Teleflora's horrible customer service

When my friend's mom died I wanted to send something really special. Usually I would look online and call a florist directly in the city he lives in. However since I wanted something very special - a white phaelenopsis orchid - I decided to try Teleflora. After seeing just what I wanted on the website I called the Teleflora number to verify that a white phaelenopsis orchid would be available. Since that was over $100 I wanted to be sure I would get what I requested. The woman on the phone assured me if it was on the website it would be available. So I placed the order. The plant was delivered on time but instead of white it was bright purple. No at ALL what I wanted for a funeral. I emailed Teleflora to complain but was given the following reply:

Thank you for contacting Teleflora.

I have reviewed your order and found that you have agreed to our substitution policy which states:

Occasionally, floral substitutions are necessary due to temporary, regional availability issues. If this is the case with the gift you've selected, our experienced florists will ensure that the style, theme and color scheme of your arrangement is preserved and will substitute only fresh flowers of equal or higher value. If you wish to have a better understanding with regards to our substitution policy, may we advise you to please log on to www.teleflora.com.

I hope I have shed some light on this matter and have proven us worthy to be of service to you in your future floral needs.

It has been a pleasure to assist you and we look forward to serving your floral needs in the future.

For further inquiries or comments please reply to this address or contact our 24-hour Customer Service hotline at 800 835 3356.

I emailed back and told them I had called to assure white was available and that the substitution policy states

our experienced florists will ensure that the style, theme and color scheme of your arrangement is preserved and will substitute only fresh flowers of equal or higher value.

and that the color scheme was not preserved. So then I received another reply pretty much telling me to suck it up and be more careful next time I ordered.

To avoid this kind of problem in your future floral needs, you may indicate in your special instructions to contact you in the event that substitutions are needed.

We regret your dissatisfaction on this order. I hope I have proven us worthy to be of service to you in your future flower needs.

I had also called Teleflora about this problem and I received a call from a woman who first told me the order had been upgraded. I saw the plant and it had 4 blooms on it and was in a little faux brass can. I said I really didn't think that was the case. Then she told me that they have a 48 hour complaint policy and that I had missed that. Guess I was supposed to call up my friend whose mom just died for a rundown on how the plant was. This is some of the most callous and poor customer service I have ever encountered. I will avoid problems in the future by avoiding Teleflora and any florist that does business with Teleflora.

Linda Tamblyn

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I had the same type of problem with this company! They are listed online as "Blooms Today." They did not deliver what they showed in the photo -- not even close!!! When I contacted them they said I had "agreed to a substitution" because they had called me ONLY about changing an accent flower, but said the rest would remain the same. This company does not deliver what it promises, nor does it stand behind its product.

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Have to give Kudos! I posted the complaint regarding the Mothers Day bouquet but surprisingly, they had a different local florist send out the correct bouquet - even larger - the day before Mothers Day. I stand impressed!

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I ordered Mother's Day flowers from Teleflora only to get a completely different arrangement than ordered. They offered a 20% discount but did not forward that money to the local florist so the local florist made a cheapo arrangement instead. Calling customer service was a joke! The lady even denied that the arrangement I ordered was even available! Don't use these people - going back to Proflowers.

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I had TERRIBLE customer service today with Teleflora. I wanted to send out a Mother's Day arrangement on May 6th. It never arrived. I called three times over the course of yesterday (the 6th) and today (the 7th). No one could pull up my order number and kept putting me on hold. The last woman I spoke to got RUDE with me and said "Do you want me to check the order or do you want me to cancel?" and I told her I wanted to know where the order was and it was quite clear all three women had NO idea what they were doing and just passed me off to someone else. TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE. I will be cancelling my order now through VISA since I do NOT trust them to do it.