|
|
|
Sending flowers never goes out of style. Whether it's a holiday, birthday, special occasion, or for no reason at all, sending flowers will brighten anyone's day.
There are many choices when looking to send flowers, but how do you know you're getting good value for your dollar? TopConsumerReviews.com finds and rates the top flower delivery services available.
|
|
|
Join Today
and receive your copy of
the 35-page ebook
"101 Romantic Ideas"
a $16.95 value FREE with
your welcome newsletter!
|
Fresh flowers can bring a smile to anyone's face. Besides the joy everyone feels in receiving a gift, flowers add a touch of class to any event. In fact, Rutgers University recently completed a study that shows flowers have an immediate impact on happiness, a long-term positive effect on moods, and make for closer connections between the sender and recipient.
While this may sound like common sense, it reinforces the fact that if you want to make a positive impression on someone, sending flowers is an excellent choice.
However, there are many stories where sending flowers has gone terribly wrong. Flowers that never show up; delivery of the wrong floral arrangement; and old dried-up flowers delivered instead of fresh cut flowers - these things happen every day, and can turn a happy occasion into a nightmare.
There are a variety of factors to consider when deciding to send flowers to someone. Some of these include:
• Selection. You should be able to choose from a variety of arrangements, and see what will be delivered.
• Dependability. You want the flowers to be delivered on time and to the right address, no questions asked.
• Cost. You should get good value for your dollar.
TopConsumerReviews.com finds and rates the best flower delivery services available. We hope these reviews help add a touch of class to your next flower delivery!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
USA Florist has the best selection of all the flower delivery services in our review. Beyond the basics such as roses, flowers, and plants, they also offer teddy bears, balloons, gift baskets, and chocolates to meet your entire gift giving needs. Most impressive was the up-to-date flower arrangements, more than any other site, offered at a very fair price.
USA Florist allows orders for delivery to be placed both same-day, or scheduled out for delivery far in advance. If you're looking for same-day delivery, orders must be placed by 3 pm in the recipient’s time zone Monday through Friday. For Saturday delivery, the cut off time is noon.
Some features of USA Florist that we especially like are:
• The quality and appearance of the arrangements is unmatched by any other competitor. USA Florist doesn’t charge extra for the latest vases and you don’t have to send an outdated arrangement just to stick within your budget.
• An easy-to-use website with convenient search methods. They even provide a keyword search tool that can let you zero-in on the exact type of floral arrangement you're looking for.
• A promise to deliver beautiful, fresh flowers or they will do whatever they can to satisfy the customer.
USA Florist has connections with over 33,000 florists in the US and Canada and also provides flower delivery service to more than 140 countries worldwide. USA Florist offers a well designed website that is very user friendly. The selection of flowers and gifts is second to none. They offer very attractive arrangements and plants that are up-to-date with today’s fashion and trends. You don’t have to page through hundreds of ugly, outdated arrangements to find the perfect one.
Combined with competitive pricing and excellent customer service, USA Florist earns our highest rating.
|
| |
|
Honest Florist does it’s best to uphold the name. With a 7 day arrangement and plant guarantee you know you’ll be sending quality gifts, to loved ones, which will last. This is a full service flower site and tons of information from the meaning of flowers, state flower information and the history of Mother’s day is available for your reading enjoyment.
Honest Florist also provides flexibility in pricing. That means that you may both downgrade or upgrade your arrangement to meet your budget needs. At times we felt the wording and respective pricing on the upgrades was confusing but when checking out it was clearer on what we were actually purchasing.
This site mainly provides flowers but it did offer some gift baskets. The flower arrangements offered are a nice and up-to-date selection. The vases pictured are the vases included so you don’t have to worry about extra charges associated with your arrangement purchase. Finding the right arrangement is easy by searching the category selections such as Occasions, Valentine’s Day, Anniversary, Just Because and others. After spending
some additional time on the site we also found a method to search by price for those shopping with a budget in mind.
Overall, Honest Florist provides a quality site offering up-to-date flower arrangements guaranteed to last. We liked the dedication to customer satisfaction and the commitment to quality that many others take for granted.
|
| |
|
Just Flowers offers a very large selection of gift giving products. Beyond the basics such as roses, flowers, and plants, they also offer teddy bears, balloons, fruit baskets, gift baskets, chocolates, cookies, wine and scented/bath baskets. Obviously this website is more than just a flower market but bring your patience if you are going to attempt to shop here.
Just Flowers has a huge selection of flower and plant arrangements many of which appear to have been designed 30 years ago. The site is clumsy and hard to maneuver quickly – perhaps it was also designed 30 years ago? We became very frustrated looking page after page at ugly arrangements given the bad layout of the site.
