Florist Complaint
Ok so first of all I just want to warn everyone not to use iFlorist Flowers. They are often advertised on Amazon Local and such-like, and I used them for a Mother's Day order earlier this year. Please don't bother if you're thinking of using them - use a trusted local florist instead.
My request for advice comes from my bad experiences with them. I placed my order for Mother's Day which was due to be delivered on the Saturday (the day before Mother's Day). To cut a long story short, they didn't deliver until the Monday (only because I complained several times about the no-show delivery) and the order was wrong when it arrived. The delivery man was also very rude to my parents.
I made several complaints by email, which were ignored. Eventually after a few more complaints I received a reply saying my complaint had been escalated and I'd receive a reply within 7 days. Guess what - I didn't. I emailed again and said I was going to put a complaint in writing by post to their Head Office. I never received a response to that.
My postal complaint was sent off about 4 weeks ago. Since then I've been totally side-tracked with various other personal problems and have only just had chance to get back on top of this.
I haven't received a reply of course, and I've never received any further emails from them. In my postal complaint letter I included copies of all correspondence (mainly emails I had sent with no replies, and their promise that I'd receive a reply within 7 days). I pointed out their 'policy' on their website which promises refunds for any late deliveries, and their satisfaction guarantee and promise to sort out problems ASAP blah blah blah.
Part of me is so frustrated I've been spending so much time on this, but I was SO hacked off about the situation at the time. I was unable to see my Mum on Mother's Day as I live over the other side of the country hence why I used a national supplier. We had both been ill (she had just had an operation) so the flowers, which were supposed to come with chocolates and fizz, were actually quite an important gift to say I was thinking of her.
My question is: what do I do now? I've sent a written letter by post addressed to Head Office, and various emails. Do I just have to keep on writing to them and receiving no reply? Is there something logical I should be doing next?
My request for advice comes from my bad experiences with them. I placed my order for Mother's Day which was due to be delivered on the Saturday (the day before Mother's Day). To cut a long story short, they didn't deliver until the Monday (only because I complained several times about the no-show delivery) and the order was wrong when it arrived. The delivery man was also very rude to my parents.
I made several complaints by email, which were ignored. Eventually after a few more complaints I received a reply saying my complaint had been escalated and I'd receive a reply within 7 days. Guess what - I didn't. I emailed again and said I was going to put a complaint in writing by post to their Head Office. I never received a response to that.
My postal complaint was sent off about 4 weeks ago. Since then I've been totally side-tracked with various other personal problems and have only just had chance to get back on top of this.
I haven't received a reply of course, and I've never received any further emails from them. In my postal complaint letter I included copies of all correspondence (mainly emails I had sent with no replies, and their promise that I'd receive a reply within 7 days). I pointed out their 'policy' on their website which promises refunds for any late deliveries, and their satisfaction guarantee and promise to sort out problems ASAP blah blah blah.
Part of me is so frustrated I've been spending so much time on this, but I was SO hacked off about the situation at the time. I was unable to see my Mum on Mother's Day as I live over the other side of the country hence why I used a national supplier. We had both been ill (she had just had an operation) so the flowers, which were supposed to come with chocolates and fizz, were actually quite an important gift to say I was thinking of her.
My question is: what do I do now? I've sent a written letter by post addressed to Head Office, and various emails. Do I just have to keep on writing to them and receiving no reply? Is there something logical I should be doing next?
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Comments
No, it was just my debit card unfortunately. I think with a credit card you get additional protection but I try and avoid using it for smaller purchases. Maybe I should enforce that rule though (just need to get better at remembering to pay it off!).
https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome
Yes sorry I got confused - we have just placed a work order with Serenata and I accidentally typed this in my first post as it was on my mind! I meant iFlorist, that's why I corrected it.
Thank you for this advice. I have just had a look and I would need to pay a fee of £25 to make a claim which may not be recovered, so before I do this I will read through the website a bit more thoroughly. My order cost me around £40 so I don't want to lose another £25!
To be honest, it's not that I desperately want the money back - I just want them to acknowledge my complaints and their errors, apologise and offer some kind of reimbursement even if it's not a full refund.
