www.IndiaFlowersGifts.com

Rs.950 Worth Flowers from www.IndiaFlowersGifts.com

www.IndiaFlowersGifts.com is a website that will enable customers located anywhere in the world to order flowers and cakes and gift items to be delivered to their dear ones in India.

I had the opportunity to use this site 4 times now.

I was very impressed with their services initially.... but lately I fond them to be delivering an extremely bad service....

Poor quality gift items and not sticking to their timely delivery promise /money back guarantee.

My wife wanted to send a large boquet.. rather a basket of Flowers for her father's death anniversary earlier this month...

Since we have used www.IndiaFlowersGifts.com in two different occassions earlier, we did not think twice before ordering the basket of flowers costing INR.950. through them on Jan 12 2007. The order was processed through the gateway ccavenue.com

They failed to deliver the ordered flowers in time... even though the order was placed about 15 days in advance of the deliver date.
On the date of delivery, they phoned the recipient and told that the price of flowers have gone up and hence they would not be able to deliver the flowers. (The sender of flowers was not notified regarding this).
Then after contacting them through emails (They have given a mobile number for contact; that number remains switched off even now), their florist contacted the recipient and told that since there is nobody to deliver the item, they would send the flowers by a private bus service passing through thodupuzha(where the recipient recides) and asked the recipient to come and wait in the bus stand at 8pm when the bus should arrive, to recieve the flowers.
When the recipient declined to accept this arrangement, the company wrote to me saying that the recipient refused to accept the flowers and hence they incurred a loss because the flowers have gone waste.
I wrote an email to them quoting their florist, they accepted their fault and said they will discipline their flourist, to this date that has never happened.
I am giving below all the email correspondence that I had with the company www.IndiaFlowersGifts.com it is upto you todecide if you wish to do business with them

After placing the order, I wrote and email to them requesting the flowers to be delivered on specific date.

Their reply can be read below, followed by my email :

Re: Order refno: CART9367997 - specific delivery request.Standard HeaderHide Pane
"giftit@vsnl.net"
ViewSaturday, 13 January, 2007 4:00:55 AM
To:Anitta Thomas <***aniitta**@yahoo.co.uk>

This order will get it delivered as per your instructions.Thanks.
----- Original Message -----
From: Anitta Thomas
To: flowerindia@vsnl.net
Cc: ***anitta**@yahoo.co.uk
Sent: Saturday, January 13, 2007 4:08 AM
Subject: Order refno: CART9367997 - specific delivery request.
Dear Sir/ Madam,
I have ordered for a flower boquet to be delivered to my residence in Kerala. Order refno: CART9367997.
I request you to kindly deliver the item on 29th January 2007.

Contact name at point of delivery is Anil Thomas
Mobile Number : 9447980***
Land Line : 0486 222****

I have used this service on two occassions previously and am very happy about the levelof service.
Hope you will provide the same quality service this time as well
Thanking you
sincerely
Anitta Thomas


http://www.IndiaFlowersGifts.com
Your Transaction was SUCCESSFUL !! . Thank you for your purchase! Your order number is CART9367997. Please keep this order number for future reference.
Note:
If you have an Order Status or a Billing Question, please e-mail at flowerindia@vsnl.net.
This purchase is a direct transaction between you and http://www.IndiaFlowersGifts.com. However, the charges will be billed to your account as CCAVENUE.COM OR AVENUES INDIA PVT. LTD.

But www.IndiaFowersGifts.com did not deliver the flowers on the requested date. Instead, their florist in Thodupuzha,Kerala phoned the recipient and said that the cost of flowers has gone up and hence they are unable to send any flowers.

Please bear in mind that www.IndiaFlowersGifts.com did not bother to inform the sender about this issue.. They instead phoned the recipient.

Find below the email and their reply that was sent to the website www.IndiaFlowersGifts.com

Re: Order refno: CART9367997 - specific delivery request.Compact HeaderHide Pane
"giftit@vsnl.net"
ViewTo:
Anitta Thomas <***anitta**@yahoo.co.uk>

Dear Anita

We would like to inform you that firstly delivery date was not mentioned in the order and secondly we spoke to the customer and confirmed the date and they said that it should be delivered on 29.01.07 but when our delivery boy went to deliver recepient refused to accept it.

Please advise what to be done as our flowers got wasted.

