Complaints

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  Felly's Flowers

  7858 Mineral Point Rd. Madison, WI 53717-2028

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  Felly's Flowers

  205 E. Broadway Monona, WI 53716-4004

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  Felly's Flowers

  2701 University Ave. Madison, WI 53705-3700

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/14/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Fellys flowers who did our flowers for our wedding (August 27, 2022) ordered the wrong flowers despite multiple emails and meetings in person to have them update our contract descriptions and now refuse to refund us if we dont force our friends to remove their reviews and agree to not post anything ourselves.When we came back from our honeymoon we reached out hoping to come to an understanding they didnt provide the service we paid for and we were hoping for a refund for the florals minus the labor, transportation, and rental costs. Rather than work with us, they threatened to not give us any money back (they would only offer us 15% with a severe caveat) if we don't have our friends who wrote reviews on our behalf after hearing the situation. We ourselves have not written a review as we were waiting to see how they would process our complaints and now they want us to cease all contact and tell our friends to delete their reviews and never write any as well. ************ told us that because our friends posted, that they feel we incorrectly handled the process despite us saying we did not force anyone to write anything. They have since told us over the phone they would send their lawyers with a cease and desist and create a lawsuit over defamation of their business and employee ****** who mishandled our wedding.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/15/2022

  BBB,

  I am very sorry to hear about this issue. Our wedding department has formal processes in place to establish expectations and to review all final items 30 days prior to the wedding. This way it allows us to order the flowers and materials in time.  We also take pictures of the final bouquet a few days prior to the wedding to ensure the customer is happy with their bridal bouquet. We followed this same process with ***** and *********  ***** had a few minor tweaks after receiving the photo of her bouquet. Our designer made the necessary adjustments and resent a photo. She then made a few more adjustments.  Please keep in mind that we ordered the flowers per the conversations we had with the couple.  Our job is to provide a product that fits the customer's vision board and encompasses the look and feel.  Because we are dealing with live product that arrives the week of the wedding we have to make substitution at times. This may be due to the color being slightly off or the product didn't look great when we received it. Its the nature of dealing with a live product and mother nature. This expectation is set with the customer during their initial meeting with us and is a common practice amongst all florists.   Out of the all the flowers on here vision board we had to make similar substitution to only 3-4 flowers because the product didn't look good or b/c our growers just couldn't get them to us.  Very common in the floral industry.  This was explained to the couple on various occasions but obviously they only heard what they wanted to hear.  All florist encounter this and have to make substitutions. It's all over our website and every other florist.

  ***** and her husband proceeded to come into the store to see her bouquet in person, which is welcomed.  She saw the bouquet and decided that she was going to make a few adjustments.  We even took her to our back cooler where she hand picked flowers that she wanted in her bouquet.  We were accommodating towards her but she drastically changed the look feel to her bouquet by adding burgundy flowers. Our designers were shocked by this as at no time during the course our meetings with her was burgundy ever discussed.  She insisted we added this into her bouquet so we did. She then came to a an agreement that she was happy with the way the bouquet looked and had us make the same adjustments to her other floral pieces.  We went above and beyond to accommodate her needs and we didn't charge her for the flowers we ordered but didn't use. ************ ate this entire cost and it is standard practice to charge for these changes.  Typically, we don't even offer any major changes after the 30 day consult. 

  Following the wedding we received a call last Wednesday, 9/7 at 11:30am. We told the customer we would get back to her as soon as possible once the wedding team had a chance to meet and review her wedding and the couple's complaints.  The color wasn't correct and none of the flowers were used.  Both statements were incorrect and we designed the bouquet and ordered the flowers as instructed with a 3-4 substitutions out of 20 on her vision board.   She added in burgundy to her arrangements which was never discussed and would make the colors incorrect and yes a few flowers were made as a substitution.

  We received a call the following day with the bride, *****, insisting on speaking with *********  She insisted on waiting on hold for a good amount of time until he arrived back from lunch. The call was taken right when he walked back in. ***** raised her voice from the beginning and continued to escalate her voice during the entire conversation.  He asked her what the issue was and what the purpose of the call was.  What is she looking for?  She wanted a complete refund on her wedding.  He said until he has discussed the issue with his wedding department he was not ready to commit to any refund.  He also asked her to send over the communication trail so he can review the facts of the wedding and then setup a call the following week.   ***** insisted on coming in that day to discuss a resolution. **** told her not too as their team did not have all the facts in front of them and  all the key players were not available for a discussion.  He proceeded to ask for an email of the complaints she was speaking of and said that he would review them. She continued to raise her voice and speak inappropriately over the phone. *** asked politely that she didn't speak that way. He said please send me the emails and we will review them and get back with her to schedule a time we can all meet. It would more than likely be early next week Tuesday or Wednesday as our wedding department is off on Mondays.  She sent over the emails later on that day.

