The Netflorist stain on our proudly South African spirit

Embarrassingly South African - Netflorist crashes lockdown birthday twice in a row

· 07 Aug 2019: receipt/order ***

· 07 Aug 2020: receipt/order ***

Since South Africa entered lockdown level three, flower and gift delivery retailers have experienced an unprecedented boom and are quickly making up for their losses during level five. With more than 11 000 COVID deaths in SA and hundreds of thousands in recovery or post-recovery, couriering flowers and gifts to loved ones has become a sensible and safe way to express our condolences and support.

For South Africa’s largest flower and gifting service, Netflorist, this is a time to cash in at whatever cost, even if it means losing regular customers in the process. But then, this appears to have been the Netflorist recipe for success since before COVID.

How does a company get things so wrong on successive birthdays of the same person?

Let’s get this out there: Netflorist doesn’t care about COVID and its immense impact on South African families and the elderly, or on the financial effect this disease and its lockdown is having on livelihoods. Nope, all Netflorist cares about is filling its coffer.

It certainly doesn’t care for your loss, your bereavement or well-wishes. And it definitely doesn’t care for the birthday of some elderly person whom family cannot visit because of lockdown travel restrictions.

Instead, Netflorist will exploit the new normal by grabbing the cash and delivering the wrong items on the wrong day. Its puny and cost-effective means to then defuse things further compounds its guile.

Already many of us need to count our pennies, worrying about how we’re going to put food on the table for the coming month. We actually can’t afford flowers and gifts, yet for our loved ones we’ll make a plan. But that’s not your problem Netflorist. For you it’s all about sales, lockdown trends and projections.

Let’s get another thing out there: If I order a party clown for a birthday and get sent a three-card-********* instead, and on the wrong day, I’m not liable to pay a single cent. The birthday has passed, the guests are gone, the party’s over – you’re no longer welcome Netflorist.

How can Netflorist, if there’s no stock, or if deliveries can’t keep up with demand, allow consumers to place orders and take their money upfront? This giant in our flower and gifting market is way too comfortable with the idea of fixing things with a complimentary voucher which forces us to buy from it again (thereby making us go through the same costly nonsense one more time).

Two successive birthdays crashed by Netflorist

My aunt is a senior citizen who lives in Centurion. My family and I are from Jhb north and would visit her a few times every year and especially when it’s her birthday come 7 August. Last year however, we decided to send her something special through Netflorist. Herewith the breakdown of that order:

· 07 Aug 2019: receipt/order ***

o *** (Floral Birthday combo) R829.90

o *** (Sweet Shop Birthday 14) R39.95

o *** (Elizabeth Arden Red Door 100ml) R539.95

o Total (incl. delivery) R1409.80

So, what does Netflorist deliver for the R1409.80 paid upfront? Instead of the pricey floral birthday combo that comes with chocolates, and instead of the perfume (plus birthday balloon), my aunt got a day late single bunch of white roses. Go figure! Let’s not go into our subsequent mission with Netflorist to make things right.

Consumers are generally quick to forgive and we’re no different. Yep, call us gullible. This year we again placed a Netflorist order for her birthday:

07 Aug 2020: receipt/order *** o *** (Tickle Me Pink) R854.90

o *** (Pink roses in Delft teapot) R679.90

o Total (incl. delivery) R1534.80

Even though we had put last year’s disaster behind us, this year we certainly didn’t forget. The delivery was supposed to be on Friday 7 Aug and we started tracking the order on the same day. In the process, my mom and sister spoke to Jennifer, Lerato, Ayanda and Brenda. Various mails with pics were also sent. Bottom line, the order wasn’t received on the birthday date. Way to go Netflorist! Twice in a row!

Delivery was subsequently promised for early the next day. (Really? Why bother Netflorist? The birthday’s over, celebrations are done.) At 11H00 on Sat 8 Aug and still with no luck on delivery, I got in on the act and made a few calls. I spoke to agents Aaydene and Carmen and insisted on speaking with Wendall, Netflorist’s GM. Because Wendall was in a meeting, Carmen promised she’ll have him phone me once he’s done. But remember, Netflorist closes shop at 12H00 on a Saturday and predictably we didn’t hear another word from them.

Late Saturday afternoon my aunt finally received something, but it wasn’t what we ordered or paid for. Instead of the Delft teapot with pink roses, she got a hospital coffee mug stuffed with a couple flowers – the type of mug one can buy for R20 at any supermarket.

Is Netflorist really that flippant about what consumers have to go through to get their purchases right? Netflorist doesn’t care! What’s MD Ryan Bacher’s take on all of this? The 2019 Netflorist/Valentine’s Day debacle will not soon be forgotten:

https://www.businessinsider.co.za/netflorist-valentines-day-late-deliveries-browning-flowers-melted-chocolates-2019-2

Back then he blamed a combination of rain and loadshedding as having created the perfect ‘storm’ in the flower and gift delivery market. What’s his excuse this time? National Women’s Day?

Anyway, eventually a teapot was delivered to my aunt, and on Sunday (09 Aug) – lo and behold, a plain white, unbranded teapot which will cost you R70 elsewhere. Apparently the blue, design-glazed Delft teapot was out of stock. I lost track of the amount of phone calls from our side to get Netflorist to admit the pot’s sold out. In the meantime, they kept taking orders for it, kept taking consumers’ money, and kept trying to fix the issue with cheap replacements. How many other items does Netflorist run out of on a regular basis? How many customers simply keep quiet or are not aware that the wrong product was delivered? What then happens with the cost difference?

My aunt now has an almost complete tea set courtesy of Netflorist’s hospital crockery collection. She’s short a couple mugs, but don’t worry Netflorist, we’ll get them elsewhere at a fraction of the cost.

Ryan Bacher and Wendall Adams, no complimentary voucher of yours can make up for the Rs we spent between last year and this year, not to mention airtime costs, or the cost of our time and effort in having to deal with your company’s laughable service standard. We’d rather not have anything to do with you.

Netflorist is a smudge on our ‘proudly South African’ spirit. Please don’t order from them – do not encourage them!