Strawberries! Where are my Berries - Please?

It's that time of year again when all the people with Green - Thumbs jump up and down with glee and run to there sheds and gather all the tools they need to jump start the growing season. However, for the rest of us, who were not blessed with the green thumb, will take the time to find a fence, stand in front of it and bang our heads against it and mutter "Here we go again!"

I am the person in front of the fence - not banging my head - but shaking it with my hands and screaming at it with all I have - demanding Why my Strawberries are NOT growing for the third year in a row. What am I doing wrong?

I bought Everberring Strawberries from Walmart three years ago in a box with 20 plants. On the box were instructions that only said put the plants in water for a couple of hours and then plant. How easy was that! I planted them in my back yard and more of less forgot about them. (New baby in the house.) The following spring I discovered that 7 plants survived the winter. I planted them and placed them in planters in front of my house and let the "Runners" run loose. (I thought that they looked kind of neat like that.) However, this year I wouldn't mind some Strawberries from them. I am planning on putting them in front of the house in the ground, clip the runners and make the plants produce Strawberries. But it was not less then two weeks ago that I was talking to one of my neighbors about my strawberries when he told me that my plants should of been making Strawberries regardless of where they where located and the runner's running loose. "It's a weed - it grows anywhere and everywhere. Are you sure you bought the eatable kind?" I am very sure I bought the Everberring verity.

So mom if your out there or anyone else - I need help with my Strawberries!!!! What can I do to make them produce a berry or should I give up.