lduncan,

You are always better off using a florist, even if you have a bad experience, at least it's a personal bad experience. FTD doesn't really know who you are or what you want, they are only a broker of flowers and only in it for the $$. The florist will always treat you better!

Iduncan,

around 1 1/2 week ago I ordered folwers for a friend trough FTD. They never bloomed, I filed a complaint and they would investigate! It's more than a week now since their so called investigation and I haven't heared back from them! Does FTD stand for F*** The Dummies?

I ordered some flowers from FTD on-line -for the family of a dead friend.  A big add said ONLY $XX.00.  Last screen -the VERY LAST EFFING screen threw a $12.00 extra charge and ever since, I've had to delete one more spam from these A-Holes.

So my friend from work just ordered flowers for her mom for Mother's Day.  FTD messed up the order (or the florist that is used by FTD) and did not put the apartment number on the order.  SO, on Mother's Day, the order didn't arrive. When my friend called to check why the order hadn't been delivered FTD said they would deliver them on Monday, but they would be a different kind of bouquet.  Fine. Well they weren't delivered on Monday either.  The apartment number was again not added to the order.  They only offered her 40% off of the flowers.  She is trying to mend her relationship with her mother and this is devastating.  It sure didn't help the situation.  I know that FTD is ONLY a WIRING service, however they take the chance of having membered florists not be so reliable.  FTD is the one offering the service to the customers ordering. THIS IS WHY THEY SHOULD TAKE IT UP WITH THE ACTUAL FLORIST to get any money back or resolve a complaint.  Not refer the customer to the florist to get a refund.  FTD is offering a flower delivery service. They need to be sure the flowers are delivered when they say they will be delivered.  They have a 100% guarantee. They need to live up to that.   Not a 100% guarantee to whatever we feel like doing...and nothing more.  It really is the one offering the services responsibility to fix the problem. If a caterer uses a vendor to provide a certain food.  It is the caterers responsibility to know if it tastes good before offering to a customer, right? So FTD should up it's standards with which florists they use.   I think that they should give my friend a FULL refund, deliver a new set of flowers WITH an apology for the customer service and give her a coupon for use on a bouquet in the future.  If they want the money back from the florist, then they should fight that fight...NOT THE CUSTOMER!

All florist as in all business, they are in it for the money. Reading about how FTD rips off florists, FTD charges an amount of money for the arrangement plus a service fee. The service fee goes to FTD the rest of it goes to the florist. i can not see how this is ripping off florists. I have ordered many flowers from FTD and because I am able to read I have had no problem using their service and will continue to do so in the future. If you look up FTD on the BBB you will notice that anything that they have been submitted for the BBB has found in favor of FTD. There is obviously a reason why they have been around since the 1910.

I am a florist that has been in the industry for over 18 years and now have my own store.  The sad truth is that most people are now ordering so many flowers online instead of through a "real florist".  Instead it is easier to go to what we refer to as "order gathering companies."  FTD was designed as a resource for florists to use where we could join (an organization) to give us accessability to other florists to help get orders where they need to go.  Instead they decided to take the orders themselves and then the florists have to pay them a percentage to get the orders.  So really we're all getting screwed.  That is of course except for FTD, Teleflora and 1800 FLOWERS, (which is the abosolute worst.)  Your best bet is to look up a florist online and call them directly.  We can tell you exactly what we have, what we can get, and offer other options.  It is also cheaper because "order gathering" companies also charge high service fees that lead you to believe it is the delivery charge when in reality the delivery charge is figured into the price on the website.  These websites are great to see what an arrangment may look like or to give you ideas.  Write down the item number of what you like and then call a florist directly and we can also look up that item number.   I hope your next experience is a better one.  Good luck.

Hey, I am also a rep at an FTD Call center (however, due to some papers we had to sign saying we wouldnt do this, I had to leave the location out). I have been there for a while and at first it wasnt bad really and truly. What happened was a guy by the name of Michael Dorion came to power as the companies VP of operations and since then the company has gone to hell in a handbasket. Its all about the number and great lengths have been taken to ensure customer service is slowly disappearing. The requirement for a representative at this point in time is to have (by the end of the month) an average call time when taking an order of 7 minutes or less. This really isnt that hard considering the information needed. What sucks is that the same requirement when dealing with customer service issues is 5 minutes and 15 seconds. Pretty stupid huh? To anyone who orders from FTD.com, I agree with the girl Melissa, just ask for a supervisor right off, it’ll help you AND the rep better, cause if the rep is trying to help you as best as they can, and have to check with supervisors and such to get permission to do certain things they will help you but they get in trouble for taking too long. When you ask for the supervisor, they can send you over to the person in charge who has more rights to anything and everything more than the rep does, and it wont hurt thier times either so everyone wins (you can get more out of a supervisor is the point im making in the case of the consumer) To respond about the FTD in California, here is something I know that the girl may not have. The Arkansas center and the Oregon center have a program FTD runs called “Flowers All Hours” which they provide an answering service for the florist. Also keep in mind when florists are part of FTD (and Teleflora’s) services, they most of the time have some sort of designation that they are a part of that. If you combine the fact that is all they show, then you get this answering machine (which is suppose to act like they are from the shop’s location, ie Sacramento, California, etc) that might do it too as far as sounding like tey are in a call center in california. For those who feel a little more malicious when you have to deal with us, get the supervisors name (first and last, if you can) thier emails are all the same format and you can bug them all you want, for example if the persons name is John Smith, then the email is jsmith@ftdi.com, just use the first initial and last name. It would be so much fun for all of our supervisors to get harassing emails from spoofed emails and stuff, make our IT work on something for a change (laughing). Hope this helps guys!

I OWN A FLORIST IN SAINT LOUIS AND FIRED FTD THE DAY AFTER VALENTINES DAY 2007.

THEIR COMPUTER SYSTEM CRASHED 4DAYS PRIOR TO VALENTINES DAY AND THEY NEVER GOT IT FIXED UNTIL VALENTINES DAY MORNING.  IT COST MY COMPANY OVER $85,000.00 NEEDLESS TO SAY WE ARE HEADED TO COURT REAL SOON.

CALL THE LOCAL FLORIST. AND SAVE YOURSELF A LOT OF TIME AND MONEY.  TRUST ME YOU PAY DEARLY FOR THEIR SERVICE.STL

After horrible experiences with FTD (flowers sent to my mother on mother's day arrived dead) I resolved to only use local florists in the future. When I went to my hometown florist's web site I noticed they are a member of the Teleflora network. I also found out the fabulous florist who did my wedding is also a member. Teleflora uses only local florists (they have members in every state) and in most instances will get your order delivered the very day you request it. If you don't know a local florist you can place an order at Teleflora.com and they will contact the florist. All flowers are delivered in vases, no boxes (the worst!) I have not been disappointed since.