Randy M.

I have done some computer contract work at the Sherri's Berries plant when it was in Roseville, CA and was a family owned operation. I even helped them move from one facility to a newer, larger facility. I had worked with the Exec VP, Production Mgr, and IT Mgr at a different company. I used to get fresh dipped berries right off the production line. They were large, plump, ripe, and delicious. If I ordered them for shipping, they were still very good. They were shipped with dry ice to keep them fresh. Back then, they dipped the berries with the stem on and they were very attractive and looked like strawberries. Even in the off season when they had to get South American strawberries, because fresh California berries weren't available, the berries were large, plump, ripe, and delicious.
Today, Dec. 23,2016, I received four dozen berries (4x12). They were delivered as promised, so I can't fault them on that, though the delivery fee was exorbitant. It was $20 for each $29 box of berries. All 4 were delivered to the same address, but they shipped each box separately and added shipping to each box. They appeared to be packaged very well. The berries were in a plastic tray with cups for each berry. This was in a gift box and was lined with foam. The gift box was in a shipping box with more custom fit foam.
I was giving these to my employees for Christmas as none of them had ever had Sherri's Berries and I wanted to give then a treat.
When I opened the first box, I was very disappointed. The berries were very small, misshaped (didn't even look like strawberries), were too small to be locked into the tray cups (were not upright and laying outside the cups), and the stems were cut off. At first glance, they were unattractive, unlike how I remembered them. Where they used to have a thick chocolate base so they sat flat with the decorated side up, the chocolate was thin, stuck to the plastic tray and peeled off as the berries moved around, this left a big hole in the covering adding to the unattractiveness.
Now to eating them. I took one at random and bit into it. The coating was as I remembered it, but the berry was not ripe. So now I am completely disgusted with my purchase and I will have to apologize to my employees.
With shipping, these cost me $50 per dozen. The lowered quality and attention shows what happens when a large corporation takes over a small company and then cares only about profits. Shame on FTD for ruining this fine company.