During the first week of September, I contacted Weathers Flower Market/(DBA) FlowersByNet.com to ensure that they would be able to put together a bouquet I had seen on their Web site.

The owner, Milton, said there would no problem as long as I gave him a week.

Toward the end of the month, I called him on a Tuesday, reminded him of our conversation, and asked if he could do it by Saturday.

The centerpiece of the bouquet was a large six-pointed star made of what looked like wood or silver plastic with either white in the center or open in the middle. The way the star was constructed in the photograph was why I was willing to spend a large sum of money for the small bouquet. The flowers were secondary.

After I placed the order with Milton, his helper �Judy� called me a few times to ask about the address and about the card. During each call, I asked her if she was sure they could do the unusual bouquet in the manner it was depicted in the photo. She assured me it would be the same as in the photo.

When the flowers arrived at the nursing home, I was horrified to see that the �star� had been made of construction paper and covered with kitchen tinfoil. How embarrassing. The receptionist at the nursing home pointed out that some of the flowers were dead and the childish-looking silliness of the paper star. Because she has been a huge number of floridst�s bouquets, she said to me:�I hope you didn�t pay more than $30 for that.�

Early the next week I told Milton about what came. He said the star in the photo is available in florists� warehouses and his local partner in New York probably did not want to go to the trouble or lacked the time to get it and instead made the kindergarten -level star as a substitute.

His exact words to me was that that he would contact them and �call me right back.�

When I didn�t hear from him, I asssumed he would make an adjustment to my bill.

When my Visa bill came I saw he did make an adjustment:but it was upwards!!! He told me my card would be charged $95.99 and the charge was actually $99.99.

Messages left with Judy for Milton since I received my credit card bill have been ignored even though she says he will be in soon.