Flowers To Russia Dot Com

[I/O]

After a decade or thereabouts of travel in and out of the FSU, some near misses and being touched for a dime or two here and there, I do actually believe I may have finally been openly ripped off LOL.
 
Due to ignorance, laziness or both, years back I used (severally) www.flowerstorussia.com which I've never bothered to check their base location as they appear to be linked to local florists and contractors. The service has always been superb, Mrs I/O received 3 lots of birthday flowers from me and goodness knows what all else in between via them and their local delivery contractor. It was a laugh when the same local contractor quipped to potential Mrs I/O that he'd see her again next year, she assured him he would NOT. If I/O hadn't gotten off his arse by then, he'd probably have been consigned to a warmer climate as it were.

Anyway, a reputable mob so far as I'm (was) concerned and most recently mother-in-law suffered the indignity of celebrated her 50th birthday. We were on holidays and of course Mrs I/O had left her phone number index at home thus we couldn't simply call up the local florist in her home city and have flowers delivered could we. I/O being the "solve all problems" husband had the solution, we'll just order online as I did years back and have them sent. Much arguing ensued as Mrs I/O was adamant she could purchase much more for much less if she could simply call up any of several florists she knew of but of course most didn't accept credit card over the phone so it went on and on. I/O won out after a day or three of arguing and we (after about 67 hours of viewing possible selections) placed an online order with a value of about $150 USD.
 
I've often considered the internet much like the stock market, a very effective means of moving money from impatient people to patient people. Seemingly, I'm right............and $150 USD up the sch!t shoot with nothing to show for it other than a receipt, FTR don't answer my emails, calls or whatever.
 
Bottom line, I was told years back if I headed east of the Berlin Wall or touched anything with a "Stan" on the end of it, I was bound to be ripped off somewhere along the line LOL, apparently solid advice, Caveat Emptor. I'm assuming FTR have gone bust or some such.............

[Spoon]

I/O, perhaps it was http://www.flowers-to-russia.com/ you used all those years ago, the hyphens make all the difference. I think they are associated with http://www.roses.ru/ who I have used several times, in fact Mrs Spoon received a bunch just yesterday, I've never had any problems at all with them. I just noticed they also had other florist website links in their emails to me, and one of them was flowers-to-russia.com.

[TwoBitBandit]

Spoon, you may be right.  I've used Flowers To Russia before without any issues, and so I was surprised to see this thread.

I did a search on my email inbox, and sure enough it was http://www.flowers-to-russia.com I was using (with hyphens).  This site also uses the alternate domains  http://www.florist.ru , http://www.roses.ru and http://www.russianflowershop.com .   Changing the topic slightly... I've also used http://www.RussianService.com without any issues.

So the moral of the story is this: "don't leave home without your hyphens."

[I/O]

Nope, same mob I used years back.

[Vincenzo]

Have you checked the prices at your local florist?
$150 will buy you just a so-so bouquet.

[I/O]

Vincenzo: Had we been at home with more information and facilities at our finger tips, we might well have done another thing.

[Vincenzo]

I visited a few flower shops in Siberia.
Beautiful single roses were not very expensive, about $6.
But bouquets were really expensive. I don't know the reason.

[Phil dAmore]

I visited a few flower shops in Siberia.
Beautiful single roses were not very expensive, about $6.
But bouquets were really expensive. I don't know the reason.

Bouquets are expensive for the same reason fruit baskets are expensive.  They are time consuming to assemble and depending on the season some items can be difficult to find.
 
I assure you that there is more to it than sticking a bunch of flowers in a vase or wrapping them up.  It's an art form for sure.