Urban Florists Non Delivery, Non Existent Customer Service, Refund Nightmare. THE TOP 12 REASONS TO USE AVOID THIS FLORIST Vancouver British Columbia

I thought I'd had to deal with some pretty crappy companies before by Urban Florists definitely takes the cake. To get a fuller appreciation of the frustration this company obviously relishes in dealing with its customers, please read:

THE TOP 12 REASONS TO USE AVOID THIS "FLORIST"
Names have been shortened to protect the guilty

Even after enduring the olympian effort in getting my money back, I have attempted to maintain a sense of humour. I trust all participants in this gargantuan struggle, will enjoy seeing their initials in print, and just maybe the owner of this company will sense that maybe he has a problem with Customer Service. It took 2 days for the billing of this attempted order to show up on my Mastercard, but it took nearly 2 months to get a refund. I sense this is because we decided not to place the order by phone because there was an attempt to scam us on the delivery charges....twice that what was posted on this website. Because we used the website instead, which posted the lesser shipping charges, there was probably never any intention on the part of this company to fill the order. How else can one interpret their motives?

DECEMBER 23, 2004...We phoned Urban Florist on December 23, 2004 to place an order for flowers for friends of ours in British Columbia. We had selected an arrangement which was posted on this website with a stated price of $39 plus $10 shipping. We were told that the shipping was now $20, regardless of what was on the website. Because of the obvious seasonal surcharge by placing a phone order, we reverted back to this website with the cheaper shipping, and placed the order on-line. This company's resides in Canada, and we live in Canada. (NOTE....This is signficant later on). On-line, the total order came to $39 plus shipping and taxes for a total of $55.58.

DECEMBER 28 - JANUARY 5TH.....NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER use this companys customer service line....there is none....Customer Service, that is. They do have a phone, with a voice message stating, "Please stay on the line. You'll be served faster if you stay on the line." NOT! This we attempted 3 times between Christmas and New Years, because the Christmas arrangement was not received by our friends. The first time we stayed on hold for 55 minutes. The second time for 45 minutes. And the last time for an hour. We heard the above message approximately 160 times.....no one ever answered!

JANUARY 5TH....Checked my MasterCard on-line. An amount of $70.14 was on my bill from Urban Florists, based on the amount of the purchase, noted above, plus the American Exchange rate of the day. See NOTE above....both ourselves and this company are in Canada. American Exchange????!!!....eh!

JANUARY 6TH.....Knowing that the customer service line was either wore out or terminated somewhere through the back door ending in a frayed line under a dumpster in the parking lot, I selected the third option of "If you know the number of the party whom your trying to reach, please enter their extension number now." So I randomly selected the following extension numbers, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, 110, and 111. I received a few voice mails, the General Mail Box number, a contest for a trip to the Rose Bowl Pararde (aha....that's where all the flowers went), several phones which rang for 5 minutes before it was rerouted back to the number selection game, and only after dogged determination by this *customer and 15 minutes of button pushing, to my total shock a real live person answered the phone on extenstion 105. The persons first name started with "M", to which I'll refer to her from now on as "M". "M" took my invoice number, confirmed that the flowers had not been delivered. (That part I knew!) I then spoke a dirty word that struck at the very unorganized heartlessness of this organization, "REFUND"! "M" confirmed an amount of $55.58 would be refunded. Got into a lengthy discussion on why they charged me $70.14. A tale ensued about an offshore bank account which defyed logic, but must make sense to someone.......good scam if it works.
(*customer - I use this term loosely, as up to this point, as this company had performed no service, I wasn't officially a customer....maybe that was the problem. Mind you they had my money...I thought that would be enough. Nope! Problem was, I wanted my money back!

JANUARY 7TH.....Extension 105. "R" answered, and I requested she confirm the REFUND had actually been processed. "R" confirmed "M" had processed the refund, and it would probably take 7-10 working days for this to show up on my Mastercard on-line statement. "R" confirmed that an amount $70.14 would be REFUNDED.

JANUARY 21ST...Extension 105...talked with "R" again. She confirmed that the refund was in the works. (This part I knew!) I requested that he acutally look up my REFUND, and confirm that it actually existed. Said it was with "S" and as "S" is the MANAGER IN CHARGE OF REFUNDS, once he has it, "R" doesn't have access to look it up. I asked if "S" has a boss. "R" answered, "Yes, the owner of the company." I asked to talk to him, and "R" informed me that the BOSS wouldn't know anything about it.....(now that I can believe!) Asked that "S" look it up to confirm it was processed.....she took my phone number. "R" didn't call back. "S" didn't call back. Am I surprised? I think not!

JANUARY 27TH...Extension 105. No answer. Left a message to get a call back....no one called back.

JANUARY 28TH...Extension 105 was the lucky number for a couple weeks, but eventually no one would answer, so I'm assuming they had call display, and weren't having any further fun dealing with me. Reverted back to the numbers games, going through all the previous numbers, having to add 112. Another real live person answered. This was like winning the lottery...this person named "S" is the MANAGER IN CHARGE OF REFUNDS......wow! "S" said that my refund should be processed this weekend....by Wednesday for sure....that would make it February 2nd. All the refunds were in a stack on his desk and needed to be reconfirmed, massaged, adjusted, quantified, correlated, infected, inspected, and rejected.....sounds like a movie I went to...or was it a folk song???!!!!

FEBRUARY 3RD...Extension 112. Talked to "C". He didn't know anything. Asked for "M". "M" was on another call. Asked for "R". She came on the line, but told me that she couldn't check anything that "S" was working on as he's the MANAGER IN CHARGE OF REFUNDS. "S" wasn't there as he went home sick. (Guess I was causing too much stress....sorry bout that!) Asked "R" to have "S" call me. Yeah, right! Surprise, surprise, that didn't happen!

FEBRUARY 4TH...Extension 112. "R" answered. "S" still sick but he would be in on Saturday for a training session, and my phone number was right on the top of a pile for "S', and it would be the first thing that he seen. Guess "S" didn't find that amusing! Didn't get a phone call. My theory for this is either there's no buttons on their phones, or there's only an incoming wire coming in from the phone company.....nothing going out!

FEBRUARY 9TH....Extension 112. Low and behold, "S", the MANAGER IN CHARGE OF REFUNDS, answered the phone. Gave him my invoice number....he didn't seem to remember me.....(now that really hurt.) According to "S", the refund has been processed on February 7th @ 10:23 A.M. He said it was now in the hands of their bank, and it had been processed to the extent that it was granted a TRACKING NUMBER, so if there's a problem he can use that number. Said it should be processed right away, but he's seen some instances where it took 12 days for it to be processed. (Really.....now that's hard to believe.) Forgot to ask "S" to confirm the actual amount of the refund....drats! If it doesn't include the offshore account adjustment, I'll have to start over.

FEBRUARY 10TH...Well lordy, lordy.....an early Happy Valentines day to me! No...I didn't just win Loto 649! No...no...no...something much rarer than that. I outlasted.....I outwitted....I outplayed....I won the Survive The Urban Florist Refund Sweepstakes! I checked my Mastercard online, and there it was, with offshore account adjustment and all. Note to self: Cancel Mastercard....those that giveth....can taketh away!

Rod
Winnpeg, Manitoba
Canada