CREVASSE'S FLORIST

Description of Work: I placed an email order on December 5, 2012 thru USAA for a wire delivery of 18 roses to be delivered the following day to my wife for her birthday. The roses arrived on time, the delivery person was friendly and pleasant and the roses looked good. My wife was thrilled! However, within the next couple of days, all the roses began to wilt, and by the 5th day they were obviously dead and certainly no longer appealing to look at, thus it was necessary to discard them. We were both very disappointed at the quality of the product, especially for the price I paid for them. I have already notified USAA of my displeasure, this order was totally unacceptable. I will also be alerting the Better Business Bureau, but more importantly, spreading by worrd-of-mouth what an unpleasant experience I had with Crevasse's Florist of Gainesville, Florida. They are not the only Florist in town; take my word for it, you can't do worse!!

Description of Work: I was employed by Cravasse's Florist in Thornebrook from December of 2010 until May of 2011. I am a floral designer with over 21 years experience in the business. The shop is located in Thornebrook Village in Gainesville, a great location. In the business when you design and deliver hundreds of arrangements in a one or two day period I would expect possibly one or two "call backs" or complaints on that many items. Beginning with Valentine's Day we had at least a dozen unsatisfied customers. It was quite shocking to me. I know the one of the other designers (nice German lady) with 50 years experience replaced numerous arrangements and the shop owner delivered them. Mother's Day 2011 was a nightmare. I won't speak for the other lady designer but I was forced to used dead roses in arrangement...I said dead,,the heads would not stand up and petals fell off as I put them in the vase. As soon a a load of orders went out we began to get complaints. I was distraught. I balked at what we were being forced to design and send out to the owner and she sent them anyway. By noon on Friday, I had had enough and gave her immediate notice that I would NOT put my name and reputation on the line for her by using such terrible quality flowers. Most everything we arranged were FTD type arrangements, done by stem counts and by a chart. I ended up working the next day but it was my last. The complaints on those arrangements took over a week to remake with fresher flowers and redeliver. The co-owner delivers in the afternoon. He is a chain smoker. He reeks when he comes in to get his orders. In the 5 months I was there, we had 5 complaints (that I was aware of) about the cigarette smoke on the fresh flowers. The owners have no sense of customer service. They get hostile over the phone when a customer has a complaint which in my experience was ALWAYS a valid complaint. On a holiday, the company puts out an ad asking for drivers and pays them per delivery. There is no accountability. They are there to make as many drops as possible, collect their check and go. Flowers are delivered with no water, broken stems, or incomplete. Terrible customer service.