Comments regarding 1888Orchids.com

This is the worst company ever. I ordered an orchid last week to be delivered overnight. Like the comments above, the orchid never arrived. I called, emailed, and called again. They sent me fake FedEx tracking number and then finally said the order took so long because it was rare. Another lie. Luckily they finally sent it a week later.

Please, don't order from this company! I called weeks ago for $160.00 of Orchids. When I spoke with Madeline a few days after my orchids were supposed to get to my home I found out they went to Alabama instead of Colorado. Then she sent me 3 Orchids the next week that I didn't order. I sent them back and called the next day asking for my money back because I no longer wanted the orchids. She said I would get my money back. My lawyer has even called and still there is no money in my account! This organization will take your money but they don't give it back. I will go to the BBB too and hope everyone gets their flowers elsewhere.

"this email was sent to kristan after her post:

hi kristan,

my name is steve peralta from 1888orchids.com. i read your post on garden watchdog. humans make mistakes as i am sure you are aware. we made a mistake in your order. i recall asking you if we could send replacements for the incorrect orchids that we sent at not charge and you said no. i don't mean to minimize the mistake we made but you seem uncooperative in helping remedy this mistake.

in the post you wrote: "This organization will take your money but they don't give it back." This is not true, according to Yenny (our inhouse bookkeeper), we processed refunds on three occasions to your account after your persistent calling...

first you called us because of excessive shipping charges (our website charges shipping per item and you had a total of three orchids to ship standard overnight) and we credited you on 4-5-03 for $79.80. You then called Madeleine complaining a credit had not been issued and she processed the same credit again for $79.90 not knowing Yenny had already processed your credit for "excessive shipping charges." Then on 4-22-03 Yenny processed another credit for $95.90 for a total credit of $255.60 (the total amount charged to your account). Please review your credit card statements before making accusations that may not true. I am sorry for the inconvenience you have encountered with our website (humans and website are not infallible) but these accusations that we will not refund your money are just not true.

The reason your orchids were incorrectly sent to Alabama is because you may have pressed the back button when you were in the shopping cart portion of the site. A "glitch" causes the "ship to" page to revert back to Alabama (the first state from the pull down menu) when the back button is pressed. Our programmer has been made aware of this problem. 1888Orchids.com is one of the only orchid sites that interfaces with FedEx API so our FedEx labels are processed real time. We used an incorrect label on your order.

Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience. If you have any problems please call me at 760.630.1465 and I will be more than happy to assist you personally. i would like to offer free shipping to you on any future purchases on our site.

Very truly yours,

Steve Peralta
Founder
1888Orchids.com "

I have ordered from this company twice because it's in Southern California, close to the intended recipients' addresses. Both times, after the orchids were sent, I was advised that they sent plants different from the ones I ordered because the ones I ordered weren't in stock. I wasn't given a refund of any type, possibly because I didn't insist they do it. But I (stupidly) decided to give them another chance. I called today to order a plant I saw on their website. I was assured that it was definitely in stock (a yellow cymbidium). When I pressed the customer service person to check to be sure, she left the line for a while, then came back to tell me that the orchid I had asked for actually WASN't in stock! Would I like another?
Luckily, this time I didn't order directly off their site or on their first telephone assurance. What is the problem? I could have been an excellent customer, but they have shot themselves in the foot on this one. I love orchids, but will not use 1888orchids.com again! All they need to do is be sure they don't offer plants that they can't deliver. I can't possibly be the only person who's had this experience with them.
Thank you.

On Saturday, Nov.23, 2002, I placed an order and was told it would go out Monday am and arrive by Tues. Nov. 25. I did not receive any acknowledgement by Nov. 26 so I emailed the company, and followed up by leaving a phone message inquiring into the status of my order the next day. Sunday, December 1, I had not gotten any response so I phoned the company again. I was told that my order was still not sent out, and that it would go out on December 2. When I asked what had happened I was told the order had been misplaced. I asked why I was not contacted no answer was given. I asked the owner's name and was told Steve, but the employee refused to give a last name. I would have been satisfied if an apology was issued but none was forthcoming. The employee offered to send the order out Monday, standard shipping at no charge. I cancelled the order, and am now determined to take legal action and hold the company accountable. I called back and explained I wanted to write a letter of complaint and was then told that the owner's name is Steve Peralta.

Worst experience I have ever had with a company I have dealt with. I ordered a product with next day delivery, 5 days later still I wait. I can't get a return message from their customer service e-mail. I can't get them to answer their telephone I still haven't received an order ship verification and FedEx says they can't find or track them. Not a good start or customer service.