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OGDEN — Lehi resident Chelsey Storrs had mostly positive experiences ordering from Eco Flower before her husband, Brad, ordered a wreath for Christmas back in November.
“I loved them and I loved their product,” she said, thinking back on those previous experiences.
So when the wreath didn’t arrive from the Ogden-based business featured on the TV show “Shark Tank” earlier in November, she was surprised. That feeling then turned to anger and disappointment.
When the order didn’t arrive, Storrs said the company told the two that the product was on backorder and it would be delivered as soon as possible. Nearly six months later and several attempts to contact later, still nothing.
“I’m probably not going to be getting it because the last few times we’ve tried calling, it just rings, rings and rings and it doesn’t go anywhere, or I’ll wait on hold for about 30 minutes, and then it was automatically transferred to a voicemail,” she said. “I’ll leave voicemails and not hear anything back.”
Storrs vented her frustrations online and then found she wasn’t alone. Customers throughout the country had similar experiences with the company, especially in recent months.
“I ordered flowers on March 6 and never received them and have not received a refund to date,” one reviewer wrote on Google Reviews, in a post dated within the past week.
“I ordered in November and didn't receive my order until April! I had to contact them! To which it took another month for a response!” another reviewer wrote, noting she was disappointed with the product after it had arrived.
Negative reviews were scattered across the internet and someone even set up a Facebook page dedicated to consumer woes dealing with the company. The page has more than 600 members.
However, Eco Flower CEO John Allard told KSL the problems the company has faced have been a culmination of errors over the past year — even before the episode of “Shark Tank” was filmed in June — that the company hopes it is close to fixing.
“We don’t pretend what we’ve done — that the company itself has done a fabulous job the last six months but we had to work with a little bit of a handicap and we’re in the middle of a very, very big effort to get it fixed,” Allard said. “We’ve put personal money in, we’ve brought in funding. We’re doing everything we can do. It just takes some time to clean up a mess of this magnitude.”
A few weeks before Brad Storrs made the order for a wreath, Eco Flower was featured on an episode of “Shark Tank” — a TV show where inventors and small business owners make pitches to wealthy businesspeople with ways to expand their business.
Eco Flower’s founder Meagan Bowman appeared on the show and received a $400,000 investment for 20 percent of the company from multimillionaire Daymond John — which would mean the company would be split five ways at 20 percent each.
A part of its allure was that the business featured environmentally-friendly flower bouquets and various home decor items that are made from recycled and sustainable materials.
However, the deal fell through. Allard said the deal failed because half of the four co-owners of the company didn't agree to the deal and didn't want to be on the show in the first place.
“We fought vehemently not to be on ‘Shark Tank,’” Allard said. “We really didn’t want to do it. We were under the impression that if we didn’t do a deal (after the episode was filmed), it wouldn’t air, so we allowed it to go forward. We knew the problems that were going to get created. We knew what was going to happen and it happened.”
Everything seemingly began to shift after that episode aired. But Allard said problems existed well before that.
One partner was forced out in August. Court records show that partner filed a lawsuit against the other owners which was dropped on Jan. 25. The suit claimed that in September his 25 percent share was worth $1 million.
Among complaints mentioned in the lawsuit, the partner claimed he believed the company “should appear on a certain television program” that two other shareowners disagreed with.
Bowman left weeks after the episode aired. She told KSL she decided to leave the company, which she started in 2014, in December and sold her shares the following month, citing a difference in opinions on the business model.
Bowman launched a similar material flower company called Sola Wood Flowers, also based in Ogden, in March. She said Sola Wood has received about 5,000 orders since its inception.
“We don’t pretend we’ve done — that the company itself has done a fabulous job the last six months but we had to work with a little bit of a handicap and we’re in the middle of a very, very big effort to get it fixed." — Eco Flower CEO John Allard
Her departure came at a time where Christmas and wedding orders were piling in, especially with people who had just seen Eco Flower on TV. Also, Allard alleged close ties to Bowman on the manufacturing side did not follow through on orders — causing massive delays.
Allard said Eco Flower had terminated the contract of that vendor, one that Bowman’s brother worked at, after she left because the company found a cheaper option — and because of a specific incident around the time Bowman decided to leave the company.
Allard said an order was placed to the vendor in November for Christmas products Eco Flower was selling and those items were not delivered until Dec. 26.
“It’s the reason I stopped doing business with them,” he said. “A lot of the Christmas issues were because they refused to deliver. They wouldn’t partially deliver. They wouldn’t let us pick up. They wouldn’t do anything and they wouldn’t even deliver it until I wrote them a check. They held my Christmas hostage.”
Investment company JW Capital, which held 50 percent of the business, purchased the remaining half of Eco Flower in January. The company had grown to a 125-employee business. That announcement was made on its website two days after the lawsuit created by a former partner was dismissed.
Allard said many of the problems mentioned online are being cleaned up. The company scaled back to allow itself to catch up on consumer demands before it makes a push forward to continue job growth.
Allard added the company has issued more than $100,000 in refunds over the past month for deliveries that were past the designated delivery window. He said the company is also investing in a larger customer service base, quadrupling the size of the department and giving it a new room that is expected to be finished in the coming weeks.
In addition, Allard said items will not be sold until all the products are available, which will cut down the wait time for future orders.
“Our new projects have been much less of a problem because we have a process in place to get the products in the building before we start selling them,” he said. “That wasn’t how it was done before and it has taken some time to source the things.”
While complaints continue to pour in from the online community, it’s unclear how much the negative reviews will impact the future of Eco Flower which has vastly expanded in three years.
As for Storrs, she said she would be happy if she finally received her order — or if she received a refund.
“I want someone to acknowledge the fact that they took my money for a product and they haven’t either given me my money back or given me the product,” she said. “They basically just stole my money.”
