Walmart Ruins Valentines Day

[Ian]

Every year I order my wife roses for Valentines Day. I usually go with whatever place has the best deal. This year I went with Walmart.com. I've ordered from them in the past and have had no problems.

This year, they totally dropped the ball. This afternoon I got an email saying that "Due to severe weather in the Midwest region of the U.S., your order scheduled for delivery on February 14 has been delayed."

As many of you know, I live in Wisconsin which is in the Midwest. We had snow a few days ago but things are pretty normal right now, at least for mid-February. Looking at Weather.com, there aren't any storms between here and Florida (where the flowers shipped from) either.

Needless to say, I'm pretty pissed at Walmart and DHL, the shipper that Walmart used. I've already sent them a nasty email and it hasn't made me feel much better.

[Ian]

Still no flowers. Why am I expecting them to show up and be all wilted?

[LoneWolf]

It really sucks, Ian (I'm betting WalMart contracted someone who fell down on the deal, making it a bigger pain yet). I had a similar horrible issue with 1-800-Flowers.com last year, along with quite a few other people (it was posted in a deals forum)

It appears that for some deals, 1-800-Flowers uses a local florist, but with larger, less complex deals (no special bouquets, the standard dozen-of-these-type that-we-offer-a-special-package-deal-for) ship via carrier. UPS apparently left a jet on the tarmac for several hours at O'Hare during sub-30F temperatures last year, and most of us found our SO got flowers with curled, brown edges. It didn't help that both their website and phone lines were so saturated that I couldn't get through to them until 48 hours later.

I called them up, they refunded my money, and sent me a $15 coupon. At least they made it right, but on a holiday like Valentine's Day, it's hard to substitute customer satisfaction when you fail the first time. They offered to resend the bouquet, but I told them politely they had missed their chance. Their actions seemed inconsistent too, since some people who complained got wildly extravegant bouquets delivered to their SO (some double to triple the price of their original order) at no extra cost.

It taught me that from now on, I'll call a local florist in the area where my wife works, where it's a source of personal pride to get it right, where there is no long-distance shipping of product-to-customer, and where mistakes can be fixed quickly (a local florist missed V-Day for a gf ten years back, and to apologize, they delivered the original bouquet plus an extra, plus a note of apology that they were the ones at fault, and that I truly HAD ordered her flowers scheduled for Valentine's Day).

This year I got my wife tickets to Blue Man Group instead.

[aviationwiz]

Yeah, it sucks, but what were you doing ordering from WalMart to begin with!?

[Ian]

Yeah, it sucks, but what were you doing ordering from WalMart to begin with!?

I've ordered from them in the past without any problems.

The flowers finally showed up today. They weren't exactly fresh looking either so Walmart will be getting a phone call from me.

[aviationwiz]

I mean their business practices!

[Ian]

Bah.. I'm not one of those Walmart haters.

[Wesociety]

If you have a Target in your area, they offer great inexpensive deals on roses around Valentines day (in store).
Check it out next time! (or if Walmart screws up again)

[martini]

Still no flowers. Why am I expecting them to show up and be all wilted?

that sucks. that should've been an earful...