Little flower power for delivery orders

IT’S the perfect excuse for men who forget their loved one on Valentines’ Day: “Well, I tried to buy you roses dear but the florist wouldn’t take the order.”

In the case of one caller to Today FM’s The Ray D’Arcy Show, it was an excuse which was valid.

When Ian logged onto Interflora and tried to order an advertised “Dramatic Dozen” red roses for his partner, he found he could not get them delivered, despite the site saying they delivered anywhere in Ireland.

Ian decided to investigate the issue and when he called Britain, he was told he had “opened a can of worms”.

“Not being one to give up easily I contacted Interflora and spoke to a very nice man in the UK call centre and told him my problem.”

“Thinking it was just something to do with local access he tried to place the order for me but had the same issue, he spoke to his supervisor to try and discover what the problem was. He came back on the phone and his words were ‘you have opened up a can of worms’.”

Interflora fixed prices for Valentine’s Day bouquets and florists in Ireland are refusing to accept the orders as the prices are “too cheap”, he said.

Although he was offered a similarly priced range of flowers, the roses were out of the question, it seemed.

“To be told that it’s on the home page and it says it does deliveries to Ireland but the florist in Ireland won’t accept it because we fix the prices for Valentine’s Day bouquets, roses and such like, and then the florist in Ireland is not accepting the orders,” said Ian.

Florists in Ireland can sign up as members of Interflora. However, when they get an order through the service they have to source the flowers themselves at the Interflora- quoted price. However, with the price so low at €45, some decided not to play ball.

However, luckily for Ian, Interflora have given his story has a happy ending.

“Unfortunately there seems to have been some confusion. We are able to deliver roses for Ian.

“The florist chosen originally is currently changing their membership with our organisation. However we have other florists who will deliver roses for Ian and by way of an apology for the inconvenience we will do it for free,” a statement read.

Guess that excuse is no good after all.