Tuesday, February 15, 2011

FTD = Fail to Deliver

How's that saying go...No good deed goes unpunished? Ah yes, that is it.

Last week Groupon was offering what seemed like a great deal - $20 for $40 at FTD.com. Although I could care less about receiving flowers on Valentine's Day I thought it would be a nice gesture to send The Soldier's girlfriend an arrangement since he's away at boot camp.

I should have seen the writing on the wall last week when I tried to place the order but I didn't. I went through all the steps to have my order delivered yesterday only to find that you HAD to go through the Groupon link in order to use the code they provided. Once I did that all my information was lost AND even worse all the prices were a bit higher.

Um, what?!

Read the details...cannot combine promotions, etc. Okay so I can't get the sale price because of the Groupon. Kinda seems like I didn't need it to begin with but I continue with the order. I re-enter all my information. Hit submit and received a confirmation.

I didn't give it another thought until yesterday evening. I was expecting the gf to be gushing about what a wonderful surprise she received from The Soldier. When that didn't happen I sent her a text. What delivery? she says.

What delivery indeed. The short version is that they were never delivered. FTD failed to deliver. And calling them was a complete, utter nightmare. It's apparent that the call center is based somewhere other than the US. After having to repeat myself numerous times to their so-called customer service rep, all I got was "Sorry. We will deliver tomorrow."

Yes but tomorrow isn't Valentine's Day. Duh.

I was on the phone for over an hour last night & another 45 minutes today (mostly spent on hold) to find out nothing. Also evident from what I was told both times is that these reps read from a script. They have no desire to really help the customers they speak with.

Somewhere along the way I asked for the local florists number and finally got this issue resolved. Not only did the florist give me a refund but they still sent the arrangement to The Soldier's girlfriend. (She just texted to say she got them!)

It's disappointing that a large establishment like FTD.com doesn't care enough about their customers to fulfill their end of a transaction and when a problem occurs, they do not care enough correct it.

On a brighter note when I called Groupon to express my frustrations my call was immediately answered by a nice man in Chicago. He didn't handle me like a number, but conversed with me like a customer. He may have said the same apologies as FTD but sometimes it's more about the delivery than the words.

Literally.



5 comments:

Shannon said...

What a bummer!

But glad it was resolved in the end.

Heather said...

How kind of you to think of her. When I was dating a soldier back in high school, his mom was a total beeyatch who never gave me a second thought, though we had been dating for YEARS before he joined the Army. I am sure she will appreciate this more than you can know, whether or not FTD sucked it up or not.

I have only done one transaction on Groupon, and it worked out fine, but I admit to being nervous about it. Sometimes if it seems too good to be true, it is.

The Royal Family 2 said...

I hope FTD comes around and then you're double happy. :) Mental note do NOT use them EVER. Thanks...

p.s. that's super sweet of you!

Angie's Spot said...

You are such an awesome mom to think of the gf and try to do something nice for her! Sorry that FTD had an epic fail, but at least Groupon and the florist did try to make it right. Some redemption makes that pill a bit easier to swallow.

Veronica said...

Oh, I would have been so angry too! What a complete hassle. Glad to hear that Groupon handled things well though and that The Soldier's girlfriend enjoyed her flowers!