Wow. Those aren't even close. I'd be angry too! Stick to your guns. I can't believe they'd send something so different than what they have advertised. How rediculous.

I just got off the phone with my friend -- she called me about 9:30 a.m., to let me know that the second bouquet had arrived. She sent them back, and then called customer service to tell them that they needed to credit my account. She said that they were awful, and she also told me that she's familiar with this florist, and that their flowers die in two days!

The reason I'd selected this florist in the first place is because they were the only ones that had reviews for florists in the Sarasota area. There were eleven reviews, and they were all positive. That's why I called them...

Looks like I'll be writing my OWN review!

I've never had this kind of trouble before. I used to use 1-800-flowers, but stopped doing it after they failed to deliver on the requested day, more than once. When I complained, I got attitude from customer service, so I told the witch that I would NEVER use them again, and I haven't. That was about five years ago!

At that point, my kids were still in their respective boarding schools, all in different locations, so I began to research local florists in their schools' towns. I always had good luck doing this, and I continued to use local small business florists as my kids went to college, and then when they moved into a place of their own. This is actually for the two girls because I don't think I've ever sent my son flowers, but I did send him a birthday cake!

The local florists have ALWAYS been very accommodating, and have always told me IN ADVANCE if they needed to make substitutions ("We're out of pink roses. Would yellow be okay?"). They've also told me if they didn't have exactly the same containers that appear in the online photograph. That particular issue has happened to me twice, with two different florists, and we spent a long time discussing what to substitute. They were both really nice ladies who went out of their way to customize the bouquet and container for me.

If you know anyone who lives in Sarasota, tell them NOT to use Beneva Flowers!

Because I'd emailed Liliane a picture of what the flowers were supposed to look like, from Beneva's own website, she had printed it out, and had it ready when the delivery guy arrived. She compared the picture to what was sent, and told him that, once again, it wasn't close. He said, "Well, this is what we've been sending as The Dazzler for a long time now", which isn't true because it was different from what was sent yesterday. Liliane said, "Well, then you'd better change your online picture to reflect that!"

thanks for the tip, I send flowers and then never ask what they looked like!

Karen, that's exactly what I had done too, and the Googling turned up eleven glowing reviews of this place!

I tried to post my own review yesterday, but haven't been successful yet. I think that I have to sign up on Google first, or something...

In the meantime, I have not received a phone call or an email from this florist, apologizing, or telling me that I've received my refund. Our account doesn't reflect a refund yet either. I just sent them an email, 24 hours after the second delivery, asking for confirmation.

This is ridiculous!

Not only that, I can't abide any kind of lie, and that delivery guy was lying through his teeth when he told Liliane that her second arrangement is what they've been sending out for a long time. There are TWO reasons why I know this isn't true:

1. The second arrangement didn't look anything like the first arrangement that was delivered, and it didn't look anything like the picture either. If the second arrangement is what they "always" send out for The Dazzler, then the first arrangement would have looked like the second one.

2. The second arrangement didn't look like Beneva's online picture. If the delivery guy had been telling the truth, and the second arrangement was more in keeping with what they "have been delivering for a long time as The Dazzler", then the customer service representative I spoke with would have TOLD me, when I was in the process of complaining about the FIRST arrangement, that they have modified the look of the arrangement, and it no longer looks like the one online! In that case, I would have thanked her, and cancelled the order, not had Beneva send out yet another arrangement that wasn't going to look like what I wanted, based upon their own online picture!

Idiots...

If I don't get a satisfactory response by the end of the day today, I'm going to report them to the Better Business Bureau, figure out how to post a review online, get Visa to undo the the deal since Liliane now has NO flowers, and anything else that I can think of to do!!!

KaeEll, you are SO right! We actually just went through the same thing with our local grocery store (Harris Teeter). This particular store is run by a real weanie, and I was so fed up by having to return seafood not once but twice within the same week that I wrote a letter to management.

Harris Teeter has the policy that if you're not satisfied with their product they'll return double your money. I thanked management for filling my tank with gas that week, as the result of their smelly seafood! LOL... I also told them that if I got bad seafood a third time, I would call the Health Department. They could kill someone! I returned shrimp one night that was supposed to go into a risotto, and salmon a few days later. The second return really pissed me off because our son had come over for dinner that night, and had specifically asked that I make salmon. Everything was ready, and all I had to do was pop the salmon in the oven for a few minutes. When I took it out of the wrapper, I almost threw up! I was furious too. I grabbed up the salmon, drove to the store, and made an assistant manager smell it. Then, I had to drive to yet another market, and get salmon that didn't stink. It was very late by the time we ate...

