Thorny Dozen Reasons why BBB Complaints Increase About Florists

CHR

CHR

Design matters
Nov 28, 2002
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Are we the 7%?

Florist Complaints and the BBB

Data shows 93% of all complaints lodged to the BBB about 'florists' were made about just 12 companies, and they're all essentially 'online only'.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) recently released its Complaint Summaries for 2011 and the report revealed a total of 3072 complaints lodged by consumers against US businesses in the 'Florist-Retail' category. The business classification is ranked 54th in overall complaints for the year (up from the 90th spot in 2010.)

Based on numbers culled from BBB pages on 5/5/12, just 12 companies were responsible for 93% of those complaints. Here's the dozen (in descending order by complaint volume.)

FTD - 557 complaints, A+ rating
(also includes Florist.com)

Wesley Berry Flowers - 535 complaints, A+ rating
(also includes Flower Delivery Express, Flowers Nationwide & American Floral Delivery)

JustFlowers.com - 350 complaints, C+ rating
(also includes Flower.com and FlowerDelivery.com)

Teleflora - 330 complaints, B+ rating

From You Flowers - 274 complaints, B+ rating
(also includes FloristExpress.net)

ProFlowers - 225 complaints, F rating

1-800-Flowers - 198 complaints, A+ rating
(also includes Flowers.com)

Blooms Today - 197 complaints, B- rating

Avas Flowers - 101 complaints, F rating

GoFlorist.com - 25 complaints, F rating

FlowerShopping.com - 25 complaints, B rating

Flowers (Cambridge, MA) - 23 complaints, B rating
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I'm actually kinda impressed with the lower volume of complaints made against 1-800. Their sales volume is similar to FTDs yet they have only about 1/3 the complaint volume.

OTOH, WB is about even in complaint level with FTD, but they have much lower sales. Their new policy of keeping shoppers service charges when the flowers aren't delivered would seem to draw the attention of the BBB, yet they still keep an A+ rating. The BBB really has blown it on this one.

2840 complaints generated by 12 online businesses vs .232 complaints between the other 15,000 local US florists means we brick and mortar stores deserve to NOT be painted with the same brush.
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This is the kind of data the BBB needs to be sharing, instead of the scary press releases sent out at V Day.
 
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Yep, and the BBB is fully aware of Wesley's practices... they seem not to care, since he pays for the listing, and is backed by SAF and the Michigan Floral Association... sadly...
 
it WOULD NOT be a "honour" to wear the BBB crest of excellence......money talks, bullcrap walks with it's chest out!
Bullcrap Business Baloney Club
 
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What I read into this is a number of things

1) Just how unimportant a role the BBB plays in consumers lives in today's world. We were monitoring Facebook groups after the Valentines period and for a while there the traffic on Proflowers, FTD, 1-800 was steady and at very high levels. I would suspect that if one had kept count that the Facebook complaints for just that one holiday would have far surpassed the BBB complaints for the entire year. For most consumers the BBB is non-existent, particularly the younger generation, they go straight to social media. I suspect the BBB is going down the same path as the residential land line, who needs it with today's technology.

2) As much as they are hated by many on this board, the above numbers show one thing, the OG's take the brunt of consumer flack. Virtually every order complained about had to be fulfilled by someone, and lets face it in some cases the complaint probably related to quality or service provided by the actual fulfilling shop, yet the shop avoided any damage (at least from the BBB) to their reputation.

We still fly the BBB logo on our site, it's cheap and for some consumers its a rubber stamp of approval. I suspect in todays world that is the only thing that keeps them alive.
 
Doug you are so right. My parents drove a "Ford" and did that there whole life. We will always be Ford people. When I showed this to my daughter, "she shrugged her shoulders". The BBB means nothing to them and all the data they share. Us "boomers" still look at things like that, but to the younger ones, You're only as good as your last "google" testimonial..............
 
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The traffic on all the "big guys" Facebook pages is steady, but a dribble compared to Valentines Day. Appears to be the typical complaints that anyone in the flower business relieves after a floral holiday, late delivery, not what expected, and flowers drooping. The issue is not that they receive complaints, we all do, they simply receive more based on volume, the real issue will be how they handle the complaints and satisfy the customer.
 
Not one complaint in my store, unless you count the delivery that was instructed to be left, and was left in the wrong spot.

Interestingly, Teleflora turned off comments on their FB page on Thursday...
 
yeah, my lilies were junk this year. Had to replace 1 vase, and she was ecstatic that I was so happy to replace with no hassle. Had no other complaints, but I did have several accolades for "saving Mother's Day" when an OG canceled at the last minute.

Also, "interestingly" WB turned off comments too.

I will say that we didn't receive nearly as many phone attempts from WB, Bloomnot or the others. They must have found a new sucker in my town.
 
I'm on complaint #3
the first was a delivery that was suppose to be on thursday and my person put friday. Customer very upset because of Mom's health issues. We delivered asap and didn't charge anything. I'm still planning on sending an apology card, the woman was inconsolable and hung up on me.
#2 was a smashed sunflower - we sent a new arrangement
#3 was a complaint on my driver tailgating. It was my daughter. what can I say.
If that's as bad as it gets, I'm ok because I honestly wasn't happy with overall quality of product.
 
