Which flower delivery service to use?

I want to send flowers to my friend to brighten her day. I know there are a lot of companies that will deliver flowers for you. Does anyone have good things to say about them? I'd like delivery prices to be reasonable as well. Any pleasant experiences?

Which flower delivery service to use?
There are two kinds of "flower delivery" services available on the Internet: (1) Direct Shippers and (2) Order Gatherers.





Direct Shippers will ship your flowers from their warehouse to the destination by Fedex/UPS. The flowers will come in a box, unarranged. ProFlowers is the best-known example, but all the national "florists" companies, such as FTD and 1-800-flowers, also offer direct shipping services. Basically they are flower wholesalers.





Order Gatherers are middlemen. They take your order and electronically transfer it to a real florist in the town you want to send flowers to. They earn a sales commission in the process. FTD.com, 1-800-flowers.com, Teleflora.com are Order Gatherers. FTD sends your order through Mercury network, while 1-800 does it through Bloomnet. Your flowers are not made by these companies; rather, they are made by a local florist who participates in their network. There are numerous flower Order Gatherers on the Internet. Again, they are not florists. Some of them are scam, so be careful.





The problem of using Order Gatherer is that basically you are throwing a dice, meaning that you have no control over who actually makes and delivers your arrangement. Your flower order may end up being sent to a sub-standard flower shop.





Besides, Order Gatherer will charge you a Service charge, which is usually about $12. Remember that this is not a delivery charge. The delivery charge will be further substracted from the money you pay.





Let's say you click on a $50 arrangement. You would be paying $50+$12 service charge. But your receipient will receive only ~$40 ($50 minus delivery charge) flowers.





By calling a local florist direct, you would save at least the Service charge. I'd recommend you to look for a local florist by Google/Yahoo local and take a look at their web site. Choose the one that shows a unique array of arrangements, not just cookie-cutter arrangements.
Reply:I've always used 1-800-flowers. They are not too expensive and they have really nice arrangements. They delivery pretty much everywhere. I haven't had a bad experience. Hope I was helpful!!!
Reply:I do NOT recommend 1-800-flowers, my Valentine's flowers arrived in a box and I had to assemble the entire thing plus some of the roses were brown at the edges. I suggest you call a local flower shop in your friend's area.