  Once we had all facts of the situation in front of us it became clear that a full refund was not warranted. There was communination throughout the entire process and yes some substitions had to be made. The picture of the initial bouquet we sent over should have been used because it fit the *************** and feel the customers were looking for.  However, the customer insisted on making changes a few days before their wedding which has caused us to be in this aweful situation. 

  In the meantime ***** and **** rally up their troops and proceed to harass ************ online and defame of character by not telling an accurate story of what happened.  All very 1 sided reviews by people that weren't even involved with the process of ordering the flowers.  ***** had clear intent to defame our company.  Kind of ironic the timing that all of it came out on 9/8 after her first discussion of a potential resolution with ************. 

  **** proceeded to call 20 min after the first conversation with ***********  *** proposed a time for everyone to meet on 9:30am on Tues 9/13. **** was supposed to confirm this would work for ***** as she worked during the day.  **** never confirmed the appointment at 9:30am.  He called at 9:40am and *** said I didn't know we were meeting as you never confirmed the meeting with us after speaking with ***********  *** said let me call you back in a few minutes to get the wedding team in on the call. 

  We called **** back 10 min later and came to a resolution.  15% discount.  With the agreement that inaccurate reviews would be removed online.  We don't want these sitting out there for a long period of time so we asked they be taken down by COB 9/17. Once the postings are down the credit will be issued.  **** agreed to the terms and we hung up our phone call.  We asked **** to confirm once all has been completed and then the credit will be issued.   Still waiting for the reviews to come down.  

  Being that the postings are harassment there was discussion about getting our lawyer involved and issuing a cease and desist letter. We have already spoken to our lawyer and we are prepared to take the next steps if the harassments continues.  We are okay with fair reviews as long as they tell the whole story accurately, not just a one sided view with a twist on the actual facts.

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/15/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  I reject their first statement as I sent multiple emails which are attached.
  
  On July 6th, *********************** the prior coordinator had quit following our conversation to change the floral colors, and I received an email from the new individual asking about finalizing details. The prior coordinator and I had discussed changing my colors on March 2, 2022 in which I confirmed the new stem list. While she sent an updated stem list that would be ordered, she did not have the chance to update the contract with the correct descriptions. Please see the original contract and a written communication stating that we would be switching out the peach colors for mauve. Due to wanting to discuss in person our wedding details, because of the sudden change in leadership, we met on July 14th at 9am since that worked best with my husband and my schedule as well as with the new director. I showed the new coordinator all of the inspiration pictures and forwarded all the communications with the previous coordinator as well as all inspiration pictures that same day following the meeting in order to be on the same page. On July 14th, I was sent the alleged updated contract by the new coordinator in which I responded asking if it would be updated with the correct flowers. I did not receive a response. On August 3rd, I reached out again to the coordinator asking for an updated contract with the correct floral descriptions and after several emails back and forth that same day, I reiterated the concern the contract was not updated and resent all the inspiration photos and correct stem list. 
  Although they state that they confirm and finalize all details 30 days prior, the lack of response on July 14th shows that there was no final confirmation on my end that things were acceptable. I was the one who reached out again on the 3rd in order to see if anything had been changed which is after that 30 day period and still the contract had not been finalized. Had the 30 day policy been implemented we would have met or received communication to meet on or before July 27, 2022. Because this was not done, there was no way we could have known they were already in the process of ordering the incorrect stem list.
  Three days prior to our wedding I received text messages regarding the bouquets and noticed immediately they did not fit the color palette for our wedding. After communicating back and forth about things completely being missing from them my husband and I called the store and were directed to come in if we were available. When we went to the store in person we were brought to the back room where there were a number of designers and led to a young woman in charge of creating our pieces. I asked her what she was working off of and she handed me a print out of the unupdated contract. Emotional, my husband and I began to work with her to figure out if there was any way to salvage the pieces as there was limited time since we were leaving that day to travel to our wedding destination and we were understanding at that point they wouldnt be able to order the correct items in time. She had stated she had not seen any of the inspiration photos and I showed her what I had on my phone. She quickly went to work trying to find different pieces in the back room and brought out random stems that my husband and I accepted under the mutual understanding with the design team it was not what we wanted but what we had to accept in the moment. As they scrambled to change the pieces, I exchanged numbers with the designer and reached out to her later to send her the inspiration images to work with. In text, she stated she was sorry my vision wasnt communicated to her clearly. 
  
