Website is refusing to deliver flowers I purchased

[Massacure]

So I purchased 18 roses from Pickupflowers.com for about $45 and they are refusing to deliver 18 roses due to "high prices", and are trying to get me to accept 6 roses instead. The recipient currently lives in the Philippines.

1) What legal recourse do I have?
2) Should I contact a lawyer?
3) If I contact a lawyer, what should I expect?
4) If I contact a lawyer, sue, and win, does the company have to pay my legal fees?

I'm

[redwitch]

1. Ugh!

Tell them you want a $45 bunch of mixed flowers instead. Roses are a pain.

[Warpy]

2. Yeah, especially overseas

because so many commercial growers worldwide fly them in to the US for Valentine's Day.

Plus, you have to worry about currency exchange rates, local pricing and availability, all that shit.

I know I'd rather have a mixed flower bouquet.

[elleng]

3. Come up with a compromise, as suggested.

Such 'small' transactions are not great for teaching lessons, which might of course be why shady businesses stay in business, but suing not a great idea, imo.

Sorry. Nice gesture.

[Massacure]

4. Why do you say such small transactions are not great for teaching lessons?

If I can get my $45 back and a couple of hundred dollars in lawyers fees, isn't that an incentive not to pull the same shit again?

[elleng]

7. IF you and everyone similarly situated were to win, sure, but

I tend to doubt courts and attorneys would be keen on handling lots of 'little' cases like this. Class actions, that would be different.

[jberryhill]

11. You can't get attorney's fees

It's a breach of contract action. Nobody is awarding attorney's fees for that.

It is also extremely likely that the controlling contract is the website terms of service which you have not read, and which almost certainly specify the jurisdiction in which you'd have to bring suit.

[Massacure]

12. I actually did read the website ToS, though admittedly only this evening.

They have no clause about jurisdiction about where I have to bring suit. Additionally, there is a clause:

Submitting your order is subject to our acceptance of this offer. We will send an email confirmation of your order details to advise that we are processing your order via the email address you provide. We will not consider ourselves bound by a contract with you until we have issued this email confirmation.

And I have received an email confirmation stating in which the header especially states that my order is "approved", which I interpret as meaning that I actually have an enforceable contract to work with.

[jberryhill]

13. So, among other things

Their maximum liability is 5x the purchase price, and...

"1.3 All products are subject to availability. In the event of any supply difficulties, we reserve the right to substitute with a product of equivalent value and quality, if the same is unavailable after order confirmation notification.

1.4 In the event that we are unable to supply all or part of your order (the product or any substitute product to you at all), we shall notify you as soon as possible and refund your payment in full no later than 1 - 2 business days after the intended delivery date or date of communication about the same, whichever is later."

[Massacure]

14. The thing which rubs me the wrong way though is:

It's not that they are unable to supply the order. It's that they are unwilling to - because of price.

[jberryhill]

18. I guess that depends on what's meant by "any supply difficulties"

Figure, if you have a "satisfaction guarantee" under which you are going to give your customer a full refund in the event they are unsatisfied, and you find out that fulfilling the order is going to cost substantially more than what the customer paid, then you have a choice between (a) giving the customer the refund, or (b) taking a loss.

Your choice is going to be informed by your customer acquisition cost - i.e. what you spend on advertising and promotions divided by the number of customers they attract. If the amount of the loss is greater than your customer acquisition cost, then the rational choice is to lose this customer.

I would guess that a good chunk of the Asian rose market on Valentine's Day is driven by Japan in view of the enthusiasm with which Japanese consumer culture embraces certain holidays. Pickupflowers.com doesn't actually run flower shops, so if there's a guy in Cebu who can sell his stock for $X and he's got an order from this website for $Y, where X is a lot bigger than Y, then what he's going to do is fairly certain. A couple of dollars can go a long way there.

They also have to factor in the cost of a chargeback on your credit card, since they get dinged for an additional 60 bucks or so when that happens.

