So late Tuesday night, when I found out, I put in an online order through Teleflora for delivery on Wednesday. I ordered an arrangement and teddy bear and paid whatever it was for same-day delivery. Got my order confirmation and everything seemed fine.
She never posted about it, so I called throughout the day to check their automated system about delivery. Pushed an option asking about delivery confirmation and the system assured me that the florist would update me. Did that happen? Hell no!
Around 6 Central, I called and this time the system sent me to an agent. After 5 minutes of holding, I finally spoke to a woman who told me that the florist had put a note on the account that my friend had left the hospital and they wanted an alternate delivery address. Except... she hadn't left the hospital. The woman continued to tell me that no, she'd left, and they wanted another address for Thursday delivery. I told her I would call and double check and she offered to call me back. Of course I called and verified she was still in the hospital, and called Teleflora back because I wanted them to go back and deliver. It was barely after 4 in California and since it was their screw-up and I'd paid for same-day, I didn't see that as unreasonable. Apparently it is, according to them!
The second person I spoke with kept talking over me, arguing and arguing and insisting that because the florist's note said my friend had checked out, it must be so. Because obviously my friend would stage an elaborate ruse where I call through the hospital switchboard and they send me to her cell phone where she's sitting on her couch eating bonbons, right? I finally got her to get me a supervisor, which took about 10 minutes of arguing, holding, arguing, and holding again.
Finally the supervisor gets on the phone and apologizes for taking so long. She said that she called the hospital to verify my friend was still a patient, and then called the florist. These people argued with Teleflora and demanded the supervisor speak to a nurse on the actual wing, which they did, and then they spoke to my friend in her hospital bed, and called the florist back. Florist still refused to deliver and would only do it "first thing" Thursday morning.
By then I was pretty ticked off, but tried to stay cool. Then the call went really stupid and sour and I'll never use Teleflora again.
They offered me a 20% refund for all the foolishness. I still wanted that delivery because I honestly don't think 4:20 is too late to fix your own error. I asked for the florist's number, because I wanted to speak to them directly. They had supposedly "attempted" to deliver at 2:30 local time! Nobody ever called me, nobody called my friend, there was no notice whatsoever! I'd had to chase down these flowers, which I think is ridiculous. If they had bothered to pick up the phone and call SOMEONE listed on the order, they could have fixed it in time to get it delivered and I wouldn't have been so upset. I think that's what had me the most irritated that they didn't care whatsoever.
Well, the supervisor tells me they can't give me the florist's name, due to "security purposes." I get that they don't want me going direct because they don't want to lose their middle-man business, but a lot of this could have been resolved if they'd just let me talk to these yahoos. I asked her how I avoid them using this florist in the future, and her answer was that I can put in the special notes of future orders in that area not to use the same florist as 4/1/15 and they can look it up. Otherwise, it's super top secret.
Their "first thing" was around noon. They snuck in while my friend was having a procedure, which was just kind of the final laughable thing about it because I had asked her if she would try to see which florist it was that delivered because honestly I wanted to review them and give them a piece of my mind for their lazy customer service work. At least she finally got the flowers and teddy bear. It just shouldn't have taken me over 30 minutes in phone calls to get it done.
Oh, and I still haven't received that credit. That's going to be another phone call.