FTD late night rant

I tried to be really on top of things and I ordered flowers last weekend for my mom's surgery on Thursday. Because of the distance, I figured I'd just go with FTD. Plus they have Breast Cancer bouquets where 10% goes to research, and since my mom has breast cancer, I figured it was good. B sent me flowers a few times when I was back in the states, but the local florists that got the job and delivered the flowers wouldn't find our house, without fail. True, our neighborhood is sprinkled with Cabela Street, Cabela Road, Cabela Circle, and the like, but look at the address and the street sign, for Christ's sake!

So I chose something delivered by FedEx of DHL because I figured they could get it right, especially if I chose to have the flowers delivered to the hospital.

Thursday, no flowers.
Friday no flowers.

Many calls and listening to dumb hold music while I talk with 5 different reception desks at the hospital and DHL. Come to find out, the flowers were in a box, and the box got delivered to the shipping dock and were sitting down in the mail room in the basement.

And I paid how much??? $69.95 exactly, for an azalea plant.

Hopefully the guy from the mail room brought it up to the reception and my aunt was able to pick it up.

I spent about 20 minutes waiting to talk to someone at FTD tonight (good thing for unlimited calls to the States with Free), and then I complained about how disappointed I was with the service. I went on and on about how my mother would probably have never received the flowers and left the hospital before anyone tried to deliver the box if I had called all around and tracked them down. The sales woman's defense: "Oh, but you chose azaleas! Those are really hardy!" And then the ultimate: "Well, on the website, it says they'll be delivered by FedEx of DHL."

But does it say they'll be stuck in the basement for a day while someone gets around to delivering the packages?

FTD has a satisfaction guaranteed policy, so I think I'll say that the plant didn't do well in shipping. I'm sure it did, but for that price, I want my mom to have a second one. I wanted her to have the flowers when she came out of surgery, but now she'll have them for the car ride home (my aunt was able to pick up the plant this afternoon).

I'm using ProFlowers next time, or looking up the address of a local florist I know. The florist charges extra to deliver, but the last time I was there they made me a gorgeous bouquet.

Boo on FTD.

Good thing tomorrow B and I are going to visit a friend of my parents who has a summer home near Figeac. Apparently it's rather spartan, as they usually just spend the summer there when it's hot. I heard that when they bought it, to go upstairs, you had to go outside! It'll be great to go on a little adventure.