James Cress Florist

James Cress is arranging the flowers for my wedding. I just met with Rich who was so helpful and reassuring this past weekend. He listened to what i wanted and offered great advice and in the end we have the perfect floral arrangement. I am so excited to see the finished product in a few weeks. Rich even went out of his way to meet me and my fiancé the following morning at out wedding site. He wanted to guarantee that he was familiar with the venue and that the flowers and arrangements would work perfectly. I am so thankful to Rich for all his help and suggestions.

Sad to see these harsh reviews. some people are very hard to please. I ordered flowers for a friend’s birthday and they were flawless. The arrangement was gorgeous and delivered on time. She was so surprised and it made her day. Plus, it was such a simple process for me.

We needed to send flowers today to my In-​laws for their 63^rd anniversary. We’ve used James Cress before with good results so I called them. Linda answered the phone and took our order with a very friendly and professional attitude! The flowers were delivered same day and my mother in-​law said they smelled beautifully and were very fresh. They loved the arrangement. Thank you very much for helping us Linda and James Cress florist! Looking forward to using you again next time.

Completely disorganized. My wife made an appointment with one person and was met by another. In total she dealt with 3 different people. Each of which had different notes on our wedding. We showed them a photo of what we wanted for our wedding. We were assured it would work with the price we were quoted and we got something completely different. The center pieces weren’t bad but they were not even close to what we wanted. Luckily for this vendor the bouquets for her and the bridesmaids turned out good. I guess our wedding was the one they decided to screw up on. I expected more. Mind you our wedding was small (20 people). I wonder what a 100−200+ people wedding would yield.

We have patronized Cress for more than 42 years. We understand this is a new owner and can honestly tell you there is a difference in service, quality and staff from the Cress family.
In the last two years my daughter has used them for her High School events out of loyalty for the Cress family –for 2 junior and senior prom events (table center pieces) and banquet flowers centerpieces. Last year was her last year, and she worked with Gary Cress for all three events. Things went smooth.
Last week my son and I ordered a boutonnière and a matching corsage corsage for prom. We brought in a swatch from the dress (blush) and selected a pink to orange colored rose from the three choices offered. The Rose had a peach overall look to it. Looked lovely with the swatch.
Our pick up time was 12 noon. My son came home about 1:30 with the flowers. He had to be at photos at 3:30.
My son picked them up and said he didn’t think they were right and they certainly we not even close!
I called Cress and explained and they made a new set — however upon my arrival the roses were yellow to orange — pretty roses but were too bright and 100% clashed with the dress.
The employee said they didn’t have anymore of the roses that we ordered. I asked why would you try to pass off something completely different? You had my number at least give me the chance to go elsewhere! They kept the swatch with the order.
The employee was telling me that the yellow to orange new one she made looked really great with the dress and I knew she was lying. So disingenuous.
While we were discussing it there were a few other people waiting in line and a older blond woman whips her head around and told us she could not hear on the phone and could we be quiet. What? There is a line of phones and maybe get on one down further from the customers? So rude. How do you tell customers and especially someone with an issue on an order to keep quiet and stop talking? I was taken back by that ver poor customer service.
We also are a local business, actually neighbor’s with Cress for more than 30 years. Mr. Cress, nor Gary would not be pleased knowing the store that bears their name is doing business like this.
We had to keep the original corsage that had many dark spots which was picked over so much and reduced to a large but thinned out rose. It was sprayed to death with water which soaked both the girls gown and my son’s tux.
I brought the orange flowers to show my husband along with the swatch. He said he’ll no! That girl is going to cry when she sees this! So he went back over himself. The original one had rot spots on the cream petals and with time running out we had to take it! The employee said she would fix it but it would take a half hour! What? She then told my husband that That’s what I approved and ordered (the orange one) I am not feeling very confident going back into that store. We asked where Gary was and got a mumbled and intelligible answer two times. Not sure now if he is even still there.
We ended up with large roses very thin from all the de– petaling. Basically threw $ 40 out the window.

We used this florist for our daughter’s wedding. First I would like to say that the centerpieces, and bouquets were lovely. That is the only reason I gave them a star. The flowers were to be delivered to our home at 3:00 pm, at 3:20 I called to see where they were. The girl who answered the phone said they should’ve been there and they had no idea where they were and no way to get in touch with the driver (hello? 2016. cell phone!)and to call back in 15 min. if they were not there. 15 minutes later they were still not there. I spoke to a gentleman (?) then, requesting info on our flowers. First he asked if the wedding was that day, why else would I be calling I said and then I apologized for sounding angry. To which he replied «imagine someone from Long Island being angry!»
This calling back and forth went on for another 15 to 20 minutes. We called our venue to make sure the centerpieces were there and told them what was going on. They said they would call the florist, only then did we here from them telling us the driver had been in an accident on the way to our home, and could we send someone to get them. That someone was the father of the bride! By then, our photographers had already left to go to the venue. No pictures of our daughter and bridesmaids with their flowers, no photos of the father of the bride, I spent so much time on the phone with them I could not enjoy watching my daughter. Memories lost forever. They never even gave her her throw away bouquet!
The flowers sat so long in the van (we were not asked to pick up the flowers till 4:05) they had begun to wilt.
I called on the Monday after the wedding to speak to the owner about what happened, he said he was going to have a meeting with his staff on Wednesday and would call to let us know what could be done to rectify this. I still have not heard from them.
Stay away… they don’t care.

