From The Heart Floral

My father recently passed away and a few groups at work joined in and got a few flower arrangements for the service. My co-​worker said they were so helpful and friendly here. The arrangements were delivered on time and were just gorgeous!!! They did an amazing job. Couldn’t be more grateful!

Moving to a city from across the country can be stressful, hard and a bit taxing. So when signing a lease and dealing with apartments from across the country, you can imagine how annoying one can be to their future landlords/​property managers with questions and concerns. That’s me subtly putting that I was real nut case to deal with during my lease signing.
When I arrived in Oakland and went to go get my keys in Chinatown, I wanted to pick something up for the nice girl who dealt with my frequent emails and phone calls; she deserved some love. Without spending mucho dinero, From The Heart had a few limited options of small potted plants. Definitely limited inventory for $ 10 and under, but at least they had a few. I walked into a few other shops and they had nothing under $ 30. I ain’t got dough for that.
I ended up spending about $ 10 on a little porcelain elephant with a green, leafy, low maintenance plant. Hard to kill, don’t have to water often and cute. Perfect. The staff ended up being pretty nice and although it’s not the most inviting floral shop I’ve been in, it got the job done!

Very helpful, friendly service, good prices and nice selection. I wandered in off the street, looking for something to brighten my office, and walked away with some very healthy happy little plants!

Great bouquet just beautiful set delivered with the presentation in mind. Girlfriend was super happy. Thank you very much.

Great service with the finest flowers I got for my wife. She loved the HK style roses. This is by far the best flower shop I have been to with so many different styles and they are quick with their craft. This is my go to shop if I want to impress my wife.

My sister and I were trying to find a place who could put together a special flower arrangement for my mother’s funeral. There were only a couple of days before the services. We went to From the Heart Florist and were cordially met by the owner who showed us several brochures we could choose from. She explained which brochures would have the flowers available for the services which was only 3 days away. They were patient as we were deciding on which arrangement to order and when we decided, they were able to take the order right away without any problems. When the services were held, the casket spray delivered just as promised and it was absolutely gorgeous and eventhough it was a very sad occasion, just about everyone came up to us and commented on how beautiful they thought the flowers were.
This was the first time I ordered from them and will certainly go back when we need floral arrangements!

Fantastic service. They were definitely helpful and had great recommendations on bouquets within my budget. I will definitely come back!

Jasmin provided me with a great and a very professional customer service to me ;) I’m definitely recommending my friends and my family to here! ;) cheers.

My experience here was wonderful. Ive ordered flowers here many times and never really had a problem. Customer service is amazing. Everyone is very friendly and helpful. I always feel welcome once i walk in those doors. If you decide to ever order a bouquet there, go for it! You will not be let down i promise! They put in all there effort and time just to make it perfect for you! What more can i say? Give it a try! Handsdown. The best flower shop in china town! Yes i will be ordering more bouquets here!!!

I’ve ordered the fancier looking bouquets from From the Heart a few times and I was impressed every time. I wish I could remember the name of the lady who assisted me the last time I made an order because she was so kind and helpful to me.

I took a chance and gave this florist a shot for my mom’s birthday. They were the only florist around chinatown that had a display of HK style bouquets. The lady quoted me $ 80+, she charged me a bit more for all roses.
Though she completed my order on time, she definitely didn’t show she was happy to have a customer as if I was a nuisance coming in the store. I was looking at other flower displays and when she saw that I was interested in one with chocolates she told me that she’s not going to make it for me because «that one’s too much work and I don’t feel like making that».

DO NOT BUY FLOWERS HERE! KEEP AWAY!
I understand that this florist is in the middle of Chinatown and standard should be set pretty low. But this is ridulous.
I spoke to the clerk in Chinese (the preferred language there) and purchased a floral arrangement for a funeral. I specifically handed the clerk, on the day of purchase, the funeral announcement and had her copy all the info — recipient name, date, time and location. They managed to send the flowers 1 WEEK BEFORE the event. They called me and stated that this was my mistake. I think not! When I confronted the store owner she stated to me that she will resend on the correct date. Okay, you think this was the end of it, but no it’s not.
I called the day prior to the funeral the confirm the delivery of the floral arrangements. The clerk on the phone stated to me that they already attempted to send the flowers and didn’t feel that they were obligated to do so again, but if I really wanted flowers the next day, they would send me the wilted arrangement, saved from last week’s incorrect delivery, to the funeral. WHAT JERKS! No sense of accountability and no sympathy — the flowers are for a funeral! When I got a hold of the store owner with the problem again, she said that she will exchange the wilted flowers with some fresh ones but repeatedly answered, «But I’m already losing money on this. I’m actually paying you for this.»
I’m happy that they are redressing the problem. But really disappointed on the way that they communicate to their customers.

