I had a particularly aggravating experience with a customer this week who received the bouquet pictured below. She called proclaiming the roses were dead. Dumbfounded, I replied, Thats not possible. They couldnt be any fresher as they only came in. I bet youre talking about the two Quicksand Roses in the bouquet. They are a taupey-beigey-sandy color (hence their name), that some people mistake for discolored pink roses on their way out... Her response, No. EVERYTHING in the arrangement is dead. I next questioned if she was referring to the OTHER roses in the bouquet. A variety named Geraldine, explaining, One of the attributes to this stunning variety is a green guard petal that DOES give it an antiquish look, but in a coveted kind of way. It has become HUGELY popular with customers as it is pinky-peach perfection and an awesome performer with its high petal count, often hitting the 2-week mark for life expectancy. At that point, she cut me off by turning to someone else in ear shot and exclaiming in exasperation, Shes telling me theyre SUPPOSED to look that way! Followed with the condescending, Well Im in town visiting from Philly and I have NEVER received flowers that look this bad. At which point I knew the conversation was over, apologized and said Im not sure what youd like me to do. I called her boyfriend up (who is also out of town), explained the situation, and asked how he would like me to proceed? He directed me to send her a replacement bouquet in fall colors. AWESOME. Fall colors...lots of bronzes, browns, rusts and oranges...and she thought the fresh pinks looked dead...I knew this was not going to end well. I made the arrangement and included the following note: Dear Philly Girl, For your own knowledge, please Google Geraldine & Quicksand roses. You will see that the flowers you received look EXACTLY as they are supposed to. We do not send out old flowers, let alone dead ones. I am sorry you could not appreciate their unique beauty. Sincerely, Manhattan Girl In Lancaster For those of you who dont know (I lived and went to school in NYC for several amazing years). I couldnt resist. Well, my driver arrives at the house with the second vase of flowers in hand and meets the young womans mother who than proceeds to hassle him. Making him wait as she phones her daughter (who wasnt home) to check and make sure we were supposed to be taking the original vase back, etc....which apparently turned into a huffy-puffy, exasperated exchange. Well, NOT an hour later the phone rings here at the shop and its the boyfriend who informs me that Philly Girl is deeply insulted by my little note. I explained the response of how she introduced herself as being from Philly and cited her use of it in a condescending and superior manner and really DO NOT see that as offensive. Now did the note have an edge to it. ABSOLUTELY! And I volunteered that to him unapologetically stating that this was from the very start a lose-lose situation. To which he responded, Yes it is. As I will be disputing the charge on my AMEX card. My response: How about I save you the time and just make a THIRD trip out, retrieve our flowers and VOID the whole order? His answer: No. No one will be home. Me: So you think you should just get two flower arrangements for free and waste our time attempting to please the impossible? I will definitely be disputing your dispute. At which point he became nasty and threatened, My father and I run a multi-million dollar company and we will CRUSH you! I cant wait till I visit Lancaster. Im coming in there! My final response, You two were made for one another. Click. What is the point of my sharing this unfortunate experience with all of you? Its probably trying to understand what YOU see looking at the photos above and silmultaneously educating you about some newer rose varieties. Do you see dead flowers? Do you appreciate the uniquely beautiful? The perfection in the imperfection? Update: The arrangement was purchased less than several hours later, picked out of the cooler as someones birthday bouquet.
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 13:15:13 +0000
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