However, Just Flower does allow orders to be placed both same-day, or scheduled out for delivery far in advance. If you're looking for same-day delivery, orders must be placed by 3 pm in the recipient’s time zone Monday through Friday. For weekend same-day delivery, the cut off time is 1 pm on Saturday and 11 am on Sunday. The flexibility of getting flowers 7 days a week was the best features of this site and may meet some consumer
needs as a result.
Another plus to the site was the customer service promise to contact the customer if there is any issue with an order to help insure satisfaction and meet expectations.
Overall, Just Flowers needs to update their website and remove pictures of old and ugly flower arrangements. After that, we could better appreciate the full service nature of this site as well as the range of gifts available.
|
| |
|
From You Flowers offers their customers the option to send flowers to friends and family, along with plants, gift baskets, cakes, etc. With the clumsy website design, however, customers can easily get agitated if they don't know exactly what they're looking for. The navigation is unclear, which can cause a great deal of frustration. Although From You Flowers contains artistic photos,
the resolution isn't good enough to make them clear for viewers.
Even with a poor website design, From You Flowers does offer unique features, which include:
• Bonsai and bamboo plants in addition to the selection of flowers.
• Specialty baskets to match personalities and taste, which include a coffee basket, the Grand Ghirardelli and Colossal Cookies basket.
Prices start at $29.99, which is very competitive to other providers. Customers are able to sort by seasons, occasions and types of gifts. However the bland website design, lack of quality photos, and frustrating navigation combine to drop From You Flowers to the bottom of our list.
|
| |
|
|
Cost:
|
Starting at $37.95, plus service fee
|
Flowers Across America offers a wide range of flower arrangements to fit multiple needs. Whether you're searching for funeral arrangements, fruit baskets, cut bouquets or centerpieces, they have you covered. Although the photographs are small, they are clear for the viewer to see. Flowers Across American takes all major credit cards as a payment source and they only offer online ordering.
Some features include:
• Cellophane wrapped and hand tied bouquets, which offer a more personal feel to the gift.
• Same day delivery available Monday through Saturday to all 50 states and Canada on all orders placed by 1 pm in the recipients time zone.
• Centerpieces, one sided arrangements and novelty arrangements are available which can meet a variety of needs.
Our major complaint with Flowers Across America is the service fee that is attached to each and every order. The prices are already about 30% higher than their competitors, and with an extra service fee of $9.99 attached to every order, you really need to pay attention to the value you're getting for your dollar. Flowers Across America does offer a wide range of products such as centerpieces,
one-sided arrangements, novelty arrangements and hand tied bouquets, which is much more than their competitors, but this variety does come at a higher cost.
Customers are able to search by sentiment, which include birthdays, anniversaries, get well wishes, and more. This helps the customer quickly find what they need and move along to checkout. The website is professional and well organized, with a column on the left side for simple navigation.
Flowers Across America offers a good selection to choose from and some unique hand-crafted options. However, this comes at a cost with higher-than-average prices and an additional service fee.
|
| |
|
You may have heard of ProFlowers. They have a large marketing and advertising budget, and have experienced rapid growth in the last few years. Their website is professional and easy to use; you can search by occasion, flower type, plants only, and price. Seasonal favorites, most popular bouquets, and special offers are available with one click of the mouse.
ProFlowers offers a wide range of products to choose from. The price range is acceptable and the flowers are guaranteed to stay fresh for 7 days. However, the delivery of these flowers leaves us less than impressed.
ProFlowers also offers some unique features that we really like:
• A Bill Me Later option, which allows the customer to choose the option of being sent a statement in the mail to pay in full or in portions with interest.
• An entire wedding site linked to ProFlowers, which includes a wealth of information for brides including tips, ideas, frequently asked questions and a place to hear comments from real customers.
• Months of flowers" with deliveries of 3, 6 or 12 months of flowers. These packages range in price from $139.98 for the three months of flowers to $499.98 for the full year of flowers. This unique feature allows customers to remember their loved ones with the quick click of a button to ensure a beautiful and fresh bouquet is delivered each month.
However, one overriding factor to take into consideration is the delivery of the flowers. Unique to ProFlowers, all deliveries come through the mail in a box - not prearranged and hand-delivered like a traditional florist. Once the recipient receives the box, they must open it, remove the vase and flowers from inside, fill the vase with water, and arrange the flowers themselves.
This can make for some pretty clumsy-looking flower arrangements, since most people don't know how to arrange flowers effectively. The whole delivery method also takes away from the joy of receiving fresh flowers, because the recipient must spend time out of their day "working" with the flowers and trying to make them look pretty. Instead of a joyful experience, this can easily turn into frustration - just the opposite effect of what the flowers are supposed to deliver!
ProFlowers has a very clean and professional website, and has implemented some very creative ideas with it. It's unfortunate that we can't rank the service higher because the delivery of the product is so poor.
|
| |
|
Flowers Fast gives their users many ways to search for a product, such as price range, occasion, or gift ideas. Seasonal choices are highlighted depending on the time of year that you enter the website. For instance in spring, Easter bouquets might be showcased.
