Twitter is abuzz with angry complaints about FTD not delivering flowers to recipients on Mother’s Day. Apparently a number of Moms didn’t receive their FTD flowers even though the senders made the orders early in the week. Here are a few sample tweets about the FTD mishap:
“FTD.com still hasn’t delivered the flowers I ordered Wednesday to my mom in the hospital, and they still haven’t replied either. Grrrrr.”
“Firing off an angry letter to FTD. They are liars, use 1-800-Flowers or call an actual, real florist on the telephone.”
“Calling FTD…mothers day flowers that were not delivered….”
“FTD had two days to get RA’s mom her mothers day flowers and they FAILED. I am SO waiting this 15 minute hold time to rip someone a new one.”
“FTD resolution was terrible; solution to missed Mother’s day flowers;send flowers tomorrow & discount the service charge!”
We did a sentiment analysis of tweets about FTD’s brand using Twendz, which looks at the sentiments expressed about a brand or topic and measures how positive, neutral or negative the tweets are. According to Twendz, 63% of recent tweets about FTD are negative. And 83% of tweets that include “FTD” and “Mom” are negative.
There is also negative buzz on Twitter about 1800Flowers.com regarding issues with the delivery of flowers yesterday. But interestingly, when you do a search on Twitter, you will see that 1800Flowers’ Twitter account is trying to appease customers. It’s not a bad idea, considering the damage that angry tweets can do for a brand. Twendz reports that only 33% of tweets about 1800Flowers.com are negative. FTD has twice the number of negative tweets.
We’ve contacted both flower delivery services for comment but have not received a response.
We understand that FTD sent those customers who were impacted an email offering a discount on their order. Here’s the text of the email:
Please accept our sincere apologies. Despite our best efforts, due to exceptionally high seasonal demand with our member florists, we regret we were unable to fill your order as requested.
We very much appreciate your business and would like to offer you $10 dollars off your existing order to be delivered on or before Tuesday, May 12th.
We truly understand how important each order is to our customers, and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
This is a godsend – I forgot to get my mom ANYTHING – now I can send a link of this story and blame it on FTD. As long as I don’t leave a comment here to that effect. Whoops…
Hey looks like someone had some pizza on twitter, brb gonna write a blog post.
You are an idiot. This is not a story about Twitter. This is a story about how companies with bad customer service are f***ed by Web 3.0 technology, and how they will be forced to improve their customer service or die like the pigs they are.
Twitter didn’t need to be a part of this story… This is about FTD messing up, so why yet another post focusing on the Twitter aspect? I mean, I love Twitter too, but come on…
This is *so* an article about twitter.
If FTD screwed up on Mother’s Day and nobody Twittered about what a bad time they had, would we be here?
This is an article about how easy access to user-specific use experiences (Twitter, product reviews, blogs, whatever) is shaping how people are deciding how to spend their money.
twitter is awesome and i love it. this and half the tc articles on twitter are pretty pointless though. this one is just a cheap shot to prove a cheap point. this weblog is so intellectually ridiculous, it is really sad that other places covering the valley are even more stupid…
Hey, FTD has been doing this to me every Mother’s Day since I turned 18. Finally I have the evidence to clear my name.
If you are now almost 29 or somethingI think your mother just thinks you are too lame and clueeless to just stop using them and send a card or something she will use longer than 2 days.
Nuclear Family FAIL.
FTD’s response to the mother’s day screw up is the same response I got from 1-800-flowers Valentines day 2008. Fortunately I was able to get 1-800 flowers to credit back my bank account and have convinced hubby to go to Lowes and buy me a live plant from then on.
Yes! I thought this had happened last year as well. Looks like TC doesn’t remember either. Of course, since TC are not journalists, we aren’t going to read anything about how this could happen (”Amateur Hour Over At FTD?”), just that it did…recently.
YSCH [1] in full effect. The brands that are out there get a mix of love and hate one hash tag at a time it seems… and many don’t realize they are out there already.
[1] http://ventureb...comment-4273997
FTD/800-flowers delivers hundreds of thousands of arrangements. This is not that surprising.
actually they don’t deliver any flowers at all. both of those companies essentially operate as a 1800 number.
FTD and 1800 FLOWERS, like other order gatherers, charge from $11.99-$15.99 fees to hand your order off to a real florist and cross their fingers. The service was necessary 30 years ago when a long distance phone call cost you more than an FTD transfer fee and you had no way of finding a florist out of town –but now you can go online and find a florist yourself. Think about it and get the word out!!
This is a make believe story about twitter! what about the bad customer service at Techcrunch? they are trying to drown us on this twitter stuff.
What do we want? NO TWITTER! When do we want it? NOW!
You losers at techcrunch!
Jesus Miguel Franciso Pedro De Gustavo
Rock on man. You hit it.
Hey, the sun came up and we should all twitter about it. The sun set today, we should all twitter about it. I am going to go twitter about how much tech crunch should stop writing about twitter, maybe it will write a story about that.
