Flower Ordering Fiasco

[Kestra]

So I ordered some flowers online, paid for them, and want them sent to my address. My brother's proposing to his girlfriend (one of my best friends) on Monday, and I'm going to sneak into her place while they're out and decorate it a bit.

Within the past 24 hours, I have gotten at least six phone calls and two e-mails confirming that yes, I bought flowers for myself. That I am both the sender and the recipient. I was even flagged by their fraud department.

Is this that weird? I mean, what if I wasn't doing this for my brother and his girlfriend? What if I was just like hey, I want some flowers for myself? I filled out all the forms, gave them all the information, over and over.

Seriously, is it that strange? Can't a person buy flowers for herself?

 

[SmoothieX]

Sounds like you just ended up with someone incompetent. Hope it gets sorted out.

 

[KimMH]

That is sad. Perhaps it is part of a consumer protection protocol.

 

[Shikarnov]

I get tired of all these anti-fraud measures. Every single time I make a corporate purchase, I inevitably have to spend 10 minutes on the phone with American Express explaining the situation. I understand the reasons they do it, but it's really insane -- and it wreaks havoc on online systems that read the charge as rejected (and cancel sales without giving confirmation numbers, etc), although it's actually pending and WILL go through if you tell Amex it was legit. But where does the money go then?

I feel your pain, Kestra. Good luck getting this resolved.

 

[K'Ehleyr]

Weird and incompetent. Complain ~ hey maybe they'll send you flowers as an apology

 

[WillsBabe]

This reminds me of the time I wanted an item delivered to a different address to the one I wanted the bill sent to. It was like something out of Brazil. Good luck, Kestra.

 

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Unlike PayPal, which suddenly decided to send a couple of orders to my Mother's old address, despite the fact that I've never had anything sent there that I paid for with PayPal.

Within the past 24 hours, I have gotten at least six phone calls and two e-mails confirming that yes, I bought flowers for myself. That I am both the sender and the recipient. I was even flagged by their fraud department.

Good thing Amazon doesn't do this or I'd be in Gitmo by now.

 

[Timby]

So I ordered some flowers online, paid for them, and want them sent to my address. My brother's proposing to his girlfriend (one of my best friends) on Monday, and I'm going to sneak into her place while they're out and decorate it a bit.

Within the past 24 hours, I have gotten at least six phone calls and two e-mails confirming that yes, I bought flowers for myself. That I am both the sender and the recipient. I was even flagged by their fraud department.

I hate to be a pessimist, but is it possible that upon running your credit card, the store received a suspicious response from the bank / credit card company? You may want to check into that, maybe double-check your transaction history.

 

[All Seeing Eye]

So I ordered some flowers online, paid for them, and want them sent to my address. My brother's proposing to his girlfriend (one of my best friends) on Monday, and I'm going to sneak into her place while they're out and decorate it a bit.

Within the past 24 hours, I have gotten at least six phone calls and two e-mails confirming that yes, I bought flowers for myself. That I am both the sender and the recipient. I was even flagged by their fraud department.

Is this that weird? I mean, what if I wasn't doing this for my brother and his girlfriend? What if I was just like hey, I want some flowers for myself? I filled out all the forms, gave them all the information, over and over.

Seriously, is it that strange? Can't a person buy flowers for herself?

This is the first time I've heard of anything like that happening.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Couldn't you have just bought the flowers at your local supermarket? I guess I just don't see why people would buy flowers online, unless they want them shipped across country to someone else.

 

[Timby]

Couldn't you have just bought the flowers at your local supermarket? I guess I just don't see why people would buy flowers online, unless they want them shipped across country to someone else.

Places like 1-800-FLOWERS.com and the like contract with local florists. The advantage to ordering online is that you get a solid price with a guarantee of quality, and the delivery time is almost set in stone. The flowers are also of a far higher quality than you'd find at a Hy-Vee, Kroger, EconoFoods or Cub Foods. (Pro tip: Supermarket flowers are leftovers. They look like ass after a day.)

 

[galleywest]

So I ordered some flowers online, paid for them, and want them sent to my address. My brother's proposing to his girlfriend (one of my best friends) on Monday, and I'm going to sneak into her place while they're out and decorate it a bit.

Within the past 24 hours, I have gotten at least six phone calls and two e-mails confirming that yes, I bought flowers for myself. That I am both the sender and the recipient. I was even flagged by their fraud department.

Is this that weird? I mean, what if I wasn't doing this for my brother and his girlfriend? What if I was just like hey, I want some flowers for myself? I filled out all the forms, gave them all the information, over and over.

Seriously, is it that strange? Can't a person buy flowers for herself?

That's really weird, if you ask me. Did you ask them why it was flagged by the fraud department? I mean, did you buy like $5,000 worth of flowers or something? I'm guessing not, and that's the only way I would think it would register with them, if it were an ungodly amount of money being spent.

