Arrington Flowers & Gifts

Review: I made a purchase for a corsage for my son's homecoming and the flowers fell apart upon trying to put it on his date. it took three attempts of calls to get someone to return my call only to be told all sales are final and I paid $18.95 to a defective batch of yellow flowers. I told the owner Mrs Arrington I was not happy with her decision and she did agree to refund 50% of the purchase only if we had a receipt? We were the only customers to order yellow for the dance no to hard to find the transaction and my son picked them up and he didn't think about a receipt plus I didn't want to drive 30 minutes each way just for the showing of a receipt. I told her I would dispute the transaction with Revdex.com and my credit card holder but they consider the purchase a customer service issue. She actually hung up on my wife when she called and not once has she apologized about the issue much less been empathetic towards a customer. That would have went a long way but she keeps reiterating company policy.Desired Settlement: I would have excepted her offer for a 50% refund if she would have just took care of the credit putting it on my card but again she didn't offer anything but bring in a receipt to get a half refund, at this point for the time and effort I want a full refund of the purchase which was $18.95 the total for both flowers we ordered were $29.00 which included a boutinere for my son.

Business

Response:

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to the complaint regarding our business.We do have a no refund policy in place for wearable floral designs for dances and parties. All orders for such events are custom pieces and go through a four point check system to insure that the customer receives a well-constructed and beautiful arrangement. The roses for corsages are actually hand wired and taped the old fashioned way so that they can't fall apart. The roses are checked initially by the employee that tapes and wires the roses, in our shop this employee has been doing this job for over thirty years. The second person that checks the roses is Mrs. Arrington, who constructs every corsage, the order is then checked by another employee that packages the corsage, and finally by the customer at check out, when payment is taken. Mr. Arrington always oversees check out. He opens every box for the customer to inspect their order, and gives them handling instructions. He also advises that all sales are final, which is also posted at the front counter. If a customer requests changes at check out, we are always happy to accommodate. This can entail the change of a bow, addition of roses, more filler and even a change of flowers.This customer's order was the only complaint that occurred at homecoming. His son's roses were a special order as no one else had requested the color that he wanted. We placed the order with our wholesaler for a package although his order only required two stems. Several days after the father placed the order, he called back to reduce the size of the corsage and change bow color, indicating to us that his wife was unhappy with his initial decision. Change orders at this time are totally acceptable and typical with student orders. The customer's son checked and accepted his order on Saturday morning. We didn't receive any call from the student or his parents before we closed at noon. Nor did, we receive any call or message on our after-hours number, which Mr. Arrington always responds to on the weekends.Mrs. Arrington listened to the customer's complaint on Monday morning and explained the no refund policy. The customer indicated that he thought his son was not qualified to check out a floral order. All of the orders are checked by students or their parents and as indicated above, we are open to all change orders. At this point, the customer indicated that he had great influence in the community, which he would use to damage our companies reputation if he didn't receive a refund on his corsage order. Mrs. Arrington reiterated that the policy was the same for everyone, despite influence and social standing.We actually have no idea, what occurred with the customer's corsage after leaving our shop. We suspect that it was either dropped and or that it was damaged by placement in the freezer instead of refrigerator, which can cause petals to drop. After consultation, we agreed to offer the customer a partial refund, 50% off cost of corsage, despite policy and to try to meet them half way. This was rejected by the customer. The husbands call was followed by a more hostile call from the custome's wife. She was in fact yelling loud enough over the phone that employees within the shop could hear the conversation, without speaker phone. Mrs. Arrington listened as long as she could, but, finally warned the customer that if she continued yelling, she would have to hang up, which she did. We welcome discussion of order with customers, but do not feel that we need to accept yelling or verbal abuse. We try to act with respect and civility, towards other people and simply expect the same.We didn't ask for a receipt. We are centrally located and within 5 minutes from the high school, which the customers son attends. Within this period, the customer, his wife or son could have come in for a partial refund on their order, in the amount of 59.75. They are still welcome to stop by. We are not responsible for custom orders once they leave the shop and feel that we have tried to accommodate this customer.Sincerely,Landon M & Denise ArringtonOwners

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

First, Mrs. Arrington openly admitted we were the only one who ordered this color making it a special order they had to design and that the four point inspection though it makes all the sense doesn't circumvent the possibility of a flaw in the product which every business can incur, this arrangement was not put in freezer it was put in a cooler and furthermore to call back to a business after hours wasn't in out thoughts since they closed at 12 and my son went there just before closing hours to pick up the order, I doubt that Mr. Arrington would take the time to go back to the florist at or around 6 pm which was the precise time the petals fell off. As to the verbal abuse, Mrs Arrington initiated the irritation since it took her two days to give response after the message was left and she talked over the conversation about her policies without taking a breath, upon the first pause I asked her if I could talk and my wife didn't get involved and call her until after I expressed my displeasure to this whole situation, "no matter how you flatten a pancake it has two sides"as for my influence in the community, let's just say that living in a small town and having [redacted] and [redacted] and coaching can go a long way and if she mentioned a counter defense, it is what it is with social media being a mechanism for being displeased on someone's services or products. I feel for the sake of customer service in a small community she should stand up and the order wasn't $59 which I would gladly except but that isn't right, it was $29. So I guess that makes us honest and that being said there is no fabrication in this complaint! This isn't about the money it is about doing the right thing in the first place and now it is taking up my time from being productive with my business affairs.