Whenever it comes to advertised products, there’s always the underlying joke that the product seen on screen never lives up to expectations in reality.
Most of us just shrug it off now, since it’s not like we can pull out Adobe Photoshop CS6 or After Effects in real life to shape up the product in our hands, and sellers have the tendency to exaggerate in order to make their products more appealing.
But in this case with a flower vendor, never has the camera angle been so selective, and… one-sided.
A Basket Case of Flowers
On 29 April, Clarice Teo took to Facebook to share her experience with the flower shop called Seasons by Dahlia.
Teo initially ordered a flower basket from their website as a neat birthday present to herself, and from the Season by Dahlia’s advertised photographs on their website, plus the quality consistency seen on their Instagram page, it seemed like a worthwhile purchase.
When she picked up her order, however, she was proven grievously wrong.
Even though the front-face of the flower basket was nearly a perfect imitation, half of the flowers were missing.
Hence, Teo took to Facebook to air her honest opinion, claiming that there was “no avenue for (her) to provide a review about the product”.
She also cautioned any readers to take her opinion with a grain of salt, since it was just her own “personal opinion”, and they should exercise discretion when making purchases from Seasons by Dahlia.
While Teo was speaking from a point of dissatisfaction, her review seems unbiased enough as she calmly writes about her experience and later interactions with the staff, though it should be noted that her post has been edited after she was nearly sued for defamation.
A Bunch of Mixed Messages
First and foremost, is it fair for Clarissa Teo to complain about feeling “confused”, or perhaps cheated by the fact that her purchase was half-empty when she paid $108 for it?
And this isn’t some kind of “Are you a ‘half-empty’ or ‘half-full’ type of person” question, it’s just the matter of professional standards and work ethics.
I’d argue that she has every right to be dissatisfied as a customer, especially given how much she paid for a basket of flower arrangements.
Afterwards, Teo reached out to Seasons by Dahlia to “better understand the flowers (she) received”, and she attached images of the WhatsApp conversation that proceeded to ensue.
From the messages, the flower vendor apologised for the misunderstanding and claimed that the baskets on their website are “always one-sided unless stated”.
Um, shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t the flower baskets always be full, unless the description states that it’s one-sided? It’s pertinent information, after all.
Teo proceeds to point that out bluntly.
She also mentions how the quality was a bit lacking, such that they didn’t even bother to cover up the sponge at the bottom and expressed her disappointment regarding the flowers she received.
Lastly, she offers a reasonable ultimatum: give her a refund or fill up the other half of the basket.
In response, the flower vendor states, “We’ve never had issues after purchase that the basket is only one sided.”
Feeling sceptical about their reply, Teo suggests that she should ask for the social media users’ feedback regarding the situation (which she eventually did), since it would be a fairer judgement than their individual opinions.
It appears that she sent a video of the flower basket to a group chat later (the screenshot is vague at best), with one of the participants commenting, “Why liddat. If store bought, I would be pissed.”
By this point, Seasons by Dahlia has clearly realised that Teo wouldn’t be backing down so easily.
They don’t offer another apology.
Instead, they said that she could have checked with them before making the purchase, elaborating that their baskets have always been one-sided from their website.
Clarissa Teo: Takes a moment of silence to breathe, probably.
Sorry not sorry, but you’ve deliberately only taken the front-face of the Mariposa design, while putting an Instagram photo at the bottom that shows a full basket.
What else was the customer supposed to assume?
The Process of Refund
The store chooses the latter option, agreeing to give her a full refund on the terms that she returned the flower basket.
From her Facebook post, it appears that Teo initially declined that offer because a ‘refund’ would mean that the product was defective, which it was not, it just wasn’t filled to the brim as she led to believe.
Teo eventually settles with the refund, knowing that it’s a losing battle to continue the argument.
The refund process wasn’t without hiccups either.
The flower store said they would pick it up the next day, but Teo didn’t receive a response afterwards from 5pm to 9pm.
They only responded the next day, only giving Teo a 15-minute timeframe as to when the pick-up would happen, which is incredibly rude.
Sure enough, Teo was occupied in the meeting until 10am that day, while the driver was arriving at 9:30am, which mean the driver had to wait for her for half an hour.
According to the Mothership, the flower basket has been collected by Seasons by Dahlia’s driver and the store is in the middle of processing her refund, which will take a week due to the payment method.
A Cluster of Legal Threats
After Clarissa Teo published her Facebook post on 29 April, it didn’t take long for it to gain some traction.
At the very least, it was enough to catch Season by Dahlia’s attention, as they sent her a strongly worded request to take down the post after seeking legal advice from their lawyer.
They detailed they had responded to her within 24 hours and didn’t see why she had to quote that they went missing.
Following, they said that they have apologised and refunded her accordingly, and repeated their request for her to take down the post immediately, for the sake of “minimising further damage”.
Hey, I thought Singapore was a country that supported free speech and honesty, where did those values go?
The flower vendor issued four warnings in total, with each being more threatening than the next.
The final one read:
“Hello Clarice, I am at my lawyer’s office to seek advice on defamation against you for making unsubstantiated and baseless comments on our company. Lawyer confirmed that your words are defamatory. We now demand that you take down all posts on our company immediately, failing which we will seek aggravated damages against you in court. My lawyer is now preparing the Writ of Summons against you which will be delivered to you personally.”
Wow, they’re really timely when it comes to delivering orders, huh.
Needless to say, Teo updated and edited her Facebook post to make it sound less defamatory.
Considering how Teo didn’t mention the flower company taking further legal action against her, the edits were enough to appease the other party.
Props to her though, for not taking down the post as they wished, and still explicitly stating Seasons by Dahlia by name and keeping all the photographic evidence intact, while including the legal threats she received.
Now, Teo is merely stating objective facts, and I have a hunch it might have worsened Seasons by Dahlia’s reputation even further.
Florist’s Side of the Story
Two days after Teo’s personal review, Seasons by Dahlia stepped into the public eye to explain their side of the story.
Firstly, they emphasised that “it is NOT our intention to scam / cheat anybody’s money” and apologised if any of their customers have felt that way.
In explicit terms, they write that the problem with Clarissa Teo has ended with a fully processed refund and the flower basket has been collected back.
Next, they make it a point to explain why the Mariposa flower arrangement is so expensive despite being one-sided.
Apparently, the Mariposa flower arrangement is composed of preserved flowers from Japan, which is significantly more expensive than fresh flowers by virtue of the flower species and materials used to retain the flower’s beauty long-term.
The full flower baskets typically featured on Season by Dahlia’s Instagram page are fresh flowers, which are much cheaper.
In order to ensure the quality of their flower arrangements while keeping it at a reasonable price, all of their preserved flower baskets are always front-facing (half).
For the sake of avoiding future misunderstandings, the information has been listed on their website, just as Teo had requested.
The Mariposa flower basket has also been taken off their website, in light of how expensive it would be to fill the entire basket to the brim.
Finally, they reasoned that they had sought legal advice in the first place because Teo’s first Facebook draft was defamatory towards the company.
Their lawyer had agreed with them, which was why they contacted Teo to take down the posts. Now that the post has been edited to simply state the facts, they no longer have any issues with it.
Seasons by Dahlia promises to improve as it moves forward from this incident.
Towards the netizens who have been sending death threats and curses, don’t.
It accomplishes nothing besides wasting time that’s better spent on something else.
In the end, it’s just a basket of flowers, jeez, there’s no need to start digging graves.
If you need reference for what funeral flowers are though, white roses and chrysanthemums are usually the most appropriate.
Featured Images: Facebook (Clarissa Teo)