Anyway, I did get a phone call from the weanie local manager, as the result of my complaint.

There's more to this story too with their being out of their own store brand products for weeks at a time (toasted sesame oil), and basics like sponges, and they only carry one brand of light bulb. Also, they begin to slice all of the freshly baked loaves of bread by about 6:00 pm. That means, if you want a nice intact sour dough (or whatever else), you can't get it. If I want sliced bread, I'll go over to their counter with all of the Pepperidge Farm loaves. People in this area tend to work late, so they're still shopping for their dinners at 6:00/6:30 pm! Etc., etc., etc...

As for the flowers, I got an email (in response to mine) a little while ago that said they've given me a full credit, and that it will take a few days to show up. The put the credit through this morning -- certainly not yesterday. Hopefully, our account will reflect the change by the end of the week.

We used to shop at Harris Teeter when we were in Hilton Head and I wound up driving across the island to Red Lion for fresher foods. They haven't changed their tune in all these years!!

Update on the chicken - the owner of the butcher store replaced the chicken and told Ted that I need to freeze their chicken within 48 hours. Interesting that I can go to the A&P, buy chicken, and it's still fine in 5 days in my fridge. I have yet to open this new bag, but my bet is that it will smell by tomorrow.

Time to go help Ted trim the cedar hedges, the ones that the gardener said he'd have done by August. Then at 5:30 we're off to a little dinner party to see old friends that we met when Nick was in elementary school. Love these people! They have an interesting story. About 10 years ago, Don, the husband, was working for the city, plugging along in a municipal dead end job and had a dream one night about devising a gizmo to protect the business end of fishing poles. He leapt from bed and drew it up. The next day he took it to a buddy to make him a prototype. Long story short, they now live in a beautiful, no, gorgeous house, a salt water swimming pool with waterfall at one end, fabulous kitchen I could die for, and a couple of Lincolns in their driveway. It couldn't have happened to nicer people. After his fishing pole adventure, Don and a friend went into business refitting minivans for paraplegics - all hand controlled pedals and stuff. It was the ONLY company doing that in Canada. That's when the swimming pool went in, lol.

Argh - I just got called from on top of the ladder. Better scoot.

Ted on a ladder trimming the hedges

Good grief, sometimes I think that men are just insane. And that was a good feel good story about your friends. Its nice when things like that happen to good people.

BEAUTIFUL...!!! I could almost feel that cool water flowing over my shoulders.

It sounds like you had the most perfect evening with those lovely people. You had a real feast! I'm especially envious of the lamb chops. They're my favorite, and finding lamb chops that are larger than dime-size now is nearly impossible. My sweetest memory of having eaten them was when my sister served them to me on a tray in bed, on the morning of my wedding! She knew they were my favorite, and so she made it my wedding breakfast.




(stupid typo)


-- Edited by Moore ideas at 12:07, 2008-08-17

Moore, Lois bought the lamb chops at Costco. Do you have Costco there? They were marinated in a rosemary balsamic concoction - absolutely tender and Don cooked them until barely pink in the middle, They melted in the mouth. She served them with some cucumber and yoghurt sauce she made that was perfect. Then she plucked some very fragrant basii leaves from her garden and ripped them on top of the cucumber sauce - wow! I can still smell that.

Lois is an amazing cook! We worked together for years at the little private school our boys all went to - she and I ran the social committee, had to put out tons of dinners, fairs, teachers' Christmas lunches, winter carnivals, that sort of school stuff. The school had only 300 students at that time, 14 teachers, and 5 people in the office. They were treated very well, lol.

One Christmas, Lois, Christine and I made fruit cake for the Christmas carol service after-party. We used Christine's kitchen as she had the most space. Christine wanted to spike the fruit cake, so she emptied all the liquor bottles from the cabinet in her dining room into juice jugs and poured it over the cake, a little at a time, every day. That was in October. Come the Christmas service 2 months later, we sliced the "cake" and put it out on trays. Lots of it went, but we'd made way too much, so Father Brian, the resident monk, asked if he could take it back to his monastery, and we said most definitely, yes. please do. Turns out that a couple of slices of that cake was like drinking a tumbler of brandy it was so strongly spiked, lol. Father Brian asked us for more of it every Christmas thereafter. Those after-parties were always jolly ones. *snort*

-- Edited by KaeEll at 12:43, 2008-08-17