Sending my friends dead flowers
By Boingboing
@boiboing (13153)
Northampton, England
January 6, 2016 4:52pm CST
A week before Christmas I wrote about how pleased I was to have found a company who was promising to deliver baskets of flowering bulbs with 'pre-Christmas' delivery. Sadly they let me down horribly.
All three of the gifts were 'surprises'. In the end it was me who got surprised by two of them not arriving. Sadly the only one that did turn up was received by my friend's husband who had no idea who sent it. She was already in hospital and died a few days later without ever seeing it.
The other two simply didn't appear. I was in a difficult position. Should I ask my friends if they received anything and make it look like I was hinting for a 'thank you'? I felt uncomfortable to do it but knew it would be even worse if they turned up a few days after Christmas in terrible condition so I had to ask. Neither had received anything.
After Christmas I contacted the company and said I was looking for an apology and a refund. When it became clear that they couldn't tell me when or if the deliveries would be made, I upped my request to an apology, a refund and a replacement. They agreed and said they'd send new deliveries in January.
Today one of the friends received a parcel. It was two weeks late and the narcissus were completely destroyed by having sat around in somebody's warehouse since before Christmas. I was worried that it wasn't clear if this was the original order or - I hoped not - the replacement. She let me know what the message said and it was clear it was the missing order. My other friend still has nothing.
So this company which I had always highly respected messed up by not delivering on time and then again by finally delivering dead flowers two weeks late. I'm horribly embarrassed by the whole silly mess. And my attempt to send a nice Christmas surprise totally backfired.
Never again.
I'm in Holland this weekend and it suddenly hit me that there are a few people's presents that I hadn't arranged and wouldn't be able to fix if I waited until I...
12 people like this
11 responses
@silvermist (19702)
• India
7 Jan 16
@boiboing I am sorry your wish for giving surprise turned out to be disappointing and embarrassing.
@silvermist (19702)
• India
7 Jan 16
@boiboing Yes,I do hope that.at least the replacement orders are nice.
@buttheadface932 (708)
• United States
7 Jan 16
Oh wow, I am sorry the company was so incompetent. But look on the bright side, you could always take the lovely bouquet and dry it out by hanging it upside down. Dried flowers have a very delicate, nostalgic look to my eyes.