AVAS Flowers Sent Cheap Silk Flowers to my Boss's Fathers Funeral

My Boss's Daddy passed a couple weeks ago. He's not a sit behind the desk pencil pusher that you don't see...he's a very hands on boss. We all respect him highly and hold him in very high regards. So when his Father passed our group wanted to send a nice arrangement showing our sentiment of the occasion. I was picked to order the flowers.

I wanted a local florist, so I put in "local florist in Selma Al" in my search engine and AVAS Flowers popped up as Selma's #1 local delivery, fresh flowers from local florists! I found an arrangement and ordered a stand up basket along with a bow and card, total came to $141.75. An hour and a half later I received an email from them telling me to call them about my order.

They said they didn't have all the flowers to fulfill my order and could they use some silk filler flowers. I told them "No! It's a funeral and that's just tacky!" Told them to cancel my order and they said they would reimburse my card $127.00. I told them they charged me $141...they said the difference was a "service charge" A service charge....just for placing an order they couldn't fulfill. (this is how they make their money) This made me mad, I was no longer home and the time was getting late so I reluctantly told them to go ahead and use the silk filler flowers.

One of our crew went to the funeral and told me he would take a picture of what we sent to ease my mind. (I was stressed over the fact that there would be silk in our arrangement.) The next day when I saw what they had sent, I was both embarrassed and Livid!!! We sent, a cheap plastic basket that sat on the floor with cheap, bargain basement all silk flowers, white and navy blue.

I called them, sat on the phone forever just to be told I had to make an appointment with customer service. I made the appointment just to be told I had 24 hours to file a complaint and the time had passed BUT they would give me 10% off on my next order. Yeah like I would ever use them again! I ordered the flowers on 8-10, the funeral was 8-11, I saw the picture on 8-12.

By the time the funeral started my 24 hours was already up! A lot of us send sympathy flowers that do not attend the funeral. (or flowers to our loved one's we never see...Get Well, Birthday's, Mother's Day) I would have never known what AVAS sent if one of us hadn't attended. It's not like the family is going to write you and tell you how bad your flowers looked.

We rely on our florists to fulfill our orders from the pictures they put on their sites, and we expect the flowers to represent our sentiment. AVAS's add is very deceiving.... I honestly thought I was dealing with a local florist. I wanted a local florist not some fly by night middle man....I mean what's the point in that? By wording their add the way they do, and by paying "Google" money to put them on the top of the list, I imagine they fool a lot of people who, like me are not savvy to the way's of internet search's.

(I am now though!) When you use a middle man there is no one to be held accountable for the service you paid good money for! I have filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau. I want AVAS to be honest about what they are. I don't want anyone else to go through the embarrassment with no amends to be had. Here are the pictures of what we ordered and what was sent. I think they speak for themselves.