  In regards to the statements made about my phone call with the director. Any statements about tone of voice is hearsay as it is just as easy for me to make complaints about how I was spoken to. I would like to state that while I disagree with them stating I was impolite, I am not here to make an argument out of how I was spoken to as well so as to not take away from the actual issue at hand and only discuss the fact of the matter. I believe that if the business wants to continue to reference phone calls, the attitude in which both parties spoke should not play a part in the case at hand. Generally speaking, what was said during any phone call unless emailed with both parties acknowledging it, should be only used to fill in the timeline but not as sole evidence since neither can be proven things were exactly as stated.
  In reply to the statement about rallying our troops. Our friends and family were aware of the entirety of this situation since July when the coordinators changed. We made them aware of the process we were undergoing because we needed an outlet for the emotions we had. In no way did we require or ask them to harass Fellys. Instead, on their own accord they chose to write reviews based on the experience they had seen my husband and I have. They used quotes from the calls we had relayed to them in person and chose to make statements of their own about what they considered to be bad service. Stating that we wanted to defame Fellys is a far stretch when we ourselves went about the process starting with them from the very beginning.  As of 09/15/2022 we still have yet to write a formal review of Fellys Flowers. 
  In reply to the statement about the 09/13/2022 call. This is a simple tactic to again try to discredit my husband and I and was not the first instance of them agreeing to a time and not being available at that time. I have nothing further to say in regards to the clear intent to discredit us.

  
  We do not feel it is our responsibility to ask those who know us to take down their opinions of our situation when we did not force or ask anyone to write anything. They are just as entitled to their opinions as they were impacted emotionally by the results of this situation as we are. We feel this goes against the Consumer Review Fairness Act to withhold a refund entirely, which they will not refer to as such, on the basis my husband and I are unable to write an honest review about this entire experience.

  
  Just as we made our decision to use Fellys for our wedding on our own accord, we expect Fellys to come to a fair agreement with us based on what we, ourselves, have posted and through our emailed communications.
  
  
  
  Regards,
  
  *************************

  Business Response

  Date: 09/23/2022

  I am very sorry to hear about this issue. Our wedding department has formal processes in place to establish expectations and to review all final items 30 days prior to the wedding. This way it allows us to order the flowers and materials in time.  We also take pictures of the final bouquet a few days prior to the wedding to ensure the customer is happy with their bridal bouquet. We followed this same process with ***** and *********  ***** had a few minor tweaks after receiving the photo of her bouquet.Our designer made the necessary adjustments and resent a photo. She then made a few more adjustments.  Please keep in mind that we ordered the flowers per the conversations we had with the couple.  Our job is to provide a product that fits the customer's vision board and encompasses the look and feel.  Because we are dealing with live products that arrive the week of the wedding, we must make substitutions at times. This may be due to the color being slightly off or the product didn't look great when we received it. Its the nature of dealing with a live product and mother nature. This expectation is set with the customer during their initial meeting with us and is a common practice amongst all florists. This was explained during our meetings with ***** and **** before they signed a contract with us.  ***** and **** signed this very contract (see attached).  Out of the all the flowers on their vision board we had to make similar substitution to only 3-4 flowers because the product didn't look good or b/c our growers just couldn't get them to us.  Very common in the floral industry.  Again, this was explained to the couple on various occasions but obviously they only heard what they wanted to hear.  All florists encounter this and must make substitutions. It's all over our website and every other florists website.
  
