Online florist issues

I ordered flowers online with Bloomex on 13 July 2021 to deliver to Queensland. $59.95 for the flowers and $19.95 delivery. Days later, I followed up with the recipient who advised that while they were at home all week (working from home) they had not arrived, I engaged with Bloomex. They claim that they delivered them on 15th of July at 4.45 PM as contactless delivery. They advised and that they left the flowers at the front door. They would not advise if they rang the bell or nocked on the door to signal a delivery. I rang my family again who confirmed that they were not received.
I asked for a refund and was offered $20 voucher for future use. I will never use this company again.
Do I have consumer rights to ask for a full refund?

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Hi @derbyfour, welcome to the community.

Yes. See…

Before getting a refund, a couple of things to do…

  • ask your recipient for written statement that flowers were not received and they have been home at all times.
  • ask the florist the address on their records they delivered the flowers to. Dont say…‘did you deliver to number A at X street’…but ‘can you tell me the address you delivered to’.

If the address is the same as the recipient, then say it is a failure to deliver under Australian consumer law and you are requesting a refund. Use the statement in the request.

If the delivery address is different, you need to work out if you incorrectly gave them the wrong address or if the mistake is at the florist end. If it is your end, you have accidentally bought and delivered the flowers to someone else and possibly made their day. If you can prove they made the mistake, ask for a refund for the same reasons as outlined above.

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Is anyone else concerned about the behaviour of some of the large online florist companies? In my experience they offer services that they cannot possibly provide (e.g. same/next day delivery to regional Australia) and deliver dead or dying flowers at a completely different time to requested. Or they do not deliver them at all and will not give a refund but offer a voucher or, when pushed, send a gourmet hamper instead of flowers which is far from ‘gourmet’.

My elderly mother in the UK has twice been ‘had’ by Serenata Flowers and Bloomex - I assume that I am able to name names here. When she goes online to search up a florist ‘local’ to me, these companies come up even though they are nowhere near me and do not have the systems in place to effectively deliver fresh flowers to me.

Looking at posts elsewhere I am far from alone in this experience and can’t understand how they are allowed to continue.

(I have now given my Mum the telephone number and website link to my ‘real’ local florist by the way.)

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Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear about your issues, but as you will see from the thread I have moved your post to, you are not alone in having issues with at least one of the companies you named.

Perhaps @BrendanMays or @jhook could pass your post on to the correct person at Choice for their comment?

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Thanks so much.

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We can relate. The trend is worrying.
I’ve previously been able to track down a local Aussie florist, knowing they offer better prices, better arrangements and reliable delivery.

On more recent occasions we’ve hit the same online subterfuge of florists promoting their business as local to the suburb we are searching when they are just a booking service in disguise. Several of the extended family have been caught out, with the deliveries coming from florists 30+km distant. The local florist misses out!

Google and to a similar extent yellow pages etc all seem to take the same path. The local florist with a real street front get pushed down the list.

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FWIW this is not just an Australian problem, it is a problem in most countries. I believe the origin of this genre of order takers, not florists, is Teleflora, and we have Teleflora Australia. Companies as well as proper florists can be members to take and deliver orders, as well as Teleflora directly.

They categorise themselves as ‘floral relay services’ not florists, and ‘support local florists all over the country and handle the sending and receiving of international and domestic floral and gift orders to and from Australia.’

In a way similar but different to the myriad online sites that essentially are booking agents for tradies and most anything else one can need, whose only staff is the web developer and an agent (outsourced?) to answer a phone number. Some of those sites have contracted people to deliver, and some will essentially take an order/booking and do the equivalent of an airtasker search for someone to do the job at the price around the time, or arrange a drop shipment from a supplier to you.

Many code their web sites to respond to searches, such as ‘cleaner Eltham’ and one gets all manner of booking services ‘Cleaning Services Eltham’ who might have an office in Sydney or further. At some point I suspect the internet as we know it will collapse under its own weight of such rubbish and have to evolve.

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I have very recently (01/06/22) had an issue with the Bloomex flowers online site. Flowers I ordered for a family member in the same suburb as myself, and which (in this case were delivered) were wilted and certainly not in a fresh and perky condition as per the photo shown on the site. My niece whilst thanking me, said that she hoped I didn’t pay a lot for them as they were not in a fresh condition!! I asked her to send me photos, which she did. I then emailed a complaint to Bloomex (in what I feel was a ‘respectful’ manner) and received a reply saying “We were able to determine that the arrangement you received was in accordance with our policy and item description. The arrangement seemed quite lovely and the flowers were fresh” Another few words from them were:

“Usually, the bottom of the stems should be cut and the flowers should be hydrated for several hours.”.

Some further comments from them for you to view.

“Unfortunately, with the transportation issues and weather conditions, flowers are dehydrated when they arrive.”

I could hardly believe what I was reading!! Not impressed. Twice I wrote to them but neither email had any satisfactory outcome, though they did offer on their second response, a 15% discount on my next order!! I will NEVER use this company again, and neither will my niece who was on the receiving end of those flowers. I wonder if this is something which could go to the Office Of Fair Trading?

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When it is cool/cold and high humidity they cannot provide fresh flowers. If it was a heat wave would you get a dried flower arrangement?

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Hi Norma

So sorry to hear about your experience with this company, sadly not an isolated incident it would seem. I’m the editorial director at CHOICE and we’re working on a story about Bloomex. I will send you a direct message with my email address and if you’re interested I would welcome the chance to discuss your experience.

