Before you buy flowers for your sweetie, a warning about online purchases

PITTSBURGH — With Valentine’s Day close, Channel 11 has a warning for anyone who plans to order flowers online after a Mars area man said his coworkers ordered him flowers for a funeral and they never came.

“My coworkers did a web search, Mars PA flower shop, and results pulled up your local flower shop, Troy’s Florist,” said Timothy Mascari.

If you’ve got a consumer issue that you’d like Angie to investigate, contact her at amoreschi@wpxi.com.

A unique arrangement made up of flowers and a cross was supposed to comfort Mascari while he mourned the loss of his mother-in-law. After seeing on Troy’s Florist website, “Thank you for supporting a local florist.” Mascari’s coworkers spent more than $100 on the arrangement in December.

“The last viewing time, my coworkers came, and I was looking for the flowers they purchased and nobody could find them,” said Mascari.

When the coworkers contacted the company, they got an email saying the flowers were left at the funeral home, but the funeral home said they never arrived.

Mascari filed a compliant with the Better Business Bureau and learned that Troy’s Florist is based in New Jersey and has an "F" rating and 352 complaints. Many of the complaints are similar to Mascari’s and many people offered a refund report never getting any money back.

Better Business Bureau Western Pennsylvania spokesperson, Caitlin Driscoll said Troy’s Florist isn’t technically scamming people.

“They’re using misleading tactics that their customer service and tends to have some questionable practices based on the feedback that we’re hearing from consumers,” she said.

Channel 11 tried calling and emailing the company, but didn’t get many answers. We found that Troy’s Florist is an actual business with 48 complaints filed against them through the New Jersey Attorney Generals Office.

The best advice from the BBB is do your research before ordering especially during popular time of year to send flowers.

“In many instances especially around this time of year it’s not uncommon for companies to purchase higher sponsored advertisements to purchase certain keywords to appear higher in search results online, so people think that they’re ordering from a local company when that’s not the case,” said Driscoll.

RAW INTERVIEW: BBB on how to protect yourself during online flower purchases RAW INTERVIEW: BBB on how to protect yourself during online flower purchases

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