  ***** and her husband proceeded to come into the store to see her bouquet in person, which was welcomed.  She saw the bouquet and decided that she was going to make a few adjustments.  We even took her to our back cooler where she handpicked flowers that she wanted in her bouquet.  We were accommodating towards her, but she drastically changed the look and feel to her bouquet by adding burgundy flowers. Our designers were shocked by this as at no time during the course our meetings with her was burgundy-colored flowers ever discussed.  She insisted we added this into her bouquet,so we did. She then came to an agreement that she was happy with the way the bouquet looked and had us make the same adjustments to her other floral pieces.  We went above and beyond to accommodate her needs and we didn't charge her for the flowers we ordered but didn't use. ************ ate this entire cost and it is standard practice to charge for these changes.  Typically, we don't even offer any major changes after the 30-day consultation.
  Following the wedding we received a call last Wednesday, 9/7 at 11:30am from *****. Fellys staff told the customer we would get back to her as soon as possible once the wedding team has had a chance to meet and review her wedding along with the couple's complaints.  The initial complaints that came in over the phone were the color wasn't correct and none of the flowers were used.  Both statements were incorrect, and we designed the bouquet and ordered the flowers as instructed with 3-4 substitutions out of 20 on her vision board.   ***** added burgundy to her arrangements the day before her wedding when she was onsite at Fellys working with the wedding designers. This color was never discussed and would make the colors incorrect from the 30 day consult but we made the change onsite because that is what the customers asked of our designers. 
  
  We received a call the following day from ***** insisting on speaking with *******  He was not available because he was at lunch, but she insisted on waiting on hold until he arrived back from lunch. The call was taken right when he walked back in from lunch.***** raised her voice from the beginning and continued to raise her voice during the entire conversation.  *** asked her to lower her voice and to have a professional conversation.  He asked ***** to explain the purpose of the call. He then proceeded to ask what would make this right. What is she looking for to make this right?  She wanted a complete refund on her wedding.  He said until he had the opportunity to discuss the issue with his wedding department,he was not ready to commit to a full refund.  He also asked her to send over the communication trail so he can review the facts of the wedding and then set up a call the following week, likely Tuesday or Wednesday.   ***** insisted on coming in that day to discuss a resolution. **** told her not too as their team did not have all the facts in front of them and all the key players were not available for a discussion that day.  He proceeded to ask for her to send the email trail of communication with the wedding designer.  This way the emails can be reviewed to see where the breakdown took place. Then a decision would be made about what type of resolution will be warranted. She continued to raise her voice and speak inappropriately over the phone. *** asked politely that she didn't speak that way. *** said please send me the emails and we will review them and get back with her to schedule a time we can all meet. It would more than likely be early next week, Tuesday or Wednesday as our wedding department is off on Mondays. *** then said that he will keep an eye out for her emails and get back to her. He then proceeded to hang up the phone.  She sent over the emails later that day.
  **** proceeded to call 20 min after the first conversation with *****. He stated that his wife was a bit worked up and wanted to take some time to explain their situation. The issues primarily consisted of the colors and flowers were incorrect based upon what they had discussed with the wedding designer.  *** proposed a time for everyone to meet on 9:30am on Tues 9/13. It was **** understanding that **** was going to confirm if this time worked for them as **** needed to check with ***** because she worked during the day.  
  That same day 9/7, ***** and **** rally up their troops and their friends proceed defame Fellys Flowers by not telling an accurate story of what happened. The reviews were all very one-sided reviews by people that weren't even involved with the process of ordering the flowers with Fellys.  All those people knew was what ***** or **** told them.  After reading the reviews and the timing of when all the reviews started coming online its very clear that ***** had clear intent of defaming Fellys Flowers and can be considered harassment in many instances.   Kind of ironic the timing that all of it came out on 9/8 after her first discussion with the office. 
  On 9/13, *** still never received confirmation from **** about the appointment at 9:30am but expected that they may still call or show up to the shop.  **** called at 9:40am the following Tuesday and *** said he didn't know they were still meeting as **** never confirmed the meeting with *** after speaking with *****, but *** said let me call you back in a few minutes to get the wedding team together for a conference call.
  Fellys wedding team had gathered all the facts about the couples wedding, and it became clear that a full refund was not warranted.
  We called **** back 10 min later and came to a resolution.  **** wanted a full refund on his wedding flowers. *** said that was not justified in this scenario.  There was communication throughout the entire process and yes, some substitutions had to be made but this is standard practice in the floral industry. It became clear that the picture of the initial bouquet we sent over via text for approval a few days before the wedding should have been used because it fit the vision, look, and feel that ***** was looking for.  In addition, it became clear that ***** should have never instructed Fellys to make changes to her other floral arrangements to match the bouquet changes.  However, the customer insisted on making changes to the bouquet a few different times and Fellys happily catered to her requests.  ***** and **** also visited Fellys the day before the wedding and made some adjustments. They even went into the floral design department and picked flowers to go into the arrangements (typically customers are not allowed back in our design department).  Our designers continued to work with the bride until she was satisfied.
  *** said for this reason he was not willing to give a full refund. He said he was willing to offer a 10% discount.  **** countered with 25% discount. *** said no 10% and thats it.  **** said what about meeting me halfway and providing a 15% discount.  *** said to ****, I really believe that only a 10% discount is warranted.  *** said okay I have a proposal for you *********  He said there have been many reviews posted online from your friends, who werent even involved with the process of ordering these flowers.  The posts were with intent to defame Fellys Flowers and could be considered harassment.  *** said he would agree to a 15% discount for **** and ***** if they have their friends remove their posts because they were not entirely accurate. *** also asked that they stop posting reviews moving forward. **** agreed to this and said the 15 % will work and they be taking the postings down. *** asked **** to confirm when these were all down and he wanted them down by COB the following Saturday, 9/17, as he didnt want these postings lingering out there.  We asked **** to confirm once all has been completed and then the 15% credit will be issued.   Fellys is still waiting for the reviews to come down. 
  Let it be known that Fellys is okay with fair reviews if they present the facts accurately, not just a one-sided view with a twist on the facts.
  

