FTD Flowers

Full review
I am at such a loss for words when I find out someone I know is in bereavement over a loved one. My mom is religious and usually opts to give the person a Mass card and flowers. I normally try to send edible gift baskets or plants when someone I know experiences a loss. I turned to FTD.com a few weeks ago for just that reason.

The basics
FTD.com is an online florist where you can order bouquets, plants, gift baskets, candy, wine, spa gift certificates, etc., for just about any occasion. They have a wide assortment of gift ideas and offer same day delivery for some of their products. They also offer next-day, two-day, and standard delivery. An easily accessible chart of all of their shipping fees is located in a customer service link on the site. There is even international delivery to many countries. Orders can be made online or by phone at 1-800-Send-FTD.

My experience
Generally, I order flowers through 1800flowers.com. I'm not even sure why other than that they seem to promote themselves much more than other online florists. I had one less than satisfying experience with them last year and they always seem so expensive that I decided to order from the competition this time. I actually looked at several florist sites before I settled on this one because of a link through a coupon site. I think the special that the link directed me to was for 15% off all plants.

Navigation was simple. I wasn't sure if I wanted a plant or a gift basket but I knew it had to be appropriately somber for a death. The home page has a drop-down menu at the top with several categories (Mother's Day, Occasion, Flowers, Collections, Gift Ideas, Same Day Delivery, and Price--I assume the "Mother's Day" menu rotates according to whatever holiday is closest). I moved my mouse over the word Occasion and a menu of subcategories, including "Sympathy and Funerals," appeared. I clicked on the S&F link and was brought to a page where I had to choose whether the gift was for the "Home" or for the "Service." I clicked on all of the subcategories under "Home": flowers, plants, basket/food gifts. I ended up picking a plant, partly because it seemed the most tasteful thing and also because it wasn't too expensive. The photos and detail paragraphs made me feel like I knew what I'd be getting.

Out of curiosity, I clicked around some of the designer collections (they have a Vera Wang one) and the gift ideas and found that FTD.com has a terrific selection of gifts. In my opinion, much nicer than the 1800flowers stuff. I saw one Burt's Bees Baby Bee new baby gift set that looked really nice for an expecting friend. The Gift Ideas subcategories include lots of things such as balloons, nuts, fresh fruit, gifts for men, stuffed toys, and even pet gifts.

I usually don't register with shopping sites because I'm worried about them storing and selling my information and I already get enough spam. But, if I recall correctly, I had to register with FTD.com before they would process the order. I didn't have to include a credit card number but I did need to supply a user name and password. The upshot of this was that I got a registration confirmation email moments later with a link for 10% off my next purchase. With Mother's Day around the corner, that was a nice perk. 1800flowers.com has a club where you can earn percentages off your future purchases but I don't use it often enough for it to be worthwhile. But they do barrage me with tons of emails. FTD.com, so far, hasn't been a spam magnet.

I ordered a $39.99 Serene Peace plant that was discounted $5.99, but with the $13.99 service charge, my total came to $47.99. I suppose for next day delivery that's not so extreme, but all of these online florists charge a lot for delivery.

Like I said at the beginning of this review, death leaves me speechless so I was all prepared to Google some nice quote or thoughtful words. But one nice thing FTD.com offers that I'm pretty sure 1800flowers.com does not is a link to some suggested gift card messages. They weren't anything truly unique or quotable, but I did find some choice words that sounded comforting.

As far as I know, delivery went smoothly. With gifts, it's hard to know for sure. But my ordering experience was fine. I found a nice plant with a pretty though low-key flowerpot, had no problem setting up next day delivery (though you can't specify a time or even a range of time), inputting my information, loading the pages, or getting confirmation (an email arrived in my inbox about a minute after the order).

Overall impression
The pricing and selection at FTD.com is comparable to many other popular online florists. They have nice things and the drop-down menus make it easy to search by many parameters (price, occasion, etc.). I haven't been deluged by a ton of spam from them so that's one perk over my usual florist (1800flowers). The other nice thing was the gift message feature, where I could click on a suggested phrase/quote to include on the card. I'll shop here again.