S’pore florist threatens customer with legal action after she reviewed S$108 one-sided flower basket – Mothership.SG

Follow us on Telegram for the latest updates: https://t.me/mothershipsg

One Clarice Teo has taken to Facebook to talk about her experience with a local florist, Seasons By Dahlia.

Teo was dissatisfied with a flower basket that she had ordered from the site as a birthday present to herself, saying that she was “confused” about why she “received half a basket of flowers when what (she) ordered was one basket of flowers”.

Here’s the flower basket in question:

Teo alleged that she put up a Facebook post because there was “no avenue for (her) to provide a review about the product”. She also cautioned Facebook users that they should treat her review as her “personal opinion” and exercise discretion when deciding on a purchase from Seasons By Dahlia.

What happened

Teo recounted that she chanced upon the florist, which advertised “beautiful arrangements”, and ordered a floral arrangement for herself in celebration of her own birthday.

She paid S$108 for an arrangement called the “Mariposa”, which was listed with this photo:

This is the basket that Teo allegedly received:

Sought clarification with the florist

Teo then contacted Seasons By Dahlia to “better understand the basket of flowers (she) received, and a conversation ensued”.

WhatsApp messages that were allegedly exchanged between the parties showed Seasons By Dahlia apologising for the “misunderstanding” and explaining that all baskets on their site “are all one sided unless (otherwise) stated”.

When Teo asked for a refund, the other party stated that she “could have checked with (them) before making the purchase” and claimed that they have “never had issues after purchase” with regard to their one-sided baskets. . They added that they will “issue a refund happily once the basket is returned”.

According to Teo, the flower basket has since been picked up by a Seasons By Dahlia’s driver, and the store is processing her refund, which will take a week or so to be completed due to the payment method that she chose.

Seasons By Dahlia’s response

The florist allegedly contacted Teo after her April 29 Facebook post, stating that they sought “legal advice from (their) lawyer”, and requested her to “put down the post immediately” to “minimise further damages”.

In a subsequent message, they wrote:

Hello Clarice, I am at my lawyer’s office to seek advice on defamation against you for making unsubstantiated and baseless comments on our company. Lawyer confirmed your words are defamatory. We now demand that you take down all posts on our company immediately, failing which we will seek aggravated damages against you in court. My lawyer is now preparing the Writ of Summons against you which will be delivered to you personally.

Teo said in an April 30 update that she edited her post because she received “4 separate messages from them demanding (her) to take down my post or they will proceed with legal action”.

Florist’s side of the story

Seasons by Dahlia has since uploaded a Facebook post of their own to explain what happened.

In it, they claimed that it is “NOT (their) intention to scam / cheat anybody’s money” and that they are “truly sorry if (they) made anyone feel that way”. They admitted that “the sponge that is able to be seen for other designs has not be as severely obvious as the Mariposa design”, that it is their “fault for not checking before the basket went out” and “should have phrased (their) reply better”.

They added that the price point of the basket is due to the “expensive flowers” — including flowers that are “imported from Japan”.

In addition, the florist has decided to discontinue the basket design as filling up the basket would “increase the cost”.

Seasons by Dahlia confirmed that they consulted a lawyer, and stood by their actions as Teo’s “first post (before any edit) was defamatory towards (them)”, and acknowledged that “she has since edited it to simply state facts”.

The florist ended off their post by saying that they are “striving to do better and move forward from this incident”, asking commenters to be “kind” and not send any “death threats or curse words”.

Follow and listen to our podcast here

Top photos via Clarice Teo