Blooming Marvellous (FlowersUK.com)

Member Name: Shazzy

Product:	FlowersUK.com
Date:	28/05/02 (226 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Polite and prompt service

Disadvantages: Website could be a lot better

I love fresh flowers and often have a vase of something on my desk. Tulips are my favourites, but anything’ll do really. Except roses. I don’t much like roses. I know it’s supposed to be romantic to receive red roses and, of course, if ever I received any I’d be grateful, but I’d really rather have a £1.50 bunch of tulips from the market. But, as nice as those cheap bunches of blooms are, there are times when something more extravagant is called for.

FlowersUK.com deal with such times very efficiently, thank you. I’ve used them several times myself and a couple of friends have tried them too so this opinion isn’t based on just one successful delivery.

The first time I used them was to order a floral group for my dear ol’ mum. It was her birthday and she’s a lovely duck really and rather partial to a bunch of flowers. Now as my mum lives in London and FlowersUK.com are based in Fleetwood, Lancashire (just up the road from Blackpool, for those with little knowledge of North-West geography), I initially wondered whether I should use a local florist instead. However, as I’d had some previous business dealings with these people, and the deliveries had always gone smoothly, I decided I’d stick with them. I think I made the order a few days before her birthday, which is actually quite surprising as I’m generally not that efficient. It just goes to prove that even I can get it right occasionally. I chose an arrangement of plants and flowers in a basket and low and behold, on the big day, the phone rang and my mother rattled away about the beautiful basket of greenery and blooms that had been delivered to her doorstep that morning.

Having been satisfied with my first order, I decided to use them again, but this time to have flowers delivered to Norway. An £8 service charge was added to the total cost of the bouquet. There’s no guarantee that the bouquet will be similar to
the illustration, the price is for the quantity of flowers to be delivered. I had no idea what to expect this time, but again, the bouquet arrived on the designated date and recipient was more than pleased.


~ The Website

The site’s quick to load, although not particularly impressive to look at. The design seems at bit hit-or-miss and quite honestly, if I hadn’t dealt with the company before, it may well have put me off.

There are 3 graphics showing sample bouquets, with information related to payment, delivery and international orders.

A menu on the right-hand side (I’ve personally never liked right-hand menus but I guess that’s just a matter of taste) has the following options: International Flowers, Bouquets, Baskets, Hand-Tied, Planters and In Sympathy. I clicked on them all and there’s a decent selection available in all ‘departments’.
Some pages completely lack any means of returning to the home page, but this appears to only happen on information pages, not the actual ordering system, and sometimes these pages open as separate windows. Again, all a bit hit-and-miss.


~ The Floral Arrangements

Prices for a seasonal bouquet, available in a wide selection of colours, start at £25.00 plus £5.50 interflora delivery charge. A ‘Lavish Lily Bouquet’ starts at £50.00, again with the added delivery charge. A 12 rose bouquet is £39.50 and a single stem rose in a vase is £18.00. Whoever said flowers are cheap?

The baskets aren’t what would probably spring to mind. Well, not to my mind anyway. There are a couple of very nice arrangements in containers that really can’t be described as baskets at all.

The hand-tied arrangements are pretty standard, with prices starting at £30.00.

Moving along to the ‘planters’ section, you’ll find a bowl planted with succulents, making a rather unusual floral gif
t. However, they do say that the plant types used in this arrangement are subject to colour and seasonal variation.

Now for the final UK section. ‘In Sympathy’. I’d rather not have to order anything from here, but people die and sometimes it’s people we know. You have two choices in this section, Sympathy Arrangements and Funeral Tributes. A simple wreath will set you back anything from £30.00 to £90.00, with ‘Mum’ and ‘Dad’ tributes at £105.00.

The international section shows 18 flags, one for each of the countries that delivery is available too. Included are France, Italy, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Canada and Australia. The arrangements vary depending on the destination, but delivery is set at a standard £8.00 (or rather, 6.99 plus £1.01 administration fee).

Right, that’s enough of that. I’m getting bored telling you about what’s what and how much they cost so I’ll have a look round and see what else there is to mention.


~ Ordering

Very simple. Once you’ve decided on the arrangement you want, you click on a price option (most arrangements come in various sizes) and, if applicable, choose a colour from a dropdown menu. You then click on a little ‘buy now’ button and before you know it, you’ve been transported to the actual order page.

At the point you’ll need to put in all the relevant info such a the recipient’s name, address, delivery date, any note that you’d like added, what type of occasion it is and then comes the bit where you write in your details. Only name, address and telephone number though; credit card details aren’t requested until the next page, which is secure. Personally, I would’ve preferred this page to be secure too, as I don’t like the idea of any old body having access to my address etc, but I’m not paranoid enough to let it put me of using the si
te. Oh, and should it be important to you, they’re members of Which Webtrader.

The next page contains all of your order information, with the only fields to be filled in being those concerned with your credit card details. Switch, Delta, Amex, Visa and MasterCard are accepted.

That’s it. Ordering’s finished. If I remember correctly, I didn’t actually receive any order confirmation as I had to email them asking if my order had been received. This may have changed since last I used them though.


~ Delivery

Deliveries, both within the UK and abroad, are by Interflora, and although payment is made to the florist where the order is made, local florists make the deliveries. Because of this, slight variations may occur, but in my experience, the quality is always excellent. I’ve even had a bouquet sent to me through this company and believe me, the bouquet was the most impressive I’ve ever received.

The company guarantee same day delivery on UK orders and next day delivery on international orders when the order is made before 12 noon (except Sundays and Bank Holidays). I can’t vouch for that, because I’ve never dared try it, but if they’re happy to guarantee it, I guess chances are it’ll happen.


~ Miscellaneous Info

The company guarantee that they’ll never sent you unsolicited email. I can honestly say that I’ve never heard anything from them once my orders have been processed, which is quite refreshing considering the amount of unsolicited email I receive from some companies.

They also guarantee that all complaints will be dealt with within 24 hours. As I’ve never had reason to complain, I haven’t had any experience with this, but being as they’ve always offered an efficient and friendly service, I’ve no reason to believe otherwise.


~ The Company

Married for 30 years, Brian
and Irene Pollitt have been in the florist trade since 1969 when they opened their first shop in Fleetwood. (If you don’t know where that is, you weren’t paying attention earlier). The business is thriving with their aim always being to provide a personal and professional service.

Telephone: 01253 874008 or Freefone 0800 0266755


~ Conclusion

I’d be more than happy to use this service again. I’ve always found the proprietors to be polite and helpful and the quality of service has been excellent. I can honestly say that I have no complaints, and that isn’t something I can say very often these days.

So now you know. If you want to send a nice floral tribute to your mum, your partner or the girl down the local who’s been batting her eyelashes in your direction, log on to FlowersUK.com and show them you mean it. Whatever it is you mean.

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