Cool my neg 1800Flowers tweet made the screen shot. I ordered flowers for my mom and wife for Sat delivery and they didn’t even show up on Sunday – and no status up, or reply except for the Twitter account – but no help there.
Fail.
FedEx doesn’t deliver on Sunday, and doesn’t always make delivery times if weather delays their planes.
Of course, maybe the flower companies were overwhelmed and never even got them shipped in time.
They had local same day delivery available and I paid for it. The flowers were not being fed-ex’d
And I understand they are busy – It would have been nice to have been told they could not fulfill my order, to this day I have not heard back yet.
twitter is abuzz with people getting back from lunch. Here’s a pointless article telling about it.
I was going to send mom 1-800-Flowers until I saw the shipping amounted to 130% of the cost of the flowers. Yikes! Got her a flower print blouse from Sahalie instead. Free shipping and a 10% off coupon code. Of course I ordered too late for Sunday delivery and I’m too cheap to pay for express shipping. But she forgives me. Thanks mom!
Is it just me, or does anyone else see the giant at for Teleflora plastered at the top of the page..
Coincidence?
Not a coincidence.
Google handles the page, I’m sure Google does the ads somehow. What do you expect from a search company? Apostles?
My banner at the top of the page is 800Flowers. Yup, Google’s making the connection to what’s on the page.
Another example of how to manage social media as a brand. Even if you make a mistake, which is bound to happen, by listening to your customers and offering effective solutions, you can redeem yourself. Simply signing up for an account (Twitter, Facebook, whatever other site) and posting your RSS updates or ignoring complaints, or praise, is not the way to go.
Now how the fuck is this Tech ?!
It’s a story about the inability to use a TELEPHONE or a COMPUTER to find a reputable company.
Cat got your server?
Enough of the pointless Twitter post!
TechCrunch is very bias when it comes to Twitter news. Why the hell is everything link back to Twitter? This is bull shit! BULL SHIT!!
Did you guys get pay by Evan Williams? Annoying!
I had to to flight to NY to deliver my flowers to my mom. You can’t trust service like that with your mom’s flowers. My mom was happy to get the nice and fresh flowers.
Has it been proven that this is FTD’s fault? If the florists they serve are out of product in a certain area (which DOES happen on Mother’s Day, believe it or not) then there’s not really anything they can do.
Besides, who the hell orders flowers online even a few days before Mother’s Day? You’re basically begging for them not to get delivered on time before all the florists start rejecting orders because they’re either too busy or are out of the particular flower you’re trying to have delivered.
This is very true. And just a hint, most florists will NOT do an order for less than $35.00. So be prepared. Not only that, never trust an ad that says “free vase.” And ALWAYS provide a second choice.
In the beginning, people ask “what is the point of Twitter?”. But once a service gets this much data from this many “everyday” people and all happening real time, you can do some really cool analysis on stuff.
FTD always messes up. I stopped using them years ago. The only consolation these people may get is a complimentary box of Godiva chocolates.
I tried to send my Mom some last minute Mother’s Day flowers via FTD. Ordered Saturday morning, was told that only certain types of bouquets were available in her delivery area. Okay, no problem. I ordered one of the bouquets that were available in her area, paid my money and thought I was good to go.
Ha! Not so fast! Two hours after I received my order confirmation email, I received an order cancelled email! The reason? “We’re sorry, there are no florists available in your delivery area.” WTF?! Why bother making me put in the zip code to verify what is/isn’t available in that specific area only to later reject it?
The worst part about it all? FTD took my money no problem, but now I have to wait for the refund to appear back in my checking account. And that could take up to five days.
Hey FTD! If you can’t deliver what you’re selling, then don’t take my money in the first place! Assholes!
Simple solution for you and everyone here:
Go to Google and type this in: the word florist and then the city and state – find a real florist in that town, cut out the middle man, save money and headaches.
Amen to that. Call the florist directly and save the huge fees. That’s all FTD and 800Flowers does. They forward your order to the florist. You can do that yourself using Google. Brandon is right, but an easier way is the word florist and your zip code. That way you find the closest florists, and not as much of your total goes toward delivery charges.
Bingo! Brandon hit the nail on the head. FTD has gone down the toilet and many local flower shops will no longer belong to them. They constantly over promise and under or never deliver. Call a real local florist instead, the quality flower shops gave FTD the finger years ago.
If you order from an FTD florist, you must tell that florist you ordered from the problem. The florist you ordered from is the one that should be compensating you for a non-delivery issue. And if they are not then you should be contacting FTD with the order number and florist’s name that is not compensating you.
Now FTD would be rechristened as one who “F**K The Day” for you!
Call the REAL florist direct, you save money, get better service and no head aches about flowers showing up in a box. Cut out the middle man, call direct.
The great thing about this article, that has gone over the ‘twitter’ haters heads is Twitter is evolving from a ‘what are you doing’ to an acceptable mass email. Acceptable because people follow you, they find value in the things you tell them or give them… they don’t give a crap about ‘what you’re doing’. Twitter is the ultimate marketing tool, some people just haven’t figured that out yet.
