Cameron Olthuis

I’ve just re-read the 4 Hour Work Week for the 3rd time and if I don’t find some new reading material I’m going to start on it again. Not that that’s a bad thing.

I love that book so if you have anything similar let me know. Otherwise, I’m looking for business, motivational, or life hack type books. I’d love to hear some of your ‘must reads’. Thanks.

I’ve never used one of the online flower delivery services before and after Valentine’s Day I know why. FTD, which is one of the larger flower sites, dropped the ball for me in a big way and basically left me with no options on getting the women in my family flowers.

So on Valentine’s morning, being the nice guy that I am and all, I decided to get online and order some flowers for my mom and both of my sisters. I checked around on all the different sites to see who could guarantee delivery on the same day I placed the order. I ended up placing four very large orders (flowers on Valentine’s Day aren’t cheap) with FTD since they were the ones that promised delivery on that same day. Yes, they promised even on Valentine’s Day. I had placed my order around 8:30 AM and had been waiting anxiously all day for that call from my mom telling me what a wonderful son I am. It never came. Instead, around 3:30 that afternoon and the emails from FTD start rolling in, one after another…

Unfortunately, at this time we do not have a florist available in your recipient’s delivery area who can deliver your product on 2/14.

Ok, so getting an email like that at 3:30 does nothing to help my cause of getting flowers to my family members on that day. By that time all the florists where way to buys to accept new orders and being hundreds of miles away from family I couldn’t just run down and get them. If FTD didn’t have the florist available in my area they should have never taken my order in the first place. Why offer something you know isn’t available in the first place. Second, they shouldn’t have waited until 3:30 in the afternoon to let me know. By that time I was basically out of options like I mentioned.

All-in-all I had placed four separate orders on Valentine’s day with FTD and not a single one of the made it to their destination. The fourth order showed up on Tuesday the 19th and the three others suffered the fate of no florists in the area. By the way, they never did alert me that the fourth order wouldn’t make it that day.

In conclusion I just want to reiterate the fact that FTD sucks and never in my life will I do business with them. If getting flowers to your loved ones on time is important to you I’d recommend you don’t use them either. I’m not one to complain about companies that screw me over, but I just can’t let this one go.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, or whatever it is that you might celebrate this time of year. Hope you all enjoy the time away from the hustle & bustle and get to spend some quality time with family and friends. Cheers!

I’m looking to hire a programmer that can do some serious slicing and dicing with WordPress. If this sounds like you, or if you have a good referral, please let me know.

Thanks.

Brian Provost and I are trying to organize a little golf outing during PubCon Las Vegas, unofficially dubbed The PubCon Open. If any of you are interested in playing some golf while in Las Vegas for PubCon let me know. I’d be happy to take some money from you on the course