To hold out for a refund?

[PapardelleFitzgerald]

My mother celebrated her 99th birthday last Saturday. On Tues I ordered a large & costly bouquet to be sent to her home in France as I was not able to travel in person. I specified the delivery date and that these were for a birthday. They were not delivered.
When I complained to the company, I was told that sometimes flowers are held up in transit, and that this could take a few days. But apparently it's OK because they are packed in water and have plant food for when they eventually arrive.
I am now on round four of complaining. Rounds two and three were the offer of a credit of £5.99 against future orders and a refund of the delivery charge. I've specified they must either provide a fresh order minus delivery charge or give a full refund.
I can't believe a flower delivery business doesn't show any commitment to meeting a specified delivery date with fresh flowers, given that people generally send flowers to mark special dates and events. A half dead bouquet arriving the week after a 99th birthday surely isn't good enough!
AIBU to insist on a full refund?

That sounds awful and no, I've never come across such poor customer service if a specific date was specified for delivery. I don't know the legality of a refund but have you read their T&C's? No harm is asking though.

What company did you order from? I send bouquets to family abroad often, but I call a local florist to arrange it. If I don't speak the language proficiently enough, I order online from a local store website- rather than using a larger company such as inter flora etc. I hope your mum had a lovely birthday otherwise x

If you paid with a credit card just initiate a chargeback and claim 'item not delivered when requested'. You will get your money back from your credit card company. This is the easiest way. Note that you have a limited time to do so, so don't let the florist mess you around until your window to initiate a chargeback expires - usually 120 days but check with your card provider (let's hope you did pay with a credit card).

@JDM625 I'll DM you the name of the company so you don't ever use them. They did reger me to their Ts & Cs when I first complained, and I imagine there's no legal recourse if they fail to deliver on the date specified. But I can't get my head around the indifference they are showing. And I'm picturing those flowers slowly wilting in the back of a lorry somewhere outside Dover...

@updabanff thank you that's an excellent suggestion. But I used a debit card sadly. Live and learn!

You can do a chargeback on a debit card. You have done the first step by trying to rectify the situation with the retailer now you contact your bank within 120 days of the transaction.
Happy Birthday to your Mum and hope the situation is resolved.

Why would they send flowers from the uk to France? That’s barmy.

Did you order them from a company in France or the UK? If the latter (which it sounds like from your previous posts), then unfortunately post-Brexit customs processes are very unpredictable and I’d imagine they’ve written it into their terms and conditions that they cannot guarantee a specific delivery date and they’ve mitigated any problems by packing the flowers to withstand such delays.
As frustrating as this is, I think it’s just an unfortunate issue to be expected when sending flowers internationally.

Did they actually give you an drop down box to specify a date for delivery to france? That's unusual!

They can put what they like in their T&Cs, but if it's contrary to consumer law it's irrelevant.

They agreed to deliver on a certain date and then didn't.

Usually it's enough just to threaten them with doing a chargeback as the the bank imposes an extra free on top.

You sent them from the UK to France? I think that was a bit risky, there’s often hold ups.

Did you order from a UK company?

You ordered flowers to be sent from the UK to France? That's insane. Have you not heard of Brexit? You have to aware of all the issues and delays at customs and border control, particular with living goods like plants. Of course the company couldn't guarantee delivery at a particular day. You should have ordered from a French company.

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Interesting takes on this, thank you. I certainly wouldn't think in terms of ordering flowers to be shipped from UK to France, but assumed the company would contract with local business to fulfil the order. I guess that's my essential mistake, to think the Interflora model is the standard- apart from any other consideration, there's no good reason for retail flowers to have to make that journey. (Interflora was not the company in question. BTW.)
If there's a retail operation shipping made-up bouquets overseas you would expect them to specify a longer lead time for delivery. Otherwise they must have customer orders not properly fulfilled all the time.