Regards
Soma

----- Original Message -----
From: Anitta Thomas
To: giftit@vsnl.net ; consumerhelp@sify.com
Cc: risk@world.ccavenue.com ; service@world.ccavenue.com ; contact@world.ccavenue.com
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 6:59 AM
Subject: Re: Order refno: CART9367997 - specific delivery request.
Order refno: CART9367997

The said order was not delivered on the promised date and time and you showed an extremely bad service by not informing me about your inability to deliver the service on the promised date and time even after collecting all due payments through credit card. I was sending a boquet that was to be placed on my father's death anniversary.....
What a service lapse that your company has..... You even wrote a reply email to me promising a timely delivery.
An international company... making false promises.... this is some thing beyond reasonable belief.
I would have definitely opted for some other company that can keep their word.
If you cannot maintain the standard that is expected of a company that collects payments in USD and GBP... better close shop.
Anitta Thomas

This was my email and their reply... and still www.IndiaFlowersGifts.com did not deliver the flowers.

I again wrote to them the following email :

From: "Anitta Thomas" <***anitta**@yahoo.co.uk>To: Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 2:52 PM
Subject: Re: Re: Order refno: CART9367997 - specific delivery request.>

I wish to talk to you over the phone to clarify this> case. I want you to email me with your telephone> number and postal mailing address. I have evidence> with me stating that i had informed you the date of> delivery by email. You will need to prove that> customer refused it. I am taking the case to customer> protection council if i do not get a proper response> and explanation. All international transaction by> credit card is protected by the uk court of law.> Please respond asap
Given below is their reply:
Dear Anita
Further to your email we have enquired further with our Florist and wegot some more feedback.This recipient asked our florist to deliver this oncoming Saturday. Thats the reason this order is not delivered yet.Pleaseverufy this with the recipient and inform us.Also please forward the mailwhich you have send to us for giving the date of delivery.You have statedthat previously you were happy with our service.We never keep orders on holdwithout specific reasons.So still if you wish to go with the delivery asadvised by the recipient we can do that.Awaiting your early reply to resolvethis issue.RegardsCustomer Support Desk-----

Please note that they are still not disclosing their telephone number.

I wrote the following email to them after this:

---- Original Message -----
From: Anitta Thomas
To: giftit@vsnl.net
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 5:42 PM
Subject: Fw: Re: Order refno: CART9367997 - specific delivery request.
Please find my previous email where I have forwarded your confirmation email stating that you will deliver the item on the date mentioned.
I also would like to bring to your notice that the Florist in Cochin called the recipient and informed that flowers where in Shortage and hence local price has gone up. So they are unable to deliver the flowers. They also called the recipient on Monday evening (29th Jan 07) saying that they will send the flowers through a private bus that passes through Thodupuzha and the recipient should go and wait at the bus stand and collect the item when the bus arrives.
My brother who is the recipient, refused to adhere to this instruction as the money was paid for Home delivery of the item.
As a consumer, would you accept that level of service for a premium?
I would never expect a company as that of yours to do such a bad service..... asking the recipient to come and collect...
I would have rather sent the money to my brother andasked him to buy the itm from a local shop.
I took your service because I expect you to do what you promise to do.
After my last orrespondence with you... and further to your converation with the florist, they phoned my brother and said they would deliver the item today. He said he did not want the item today because the anniversary is already over.
They even told that no refund will be given contrary to the promise in the site.
Is this what I should expect from your company ?
Anitta Thomas

To this email they replied:

Re: Re: Order refno: CART9367997 - specific delivery request.Compact HeaderHide Pane
"giftit@vsnl.net"
ViewTo:
Anitta Thomas <***anitta**@yahoo.co.uk>Cc:
Dear Anita
We believe in customer satisfaction and we can understand the emotional value while customer's are booking gift item through our website.We will take serious actions against this florist as they have tried to spoil our reputation.If you want to cancel this order we will do that and refund your money.Please advise us if we can courier some non perishable items from our Head office in Kolkata instead of flowers and the ocassion is already passed.We will take every steps for not repeating this troubles in future.
Regards
Customer Support Desk.


After all this detailed emails and replies and such long waiting, they delivered the flowers. I have given the photograph of the flowers that they delivered.
Do you think that the are right in Charging me Rs.950 for those flowers?
I wish to advice the international NRI community that you should be very careful when dealing with www.IndiaFlowersGifts.com . They were very dodgy when I asked them their contact telephone numbers and address details. Their website has a mobile number listed, but that one is always in a switched off state.
I am sharing this experience to the web community of Non resideent Indians so that this will help you from falling pray to frauds... after all I know how I feel to part with the hard earned money.... I just cannot digest the fact that so much oney had to go to a lousy company like that...
Readers are welcome to share their experiences with this or similar online companies that target non resident clients in the faith that they can get away with poor service.