Two florists fail to fulfil some Valentine's Day orders

Customers demand refund as florists admit they could have planned it better

Miss Natasha Tan, 25, noticed her boyfriend, who works in the same office, getting antsy at 3pm on Tuesday, Valentine's Day.

The bouquet he had ordered for her never appeared, even though he made his order two weeks ago.

The couple were one of many affected when two florists here were unable to fulfil some of their Valentine's orders.

Co-founder and chief executive officer of A Better Florist Steve Feiner told The New Paper it received about 2,000 Valentine's Day orders and failed to make 172 of them.

Floral Garage Singapore also received multiple complaints on its social media platforms from customers who said they had not received their bouquets on time or at all on Tuesday.

Angry customers took to the company's Facebook page, demanding refunds for the bouquets which cost from $70 to over $100.

Others queued up at the company's Boat Quay office because they received e-mails stating that they could collect the flowers at the shop and receive a $10 refund.

Mr Feiner, who launched A Better Florist in September 2015, told TNP: "We had 70 couriers between 8am and 9am with about 900 orders to complete.

"We thought their orders were ready, and they were, but we had to find the bouquets and other things, which created congestion. We had couriers waiting for hours to be dispatched."

Customers for Floral Garage Singapore also faced delays and non-delivery of bouquets that cost between $30 and over $100 from the company, which also opened in 2015..

Mr Joshua Lau, 26, ordered a bouquet that cost $110 for his girlfriend, but it arrived at her office only at 9pm, after she had left.

He received a response from the Floral Garage Singapore's WhatsApp hotline at 5.45am yesterday. It said in a Facebook post that 200 customers were affected.

A spokesman for Floral Garage Singapore told TNP: "Our lack of foresight in planning for this event has caused many of them grief... We are currently doing all we can to make up for it by contacting each of the affected customers and will definitely improve from here."

Far East Flora, which handles a few thousand deliveries every Valentine's Day, said it managed by hiring extra workers, said general manager See Pei San.

"Valentine's Day is very tough for florists. Flowers have expiry dates and they are gifts, so delivery is time sensitive and delays are common," she said.

Mr Lau added: "For florists, it is their biggest day of the year, you can't screw this up. It is like Santa screwing up Christmas."

hmang@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Feb 16, 2017.
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