The story of the insane florist

So there I am in Denver this past January, and I want to do something nice for my wonderful wife of more than 13 years of marriage to date. Lately she has hit a rough spot in the job market and I though it would be nice to send her flowers using an internet related service 1-800 flowers.com. I had never used a service like this to date, which is odd, because I do make many online purchases.

At any rate, I'd requested a specific date for the delivery to my home and directly to her be made, and this was to happen when I was still in Denver on the 25th of January. I returned early in the morning of the 26th only to find that this had never occurred. I promptly called 800 flowers that afternoon, to state my case. They of course agreed and offered to send them the following day or Monday, and I'd said, thanks but no thanks, I mean it did not happen when I needed it to, so why extend this another day? Refund my money, and life goes on. They did so with apologies and extended a 20% off offer in the event I wanted to try this again? Hmm,,.

Sunday afternoon, almost 24 hours later a guy rolls up to my house with some flowers, huh? He says these flowers are for you, with a smile. I thanked him, signed nothing, and he went on his way. That same afternoon I'd received an email and voice message from 800 flowers stating that I in fact did receive my flowers on the date requested as the florist confirmed I personally accepted the delivery from him?? Huh? Those comments were completed with a tone of "your charges will be reinstated due to this error. Thus stating that I'd lied about the whole thing.

After calling 800 *&^%$$.com back, I was now pissed off, being called a liar, I really have a problem with all of this. I even offered to pay for the flowers, even though reluctant at this point, it was in fact the point that they had not been delivered when I'd requested that was the problem with this now "MESS" that was happening. Again, they had my call 24 hours ago on record, and confirmed this, and they said for me to keep my money with their apologies, and in fact they were likely not going to use this florist again.
My comment was in fact this,, I'll happily pay for the flowers, I have them, but this florist has lied to you (800 flowers) in order to be paid. He has stated that the client in this case "me" received this order on time, which in this case was physically impossible. I was not in Maryland when they were scheduled to be delivered. And regardless, they were to be delivered to my wife!! So, anyways the credit to my account stuck. I did in fact get the flowers free for my troubles and a credit percentage in the event I ever wanted to go through this mess again.. Uhh yeah.

A week passed, when I'd received a call from this same local florist threatening me over the phone, claiming that he was the owner of that shop and he lived close by and was in fact coming by my house to get his flowers, cause I never paid for them. HUH? Now , it is a week later, the flowers for the most part are dead, and this guy is claiming that I got the flowers and now I owe him. In which I stated, buddy, your problem is with 1-800 flowers, not me. You delivered them late, and 24hours after I'd cancelled the order with them, in which he kept yammering on about the fact that he was coming over to get his flowers back no matter what! Thus threatening me.

Order flowers online at your own risk.

Looking for new

After 10 years with my current employer I have started looking into what my value on the market may be. I am sorry to say that simply finding employers that are willing to return your responses are few and far in between.

With todays job search engines, monster.com etc.. the chances of actually finding what you want are numerous, however the chances you will even be called is a needle in a haystack. Employers are flooded with applications and resumes, to the point that many good ones likely do not even get read. It is quite a few hoops one has to jump through just to submit a resume. Most everyone has one written, and saved. You update it periodically in hopes that when you need it, it is ready to go.

However, these resumes prove almost worthless due to how the online sites work. The in fact make you do all of the work from scratch. In many cases at best you may be able to cut and paste components, but it is not by any stretch simple and fast. It is cumbersome. This has to improve.

Employment is hard enough to find as it is, but when you are unemployed, spending days plowing through this mess is a loss of time, and simply wasted time spent. Period.