With Mother’s Day approaching, many people may consider sending flowers. But here is a word of caution: be careful about finding local florists through internet search results — they might not really be local!
Case in point: When searching for “florists near me” in Google, here are the search results I got for Somerville, Massachusetts:
Photo IllustrationThe results above were sponsored, with the first two being national flower networks. The third result, Avas Flowers, was seemingly a local florist right in my town. Clicking on that brings up their website, showing it is indeed in Somerville.
Clicking on their boast of having five-star ratings, reveals their summary.
Looking good, but checking the actual Google reviews brings a big surprise.
*MOUSE PRINT:
It was not 4.7 stars as Avas Flowers boasted, but at least in the Boston area, they only garnered 1.2 stars based on 183 reviews! And they also have a “C” rating from the Better Business Bureau.
More telling… they are not even located in Massachusetts!
*MOUSE PRINT:
Deep in their FAQs, they reveal their company is in Delaware. But according to the BBB, they are actually in New Jersey (the Delaware address is just probably where the company filed its corporation papers).
So, be careful trying to find a local florist in a town where you don’t live. Look for a real street address and local phone number. Double-check the address in Google Maps street view to see if there is an actual florist at the location. Be careful of florists listed in sponsored search results. Even consider calling a local supermarket with a floral department near where the recipient lives. You may find lower prices and reasonable delivery charges.
Happy Mother’s Day.
I also had a bad experience with Avasflowers. It was around Christmas 2.5 years ago and girlfriend got the flu. She didn’t want me near her and I understood, but I wanted to have flowers delivered to her, at least. It was to be a surprise.
I had not had flowers delivered in years, and Avas seemed like a legitimate business based on reviews.
So, first they couldn’t find her house, or so they claimed.
Then, I thought, well, I’ll have them delivered to me personally, and I’ll just place them at her doorstep so I won’t be exposed to the flu. Well, that also didn’t work.
At this point I was very frustrated, and just asked for a refund. They really didn’t want to do that, offered to deliver a different day, a partial refund, a discount on later orders, etc.
After calling them several times and rationally explaining the entire chain of events, they gave me a full refund. Which actually really surprised me.
So I did get the refund.
To this day, I don’t know exactly what local florist the flowers would have been delivered from. It was very vague. I believe it was ordered thru some clearinghouse, which in turn went to a national florist network, which in turn went to some unnamed local florist.
So I definitely do NOT recommend Avasflowers.
My area used to have some very good local florists. They were staffed by people to whom you could give a budget and a general idea, and they would blow you away with the value they would provide.
Over the last few years, those florists have gone out of business one by one. As they have wound down their operations, however, organizations like FTD and 1-800-FLOWERS have bought their local phone numbers and business names.
When you call the local number, they answer AS THOUGH THEY ARE THE OLD FLORIST. You’re talking to a, “Big Mail Order Flower,” call center, though.
The quality drop off is real. While legal, this practice is sneaky and shady. Buyer beware.
The only consumer countermeasure is to go to the old physical location and see if anything is there. Google Maps often lists the business as still there when they’ve long since departed. I have had to be persistent to get Google to correct issues. I suspect someone on the Big Flower side is working hard to make it seem like the business is still there.
En*&^%ification continues apace.
Using the Brave browser and search window:
“florists near Somerville, MA” shows many local results for Somerville and surrounding towns, at the top of the results.
I have used Costco.com for floral or gift basket deliveries for decades. Not sure if non members can order these items or not.