Community Update

Our experience w/Art Flower & Gift Shoppe was so horrific that I'm sharing so others don't make same mistake of hiring them for their wedding. IF YOU'RE EVEN CONSIDERING THEM, YOU NEED TO READ THIS! I met w/owner, Keith, 8/14/13 & hired him, mistakenly assuming his nice personality was genuine as we went over each detail for our coral wedding. He made suggestions & I just trusted him. I told him we had a budget & he kept saying "I'll work w/you." We agreed on a $ & he said he didn't need a deposit, but just needed entire bill paid cash. He also offered to make me a centerpiece & told me to come Fri to see it & make sure we were happy w/it. Fri we went in, but Keith said he didn't have the centerpiece ready & that he'd get the flowers & make it over the wkend. He promised to email it & also offered for me to come back Mon to see it. We trusted him & gave him $500 cash deposit. He said we didn't need to, but I wanted to, to show our good faith. Contract stated he needed entire bill paid in cash 10 days prior to wedding. Keith said to my husband and I, "Don't even worry about that. You don't have to drive to Rockville Centre. Just pay me on day of the wedding." Over a week later, still no email from Keith or his partner, Debbie, w/the centerpieces. I called at least 3 x next wk & left msgs w/Debbie. Still no call back from Keith & no email. I called Debbie again. Funny how nice Keith was when he sold me. Once he had us, he doesn't keep his word of showing us centerpieces or even calling back. I also told Debbie I wanted to make sure my flower girl's hair flowers were coral & wanted to also add a boutonnière for Uncle. Debbie sends back new contract w/$92 added & says flowers for her hair were never in original contract. We spoke about them at length, but he never put them in contract? Keith finally calls me back when I complained about calling 4x w/out a call back from him. Debbie finally emailed me photo of centerpieces, 2 wks late & now just couple days b4 wedding. It had some orchids we spoke about, but no other flowers. I told Keith I needed something coral, even if it's just a couple coral daisies, spider mums or whatever he could do. I told him 4 diff flowers I liked and said I'd leave it to him, trusting his judgment. I showed my husband the photo. He hated it, saying "looks like twigs thrown together in a tall vase; something that blew out of hurricane Sandy. Where's the flowers?", he said. When Keith finally called he kept saying, "it's in the contract...It's what we agreed on." Well I'm sorry I was picturing more orchids & some actual flowers in our arrangements. Already over budget, my husband went there, now 1 day before wedding, & agreed to an extra $300 for some geraniums. Keith then said to him, "I'll see you tomorrow and you can pay me the balance then." He said he'd be there, @ Villa Lombardi's, Never enforcing his "Need to get paid cash 10 days in advance" policy. Now, day of wedding, I'm at mom's getting ready, waiting for flowers to be delivered. Hair girl couldn't finish our hair til hair pieces came, being delivered at 3:30, according to contract. 4:07 flower delivery girl comes late & says, "I'm here to pick up a balance." I told her, "My husband met w/Keith yesterday & Keith said he'd see him at the hall and get paid there." Debbie then calls me & says, "We made it perfectly clear to your husband that the balance was to be paid prior to anything getting delivered! We won't deliver anything til we get our balance!" Now I have my hair 1/2 done & wedding ceremony's in 3 hrs. No flowers released & everything's now on hold for their cash balance. Couldn't believe this was happening! My husband was getting ready in Bethpage, called Debbie & told her conversation he had w/Keith yesterday. Debbie talked over him, yelling they "made it perfectly clear that balance was to be paid in cash at my mother's house." After what felt like forever, Keith insisted on sending someone to my house, where was husband was getting ready w/his groomsmen, to collect his cash. THEN he finally released the flowers @ my mom's. This made us late getting to the hall & the stress Keith caused us on our day was unimaginable. Nobody at my mom's could BELIEVE that he did this to us on our day. The hair & makeup girls heard Debbie on the phone, telling me they wouldn't even release a petal w/out their ENTIRE CASH balance. They all noted the name "Art Flower & Gift Shoppe in Rockville Centre" & said they wanted to tell their clients to never use them! We would've paid him the cash balance he demanded in advance IF HE ACTUALLY TOLD US HE NEEDED THAT! HE TOLD MY HUSBAND "Don't worry about it. I'LL SEE YOU AT THE HALL." Needless to say, Keith never showed up at the hall like he said he would. You don't do business like that. Especially when ppl are depending on you on their wedding day! DON'T TRUST THIS FLORIST!