Unique elements to Flowers Fast are:
• Customers can make special requests, choosing only the price and flower types to place in the arrangement. Then the order is given to a professional florist, who fills the order with the guidelines given. For example, if a customer wanted to spend $40 and only wanted Lilies, then the florist would use as many Lilies to fill the order as appropriate.
• Cheesecakes and candy baskets are available to send to accompany the order.
• Lengthy descriptions are given next to each bouquet, which might be helpful for some customers, but overall they are unnecessary comments that crowd the website.
The website for Flowers Fast leaves a lot to be desired. The website is crowded and confusing, and the photographs and graphics and less professional than the other sites in our review. Although the prices are affordable, finding what you're looking for can be painful. We suggest you try one of the top-rated selections first.
|
| |
|
|
Cost:
|
Starting at $30.00, plus tax and service fee
|
1-800-Florals has been in the business for over 75 years, more than half a century than their closest competitors. Customers can shop by product type or occasion. Deliveries can be made the same day if the order is placed by 1 pm in the recipient's time zone on weekdays and noon on Saturdays. Otherwise, next day delivery is normal if orders are placed after the cutoff. A glossary
of flowers is available to view on the website along with important floral holidays, flower color trends, flower care, flower meaning, flower giving tips, seasonal suggestions and holiday reminders.
With a multitude of resources, 1-800-Florals knows what the customer wants, but the website is not as clean as it could be. Images crowd and overwhelm users, especially the ones used on the side navigation bar, which are intended to help the customer search quickly, but in reality can be quite confusing.
Prices for arrangements are average and they accept all major credit cards. Unfortunately, 1-800-Florals automatically adds a 6.75% tax on all orders, and they assess a delivery fee of $7.95 to deliveries made in the United States and Canada, and $17.95 for international deliveries. This makes the price per floral arrangement among the most expensive in our review.
Overall, 1-800-Florals is built on solid experience and a good reputation. However their website design could be far better, and their "hidden" costs raise the price for their service above the competition.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sending Flowers in the News
How tech changed the dating rules
Any decent date ends in the promise of a call.
Publ.Date : Wed, 01 Feb 2012 11:27:11 -0800
Fashion Model in New York Breaks Dated Traditions in Valentine's Day Flowers Design
Orchid Diva, owned and operated by fashion model and floral designer Juliette Vassilkioti, launches four elegant new Orchid arrangement designs in time for the Valentine's Day holiday in New York. (PRWeb February 02, 2012) Read the full story at http://www.prweb.com/releases/2012/2/prweb9159320.htm
Publ.Date : Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:43:58 -0800
ASK A MASTER GARDENER: Plan ahead for success
Dear Master Gardener: Last year I sent my girl friend some fresh flowers for Valentine's Day, but after two days they were so wilted that they had to be thrown out.
Publ.Date : Tue, 31 Jan 2012 13:38:55 -0800
Sen. Bullard's Daughter: Send Flowers And Fruit Baskets
The daughter of state Sen. Larcenia Bullard wants lobbyists, elected officials and college presidents to send flowers and fruit baskets to her mother when session starts on Tuesday.
Publ.Date : Tue, 10 Jan 2012 05:59:36 -0800
Junior doctors send flowers to Kiran
They take out rally from GGH to post office
Publ.Date : Tue, 17 Jan 2012 01:18:56 -0800
Make the most of cut flowers
Prep the vase for your bouquet by scrubbing and rinsing it thoroughly. Q: What are some tricks for long-lasting flower arrangements? A: Most well-tended bouquets last a week. Orchids, chrysanthemums, carnations and lilies usually stay fresh for 10 days, sometimes even longer.
Publ.Date : Thu, 02 Feb 2012 00:30:28 -0800
Sen. Bullard's daughter wants flowers for mom
The daughter of state Sen. Larcenia Bullard wants lobbyists, elected officials and college presidents to send flowers and fruit baskets to her mother when session starts on Tuesday. In an email addressed to more than three dozen people, including University of Miami President Donna Shalala and Miami Dade College President Eduardo Padron, Edwina B. Simms listed contact information for several ...
Publ.Date : Mon, 09 Jan 2012 13:31:46 -0800
Florists won't take flowers to teen involved in prayer banner
Two Cranston florists refuse to deliver flowers to the teenager at the center of the school prayer banner controversy.
Publ.Date : Thu, 19 Jan 2012 13:12:15 -0800
|
|
|
|
|
|
Home About Us Terms & Conditions Privacy Policy Contacts
Reproduction in whole or in part in any form without the express written consent of TopConsumerReviews.com, LLC is strictly prohibited.
|
|
|
|