It always strikes me as foolish when anyone shuts down complaints on FB. Like most social media once you start censoring comments (with the exception of profanity, vulgarity, or privacy issues) I believe they leave themselves open for more criticism and backlash than in many cases the original complaints were generating. As a consumer myself I know that on occasion despite every ones best efforts things go wrong with a retail transaction, when they do, I like most people don't expect blood or someones first born, I just need to know the issue will be addressed and resolved. Watching the Facebook groups, Proflowers and 1-800 seem to do the best job out of the bunch in addressing complaints. Reading through their responses most seem genuine and that appear concerned about resolving the issue. I would suggest that they are handling social media in the correct way.

The unfortunate part of all of this is that in the end it tends to discourage the consumer from buying flowers, something that is not good for any of us.
 
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Doug Munro said:
It always strikes me as foolish when anyone shouts down complaints on FB. Like most social media once you start censoring comments (with the exception of profanity , vulgarity, or privacy issues) I believe you leave yourself open for more criticism and backlash than in many cases the original complaints were generating. As a consumer myself I know that on occasion despite every ones best efforts things go wrong with a retail transaction, when they do I like most people don't expect blood or someones first born, I just need to know the issue will be addressed and resolved. Watching the Facebook groups, Proflowers and 1-800 seem to do the best job out of the bunch in addressing complaints. Reading through their responses most seem genuine and that appear concerned about resolving the issue. I would suggest that they are handling social media in the correct way.

The unfortunate part of all of this is that in the end it tends to discourage the consumer from buying flowers, something that is not good for any of us.
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and with that said Doug,and I agree...social media has no business being in business, but, the very arseholes that "pretend" to be customers and recipients are truly just retail terrorists, and have no interest in your explanations or honesty!
Just had a case....sender didn't feel she got value...."no problem!"....called the recip,left name & number 2x, no reply, THEN, shop calls and says sender is very upset..."FIX IT".....no problem, "here's my toll free, have her call me we'll resolve this right away"!!...still no call, another message from sending shop, sender is furious..."fix it!!"...."fix what?", people are nuts, plain and simple, and the idiocity on the SM sites is right out of control...SHUT THEM DOWN!
By the way, sent Store #1, 2 orders.....last Thursday with no luck had to divert!
 
Mikey the Flower Guy said:
and with that said Doug,and I agree...social media has no business being in business, but, the very arseholes that "pretend" to be customers and recipients are truly just retail terrorists, and have no interest in your explanations or honesty!
Just had a case....sender didn't feel she got value...."no problem!"....called the recip,left name & number 2x, no reply, THEN, shop calls and says sender is very upset..."FIX IT".....no problem, "here's my toll free, have her call me we'll resolve this right away"!!...still no call, another message from sending shop, sender is furious..."fix it!!"...."fix what?", people are nuts, plain and simple, and the idiocity on the SM sites is right out of control...SHUT THEM DOWN!
By the way, sent Store #1, 2 orders.....last Thursday with no luck had to divert!
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Mikey,
Social Media (SM) is here to stay, that genie is out of the bottle. Yes it gets abused at times but every form of media in history has been abused to some extent, with the digital age it just happens at a quicker pace. In the old days, social media for the most part consisted of actual word of mouth, and many times a simple problem took on legendary proportions after it had been retold enough times, we used to call them urban myths.

Is the current system (Social Media) better or worse than the old one? I guess it depends on what side of the fence you are on, (if yous are FTD, TF, or WB, your probably not a raving fan of Sm today) none the less as a retailer you better adjust to it because it is here to stay in some form. Coincidentally today is the day Facebook goes public.
 
Thank you for compiling all the details. I think what one fails to realize is that as florists who do fulfill some of these orders probably many that are complained about are because of non-delivery. It irks me when they send you orders over the WS & don't even check your minimums so we get a charge for that and when we ask for more we get a charge for that and if it is canceled we get a charge for that. My msg fees alone for Valentines day was $615 just for FTD and they still have not shown up to talk me about it despite 4 phone calls to my rep. I think they should respect us because we post them and I think WS should respect it & not charge us for orders below our minimum. I am soon dropping FTD my last WS. I had a computer system to pay for and it just isn't worth being a member anymore.
 
The heart of the truth in this lies in the numbers. If you look at the huge jump in overall number of complaints, it's clear that this is NOT a fulfilling problem and the "blame" lies squarely where it's been planted ~ that of the online florists.

I understand that most of the complained about orders ultimately were fulfilled by florists ~ AS HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE CASE. So.....what changed? Why are there so many more complaints? Studies conclude that overall floral orders have not really increased, only the way in which they are placed. That begs for only one conclusion.
 
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NO, apparently we ARE NOT florists...."florists" are the ones that "they" chose to do stories and comparisons on, during high holiday time!...at least we know where all the talented florists have gone.....they seem to be everywhere...ONLINE of course!
 
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