[Massacure]

22. Having had a day to think, I'm leaning toward asking my credit card company for a chargeback

Pickupflowers claims they have a satisfaction guarantee, but based on my dealings with them I'm not very inclined to call them up and see find out just how willing they are to honor that. If they get docked an extra $60, I'm not going to lose any sleep over it.

Thanks for taking the time to respond to my post. I know I was a little hot headed yesterday evening, and for that I am sorry.

[jberryhill]

23. I'd give them a deadline for the refund

"I want to see a refund by X, or I'm charging it back."

By the way, what's her name?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

17. I always chuckle when I see you in these threads.

It reminds me of that Jerky Boys skit where the guy calls the lawyer and doesn't get the answer he "wants". The lawyer gets more and more frustrated. Then the prankster asks the lawyer "can I sue you for damages you are giving me"

Lol

[msongs]

5. cancel the sale and get a refund. if its on a credit card call your card company and cancel then ask

the vendor be blacklisted. get flowers somewhere else

[Floyd R. Turbo]

20. 👍🏻

[OregonBlue]

6. I assume $45 would be a very nice bouquet of local flowers.

[Iggo]

8. Tell them you'll accept what they sold you or you'll accept your money back.

That's it.

[procon]

9. Can't you cancel through your credit card? nt

[JudyM]

10. Give em a bad review.

This was the only site I found em on, but you might want to give it a go. https://www.sitejabber.com/reviews/www.pickupflowers.com

And you can call the better business bureau and also your state attorney general to complain. But it's not worth suing them.

[lunasun]

15. Sorry but looks like you would have to maybe get in line

https://www.bbb.org/losangelessiliconvalley/business-reviews/florists-retail/pickupflowerscom-in-sunnyvale-ca-1000003204

[Fla Dem]

16. Call your credit card company and tell them to stop payment because of fraud.

At this point may be like your only course for recovery. Based on the BBB report posted above, sounds like a bad business.

[Orrex]

19. Does the company offer international service?

Does that service have any restrictions? I imagine that they don't currently deliver to North Korea or Syria, for instance; might they not offer delivery in Duterte's neck of the woods?

In your wildest imaginings, what do you suppose that a lawsuit might accomplish?

[dembotoz]

21. i am amazed the agreed to do it

good luck

i would try to get a refund and then just mail the recipient a check

would be interested to know what roses go for there

[jberryhill]

24. Mailing a check to the Phillipines can be problematic

I can't stand it when some joker sends me a relatively low value check drawn on a foreign bank. I can imagine that attempting to negotiate a check denominated in dollars there could be interesting.

[Citrus]

25. Lawyer?

No lawyer would take the case. Seriously. This is a small claims court case and lawyers don't handle those because they're always pro se (in every state). But call one anyway if it'll make you feel better. S/he will tell you to contact your credit card company and get them to do a chargeback. And then take that money and go to a local florist and ask their advice on what IS good to send to the Philippines.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

26. Let them know you're asking advice widely on the internet & can they recommend other "advice" sites.

[RobinA]

28. I Was Involved

in a dispute over what turned out to be a scam run by a reputable company that I didn't catch for nearly a year of them charging me monthly. Seeing as how I didn't catch it, which I figured was on me, I simply asked them to end the monthly charge and take off the most recent charge that I hadn't paid yet. They were giving me the run around, so I did play the, "I'm talking about this on the internet" card. Next thing I know they refunded me the entire year of charges, which was WAY more than I asked for. Sometimes you win one. I did note when I mentioned it that they had refunded all money.

I will say that it was clearly a nonsense scheme that was one of those, "You get it unless you tell us you don't want it" things. No one would sign up for it voluntarily, because it made no sense. They obviously knew they were on thin ice.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

29. Yup. Saying you are asking internet for "advice" is not a threat but still powerful leverage. . nt

[DonaldsRump]

27. I know!

Given that they are reneging on a deal/trying to stiff you, pickupflowers.com must be part of The Trump Organization!

[Bayard]

30. Is the recipient transgender?