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/28/2022

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  We would appreciate responses that are not simply the same as the prior one with minor changes.
  
  As a customer it is our expectation that the business we are working with communicates with us through this process and after repeatedly trying to contact them prior to the 30 day finalized timeline and still getting no response until after the alleged deadline, it doesnt seem as though they want to be honest or upfront about what they intend to do. That being said, as mentioned repeatedly, no last minute changes were made that werent already the expectation back in March of 2021. If the flowers were suddenly not able to be purchased, we would have expected communications of such prior given this business understands florals so well and is an expert in the industry. We wouldnt have expected a stem list with flowers that could not be procured. That wouldnt make sense to create a floral expectation for the customer that was agreed on over half a year prior to suddenly be something that couldnt be done. If that was the case, we would have found a different florist who could procure those florals as it is in any industry where you purchase the items necessary from the individuals who can provide it.
  
  
  In regard to statements, again made about both of us and how we talked with the business. Tone of voice is an argument that can be made on both sides. We can just as easily state how we felt disrespected, had to ask multiple times to be listened to and not talked over, and dealt with several instances of agreeing to a time to discuss things and suddenly being told that individual was unavailable when the time came. All of these statements we could make, while valid and with witness, arent hard evidence of the lack of professionalism we received from this business. If the business could focus on the facts, rather than continuously trying to make the same argument about how they perceived the frustration a customer had since the customer has not made any statements on the lack of professionalism they too expressed over the phone, then we think there could be some advancement in this process.
  
  Since we have already responded to the rest of what theyve stated in a prior response due to the repetitive nature of going into it all again, we will leave these final remarks.
  
  We have been very disappointed with the customer service throughout the process. It led to the lack of floral updates leading into the final 30 day process. Its is falsely claimed by Fellys that they were working with the correct vision, when their floral image board in the contract they are working with did not have the updated images of the florals we requested prior to 30 days prior to the wedding. It was one thing to attempt to make substitutions 3 days before the wedding because certain flowers are not in season, but the present case was of not having the correct floral descriptions despite them having access to the correct stem list to order from and not sharing any updates with the designer.
  
  Speaking of resolutions, we did ask for a full refund on total flower cost for the wedding, of the $5400 price minus the staff, rental, and transportation fees. At the time this felt like a reasonable request given the circumstance but since then we rescind such request and ask for a full refund due to the amount of time and emotional distress this has caused. We would consider that to be fair based on the sub-par outcome and continued hassle we now are facing. We shared our experience with Fellys based on their work and their customer service. We did not ask anyone to post on our behalf nor are we responsible for their actions, which makes a weak partial refund of 15% to the condition we are responsible for our friends to remove their reviews. It seems as though they are trying to pay us off for their business not to bear the accountability of their work. Morally, we do not agree with this and consider this to be deceptive to potential future clients, the community, and  sadly, to us as former consumers.
  Regards,
  
  *************************