MEGO: My Eyes Glaze Over

FTD = Failed to Deliver

May 16, 2010 Customer Service

My husband ordered flowers on the Friday before Mother’s Day for his mom. He went through FTD because he needed to have them delivered as we wouldn’t be seeing her that weekend.  According to their website if you get your order in by 2 pm – in most cases the flowers could be delivered “same day”. He was pre-ordering for Sunday, so he was giving them nearly 48-hours notice.

From the FTD website:

In most areas of the United States and Canada, orders  placed as late as 2p.m. in the recipient’s time zone can be delivered that day (earlier times may apply to some areas and at holidays).

So, we should have expected that there would be no issue delivering flowers to my mother-in-law on Sunday. But, when he spoke with her that day she had not received the flowers. They chalked it up to the fact that she was out during the day and missed the deliver person.

On Monday there was still no sign of the flowers.

On Tuesday my husband emailed FTD (he prefers email than phoning).

On Thursday morning we received a generic response from them:

Thank you for your recent purchase from FTD.COM for _______. We apologize but the arrangement that you ordered was not yet delivered. Please contact us thru email or call us regarding this concern. Again, we are very sorry for what happened. Thank you for choosing FTD.COM. Sincerely, Princess Email us via this link: http://www.ftd.com/custserv/email.epl?type=email&AID=orderinquiries&nextpage=orderinquiries Call us: 1-800-SEND-FTD (1-800-736-3383) (Toll-free in the U.S. and Canada) 1-630-719-7756 (Outside the U.S. and Canada) Shop with us: www.ftd.com Shop with us: www.ftd.com

So on Thursday he called and FTD finally delivered the flowers – only four days late for Mother’s Day. As an apology for the four days he got 10% off that purchase.  Wow. That doesn’t even cover the taxes. It doesn’t cover the long distance charges between son and mother trying to determine if flowers were received. It doesn’t cover the time he spent online and on the phone sorting the issue out.

What should have FTD done to guarantee they don’t lose a customer? In my opinion, a full refund! If they had come back and said – we are truly sorry this happened and we understand that we were unable to deliver on our promises and therefore we will refund you this purchase. I would consider using their services again…as they would have taken ownership of their mistake. Maybe I am asking too much. So perhaps they could give us 10% and remove the delivery charge…since that was lacking. Instead we got 10% and an excuse – “not our fault” said FTD “the florist lost the paperwork”. Do I care why it happened? No. Do i care if it was Mary’s fault and Flowers R Us? No. I ordered from FTD. When it comes down to it…it is FTDs fault.

For FTD – make these notes in your customer service handbook: Ways to not lose a customer

1 – Take ownership over failures, don’t make excuses and don’t blame someone else

2 – Give the customer a refund worth their time and troubles not one that feels more like an insult.

3- And, even if you must use a generic form letter (obviously they don’t deliver a lot of flowers) have it be from a person. Sign a name. Give me a human to talk to.

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