Blooming Britain www.bloomingbritain.com - Prior August 2006 Review

Overall Rating

Absolutely none.

Everything.

I placed my order with Blooming Britain on June 5th 2006 and I was charged on the same day for three different gift baskets. One was a luxury hamper, one was for fruit and chocolates, and the third was for flowers and balloons. I ordered it all, almost $500.00 worth, for an elderly lady going through chemotherapy in England. Well, I received an email from Blooming Britain on June 8th 2006 stating that "there was a problem with my credit card, and that they would not be able to process the order or deliver the items", but when I received my bill from my credit card, I had in fact been charged for all three orders that were never delivered. When I contacted the company on June 12, 2006, Blooming Britain confirmed that no delivery was made, and that a lady from the refunds department would be back in two days, and when she returned she would issue a refund. When I called back on June 15 to confirm the refund, she was not there again, and the refund was not done. I called again on June 19 and the same man with the Scottish accent was claiming to be a worker for British Telecom. He stated that the phone lines were down! I had a bad feeling that it was the same man that I had been speaking to about my refund over the last two weeks, and so I called another number that I had for the same company, and the same thing happened. The same man with the strong distinguishing Scottish accent now claimed to be another worker for British Telecom, and he stated that they were taking messages for the company, and they were sending messages to them every thirty minutes because there was a technical problem with the line! Well, I used to live in England, and this is not normal practice for a phone company to become your own personal secretary! I even called British Telecom myself to confirm this. None has ever called me since, even though I passed the message on to the "British Telecom" worker, and I told then that it was a very urgent matter! I have tried calling four different numbers, faxing and emailing to three different addresses, and no-one is getting back to me, and no refund has been made. My bank is now conducting an investigation concerning Blooming Britain.

UPDATE: June 20, 2006
I have tried contacting the company via email, facsimile and phone several times. The company provides five (5) contact numbers on their website. After trying numerous times since the 12th of June, it is evident that four out of five numbers are not valid, and the one number that DOES work goes through to an answering machine with the same man's voice, and that machine does not allow messages to be left for the company.
I have tried both websites listed on my credit card statement, and both are not working websites. I have also contacted the local British telephone company, and they have confirmed that the billing postcode (UK zip code) listed on my bank statement does not match the area in Scotland where the phone number is listed, or the city where they claim the company is located on the website. I have been trying to reach them repeatedly, but with no success since June 12, 2006. I have also sent multiple email enquiries to the email addresses, but NO-ONE has EVER responded to me.

**As of June 24, I still have no refund, or response to my emails or a call back from Blooming Britain! I have since changed my credit card number, and my bank will give me a refund and then go after them.