Florist slams 'deceitful way' online newcomer charges $80 for a rose

Canadian online flower business Bloomex has copped a spray from Interflora after Fair Go investigated how a customer paid nearly $84 to send a bouquet, only to end up with a single rose.

The customer had thought they were paying a local Canterbury business to deliver a birthday bunch - instead Bloomex placed an order for a single rose that was nothing like what had been advertised - and it used Interflora to execute the order.

In other words, it's like a supermarket sending your online groceries by ringing the local dairy and spending less than you gave to deliver fewer items.

"This was a deceitful way for Bloomex to process one of their customer's orders," said Interflora Pacific Unit's general manager Nicola Devine.

Interflora is a collective owned by florists of Aotearoa that says it has no association with Bloomex, yet "when discussing this with our members, Bloomex appears to be doing this a lot lately", Devine adds.

The independent florist who dispatched the order had been paid just $45 including delivery, but wound up copping the bad will at first, because its branding was on the blooms.

It had added a second rose stem because it thought one stem was a bit stingy for the price.

The florist then remade a bouquet to match the original order out of its own pocket, because the florist felt the customer and the person who received the flowers had been let down, though not by their service.

Bloomex claims on its website that it has production facilities located in major New Zealand cities and buys products directly from growers and suppliers.

Neither seems to be the case in this instance and a search online shows no New Zealand addresses for the Canadian company.

In Canada, Bloomex has featured on CBC Marketplace, which like Fair Go investigates consumer complaints and issues with businesses.

There too, Bloomex was sending flowers that didn't match the descriptions or charging for service it didn't deliver.

The Canadian Better Business Bureau announced in 2021 that it was revoking Bloomex's membership of the BBB for failing to meet its standards for ethical business dealings and privacy.

Questions sent by Fair Go to the Canadian head office have yet to be answered and calls to the company either go straight to the ordering service, or to a voicemail, or simply disconnect.

Bloomex has since offered to re-send the flowers or offer a store credit, but the customer declined both offers, having lost confidence in Bloomex.