This place is a basic florist located in Chinatown. I don’t know why people complain that the people were rude, but what do you expect, it’s CHINATOWN. I ordered a plant for a friend and they put it in a pot and delivered it for me, on time, with a really nice note. I have gotten orchids there, but never any flowers, but I would go back for plants.

Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out where NOT to buy your flowers. No lengthy review needed. This is what I know about this place
–The owner is rude, condescending and a straight up b**ch.
–They don’t know what they are doing– flower arrangements are ugly and cheap
–They use SCRAP flowers in funeral work and for wire service orders– (FTD, Teleflora, 1−800-Flowers, etc) I saw this first hand… they feel like the wire services take too much of a percentage and this leaves them very little profit so they make arrangements with scraps that are left over. I watched them pick pieces from the floor to fill in with! Not very good for the customer!
–Old fashioned… lack of creativity and stuck in the stone ages. It’s 2012 not the 1950’s, people. No one «spray paints» flowers anymore!
–Dirty!!! EWWWW… the shop is a dirty place – go see for yourself-​Trash/​clutter everywhere.
–Oh and my personal favorite-​ALL the positive Unilocal reviews on this page are clearly not from customers but from employees!
Plenty of other quality florists in the area – No need to go here.
They should re-​name this place «FROM THE TRASH» for so many reasons.
Couldn’t give negative stars so 1 it is… but not really…

Is it possible to give negative stars? This woman who runs the shop is godawful. I was trying to get a corsage and matching boutineer for prom. I told her I wanted a coral flower that wasn’t too big and she suggested orchids. She wrote down light pink (although I said I wanted more orangey than pink) and then told us to come back in a week.
We finally did and she didn’t have it done. She said she had SO many orders that she hadn’t had time to do ours although we gave her a week. She was pressuring me to pick fillers or add more pink orchids and I was really upset that she had the wrong color and wasn’t prompt. She took me to her freezer room of flowers and I pointed at flowers I liked and she replied in a disbelief «you like THOSE?!» and made me feel uncomfortable.
I was driven to even roll my eyes at this woman who was practically yelling at me to make a decision although it was clear she was already making it for me by cutting more and more orchids to add to my set. I snapped at her many times and was just frustrated that she was taking so long that I literally had to run two blocks twice to refill the meter.
During my wait, I went across the street to the Oakland Florist to see her rates and hers were half of what that horrid woman in «From the Heart» was charging me.
That’s $ 50, mind you.
In the end, I wanted to withdraw my order and slap some respect into this woman.
If you’re looking for cheap flowers and maybe a hint of decent customer service, do NOT go here.
Oh and my corsage is now dead.

I got flower delivered to my office a week ago. I should have refused it. The flowers were looking like it was FALLING APART. NOT FRESH. The flowers I have at my place, I received 5 days ago are perkier and fresher than the ones they delivered. To think of how much it must have cost to buy them, dispicable.

If it were up to me I wouldn’t give them a single star. This place absolutely does not deserve any. Extremely POOR service and their flowers aren’t as fresh as they claim them to be.
I walked in to see a guy on the phone who didn’t bother to welcome me with a smile or a single hello. He remained on the line without bothering to ask if I needed any help even after minutes of wandering around the shop. When I did ask him for help, he told me to hold on and never got back to me. Minutes later a pregnant woman walked in with a grin on her face. I asked her for her assistance and she was no where near friendly nor helpful. She was plain rude, lacked people skills, wasn’t accommodating even though what I had asked for was within reason. I will never ever come back here again and I would not reccommend this place to anyone.

RUDE! CONDESCENDING! HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE! WORST EXPERIENCE EVER!
I came here looking to purchase flowers as a last minute gift for a new mom. Being that I am not very experienced in purchasing flowers, I went to the back refrigerator and asked if I could look at their floral arrangement selection and prices. There were 3 ladies cutting flowers, one of them shouted out from her stool without looking up asking what I wanted the flowers for, I told her it was a gift for someone who just had a baby. She said in a very condescending manner that most of their flowers were for boyfriends to give to girlfriends or for graduations (No clue why she would say that when people purchase flowers for all sorts of other occasions). Then she asked me what my budget was. Since I was interested in evaluating options before making a hard decision on an exact budget I asked again if I could look at their selection and prices, She mockingly snickered as if that was the most ridiculous thing to ask for and insisted on what my budget was again. I still wasn’t sure what the going rate was for a decent arrangement & vase so I just said around $ 40. Then she finally pointed me to the side wall and said «over there», I thought she was pointing to the posters on the wall which had no prices but then finally saw the catalogs which were to the side of the posters she pointed me to. By that time, I was so annoyed with these people that I decided they are not worth getting my business and walked out.
The ladies could have politely directed me to the catalogs to begin with when I asked to look at more selection;instead she talked down to her customer and demanded for a budget. None of the ladies bothered to get up to help me instead they just yelled and pointed with their nose from where they were sitting. I am not expecting red carpet service in Chinatown here but just at least someone who treats their customers with a little respect. Although I had full intentions of making a purchase (it would have been a quick and easy sale since I really needed a last minute gift), I couldn’t stoop to the level of actually doing business with these people because they were so rude. Would never come here again.

