DeLuca Florist — Local services in Berkeley Heights

I had a horrible experience with this business, in particular with Nadine, the owner. She was insulting, unaccountable, and deceptive.

In Mid June 2015, I bought some trees/shrubs from this business and asked them to be delivered and planted in my yard. The clerk advised me that the charge is $55/hour/person and that they needed a credit card as assurance in case, but the card would not be charged without my consent and receipt of invoice. They day after, two guys showed up in my yard at 8:00am and finished planting the trees by 11:00am when they stopped working; one of them took the truck and drove away and the other one started to play with his cell phone. The guy with the truck came back at 11:45am. They had lunch (+played with neighbor’s dog) from 11:45 to 12:40pm. After lunch the spread mulch and left at 1:30pm.

The day after, I went to the nursery to get an invoice and make payment. The manager, Nadine, was near the front desk. She told me that she had already charged my credit card for $720. I asked but you had not given me any invoice and you never asked for my consent on this charge. She said they were very accurate and I should not worry about anything. I insisted that I was told that no charge would be made on my card and without me receiving an invoice, first. Nadine said that it was her peoples' fault and that they should have told her that I needed an invoice. It was not the response I expected from an accountable manager. But I gave her the benefit of the doubt, and asked for an after the fact invoice. She said she was busy and I should wait for after July 4th for an invoice. I replied that $720 was too much, and I needed to know whether she took into account that her guys took time off from 11:00am to 12:40pm. She said that her guys never do such thing and that she felt her guys as her babies, and that it was my word against theirs. But I insisted that this was the fact. She replied that "this is America and this is how we do business". I found it a very insulting (or even racist) response!

So I finally decided to take the case to American express, and file a dispute for the extra hours that I was charged. It was only after Amex got involved that I had finally received...

THIS BUSINESS LIES AND CHEATS CUSTOMERS OUT OF THEIR MONEY!!!! It is hard to understand how and why this place is still in business. FRAUD, BAIT AND SWITCH, DISMISSIVE are some of the nicer terms to describe this establishment. NADINE, the owner, is extremely rude, condescending and flat out lies about everything. They also run a shady "florist" operation, where they take orders through Various outlets such as TELEFLORA, FTD, Flowernation, etc, and fulfill them with much cheaper, AND SMALLER bouquets, filled with inferior flowers. This has happened multiple times and i have proof. Owner comes up with all types of excuses including statements like " they take 30% and we dont make any money since flowers are too expensive". WHO CARES!!!! If you are in business of supplying flowers and chose to use a service - then that is your business decision - dont STEAL from customers. This is punishable by law and will...

I ordered a flower arrangement to be delivered for Thanksgiving from this florist.Their website had delivery dates available on Thanksgiving. I received an order confirmation with the charge of $98.15 which included a $10.00 delivery fee), and the delivery date of November 22nd. I received a voice mail that they were sorry and not open on Thanksgiving and then was told this direct quote, "Number 2, I don't know of any place in the whole area that is open today (Thanksgiving) except the police on Rt. 22. I was shocked by this reply as if it was my request was so outrageous. Once again, they had today, (November 22nd) as an available delivery date and if they could not delivery then, they should not have taken my order, or Number 2 taken my money. I should have ordered through 1-800 Flowers like I did for another arrangement sent for...