"Guaranteed" delivery and snowstorms...

UPDATE: Be sure to read the "real" updates at the bottom of the post!

ORIGINAL POST
Yesterday being Valentine's Day and all, I placed an order several days ago with a company that has always been easy and impressive to work with, ProFlowers.com. Being an important day for those of us in the 'married' category, I even opted to pay an extra $9.99 to guarantee 2/14 delivery. Enter Mother Nature...

The snowstorms in the Midwest prevented daughterinlawofasillyperson from receiving said order on said date, and as of right now, I have no more information on FedEx's shipment tracking page beyond "Departed Indianapolis: 6:22 AM this morning." Now, brilliant technological achivements of FedEx's distribution channel aside, quite frankly, this just wasn't enough information for me, so I went to my ProFlowers account information page, where I was greeted with the following update:

Certain parts of the country are experiencing extreme weather conditions. We know you are concerned about your flower deliveries.

Now, maybe I'm a bit on the overexpectant side, being an MBA and a former university instructor of Business Ethics (not to mention current peon - and formerly a customer-facing peon - in a corporate environment), but what's the point of a message like that, other than absolving the company of any responsibility? It can reasonably be interpreted as dismissive and condescending, and worst of all, it does absolutely nothing to tell me what in the world they're planning to do to rectify the situation.

Truth be told, I'm semi-occasionally a reasonable person, and I'd understand and probably not throw a big stink if they told me that they weren't refunding my $9.99 'on-time guarantee' surcharge because the weather is beyond their control and those of us in the Upper Midwest should probably be willing to expect a reasonable amount of risk of weather-related delays in mid-February. But put it on your web page for crying out loud!!!

Since they obviously did not, some poor fellow peon in their customer service department needs to deal with my original complaint last night, as well as my suggestion that their leadership team 'cowboy up' and make a public announcement as to what their rectification plan is for this - all during what would have otherwise already been one of their busiest days of the year. They don't need to refund my money (though I'd gladly accept it if they did), but my future as a ProFlowers customer is riding on their leadership's responsibility to make a decision, communicate that decision, and deliver any promises of said decision.

Since I know you're all biting your nails in anticipation of the outcome of this foofaraw, I'll keep you posted...


12:30 PM(ish) Update: For those of you who are just now reading this - first, where the heck have you been!?! Second, DO NOT neglect to read the comments that follow the post! An impressive reply from Hannah at ProFlowers was posted within hours of my initial entry. A company with a corporate conscience strong enough that its employees are actively seeking out Internet buzz regarding a workplace-semi-crisis is a company that deserves my business, and yours too.

2:00 PM(ish) Update: Hannah and I have exchanged a good-spirited volley of emails, and I can assure you that she is a wonderful ambassador for a company that clearly has the right attitude towards its customers. And, daughterinlawofasillyperson received her flowers about 45 minutes ago. Patience is indeed a virtue, as they say, and I've proven (as if there were any doubt) that I'm anything but virtuous... Ah well, I've got a story to tell in the University ranks anyway...