1800flowers, proflowers and FTD have been screwing over people for years, even competing against their own florist members. It’s surprising to me that some tech savvy people here in TC don’t know how to type this in Google:
florist
I made a few neg. tweets about all three of the douche bag companies above too, so thanks for this article. It’s the age of information and people should be educated. SUPPORT real florists and get better service, no hidden fees and more for your money. http://www.realflorists.info/
http://www.twitter.com/florist
Well, this is because they operate by United Online so you get your flower at DialUp (NetZero) speed.
All these bigger name flower services delivered late for me in the past. I hate em personally.
And yea, why is every other story twitter related? Hah.
1800flowers was running what amounted to a bait/switch…
the promotion stated that you could get 24 multi-roses in a free vase for 29.99, with 15.00 shipping…
when you called, you were told the promotion ran out!! however, if you wanted, they could send 24 multi roses, along with a vase for 39.99, and 18.00 shipping!!
when i pointed out that they could simply give me the vase, and we’d be at the promotion the sales rep said they were out of that promotion!!!
when i pressed to get a number for just how many of the ‘promotional’ sets were supposed to be available prior to running out… there was no answer…
if that’s not bait/switch, i don’t know what is!!
anyway.. life goes on..
ps, it’s not always cheaper, less hassle to deal with local florists.. i’ve been screwed by them as well..
however, never been screwed if i’ve walked in for service!!
peace
1-800-Flowers — whose web site name is a phone number, I’d like to point out — HUNG UP on me because of “high call volume.” I found their back door number (1-800-716-4851) and finally managed to reach someone. But, come on. They have too many calls so they answer them, and then HANG UP on customers without giving them that alternate phone number? Way to go, customer service!
Well i guess TechCrunch is going to take out Twitter from the headline just to decieve its readers that there is actually a news here. I have promised myself that I wont read any more news here related to twitter, please show some courtesy and not use deception and say twitter in each headline that you pipe from twitter, or I will completely have to block you.
This deception works perfectly becaz of RSS feeds showing headlines only.
i m actually stunned by your scientific rigor. surely you deserve a nobel.
do you want some more real twitter news? Google is about to save twitter by buying it and using it as a replacement for Gtalk in gmail
fwiw, proflowers has always worked well for me.
Same, I’ve used ProFlowers for the past 10 years without a single issue. I actually tried FTD for the FIRST time on Valentines Day, and the flowers NEVER SHOWED. They said they had been delivered, and she never got a thing.
Yeah there is nothing more tacky than having a box of flowers delivered by a FedEx guy where the person has to put together themselves so that you could save a few bucks. Tacky. Sure it works for you, it’s about convenience and money, but what about the person getting the flowers? They never tell you the truth and just smile.
So, Jason. Instead of taking someone out to dinner for a steak, you send a box of frozen steaks they have to cook themselves?
Mom knows I’m broke. She’s only half an hour away anyhow.
That sucks about FTD but I just found out about Twendz because of this post. Thanks Leena
no flowers arrived, i got no email and now i won’t use them again! excuses suck on mothers day
Leena Rao: You said …
“FTD has twice the number of negative tweets.”
Your article lists only percents — the numbers are not known. Unless you have a source for the total number of tweets in each case.
i thought that i would get through scrolling down the homepage of techcrunch without seeing one twitter article. TC just cant let go. Twitter still sucks ive been saying this from the beginning. I dont care what the value is that im not seeing the service is shitty and the concept is easily duplicated.
If FTD cannot run a business they should not be in business.
On the phone with FTD.com right now. I selected the option to place a new order. They’re giving me half of my money back and sending the flowers out again.
I hope…
Its good that using these social media sites, people are informed about negatives of wire services and also the benefits of ordering flowers to a local florist.
Use a local florist. Local to the recipient.
That is all.
I’m an actual florist. I hate all wire services. The are all equally evil both to the customer and the florist. I put in 73 hours in one work week. The Friday before mother’s day. Our 1-800-flowers computer spit out 50 orders at once at 10 am for them to go out the same day. All these order were for special pictured items. I don’t know how we didn’t it all with that, FTD, and Telflora sending us order and all our phones ringing off the hook. Then we ran out of Pink flowers and all the services were telling us to send messages on that fact and asked to sub Items and that it had to be designer’s choice. We would do that. Then they would ok it. Then we get the angry customer that didn’t get what they ordered because no one at the wire service notified the customer about the subs. So my advice on ordering flowers on a major floral holiday i.e. Valentines, Mother’s day, X-mas. Call the shop in your town. Then they can tell you what they have. Don’t trust the web site also, Most florist websites are set up by Wire services. Not always current of what is on had at the shop. Most shops can not afford to have a private web master and tech support. Order early!!!! If you are ordering only the day before or the day of: trust your florist that they will send out something nice for that occasion that is not the time to be picky. Just number one advice is Call the Local Florist, and support your local stand alone florist companies!