My sisters and I were searching for a florist to order funeral flowers following our father’s death. When we first stepped into From the Heart, we were greeted by a gentleman who was friendly and seemed eager to help. When we asked him to show us pictures, he gladly walked us to the back counter and had to clear the counter. This made another lady who worked there visibly and verbally upset. She scolded the man helping us in Chinese (not knowing that we understood Cantonese and spoke it ourselves), saying that we were taking up her work space. There seemed to be no other space for him to show us their catalog. Already we were a turned off by her attitude and seeming disgust with having to deal with customers (REALLY!!!). So we flipped through the catalog and found something we liked. We started asking for prices and estimates, naming certain flowers we liked or didn’t, colors, etc. Immediately she went on about how Valentine’s Day and Chinese New Year is one week away so flowers are more expensive and we can only select flowers that they had in the store at that time and pointed into the refrigerator and said, «That’s all I have.» I don’t know, but as a florist who offers funeral arrangements shouldn’t they be prepared or have experience with last minute projects? Aren’t all funeral arrangements last minute orders? As if we knew the exact day our father would pass. My sister asked her again for an estimate and she kept going on about the holidays. She wouldn’t even give us a price range. To add to her rudeness, she interrupted our «consultation» to tell another employee to pull out some roses from an arrangement because she was using too many roses. Our father had just passed away that morning and this lady was rude and showed no sympathy, no eagerness to help customers, and unappreciative that we even walked through the door.
I give this place zero stars but decided to add one star because the gentleman who initially helped us knows his customer service. If only the lady would let him take care of the customer service part and shut her pie-​hole. We ended up down the street at Mei Wo Florist and the guy took our order with no problems. Not once did he say «No.» He was accommodating and friendly and even made an extra arrangement for our father’s funeral. He used more expensive flowers and did not stuff them with cheap carnations and had all 4 large arrangements made and delivered on time with only 2 days notice.

First To Review again… suckas!
I guess I’ll give a little backdrop as to why this place was significant enough to review. Ever had those last minute I’m sorry gifts you have to give to a girl (or maybe a woman)? Yeah, well there were occasions my mother and I had some bickering every so often, I would give her flowers to apologize (yeah a somewhat mama’s boy tendency, so shoot me).
However this place didn’t serve that particular purpose (although I did manage to buy her some lilies from here for once). The year was 2006, and I was a happy single fresh out of high school prick/​community college deviant. Focused on serving the restaurant/​hospitality industry part-​time and dancing like no one’s watching full-​time. One day my cousin/​uncle (weird family blood line thing) called me up after a Bboy session (that’s Break Dance practice, for you non hip hop heads). Out of the blue he said, «There’s someone I’d like you to meet, be ready by 4pm tomorrow.»
Oh boy… I hope this isn’t going to be a blind date gone wrong I thought to myself. Him playing matchmaker… this I gotta see. The next day, I was literally running late because of work calling me in to work an early shift. The matchmaker called me and asked why I was running late I responded, «Work sucks but I’m on my way.» Which he followed up with, «Oh, get some flowers, a rose preferably.»
Are you serious? I felt as though I were chaperoned on a play date… ugh. So I was frantic and I finally came across this plaza, the old man serving me at the time knew my urgency and since I didn’t have enough cash on hand (he didn’t have an ATM machine) he gave me the rose at half the price (originally $ 8.00, but discounted at $ 4.00).
After running late on my own date, I finally arrived and needless to say it was a successful one… per advice of the matchmaking relative.
Almost three years later…
Although I am not dating that particular person anymore, coming back to the Bay Area, there were certain places that gave me a sense of nostalgia. This place was one of them, funny enough a good friend of mine and myself walked through here after enjoying a fulfilling menu at New Gold Medal Restaurant in Oakland’s Chinatown. My mother gave me a call, about visiting my uncle’s grave before departing back to SoCal, so I went here once again to purchase some flowers (dandelions for mi madre, and white roses for the uncle, his favorite).
I was able to pay with a debit card, but the machine didn’t go through (original price was $ 14.00 for both bouquets). Just like last time I responded to the owners I was short on cash (had $ 12.00), but my friend provided me the extra $ 2.00 since I didn’t want to short change them like I did several years ago.
In the end. this place really is from the heart, and for all the times I’ve desired for my floral needs to be met, they came through. I’m glad this tiny place exists and hopefully when I come back for the holiday season, they’ll still be there to accommodate to my needs and the rest of the citizens of Oakland who walk by on a regular basis.
Cheers, you deserve this awesome review for all the help and generosity you’ve provided for such a long time.