Fear My Wrath!!! :)

I like to think that I'm a pretty good writer. Especially when it involves trying to convince someone or some place that they have wronged me or that I need to tell them something that they won't like to hear. For myself and for friends, I have written resignation letters, breaking lease letters, letters to explain why someone has hurt me, etc. And today, I had to write one of these letters. I have posted it below. But first let me give some background.

As you know, my grandmother is in the hospital. While she came through the surgery well, my parents are having a hard time getting her motivated to eat and walk and be active again. It is very frustrating for them and sad for me to hear. So after talking to them about it on Sunday night, Austin & I decided to go ahead and send something fun to my grandmother for Monday to brighten her day and get her excited. I normally use ProFlowers and have never had any problems - they actually now do same day delivery which I wish I had known at the time but didn't until today. I highly recommend their products and their customer service - they are always sending me e-mails about discounts or free vases or whatnot. I digress. This time, we decided to try FTD.com. One because I didn't know that ProFlowers could deliver the same day and I knew FTD had a network of florists it used to deliver its products. Two, I am just short about 300 miles to get our two tickets to Washington, DC for Jen's wedding (I could have my mom get one with her miles but they are busy and I feel bad), so I found out FTD.com does a deal with US Airways to earn miles. I picked out a cute balloon bouquet complete with teddy bear and felt that would work nicely to brighten my grandmother's day and would last longer than flowers or something like that. I filled everything out, got confirmation that I would receive 350 miles in a few weeks (bonus!), and was feeling good about the whole thing.

Until my conversation this morning with my dad! They didn't drop off the flowers until yesterday afternoon. And already this morning, not even 12 hours later, the balloons were deflated and on the hospital floor. That is not very encouraging and happy like I had wanted! That is not what I paid $45 for!!!!! I mean I knew it was pricey for what I was getting but they were preparing it and delivering it and I couldn't do it myself so I thought it would work. So I call up the 1-800 customer service line they have on their website and tell the girl my concern. She basically brushed me off, said she would call the florist that was used and ask them what the deal was, try to get them to send an apology bouquet at least, and that she would call me back. I heard nothing. Then I got an e-mail a few hours later saying that the florist said that I had ordered latex balloons and they didn't last very long and so they wouldn't do an apology bouquet and basically too bad, so sad. What?! I didn't specify what kind of balloons I wanted!!!! I didn't pay $45 for a crappy floor-ridden balloon bouquet. So now I was hacked, and I decided to use my words to tell them how I felt. I hope you all don't think I'm evil - but I was feeling feisty and irritated that I had gotten ripped off. So I let them know what I thought. And now I'm letting you all know too - and by the way, don't ever use FTD.com or FTD florists. Boo to them! ;)

"Dear FTD Customer Service:

I am writing to let you know how extremely dissatisfied I am with your service or at least the florist that you have chosen to use. I think that you may want to re-evaluate which connections you are using for people that are trying to get a good service from you all. I paid $45 for what I thought would be a nice balloon bouquet with a teddy bear for my 97 year old grandmother who is the hospital in Florida. I was extremely disappointed to find out that less than 12 hours from when they were delivered, my grandmother's balloons were wilted and lying on the hospital floor. That is definitely not the positive message I was trying to send to my grandmother. I think it is absolutely absurd that you all would offer a product for that price and that holds up for such a little amount of time. I was unaware at the time that by choosing that package (which apparently included latex balloons) that I was sacrificing the quality of my choice. I am embarrassed at the fact that my grandmother could only enjoy her bouquet for such a short period of time before it was ruined, and I do not have the money to pay for another one at the present time nor do I feel that I should have to.

In addition, I am very disappointed in the fact that when I tried to call and find out from you all what I could do about this, I was told that I would receive a return phone call immediately letting me know if this would be possible. Instead, I received an e-mail several hours later saying that you would be unable to fix the situation since latex balloons do not last long. Your website should post that information if that is the case so that the consumer could be warned and would not buy such a worthless product.

Lastly, suffice it to say that I will NEVER use FTD.com or any FTD florists. I was exteremly disappointed not only by the quality of the products but also by the insincerity of the customer service. I usually use another company and decided to give you all a try to receive some mileage credits, but I should have known better because not only did I not receive a good product that I have now wasted my money on, but I also will not receive credit on my mileage for 6-8 weeks which was not told to me until after the fact. I am very frustrated by this situation and felt that I should at least write and tell you so. I will not use your service again; I will not recommend your service to anyone; and I truly think you should re-evaluate how you do business if you want to keep good customers such as myself. Thank you for your time!

Sincerely,
Me (well I actually signed my name here but will keep it off of this blog for privacy!)