Florist Express From You Flowers Fraudulent online florist, Old Saybrook, Connecticut

I ordered a floral arrangement on the morning of Thursday, November 10, 2011, from Florist Express (which also does business as From You Flowers, and is part of the Provide Commerce family of brands). I selected and paid extra for same-day delivery. Their website states that they offer Same-Day delivery, with a "100% On-Time Guarantee."

After placing the order, I received an email confirmation that said that my order was being processed and would be delivered between 9 am and 6 pm on November 10.

After not hearing from the recipient on the November 10 or 11, I called her on Saturday, November 12, to ask about the arrangement. She told me that she had not received flowers. I checked my telephone and email, to ensure that I had not missed a message regarding the delay, but there was no communication from Florist Express or any other florist. I emailed Florist Express, informed them that the flowers had not been delivered and asked about next steps. An email reply was sent within an hour, saying that they would investigate the issue.

On the morning of Sunday, November 13, I received a call from a representative of Florist Express. She told me that the florist who was fulfilling the order had had an "issue" and couldn't get the flowers out same-day. I was told that they best they could do would be to have the arrangement delivered on Monday, November 14. I agreed and requested that the extra charge for same-day delivery be refunded, which the representative said it would be.

That afternoon, I received an email from Florist Express, which said, "Thank you for your recent order. Unfortunately, our florists in the area of the recipient did not have the item that you requested and due to time constraints, we had to substitute your requested product with a similar arrangement in order to complete the delivery in a timely manner. "

On the morning of Monday, November 14, I received another email from Florist Express. This one said, "Thank you for your recent order with ProFlowers Florist Express. Due the remoteness of the recipient's address, we are unfortunately unable to locate a local florist able to fulfill your order. We want to express our sincere apologies for any inconvenience this may cause; we know the importance of sending a bouquet for a special occasion. We may be able to send the delivery to an alternate address with your permission. If you have another delivery address in a different city/town, please contact us as soon as possible."

It is important to note at this time that I am personally aware of two florists that operate in the town to which I'd requested delivery, both of which are no more than a five minute drive from my intended recipient.

I responded to the above message, declining to have the arrangement sent to another address and requesting a full refund. I've been assured of this refund (but am not confident that I'll get it, having now done more research on this company).

There are dozens, perhaps hundreds, of complaints about Florist Express / From You Flowers on the internet. The company promotes itself fraudulently and conducts business irresponsibly (at best). If I had not followed up with my intended recipient and hadn't contacted the company regarding the unfulfilled order, I'm only left to assume that they would have kept my money without any intention of providing the product promised. In addition to reporting here, I'm going to send a complaint directly to Provide Commerce, the umbrella company that Florist Express / From You Flowers operates under. This is a scam that needs to be shut down.