 

[Captain Ice]

Couldn't you have just bought the flowers at your local supermarket? I guess I just don't see why people would buy flowers online, unless they want them shipped across country to someone else.

Places like 1-800-FLOWERS.com and the like contract with local florists. The advantage to ordering online is that you get a solid price with a guarantee of quality, and the delivery time is almost set in stone. The flowers are also of a far higher quality than you'd find at a Hy-Vee, Kroger, EconoFoods or Cub Foods. (Pro tip: Supermarket flowers are leftovers. They look like ass after a day.)

x2. The grocers pick from what the florists reject.

Kestra, if you're dealing with FTD or Teleflora, something's not right. Try finding out who the filling florist is and talk to them directly.

MLB, there is a definite quality difference between roses purchased at a supermarket and roses purchased from a reputable florist. Roses from a grocery store will only last you a couple of days. Roses purchased from a florist will last you two weeks if you follow the care instructions. Some of ours have gone almost a month. Also, roses from a florist come with a quality guarrantee. If they die within the first few days, they will be replaced with fresh ones.

 

[SeerSGB]

I feel your pain Kestra.

Our bank has stopped online debit-credit purchases on their Visa Debit/Credit card, and certain "questionable" auto-debit/bill pays are on "fraud protect"; meaning I have to call in and give a verbal authorization. And 50% of the time, the damn system is done which means I can't authorize the payments; which means I end up having to explain to some of the utility bills every month or so as to why their payment-request was late and/or rejected. I actually went out and got Greendot Card just to pay some of the bills so I don't have to deal with the bullshit anymore.

Tried to buy some DVD's on Amazon back before Xmas '09. Order goes through, debit-card authorized. They go to ship and debit for the money, payment deny as the retailer was not a "known national retail company or chain". Fucking Amazon.com is, according to my bank, not a "known" company.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ Geez, that sounds really over the line. What bank do you use, TGS?

 

[SeerSGB]

^ Geez, that sounds really over the line. What bank do you use, TGS?

Regions TN (formerly Union Planters of TN). I don't know if it's a state thing or a chain-wide deal, but the last 6 months or so they've really went in the shitter.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

If you're having problems with bill paying, why not use the bank's own bill pay service? The bank can't logically turn down payments that it itself issues. Does your bank have its own billpay?

 

[SeerSGB]

If you're having problems with bill paying, why not use the bank's own bill pay service? The bank can't logically turn down payments that it itself issues. Does your bank have its own billpay?

both ways: With bill-pay, the local utilities companies aren't in the system, and they're not processing their own bill-pays on time or the "system is down for security reasons". I nearly had to eat next to $100 in non/reversed payment fees from Verizon cause of that system. Cause Verizon (which was on the bank's bill-pay) was not certified as "Fraud protected" by Regions. Took me and Verizon a month to hunt down the problem before we finally found that since Verizon was not part of the "Regions/Visa fraud prevention network" that they would no long honor Verizon payments through bill pay.

Like I said, I don't if the whole company is doing that or if it's a branch/regional thing. Seems like most of the problems that I've heard about seem to be centered around the accounts with the local 2 branches-- both which used to be Union Planters.

 

[Kestra]

Thanks for all the well-wishes, guys! I think I'm just more stressed out than I need to be because the girl is one of my best friends, someone I already think of a sister, and I know that she's a total romantic. So I wanted to do my part in giving her and my brother that nice moment, because it just happens once! Well, ideally.

I hate to be a pessimist, but is it possible that upon running your credit card, the store received a suspicious response from the bank / credit card company? You may want to check into that, maybe double-check your transaction history.

I checked my account right away and there wasn't any problem on the credit card end, just on the florist's end. Thanks for the tip though, that definitely could have been a possibility otherwise.

Couldn't you have just bought the flowers at your local supermarket? I guess I just don't see why people would buy flowers online, unless they want them shipped across country to someone else.

Timby nailed it pretty much. Supermarket flowers often don't even look good at the supermarket, not to mention the fact that there isn't as much variety. Plus with the fact that this Sunday is Valentine's Day, I figured everything would be picked over pretty well and my selection would be much worse than usual.

Ideally I'd get fresh flowers from a grower's market or even online, and do arrangements myself. The fact that my brother kept changing his mind about how he wanted to propose made all of this too last minute for that, so I opted to order flowers online instead.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

both ways: With bill-pay, the local utilities companies aren't in the system, and they're not processing their own bill-pays on time or the "system is down for security reasons". I nearly had to eat next to $100 in non/reversed payment fees from Verizon cause of that system. Cause Verizon (which was on the bank's bill-pay) was not certified as "Fraud protected" by Regions. Took me and Verizon a month to hunt down the problem before we finally found that since Verizon was not part of the "Regions/Visa fraud prevention network" that they would no long honor Verizon payments through bill pay.

The way my bank's billpay works is that if the vendor you're trying to pay doesn't accept electronic payments, the bank cuts a check and sends it out. Does yours do that?