Ordered flowers but got wrong item?

[Jean-F]

I guess that 99% of florists are okay, but there’ll always be one who’ll chance their arm.
My son lives in Germany, and when his father-in-law died we said that we’d send flowers.
My kid said that most of the family over there were using X Blumen, I could nominate them with Interflora, or contact them directly, they spoke good English in the shop.
I ordered them direct from the florist online and a few weeks later asked my daughter-in-law if they were okay.
She said that there was nothing from us.
I emailed the florist, and they said that there’d been a failure in communication among staff, and they reimbursed me.
But I was left with the thought that someone said, “This geezer ain’t coming over from U.K. for the funeral, forget the flowers, let’s stick his dough.”

 

[Brizzles]

Large.

Science applied =

Using the Rose as the common denominator in the 2 photos, i've scaled both images to size

Overlayed at 50% opacity, you can see the volume of flowers is near the same ;

And at full overlay ;

Conclusions from my tests ;

1 ) The bouquets are of very similar size - Large
2 ) I have too much time on my hands
3 ) I cant believe i actually did this

 

[Surveyor]

Do I have grounds to dispute this via my credit card company? As their support are not agreeing that what I got is wrong.

You don't seem to have spent over £100 to give you credit card protection.

Pursue through consumer credit act for default of your order.

See above.

He may need to take matters into his own hands. It's a long shot but do you have a letter before action template?

 

[G-MAN2004]

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/

Get in touch with Citizens Advice. You can't let them get away with this.

 

[FoxEye]

What are the big floofy pink things? The ones to the left of the small white pin-cushion whatsits? They're not roses?

 

[Thekwango]

There are trainers in my flowers. Profit?

My trainers are flowers. Winning!!

 

[Semple]

What's with the the AIBU thread, this isn't Mumsnet is it?

This place turned into mumsnet years ago.

 

[GreatAuk]

Large.

Science applied =

...

Using the Rose as the common denominator in the 2 photos, i've scaled both images to size

Overlayed at 50% opacity, you can see the volume of flowers is near the same ;

...

And at full overlay ;

...

Conclusions from my tests ;

1 ) The bouquets are of very similar size - Large
2 ) I have too much time on my hands
3 ) I cant believe i actually did this

Well done for doing that lol! My first thought was that there wasn't much difference between the small and luxury bouquets, and you've proved it! Subjectively the picture of the luxury one did make it look a bit more 'full', along with more roses.

I would say the bouquet that arrived looks less 'full' even than the small one pictured, so tbh if I had the energy and inclination then I think I would be asking for money back too tbh.

As pointed out the flower delivery business is probably one where you can get away with short-changing customers a bit because it's hard to objectively say whether a bouquet matches the description, and being non-functional gifts buyers might have a bit less of a critical eye, as well as the possibility that many buyers will never see what actually turned up.

I would love to see this get taken all the way to court so lawyers can argue whether the bouquet is more similar to the small or luxury one pictured .

edit: completely misunderstood what you were comparing, which was the received bouquet to the luxury picture from the website, but as I don't have the energy to compare that small and luxury bouquets which is what I wanted done, I shan't be investigating any further

 

[Haggisman]

Large.

Science applied =

Using the Rose as the common denominator in the 2 photos, i've scaled both images to size

Overlayed at 50% opacity, you can see the volume of flowers is near the same ;

And at full overlay ;

Conclusions from my tests ;

1 ) The bouquets are of very similar size - Large
2 ) I have too much time on my hands
3 ) I cant believe i actually did this

Same total volume maybe, but the advertised bouquet looks ~90% flower, 10% green. OP's bouquet looks more like 50/50

 

[FoxEye]

Same total volume maybe, but the advertised bouquet looks ~90% flower, 10% green. OP's bouquet looks more like 50/50

It's December. Winter isn't really the season for flowering plants.

 

[thenewoc]

What are the big floofy pink things? The ones to the left of the small white pin-cushion whatsits? They're not roses?

Carnations

 

[sneakysnail]

It's December. Winter isn't really the season for flowering plants.

Yup. As someone who works as a plant buyer for an online retailer I honestly think most people / customers have any idea how hard it is to deliver a consistent product year round. Unless you're buying a manufactured product online you really should have it in mind that what you receive wont look exactly like pictured.

