Ideally, when you order flowers from your local florist online, you expect the recipient to accept your flowers and the message you convey. Whether you’re sending congratulations, sympathy, or admiration, flowers are a great way to do this. A flower bouquet is almost always well-received by the recipient. You can easily send flowers to the recipient’s home, workplace, hospital, or at a funeral home.
The ideal situation would be your recipient accepting and enjoying your flowers. But what if the recipient refuses the flowers? In what situations do recipients refuse a flower delivery? Also, if you are the recipient, you may be wondering if you can refuse flowers delivered to your home or workplace. And if yes, how will you do it? This article will show you how it’s done and what the consequences are when this happens.
Why recipients refuse flower delivery?
There are different scenarios our flower delivery guys handle every now and then for flower delivery refusal. It is not a common thing but it does happen. Here are some of the reasons why recipients may refuse your flower bouquet delivery:
- Surprise– Not everyone likes the gesture of a surprise flower delivery. This depends on your relationship with the recipient. Your timing may simply be off or the recipient just doesn’t want surprises. When this happens, our flower delivery guys may encourage the recipient to accept your surprise gift but we won’t push it.
- Anonymous sender– Our florists sometimes receive delivery requests where the sender requests to be anonymous. They may not be considered by taking credit as long as they send the gesture. But, this gesture can clearly backfire. While some accept gifts from secret admirers, your gift may come off as stalking to some.
- Explicitly requested– If you are sending flowers to a hospital, funeral home, or residence for a person who gets sick or for the family of a deceased friend, make sure you first find out if it’s ok to send flowers. Some families send public notice along with the obituary that they are not accepting flowers. If you insist, your flower delivery may be rejected even if you meant well.
- Rules– When sending flowers to offices and hospitals, make sure you call the lobby staff in advance and find out if they are accepting flowers. Some hospitals and workplaces do not allow sending flowers to their vicinity. When this happens, our flower delivery guys must abide by the rules.
- Rejection– At times, it is the recipient’s way to send a message of rejection to their admirer or to the sender. If they already told you to back off or to stop sending them flowers to their workplace or residence, it is best to respect their wishes. So if you sent apology flowers and got a notice of refusal, this may mean rejection of the message you are trying to convey as well.
How can I refuse flower delivery?
Our flower delivery guys are tasked to bring the flowers to the addresses provided to them. They are not cupids, neither are they lobbyists who will fight for your message to be delivered through the flowers. If the recipient does not want the flowers, they have every right to refuse them. If you are the receiver of the flowers and you do not want them, we encourage you to do the following:
- Donate– Senior homes and hospice care will do well with a lovely arrangement of fresh-cut live flowers on their tables. If you don’t like flowers, we may encourage you to donate the flowers to others instead.
- Distribute– You may also consider giving the flowers to spread joy in your workplace or neighborhood. A flower for every person can go a long way to brighten up their day without making the sender feel sad. These first two options are for those who feel uncomfortable letting the sender know they don’t like the flowers, especially if the sender is a relative, a business associate, or a close family friend.
- Call sender– You may want to call the sender first to check if it was them who sent the flowers and their reason for doing so, especially if you explicitly requested not to do so. This is applicable for those whom you have a close relationship with and can be blunt.
- Let the flower delivery guy deal with it– You can simply tell the flower delivery guy that you refuse the flowers and don’t want to have to deal with it. You may ask the flower delivery guy to send a notice of refusal to the sender. At most times, they will. If you want them to deliver the flowers to a different location, you will have to shoulder the costs. If you just refuse the flowers, the sender will pay for everything.
What happens when you refuse flower delivery?
It is such a waste to see fresh-cut flowers go down the bin. Flowers are innocent and should not be handled this way. Moreover, our florists took time, energy, and talent to make a beautiful hand bouquet for you.
Should you not like the flower delivery because of the sender, it would be wise not to have the flowers thrown at all. You can either give the flowers away to others or let our flower delivery guy deal with it. Should you choose the latter option, here is what will happen to the flower delivery:
- Notice– The sender will be notified by our florist that the flower delivery was refused. The sender will also be notified of the payments that have to be made.
- Change address– The florist may offer the flower delivery to be delivered to a different address which may include the residence or workplace of the sender, senior home care, or other places for donation. The expenses will be at the cost of the sender.
In no way will the flowers that our florists lovingly arranged will be sent to the garbage bin. It is not right to take it on the flowers when you don’t like the recipient of the message they want to say through the flowers. You can always refuse the flowers in a civil manner.