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Doctored star ratings and misleading ‘discounts’ have landed Bloomex in court:

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Beware bloomex flowers are scammers their website show cheap lovely flowers with glowing description. What you actually get are a tiny bunch of half dead flowers that look like they have been plucked out of a garbage bin and rarely do they deliver on the date you order refund refused. They have received the .most consumer complaints of any flower company ACCC currently are taking them to court for fudging customer reviews. Isnt life tough enough without being scammed? I was. Lets hope they will be closed down asap.

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Welcome to the Community @Bloomingripoffff,

I moved your post into this existing one that is mostly about Bloomex. You might especially note the prior post to your own by Choice. Unfortunately for their customers Bloomex seems to just go on and on in the meanwhile.

It is always best to research companies and especially online ones prior to trusting them with focus on trends suggested by poorer reviews and generally ignoring the best ones. Then there is separating real from bogus reviews.

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  • Thank you for your message. You are correct we all need to check out the company before buying but l guess l am in the era (nearly 70) where we were much more honest. I am learning that Living in this world today has sadly changed where there are many scammers and its easy for them to do so on the internet. …and as you say it goes on and on. I worked at parliament house canberra dps senate for 23 years l have many contacts so l have contacted a plethora of politians and also the prime ministers office and current affairs asking to investigate bloomex. Hopefully something will be done about it and perhaps l will be the one to stand up and be heard and be the voice for thousands who have and still are being scammed by bloomex. Just complaining isn’t enough so l am taking serious action. They picked on the wrong person this time! Thank you regards lorraine
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Welcome to the community Lorraine.

It’s great that you are able to use your contacts to try to get action on what appears to be a business model that doesn’t care about regularly delivering poor quality products and services. (Pardon the pun.)

Please keep us informed on the progress with your complaint.

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Bloomex scams thousands!
During the week over numerous emails ( most of my emails were ignored) ( I also emailed bloomex sydney director paul key a number of times a week ago heard nothing back) although their slogan is "we care…we stand by our products! During the course of my plethora of emails bloomex eventually offered 10% off my next order…then later 15% as if l would order from them again! In their response to my complaint bloomex and said the picture of the flowers received
by my interstate friend for her 50th birthday they thought that they looked “lovely” and that the couriers delivered on an alternative date was due to my short notice NO ! I ordered a week ahead! I have since read on the net from customers this SAME response is sent to everyone who complains and sends pictures). How l wished l checked the internet before l ordered and saw all the complaints that they were scammers delivered rarely on the date you ordered but date to suit them…send pathetic tiny bunch of wilted flowers that looked like they plucked them out of the rubbish bin…nothing like what is advertised. So embarrassing and upsetting and awful waste of hard earnt money. Life is tough in this world money is tight and all we want is to put a little bit of happiness in our loved ones day with beautiful flowers on their special day. Bloomex lure customers in with pictures of beautiful flowers with an elaborate description and a good price! Although l paid $103 in total which is a lot for me on the aged pension! I wanted to send emails firstly because l wanted to have it documented and to see what their game was. So enough of the emails l rang bloomex yesterday and spoke to the supervisor. Firstly the bloomex supervisor apologised for bloomex not meeting my expectations he rattled this off in a very fast paced voice obviously reading it from a piece of paper that no doubt he reads out to complaining customers all day long !!! I told bloomex supervisor that l have contacted current affairs fair trading even written to the prime ministers office…(which l have!) that perhaps l was scammed by bloomex to be the voice for thousands who bloomex has scammed…and continue to. Not enough for us all to complain.
we need to ensure something is done about it and be proactive!! I told the bloomex supervisor that bloomex days are numbered and he needs to look for another job! He agreed. So Bloomex supervisor then offered to free of charge to resend the flowers to my friend and when l asked if they this time would be like what they advertised he guaranteed it and a courier would deliver to my friend tomorrow. So l agreed and told them if they didnt honour this agreement there would be hell to play and that would add to my complaint. I told them also l would be watching my credit card and look out if they charge me again! I notice on the net many people mention that once bloomex has your credit card details they notice they have been charged multiple times and that over the coming months suddenly money is scammed out of their card all over the world!IMore to worry about! I notice also on the net ACCC is currently taking bloomex to court for fudging top reviews from customers these reviews were from way back when bloomex opened in 2010 no doubt initially they did provide lovely flowers and great service for a short time to get the top reviews which they use today but then their scamming begun… So l will see if bloomex honour their promise tomorrow!! I will keep you all updated!

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Hi @Bloomingripoffff, as you appear to have a photo of the flower arrangement which was received, is it possible to post it in the community using the image tool on the upper bar of the reply window. This will be useful for readers to assess the condition and quality of the Bloomex product.

If the flowers on receipt are in poor condition, they may not meet the quality or ‘fit for purpose’ provisions under the Australian Consumer Law. As such, you would be entitled to a remedy under the ACL.

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I also had a poor experience with Bloomex. Sent flowers to my daughter in Melb. - I’m in SA. They were delivered in a poor condition, flowers crushed and some having dropped petals. I sent a complaint along with a photo but heard nothing back from them.

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Welcome to the community.

If you read the preceding posts you will see that you are not the only one Bloomex have disappointed.

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Yes, I see others had problems with this company. I wish I had read the complaints before purchasing from them. However, “once bitten,”

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