This bunch of flowers for example, it's impossible to deliver them exactly as pictured each time. The layout, size of flowers, availability of flowers will change. If you're going to be super picky buy in person is my advice. The images you see online for products like this are a general guide.

I dont deal with cut flowers (live trees & plants) and it's very tricky to temper customer expectations. When your product grows, changes colour, sheds parts of it self and doesn't have a set shape you need people to realise that you cant guarantee consistency.

One customer will complain that a tree doesn't have enough low branches, one will complain that it has too many etc. They wanted single stem but got multistem, why is it 5cm under the advertised height? this tree is 1 ft too tall etc etc. Hell some people buy 4 or 5 trees and complain when they dont all look identical....

Honestly people if you have something specific in mind buy in person. Online retailers aren't mind readers and creating a webpage with all the details that effect your buying decision puts customers off as it then becomes too technical.

They could list every available flower which is in stock and ask you to select in what location of the bouquet you want it too be so you're building your own bouquet. They could then deliver exactly what you want but they would sell fewer than if they have a standard page like this.

Because the customer doesn't know how to build a bouquet and which flowers will look good at what time of the year. Your relying on their experience and knowledge. Businesses generally dont try to rip their customers off, especially in competitive markets. But some things are subjective. If you're picky or want something specific buy in person.

rant over.

 

[RoboCod]

Plants, serious business.

 

[Haggisman]

It's December. Winter isn't really the season for flowering plants.

Exactly, so why they are selling this particular bouquet at this time of year if its undeliverable.

It's also not the season for strawberries, which is why when I go to my local supermarket there are no fresh strawberries (rather than a punnet of apples with half a tin of strawberry jam mixed in but still advertised as fresh strawberries)

 

[Scrutinize]

@erazor51

Try a different approach.

Phone or pop in to a local florist. Show them the photos. See what they would value or charge for what you recieved.

 

[Energize]

See above.

He may need to take matters into his own hands. It's a long shot but do you have a letter before action template?

Did OP pay by VISA? They have their own chargeback scheme which doesn't have the £100 limit.

Using the Rose as the common denominator in the 2 photos, i've scaled both images to size

Overlayed at 50% opacity, you can see the volume of flowers is near the same ;

Also look at the size of the vase, using the wooden table as a reference it appears to be the same size, that's why I thought the pictures were the same at first!

 

[lsg1r]

While I was expecting the usual 'replace due to time of year' comment they haven't exactly explained why you're missing 2 roses. Based on the OP's images the main difference between normal and luxury are the number of roses.

Essentially if they can put 2 roses in they should be able to 4 roses in.... it's funny how what is likely the most expensive flower in the bouquet is the one that is missing.

 

[Surveyor]

Did OP pay by VISA? They have their own chargeback scheme which doesn't have the £100 limit.

Which is nothing to do with the Consumer Credit Act. We only know he paid by credit card.

 

[erazor51]

Paid via a Visa Credit Card.

I reached out to them in regards to the missing roses and what was substituted but they still give me this canned response.

“We do allow for a degree of substitutions for the arrangements we offer on our website, as long as the bouquet retains the key stems and the advertised colour scheme.

However, the item you have chosen is one of our florist choice bouquets in the advertised colour scheme. The image on the website is for illustration purposes only, reading:

"Our florists may substitute flowers and sundries for a suitable alternative, similar in style, quality and value depending on availability"

That being said, we would expect the flowers received to fit this description and be of good quality. On this occasion I can see that our florist has followed our policy.”

 

[GreatAuk]

Would be interesting if they could give a break down of the value of the flowers you received and compare that to a break down of the value of flowers pictured in their description, and what substitutions were made for your bouquet.

I completely agree with them that it's reasonable to substitute different flowers as the seasons change and availability changes etc. However if they've going to do that then they should be a bit more transparent about how they advertise the bouquet imo - instead of just one picture, how about 10 different pictures showing different styles of bouquet that you might receive to give you an idea of how variable the product might be, rather than just one picture. Or be able to send you a bit more detail about the value of different flowers etc when you asked, rather than just giving a stock response.