Flower delivery scams are far more common than you’d imagine. Many folks who are interested in flower delivery are usually planning for a significant moment in life, whether its sending roses to a lover, ordering arrangements for a wedding, and so on. Sometimes, emotions can cloud decision making skills and hasten the research you do before placing a flower delivery order. As such, many scams masquerade as legitimate flower delivery businesses.
You may think that local flower delivery services are more immune to this sort of thing than online florists. Surprisingly, this is seldom the case. Most flower delivery scams are based out of the phone book, in the yellow pages. A telltale sign is if the flower delivery advertisement in the yellow pages does not give an address. Many scams advertise only the phone number of their purported flower delivery service because there’s no actual floral shop wherever the phone number leads to.
If you call one of these flower delivery service numbers, ask several questions about their business. Look up the flower delivery business before you give out your credit card number. If not, your flower delivery order might not come through, and you will look like an idiot for giving your credit card number to a con artist. Perhaps the best way to avoid a flower delivery scam in your area is to ask if you can come to the florist’s shop and check out the flowers yourself. No legitimate flower delivery service will try to dissuade you from this.
Online flower delivery scams are also a problem, of course. The simple fact is, with online flower delivery, you have no way of knowing if the flowers will be of quality or not. Just because the flower delivery website has pictures of pretty flowers doesn’t mean that’s what you’re getting. You usually can’t take a peek at an actual arrangement for online flower delivery services, so look at customer reviews on the web.
The best way to avoid a flower delivery scam is to simply use florists that are recommended to you by friends and family. Barring that, just remember the wise words of that old song: only fools rush in. Do your research before committing to any flower delivery deal. Check the Better Business Bureau or other resources to see customer feedback. Most people who have fallen prey to scams in the past are usually mad enough about it to alert other potential flower delivery customers.