This V-day, don’t say it with flowers
A friend who got married on February 14, says that every year on his wedding anniversary, he spends almost twice the amount that he would spend on any other day for a bouquet, only because it happens to be Valentine’s day, when flower prices skyrocket!
So last year, he decided to try an online florist who promised an exquisite bouquet at rockbottom price, but the flowers never reached his wife! The next day when he tried to get a refund from the online store, he realized that he had become a victim of an online fraud!
‘Saying it with flowers’ has become extremely popular these days. While earlier, it was restricted to special occasions , today, fresh, cut flowers are replacing even the sweets that we traditionally took while visiting a friend or a relative. This increasing demand for beautiful flowers should have brought about certain professionalization and standardization in the trade. Instead, I see a number of deceitful practices that mar the pleasure of giving or receiving flowers.
The bouquets are often crammed with old leaves dyed in green , to mask their poor condition. Some flowers may also n be coloured to camouflage their faded look. Orchids are particularly subjected to such artificial colouring with blues and purples, that stain your hands and your vase. And then drooping , fading , dying flowers are resurrected with the help of small sticks cello-taped to the stem of the flower.
While the sticks jack them up, the drooping flowers are held up with the help of brightly coloured paper wrapped around them. And these ‘flowers’ are all bound together so tightly with reams of cello tape that it takes quite a while to take them out and eventually you realize that the ‘waste’ from the bouquet, including the leaves with the toxic colour, makes up more volume than the flowers themselves. .
Since most people buy bouquets in a hurry or late in the evening on their way to a party, these blemishes in the bouquet go unnoticed and this is what the florists obviously exploit. So whenever you buy a bouquet, look out for these flaws and make sure that you get value for money and the flowers that you give bring joy to the receiver.
That’s one part of the prob- lem.. The other, bigger concern , pertains to online florists, who collect the money, but fail to deliver the bouquet as promised or send it late or deliver something different from what is ordered or send limp, wilting flowers . Here again, the florists bank on the fact that the addressee will never complain about the drooping flowers to the sender!
Consumers have also fallen prey to fraudulent online florists who promise to deliver the best of flowers at the lowest price, particularly just before a festival or a special day, collect the money and disappear without a trace!
So if you are ordering a bouquet online, make sure that it’s from a known site or store .
And before booking your order, check the shop’s ratings, safety and security of the site, besides comments and complaints from consumers. That will give you a good idea about the quality of the product and the service. Also find out if the store will give you a full refund if the bouquet is not delivered on the specified date or if the bouquet is of poor quality.
Order from only those stores that give you such a guarantee.
I would also urge you to ask the person to whom you are sending the bouquet, to Whatsapp a picture of the bouquet. Also ask them for a frank opinion on the quality of the flowers delivered.
In short, make sure that you get what you ordered and paid for.