1-800 Flowers

Full review
I’ve been ordering flowers and plants through 1800flowers.com for as long as I can remember making online transactions. They’ve been around a long time, have a nice selection, and are usually dependable for on-time delivery of good-quality products. Plus, they constantly send me reminder emails to buy presents for the holidays.

The basics
1800flowers.com is an online florist service where you can order gifts for just about any occasion. The selection ranges from bouquets, plants, and balloons to candy, beauty, and fruit baskets. There’s a fairly large selection and the prices are comparable to most online florists. They offer same-day delivery, have free shipping on some products, and have a nice user-friendly interface with plenty of menu options and an easy way to re-sort your search results by price, occasion, in season, recommendations, and more. The products all have clear photos and good descriptions. There is a toll-free number that can be used to place orders or to contact customer service with questions. International orders can also be placed.

My experience
I’ve used this site for years. Although I’m not a big flower person, I know people who are and have sent arrangements, plants, and balloons for birthdays, Mother’s Day, and for my somber occasions that require a get well or sympathetic wish.

Generally, I’ve had no problems with this site. The pages load well. The selection is good and I always find something appropriate for the person and occasion for which I’m shopping. Two years ago, my mother-in-law had knee surgery and I sent her flowers and a balloon to cheer her up. Last year, I sent her a rose plant for Mother’s Day. I've ordered online and through their customer service phone number and haven't had a problem. Their customer service rep. was friendly and helpful.

1800flowers.com has a Fresh Rewards program that sends emails constantly to remind me to shop for holiday gifts. With Mother’s Day approaching, I think I’ve received three emails from them in the past two weeks. The Rewards program is about more than just spam, however. I do get special offers, such as doubling the amount of flowers for the same price (but only on very select arrangements) or save shipping or save 15%. For every $1 you spend, you get 1 point. When you reach 200 points ($200), you get $20 savings on your next purchase. I still could do without it. I don’t use it often enough and I usually can search through the coupon sites to find similar savings. You can set it up to remind you about birthdays and anniversaries as well, but I feel like I’m getting too much email from the program as it is. But it definitely is good advertising. When I think flowers, I think 1800flowers.com.

The prices are comparable to other sites. Even with the Fresh Rewards savings, I don’t see any real difference. In fact, I’ve noticed that 1800flowers doesn’t carry that many lower-priced items so it makes it harder sometimes to send a gift to an acquaintance that you don’t want to drop $50 on. They do, however, have a menu option for some free shipping items. That saves a little if you like the limited selection. Shipping for items that are $50-$74.99 is $13.99. That is the same amount that is charged as a service fee, regardless of the price of the item, if a florist (instead of UPS, FedEx, or DHL) is used to deliver it. Right now, for Mother’s Day, there’s a coupon code (4MOM2) that you can use to deduct the shipping/service fee from your price. That’s inviting, but I still don’t think I’ll order from here this time.

My last purchase through 1800flowers kind of left me sour toward the company. The way the service works is that they use their network of florists to deliver the goods if there isn’t a 1800flowers store near the destination (I believe that’s standard practice for online florists). The store that delivered the plant to my mother-in-law called her for directions and then never showed up that day. They didn’t bring the flowers until the next day, a day later than I paid for it to get there, and said they “got lost.” She laughed about it, but I felt crummy since the gift arrived late and the florist was so unprofessional. Granted, my mother-in-law doesn’t live in a easy-to-navigate town, but the florist was located in the same town and she’s 30 minutes outside of Nashville. Although, I probably shouldn’t blame 1800flowers for this gaffe, I do worry what will/would happen next time. That’s why I used FTD.com last time I needed to send a plant.

Overall impression
Although they do seem to be the leader in the market, 1800flowers is pretty average in my opinion. Their prices are high (but so are everyone else’s), their delivery fee is high (though so is everyone else’s), and their selection is nice. I had one late delivery through them and they constantly send me reminders, which get annoying, so my thoughts have soured a little over time. Would I order from them again? Yes. Will they be the first site I turn to? No.