1-800 flower will no longer

[Luc]

Send through Teleflora.

Got a call today from them, they are looking for shops to fill their orders directly as they will not be sending their orders through teleflora.

I didnt bother listening to her sale pitch, said usually the other florist fills your order. The few we would get in a year not worth my time to get into any aggreement.

Luc

 

[ivygreen]

Wonder if the will go FTD? Or direct if they can't get them filled?

 

[pnyflr]

Nicole from TF...is this true?

 

[steve]

You got to wonder who dropped who?

 

[Dior]

There were some bloomnet reps that were saying that bloomnet was going to stop sending thru teleflora a couple of years ago when they were soliciting shops, in an effort to sign up the shops. It wasn't true back then, so I would check with someone you trust at either teleflora or bloomnet to see if it's true.

 

[Mac]

We got the same called last week only they included the statement that they are not using FTD anymore either.

Thought to myself "they stopped using FTD a couple of years back".....so....I'm not sure why they would say it as being new information.

Any way, after we declined, they said they would be drop shipping in our area.

Strange marketing tactic.

 

[BOSS]

For the record... they'll use whomever they have to to get their orders out.

Ya have to wonder, why would they be members of their competition... OH, wait a minute....

 

[Luc]

Could it be lies, so they can sign shops up directly?

Luc

 

[spentflowers]

Could it be lies, so they can sign shops up directly?

Luc

That's more probably. They've pulled this "cry" before. But they also may not want to continue paying the fees it costs to use Teleflora's membership for orders. Wouldn't be surprised if Teleflora upped their fees for the interface.

 

[Dior]

Could it be lies, so they can sign shops up directly?

Luc

It could be. It makes sense for a hungry sales rep to go after shops that are getting Bloomnet orders thru Teleflora now, and try to get them to join Bloomnet by saying that they will not be getting those orders thru Tel. anymore.

 

[Eric S]

So if the TF gods are watching they can use this as a great sales pitch to keep its members.

Also if you are watching it would be a great time to give Proflowers the boot.

Wishful thinking I know

 

[avenuegardensflorist]

You got to wonder who dropped who?

....exactly.

 

[MANORVILLE]

Maybe they'll back dance the whole thing and send through ProFlowers who's swappin spit with TF

 

[CHR]

This story reminds me about the time National Flora (remember them?) called us to say they were switching WSs and since we were such a valuable florist filling their orders, we should sign up for the service, too.

(Needless to say, this was before I understood what OGing was all about.) I told them if we were so valuable, they should tell the WS to sign us up for free. They went on to sell the company to FTD and the brand is no longer even promoted.

I, too, would love to know who canned whom. Did TF cut off rebates or did 1-800 have a large volume of complaints on orders sent through TF? Maybe both. With 1-800's propriety offerings and the high likelihood of substitution on their orders when sent through TF, you know the complaints & costs has to have been quite high.

The 'fill for us at our price or we'll just drop ship' has been used by FTD for the last year or so. Interesting 1-800 may go that route, too.

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

I would have a lot more respect for TF if they dropped all og's.

 

[Dorothy]

So, when I signed up with FTD a few years ago, my rep said 1-800 would "never" have membership again and she was surprised that TF had accommodated them. Hmmmm....just wondering, too, who dropped who - if that's what's happened? I hope it was TF....and 800 has nowhere to go but.....

 

[sandytf]

We're FTD only and we get 1800 orders through them. I think they fill them any way they can no matter what they say.

 

[BOSS]

Perhaps.... if this change in the weather is even true, which I doubt as order volume is king in this game, no matter where the orders come from....

Perhaps Teleflora is concerned...even though they are a private company, and since they are, we have no idea as to how many of their orders are generated by 800F... there comes a time in every business relationship, when your "partner" even though they are a competitor, becomes a threat, and the continued relationship grows into a "which is worse" scenario where you may be further ahead to sever the relationship rather than continue to expose yourself.

This whole thing could stem from the continued decline in both order volume and membership numbers.

Yesterday, I had a vendor stop by, he had a new TF directory with him (he uses it to locate florists as he sells his product to retail shops) that I laid up against the new FTD directory. The TF one was more than 1" thicker, close to 1.5". It would appear TF has a continued lead in membership numbers, and perhaps they do not need 800F nor the aggravation they may bring to the table.

There's not enough orders to go around now, and the number will continue to decline... time will tell if the industry can and will support 3 companies doing the same thing, my bet is that it will for a time, but that time is growing shorter. But alas, there is no end in sight....yet.

 

[Mac]

We received the new September FTD Directory yesterday and I thought it felt lighter.....so I laid it next to the May 2009 FTD Directory and noticed that this new directory is about a quarter inch thinner.

Lay them next to each other and you'll see what I'm talking about.

 

[duanermb]

Haven't we seen a bunch of posts lately about 800 calling out orders rather than sending through the network? Perhaps there have been complaints made, and TF fired them.