. I see Daily Your Blog, is A Very Useful For me.

    You can also Find Flower delivery London UK Same day flower delivery through online florist Memento Flowers Florist London your local flower shop, send flowers, wedding flowers & funeral flowers. Bouquets delivered London.

    Visit Now:- https://www.mementoflowers.com/

    ReplyDelete
  35. Thanks for sharing this wonderful information. View this also - flowers online manila

    ReplyDelete
  36. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  37. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete

  38. I found this blog post to be very informative. I have already bookmarked this link. Keep us the Good work. Also,We also provide services to deliver wedding flowers nyc.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Very Nice Post. I am very happy to see this post.https://www.shoparcade.com/

    ReplyDelete
  40. This is a decent post and gives full data. I like to peruse this post because I met such a great deal of new realities concerning it really. Thanks, loads.
    send gifts to Pakistan

    ReplyDelete
  41. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you for providing such a useful post. If you have forgotten to order flowers to be delivered on any occasion or thank you messages, Don't worry. You can place an order online with Flower Club, #1 Florist Ivanhoe EAST to save the day. We will give the best Same Day Flower Delivery Melbourne services. You can buy a bunch of flowers, my favorite plant, and a bar of chocolate all at the same place! Order Now or Give us a call now at 0394971349 or visit here Same Day Flower Delivery Melbourne

      Delete
  42. You have written actually an overall quite useful blog. I was searching for such blog since long. You can make your loved one's without visiting them just send them beautiful gifts and flowers fill their day with happiness.

    Florist Blackburn

    ReplyDelete
  43. Thanks for sharing the information with us. Keep on updating us regularly.
    Florist Brighton
    Florist Vermont

    ReplyDelete
  44. Thank you for sharing such information related flowers. One of the best service provider related flower delivery available in free visit us at Florist Doncaster to get fresh flowers.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Thank you for sharing this kind of blog sure it's gonna help many in the future. Florist Balwyn offers fresh flowers and Same-day Flower Delivery at a reasonable price.

    ReplyDelete
  46. This article is very helpful, I wondered about this amazing article.. This is very informative.
    “you are doing a great job, and give us up to dated information”.
    Thanks for sharing such unique content. Please keep it up.

    dried flowers online australia

    ReplyDelete

  47. The article you wrote was very helpful for me. I am looking forward to reading more articles of yours in the future. The visa for Turkey is completely open now and you can take benefits of the Turkish visa facility and Explore the Turkey like a local .

    ReplyDelete
  48. Florists in downtown Toronto


    Flowers, the best florist in Toronto, provides same day flower delivery in Toronto, Canada. Our flowers symbolize love and hope. We send flower bouquets in branded and convenient bags and deliver them at the right time.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Be it any flower we Same Day Flower Delivery Manhattan have in store for you all variants at best price.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Things are changing and there are numerous Florist around me options coming up in the market today. Internet shopping is a trend which has taken over in the last few years. Call us now!

    ReplyDelete
  51. This article is very helpful because you shared about your bad experience buying flowers from ReadyFlowers, they gave you such dry flowers. This is very informative. You are doing a great job, and give us up to dated information. Click here to check the list of Best Florists in Brisbane.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Gift Delivery Australia is a wonderful personalised gift for him also with fresh flowers and ...You can also add chocolate gift boxes to make a perfect combo.

    Fresh Flowers For Him With Same Day & Midnight Delivery

    ReplyDelete
  53. Önemli giriş adreslerine buradan ulaşabilirsiniz.
    betturkey giriş
    betpark giriş
    64V

    ReplyDelete
  54. Great Information sharing .. I am very happy to read this article .. thanks for giving us go through info.Fantastic nice. I appreciate this post.
    manhattan florists

    ReplyDelete
  55. Thanks for sharing this great blog. It’s really informative and more useful. Bayleaves Florist offers beautiful flowers at affordable price.
    Florist Brighton
    Florist Hampton
    Florist Bentleigh
    Florist Moorabbin
    Florist Sandringham

    ReplyDelete