Your desired outcome (acknowledgment and apology) isn’t likely to happen, if the company’s past form is anything to go by. Small claims court is possible, the liklihood is they won’t even turn up to court so you win by default, but for £40 you have to ask yourself, is it worth it?
Some other tactics – find out who the company director(s) are, and send correspondence directly to them, either via email or registered post to their head office. Do they have a facebook or twitter account you could try to talk to them through? If you raise a complaint on a public site many companies are keen to at least be *seen* to be doing something, so you might get an apology at the least.
Failing that, leaving truthful reviews on various review sites and warning people away from them is really the only recourse you have, and hope that others who have had similarly poor experiences do the same. At least then you’ll be doing all you can to prevent such a situation happening to other unsuspecting people.
You mustn't write this type of instruction. You can get yourself and Digitalspy into big trouble if the company decides to sue. I recommend you delete that sentence..
Of course you can report provable, indisputable facts, such as "I placed order on xxx date and it failed to arrive until yyyy".
But you must realise that problems occur with mail order. It might not be the fault of the company taking the payment. It could be the delivery driver's fault or it could be that the recipient failed to answer the door within 1 minute.
If you want a refund, write (recorded delivery) to the company, ask for the refund and state your reasons.
If you don't want a refund then drop it; don't pursue it; it's an energy sink and it will drag you down. Forget about it. Move on. No business is going to bother to send you an apology.
It's an opinion. He/she is entitled to say what they like, and if it's warning others of a shoddy company, what's the issue?
You think bbcs watchdogs gets in trouble for telling you to steer clear of companies?
Maybe you work for iflorist.
Steer clear everyone, terrible company.
Oops, hope I don't get sued for my opinions!!
Nonsense
Every single time a company or organisation has sent a letter to me threatening to "sue", they have *never* once followed through with it.
This is primarily because the last thing the majority of companies or organisations want to risk is for the courts to agree with the vocal consumer.
I'm not sure about your post as otherwise people would be sued left right and centre for stating their opinion. I'm pretty sure when writing anywhere you don't have to stick to proven facts and can voice your opinion, otherwise 90% of the internet wouldn't exist surely?!
It is the fault of the company I'm afraid. They are the ones who are responsible for my order and who provide and guarantee the product and service. My parents were in all weekend and they didn't deliver the order until two days after the date they promised it would be delivered, so it wasn't a case of someone not answering the door. The manner of the delivery man (i.e. rude as anything) isn't directly their fault but they're responsible for whoever they contract this out to.
I did write to the company and as part of my complaint asked for them to reimburse me. I didn't send it recorded delivery so I guess I could send it again but I'm sure they're probably just ignoring me.
Kind of makes you lose faith in the good customer service of the world if you cannot expect any kind of acknowledgement/apology/gesture of good will when you've had terrible service.
Thanks for everyone's advice though. I think you're all mostly right; I have just found out some more bad news about other stuff and I am ill enough as it is to deal with any more rubbish.
2.9 - Potential Libel
Do not post libellous or defamatory comments.
I appreciate your distress.
You do understand that if a statement is true then it is neither defamatory nor libellous don't you?
They claimed never to have received my original written complaint, but they *had* refunded me. They also said they have sent out a bouquet as an apology (guess what, this hasn't arrived... but not sure I can complain about this!).
So it's worth persisting sometimes, I suppose!
considering the OP initially typed the wrong company name then it certainly was in it's original state.
they edited it later to to change the company being named.
by that time google may have already crawled the site and it could have been searchable.
oops - seems I'm a bit late in joining the party
most companies ignore twitter messages, as they use it only for posting about "special offers".
I have to say I've found the complete opposite - I complained to my local hospital about waiting times for surgery on twitter and received a call the next day offering me a choice of dates and hospital. Also complained to a well know shoe company about their rotten customer service and that got resolved very promptly.
I should mention, I don't make a habit of complaining, but on these two occassions where calling and writing did no good, social media was the way to go
I find this whole debate quite bizarre. People voice opinions on the internet all the time (probably a million times a day). I don't think they are sued for libel every time they say something is rubbish or below par. It's an opinion! Pretty sure you cannot be sued for stating your opinion.