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Thursday, February 12, 2009

Sending Flowers for Valentine's Day?

One of my biggest pet peeves in life are scammers. People or companies that promise or intentionally mislead consumers into believing they are going to receive a product of a certain quality for a specified price only to pull the rug out from them at the last minute or too late. This MSNBC.com article about where to buy flowers online points out just such a phenomenon. You can decide for yourself is this is capitalism at work? Or less then desirable business practices.

For the record? I always prefer purchasing from owner operated, local, small businesses. So if you're sending flowers why not order from your local florist? If you don't know who to contact you can always ask around for recommendations to a reputable company.

If you don't read the article about purchasing online flowers here's a tip: The company described as most ethical in the article was 1800Flowers.com because their charges (with tax) were openly disclosed on the dozen roses one might send to their sweetheart on Valentine's Day.

But don't take my word on this. Read the article and decide for yourself: ONLINE FLOWER PRICES GROW AS YOU GO

2 Click Here to Comment:

victoria said...

Wow usually I have luck with Proflowers quality and prices, but I just pretended to buy flowers and something that was $30 ended up being $45. I don't like 1800Flowers though, my friend's flowers arrived wilted and it was hard to get a refund. And then when my friend sent me flowers through them, they died within 2 days and didn't look that great when I got them.

Tinygami said...

Thanks for that Victoria! You'd think it would be harder for companies to get away with stuff like this what with digital cameras and email and all.

Last year I know someone who tried to send a balloon bouquet by ordering online in the same manner. It was a total bait and switch.

The one on the website was super cute, pink, red, lavender with red ribbon. The one that arrived was yellow, green blue and red with black ribbons. Basically less attractive balloon, less attractive ribbon and fewer balloons then in the photo that were already sinking to the floor when it was delivered with ribbons tangled up.

Because of digital cameras and email they were able to see what was sent and immediately, disputed the quality, told the company to pick them up, canceled the order and got their money back.