My husband and mother-in-law share a birthday, and of course our lives being what they are–some years we forget to order the “really nice” flowers and have to resort to a last minute option. This year we tried to use 1-800-flowers.

I went online and ordered a half-decent bouquet of flowers and purchased them using my paypal account. I feel pretty confident with this type of transaction, because I use paypal pro as my credit card processing system for all my websites.

I find out about an hour after ordering that my mother-in-law went to Atlantic City for her birthday, so I needed to cancel. This is where customer service is crucial, but fell flat…

Problem #1 – I called an 800 number, spoke with a nice man, and he told me to call back because the order wasn’t in the system yet. (This was an hour after the order)
Problem #2 – I call again and cancel my order, but they have no system in place for issuing you a transaction # or id to confirm that you indeed canceled. (So all the next day, I’m worried that the flowers will still be delivered to an empty house.)

Problem #3 – I don’t receive a confirmation of the cancellation via email nor do I receive a confirmation of the flowers perhaps being delivered. So I assume that they were not delivered and my order was indeed canceled.

Problem #4 – I notice 2 days later that there is no credit to my paypal account. And once again I haven’t received anything saying that it is being processed. So I write an email to customer service.

Problem #5 – No email response on day 3.

Problem #6 – On day 4 I call customer service after several attempts to navigate my way through the automated customer service line and finally speak to a pleasant young lady named Ashley. But while pleasant, she has to put me on hold a total of 3 times to speak with the person who really knows something about “cancellations”.

Problem #7 – The whole holding on the line thing was annoying, but she came back with a final reply that paypal credits take several days to process (I canceled on July 30 and this is August 2nd), and that it may take about 2 to 3 more days (about 7 days). But that it will be processed. I asked for some sort of confirmation of that – and she couldn’t give me one.

Problem #8 – After that I asked for a manager and I was put on hold for 15 minutes. I knew what they were doing – making me sweat it out – so I tried to hold on as long as I could. But the kids were calling:) So I had to jump ship.

Bottom Line — I received horrible customer service from a company that is suppose to be quite reputable in it’s market. I’ve had better customer service from internet marketers! And I’ve received returns to my paypal account in 24 hours by other merchants. OR if they were going to be slow about processing my transaction, they could have been a lot more communicative during the whole thing.

So while I do not like to invest a lot of energy into matters such as this – I do believe that it is my DUTY:) to tell everyone I know to avoid using this company.

The key to building buzz for your business is to not just provide a great product, but to also be just as fantastic if someone decides that they want to return it.

I have returned several things that were not “for me”, but because I was treated amazingly during the return process – I not only bought from them again but I recommend these companies/owners passionately to others.

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Lisa Angelettie

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I make a living writing, ePublishing, and marketing books and teaching others how to do the same. I have one mission: To turn you into the best writer that you can be while enjoying every minute of it!

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