Super-swamped with a new project that will get a big reveal soon, but I had to say something here about FTD.
I ordered flowers for my Mom for Mother's Day, paying a substantial fee to use FTD for delivery on Saturday or Sunday.
I live in California and my parents are on the other side of the country, along the eastern seaboard. For some reason, when I send cards for birthdays, anniversaries, etc., they never seem to get there on time, no matter how early I send them.
Due to that, I've developed a reputation over the years for being late or altogether missing events. That's only part of it, though, because I have missed events that I can't blame on the postal service, or anyone else for that matter.
Anyway, I didn't want this Mother's Day to fall into one of those categories, so I used FTD to deliver a pretty bouquet to my Mom, letting her know that, even though I'm so far away, I was still thinking of her, glad she was my Mom, and that kind of thing.
I called, too, but that's not the point.
The point is that FTD blew it. Despite contacting their email customer service, where the order was place, I'd heard nothing going into Monday afternoon. The window for Mother's Day was closing, and I was more than a little irked. For the money I'd spent, I could've taken her out for dinner!
So I took this to social media, Tweeting and Facebooking to FTD about this failure on their part. I got an almost immediate response on Twitter, asking for the order number, apologizing and insisting customer service would look into it.
I responded, still pretty darn angry, saying that's all well and good, but it's Monday, Mother's Day is over, and what could they possibly do to fix this. All they had done thus far was basically take my money and tell me that my call was very important to them.
At that point, I don't even know what I wanted them to do. What would make this right? I didn't want my mom to think I'd forgotten (like I probably have before), or that I just didn't care. I know that my mom knows I care, but when you're this far away, this is the kind of thing you can't help thinking about.
What would FTD? Did they have a time machine, where they could go back a couple days and get the flowers to her on time? Not likely.
What I figured would happen, best case scenario, was that I'd get a refund and possibly a coupon for my next order.
Then I got a phone call from Jeremy. He's some kind of manager with FTD. He apologized, again, which I expected. Then he did what I didn't expect.
First, he refunded my order. Then, he told me the flowers would be delivered as soon as possible. Further, he agreed, without my even asking, to call my mom, and apologize to her, taking full responsibility for this and hoping it hadn't marred her Mother's Day.
I thanked him, a little skeptical that all this would really happen. I'd even gotten an email from my dad around 8:30pm his time that no flowers had been delivered.
But then it did happen.
I got a call from my mom around 9:00pm her time, telling me that not only had Jeremy called and apologized, but that the beautiful flowers I'd ordered had just been delivered. She was very happy with the flowers, and said it actually made Mother's Day last a little longer.
So, FTD, I'd like to say thank you. Thanks for owning up to your mistake, and working hard to make it right. You've restored my faith and won back my business. And since I had called you out on Twitter and Facebook, I wanted to write this blog, acknowledging what you've done to take care of this problem for me.
I ordered flowers for my Mom for Mother's Day, paying a substantial fee to use FTD for delivery on Saturday or Sunday.
I live in California and my parents are on the other side of the country, along the eastern seaboard. For some reason, when I send cards for birthdays, anniversaries, etc., they never seem to get there on time, no matter how early I send them.
Due to that, I've developed a reputation over the years for being late or altogether missing events. That's only part of it, though, because I have missed events that I can't blame on the postal service, or anyone else for that matter.
Anyway, I didn't want this Mother's Day to fall into one of those categories, so I used FTD to deliver a pretty bouquet to my Mom, letting her know that, even though I'm so far away, I was still thinking of her, glad she was my Mom, and that kind of thing.
I called, too, but that's not the point.
The point is that FTD blew it. Despite contacting their email customer service, where the order was place, I'd heard nothing going into Monday afternoon. The window for Mother's Day was closing, and I was more than a little irked. For the money I'd spent, I could've taken her out for dinner!
So I took this to social media, Tweeting and Facebooking to FTD about this failure on their part. I got an almost immediate response on Twitter, asking for the order number, apologizing and insisting customer service would look into it.
I responded, still pretty darn angry, saying that's all well and good, but it's Monday, Mother's Day is over, and what could they possibly do to fix this. All they had done thus far was basically take my money and tell me that my call was very important to them.
At that point, I don't even know what I wanted them to do. What would make this right? I didn't want my mom to think I'd forgotten (like I probably have before), or that I just didn't care. I know that my mom knows I care, but when you're this far away, this is the kind of thing you can't help thinking about.
What would FTD? Did they have a time machine, where they could go back a couple days and get the flowers to her on time? Not likely.
What I figured would happen, best case scenario, was that I'd get a refund and possibly a coupon for my next order.
Then I got a phone call from Jeremy. He's some kind of manager with FTD. He apologized, again, which I expected. Then he did what I didn't expect.
First, he refunded my order. Then, he told me the flowers would be delivered as soon as possible. Further, he agreed, without my even asking, to call my mom, and apologize to her, taking full responsibility for this and hoping it hadn't marred her Mother's Day.
I thanked him, a little skeptical that all this would really happen. I'd even gotten an email from my dad around 8:30pm his time that no flowers had been delivered.
But then it did happen.
I got a call from my mom around 9:00pm her time, telling me that not only had Jeremy called and apologized, but that the beautiful flowers I'd ordered had just been delivered. She was very happy with the flowers, and said it actually made Mother's Day last a little longer.
So, FTD, I'd like to say thank you. Thanks for owning up to your mistake, and working hard to make it right. You've restored my faith and won back my business. And since I had called you out on Twitter and Facebook, I wanted to write this blog, acknowledging what you've done to take care of this problem for me.
Thanks again for making my mom smile today.
Ken
Ken
RSS Feed