This Year's Best Mother's Day 1-800-FLOWERS Fails

Yesterday many of us celebrated our wonderful mothers with brunches, gifts, and flowers—except, that is, for those of us whose Mother’s Days were COMPLETELY RUINED by 1-800-Flowers. Many customers of the online florist have taken to Twitter to complain about unsatisfactory service under the hashtag #1800FlowersFail. Grievances include flowers not being delivered on time (or at all), dead or wilted flowers being delivered, and bouquets failing to look like what was actually ordered. This isn’t the first time that 1-800-Flowers failed at everything: The online flower company similarly ran into trouble in February, when customers used social media to complain that their Valentine’s Day orders had gone awry, causing untold heartbreak and destroying countless relationships.

In all seriousness, I don’t mean to minimize these customers’ justified ire over not getting what they ordered. They paid good money for a service that didn’t deliver (sometimes literally), and they have the right to seek reimbursement. But some customers are so dramatic in their complaints—You ruined Mother’s Day! You made my mother cry! Now my mother thinks I hate her!—that I can’t help but find it sort of hilarious, envisioning mothers everywhere sobbing relentlessly over their ugly bouquets. Although receiving sad, wilted flowers (or not receiving any) would surely be a needle scratch on Mother’s Day, I think we can assume that most mothers are resilient enough not to completely fall apart because of it. After all, they gave birth. They are tough .

Many irate customers took to Twitter to show off what they ordered, versus what they actually received:

And some customers were more... melodramatic than others:

1-800-FLOWERS service reps appear to have scrambled to stop the angst, though some customers have been less than impressed by their efforts.

Of course, this wouldn’t be the Internet without an irony-fueled backlash, so some Twitter users have gone on to share their own flower fails:

#1800FlowersFails seems to reemerge whenever another flower-focused holiday comes up, so let’s use this as a lesson: Next time, try out your local florists, or use these tips for a positive online flower-ordering experience.

Image: alexkazachok/Fotolia