NEVER EVER BUY FLOWERS FROM THIS PLACE! ABSOLUTELY THE WORST EXPERIENCE & CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER!!!

I wanted to purchase an large bouquet of roses for my amazing wife on Valentine's Day, simply because she deserved it. I've stopped buying from the large corporations and only use local florists now, due to bad experiences (wilted/dead flowers, not the right order, shattered vases, etc). I did a quick Google search on Florist in Arlington, and saw that Buckingham Florists had the highest rating and was located only a few blocks from my wife's office. I made my purchase on their website, got a confirmation email just moments later and couldn't wait for her to get them. Even before Valentine's Day had arrived, I received 2 additional emails from them that week about all the deals they had for the 14th, so that led me to believe that this place was legit.

So, I did not hear from her all day and started to get worried. I called the phone number on the site and it did not work. I called their 800 number on their site and that didn't work either. Then I called those same numbers at least 10 times more times a piece just to make sure I wasn't dialing wrong, and nothing worked. I then emailed them, and guess what, their email did not work either. That left me thinking I was completely ripped off by a fake company.

On the way home from work, I decided to stop by to see what was happening since my wife never got her flowers delivered. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to see a line of at least 10 people long, all of which were waiting to complain about their flowers not being delivered! As I waited, I noticed that the entire floor had stacks of flowers and bouquets that had delivery dates of 2/14/2011, and no way these were going to be delivered since it was almost 6pm. I attempted to find my purchase, nope, it wasn't there. When I finally got my turn to complain, I was told that she should have received the flowers, but had no way to know for sure. I knew for sure, she didn't have them! When I told them that I tried calling both phone numbers multiple times, I was told that they shut off their phones and don't answer them on Valentine's Day, for obvious reasons now known - they can't handle their own business! What made matters worse was that I never received an apology, replacement flowers, or a refund! I was told no refund was possible since the manager was in the hospital. Well I'm sorry that they were hospitalized, but that's not my problem, that is your problem. If your employees are not trained on how to use a credit/debit card machine to refund purchase that were never fulfilled and/or contact their customers who made a purchase that it would not be delievered, then you have a serious problem with your business. In order to get my money back, I had to call my bank and dispute the charges.

In short, this florist didn't care about ripping me off, did not refund my money, and didn't even have the mental capacity to refuse, cancel, or respectfully decline purchases when they didn't have the ability to handle the volume of orders. And if you can't to that on the biggest day for a florist, then you are not a florist at all. In fact, people who sell the $5-10 roses at the Metro have more quality, dignity, and by far better customer service than you.

THIS PLACE SUCKS!!!