Creative Keepsakes

I contact Creative Keepsakes to preserve flowers from my mother’s funeral in July, 2009. I just received my order after a year and a half and the quality of the work is awful. I have several frames with loose flowers in them, one frame has the clips showing. I have contacted them via e-​mail several times to try to resolve the issues I have with my frames, however, they are not responding. I guess they plan on ignoring my issues. Very very poor customer service. I cannot even give the frames I ordered as gifts. I am extremely disappointed in the company and would not recommend them at all.

I got married on 10÷16÷09. My mom dropped off my wedding bouquet at the store for me on ¹⁰⁄₁₈. At this time, she paid a $ 75 deposit. If you read CK’s website, it clearly states this deposit reserves a spot for the flowers in the freeze dryer. I came on ¹¹⁄₃ to pick out my shadowbox, matting, and arrangement style and colors. The arrangement I had picked was $ 309, and I had to pay a 50% deposit on that amount when I picked out my arrangement. On both the sales receipt and website, it clearly stated my arrangement would be ready in 2 – 4 months. When I hadn’t heard anything after the 1^st of the year, I wasn’t too alarmed. I did send an email to inquire. The response was very conniving, rude, and argumentative, instead of understanding why I would be upset (they had my money AND my bouquet), and I hadn’t heard anything. At the end of the response, they told me my order would be ready at approximately the 6 months time frame instead of 2 – 4. June rolled around, and I still hadn’t heard anything. I sent another email politely reminding them that I had originally been told 2 – 4 months then 6 months, and it had now been much longer. I got no response so I sent another one a few weeks later. The second email response wasn’t as rude as the first, but never did I get an apology … just more of the same run-​around. I was simply told they were just finishing up orders from the end of August 2009 so my order would be ready in approximately 2 – 3 more months. A few weeks later, I received a letter to indicate that the freeze dryer they use had broken and thus, all of their orders were in limbo. It also indicated I would receive a 10% discount on my balance. At this point, I was very annoyed. If my $ 75 deposit reserved a spot for my bouquet in the free dryer, why would their freeze dryer breaking in June change the completion date of my project? Just what exactly happened to my bouquet when it was dropped off on 10/​18/​2009 and still hadn’t gone into the freeze dryer? October 22^nd (1 year + a few days) rolled around, and again, I still hadn’t heard anything. At this point, I was livid. I sent my mom to the store to personally inquire. She was told my flowers were almost done — everything about my order was near completion except for the calla lilies from my bouquet which had to be put in the freeze dryer. I’m not sure if it was Michelle or Mary Kae, but one of them told my mom my keepsake would be ready in two weeks. Guess what? My keepsake wasn’t ready! On November 27, I called during normal business hours but did not receive an answer. I left a message indicating I was very upset and would be contacting the Better Business Bureau if I did not get a response within 48 hours. When I did not get a response in 48 hours, I contacted the BBB to file a complaint. On November 30, I got an email to tell me they were having problems with their voicemail and had just gotten my message. I was told that my flowers would be finished that night or the next day and a picture would be emailed. I did get a picture later that night. I sent an email to tell them how disappointed I was. I asked for them to waive the $ 75 deposit which was supposed to have reserved a spot for my flowers in the freeze dryer. I received a very nasty email which again was laced with defensiveness, excuses, and also stated that the unforeseen broken freeze dryer did not constitute a refund of that deposit. I picked up my keepsake on December 1, 2010 — although it does look nice, it was most definitely not worth $ 309, the poor communication, the lack of customer service, the bullcrap excuses, and having two deal with Michelle and Mary Kae. Creative Keepsakes really dropped the ball, and thankfully, I only intend to get married once so I will never have to go through this hassle again. I definitely do not recommend Creative Keepsakes.