After speaking to Liz my issue was resolved and I received a beautiful, fresh arrangement as a replacement. It was a real pleasure talking to her, she was very nice, helpful and professional. Thank you Liz! We will definitely give James Cress another chance.

Received a phone call from Caroline through and online inquiry I filled out and she talked me into coming in an meeting with her. She was amazing, had great ideas, knew what she was doing. I was very impressed and happy to have worked with her. I’m now waiting for prices as I wasn’t given the day of, which is fine. I just hope after using them for so long I’m not disappointed. Thank you Caroline for making me see passed my issue and coming in.

Just went to pick up my flowers that were supposed to be ready at 9am. I realize it’s Valentines Day but you’d think that they’d be ready for the in-​rush of customers picking up or ordering flowers. Nope! Just a big formation of people standing around the counter with no semblance of a «line». So they just call out «who’s next?» And whoever speaks up gets helped first. Part of the problem is that the standing area around the counter is separated by shelving units so it’s hard to see how many people are there. Here’s suggestion #1: make everyone stand in two lines, one for pickups and one for new orders. Clearly define where the lines should be and constantly reaffirm this by calling out and reminding customers as they enter the building. Or have signs!
So I finally get helped and when they check for my order surprise! It’s not there. So now they have to make it from scratch. 5 minutes she said. 30 minutes later I ask her to check on my order. After initially confirming my suspicion that she forgot about me she disappears and comes back with my order. Apparently «someone» forgot to tell her it was ready.
And finally, the arrangement itself wasn’t even what I wanted. I had asked for a dozen red roses with pink and purple flowers thrown in. Instead I got 4 pink, 4 purple and 4 red roses. I’ll be finding a new florist from now on. This place needs to get their act together. Very disorganized.

This florest USED to be the best anywhere on Long Island. Ever since the new owners have taken over (a national company) but still keep the Cress name, it simply is not the same. Today is a perfect example. you order flowers two weeks in advance to avoid any problems, you walk in the store and they are simply not prepared. The sad thing is as the service slowly declines, they still are better than the rest. Where is Jim Cress? It’s just sad
Received a call from the owner after this posting. The discussion was positive & can only hope for improvement going forward.

INCOMPETENT!!! check your transactions if ordering through credit card… been charged multiple times on several occasions only reordered from them trying to give the benefit of the doubt but apparently they make a business out of doing this I can only assume with the hope people won’t notice!!!

James Cress Florist was a great recommendation! I rang them up at 10A this morning (2 days before Valentine’s Day) and asked if they could put together a standing arrangement for a wake and have it delivered by 2P. I arrived at the funeral home minutes after 2P and the lovely arrangement was already on display.
Thank you Anna for making this happen!

I sent flowers for a death in the family.
They were absolutely beautiful and very tastefully done.
I use James Cress for Christmas and Birthdays have always been happy with them.
The arrangement was even more lovely than online.
Thank you James Cress.
Sylvia C.

About 10 years ago I ordered several times from James Cress for baby showers and wedding showers. I remembered that they were reasonably priced and that they always did a great job, so I decided to order from them again for a funeral in Babylon.
I went on their website to view their selection of «sympathy» arrangements. In addition, I called the flower shop to ask if the arrangement would closely match the photo online and ended up giving the order directly to the store rep. The clerk/​florist patiently and courteously answered all my questions. (I’ve been burned in the past ordering through a national florist service (1−800-xxxxxxx) Attended the Wake the next day. Wow! The arrangement actually looked even more beautiful than in the online photo. I would not hesitate to order from them again.

My fiancée and I met with Gary Cress to plan the floral arrangements for our wedding. The guy is not good with people. He was pushy and rude, talking over us and suggesting things we didn’t want. When we told him our budget ($ 2,500) he laughed and asked if we were serious. We were, and that’s a fine budget for centerpieces and a few bouquets.
The funniest part was, after we said he was ridiculously overpriced, he made a point to tell us that he had a bad review on the Internet that he just couldn’t get rid of. Well, sit with him for an hour and you’ll know why. My fiancée is still perturbed weeks later.
Do not buy flowers here.

Ordered $ 100 worth of flowers for same day delivery to a funeral home 2 ½ miles away from the flower shop for the wake of my grandmother-​in-​law. Had multiple relatives in attendance, who in addition to grieving our beloved family member, kept a lookout for the flowers to arrive. Never received a delivery confirmation, and the flowers never showed. Followed up with an email on the Sunday of the wake (since the shop was closed by that point), never received a response. Followed up with a phone call the next day, was told that despite having no record of it being delivered (a customer has to request a confirmation apparently?), according to the delivery driver, they were delivered. The woman I spoke with implied that it was the problem of the funeral home, and to call them. I called the funeral home, was told that there was only one wake going on that weekend, so there was no chance for confusion.
Called the florist back the next day, quickly provided the information given to me by the funeral home (she started disputing the fact that there was only one wake there
that weekend (really??)), then was told they were with another customer, and to call back.
At this point, I’ve contacted James Cress Florist three times, and the funeral home once. I paid $ 100 for flowers that never arrived. No offer of refund has been provided to me. I am now going to work through my bank to dispute the charge. I can’t help but feel like that this shop tried/​is trying to take advantage of me and my family in our time of grieving.

I got 2 beautiful last minute bouquets from here, hand picked, even though they were very busy.
Unfortunately, they did not get back to me regarding my wedding flower quote, even though it’s been over 3 months since our meeting and I’ve called a few times requesting an update on my price. I think they are just too busy dealing with their retail operation on a day to day basis.