Update on March 6, 2010: I’m happy to report that a representative from Bloomex called me the day after this incident to address my concerns. Turns out that I missed the cutoff period for a 9 AM to 12 PM delivery, and that they delivered roses instead of daisies because they were out of daisies and upgrading in such situations is their policy. They provided a credit and refunded me the early-delivery fee. This addresses many of my concerns, but not all (for example, the message to my wife being stapled inside a brochure).

While I’m pleased with this after-the-incident customer service, and give Bloomex kudos for that, there are a few things that could prevent such situations in future, and for what it’s worth I offer them here for the Bloomex team: (1) change your checkout system to prevent people from selecting and paying for delivery windows that are unavailable for their order; (2) make your substitution policy explicit, and possibly let people choose their substitutions—or better yet, if possible, improve your inventory management to prevent the selection of out-of-stock flowers; (3) improve your real-time customer service, including by educating and empowering chat operators and ensuring phone responsiveness. I also noticed that Bloomex has a Twitter account, and is now following me. Recommendation (4) is to more closely monitor and respond to Twitter commentary, and respond in Twitter to address customer concerns and neutralize negative sentiment and its spread.

The original blog post follows:

I’m not one to rant about minor inconveniences. But I just had a terrible experience ordering flowers for delivery in Toronto from Bloomex. As a potential warning to anyone who might be considering doing the same, I offer this review. (And for anyone in online sales or marketing, take note of what not to do.)

For my wife’s birthday today, I wanted to have flowers delivered to her office in Toronto. My plan was to include a note telling her where to meet me for dinner. A nice thing to do, I thought, to show someone important to me that I care about her on an important day.

So yesterday, I searched for flower delivery services in Toronto. Bloomex came up, and I reviewed their flowers and, importantly, their guarantee of pre-noon delivery if you place an order before 1 PM the previous day.

I decided to proceed, and chose gerber daisies, which have particular significance for my wife. I entered my credit card details, chose a pre-noon delivery time, submitted my order and received confirmation.

Then the trouble started.

As of noon today, no flowers, and my wife had no idea where to meet me. So I called Bloomex, navigated the customer service line, and got a message saying nobody was available by phone so I should use the online chat.

So I used the online chat, which dropped my session twice before the rep told me that they would look into the problem with their delivery partner, and I would get an email from their customer service rep shortly. (I have the chat saved, in which the rep assures me that I’ll be reimbursed because Bloomex didn’t live up to its delivery guarantee.)

So I ruin the surprise and tell my wife by text where we’re going for dinner. She calls me soon after, at about 3:45, to say that the flowers finally arrived.

Only they’re the wrong flowers!

Red and white roses, not the daisies I ordered. And worst yet, rather than including a nice card with the note I entered online, the flowers came with a 15%-off brochure for Bloomex into which my note was stapled. It was so hidden that my wife almost threw it out before she found it.

Needless to say, this is one of the worst experiences I’ve had ordering anything online. Perhaps my experience is an anomaly. But I doubt it. So if you want to order flowers for delivery in Toronto, you may want to consider using a company other than Bloomex.

(Note: I intend to update this post with more details and documentation as time permits.)