a bit of good news from FTD - controversy invited

[normagi]

Great News!

We think it is wonderful. Have been asking for similar rules for years. Too many times we get rejects too late to get it through another shop or after the delivery date entirely. 2 hour time limit is great.

 

[Bigted]

An educated guess having been a former FTD filler......they can't resolve statement problems now on a timely basis, there is no way they will be able to police this program effectively for the fillers. On the other hand, they will handle the program profitably for themselves.

FTD won't need to do this. The big OGs will report every violation--real or imagined. At a minimum of $10 it's worth keeping track.

 

[BOSS]

FTD won't need to do this. The big OGs will report every violation--real or imagined. At a minimum of $10 it's worth keeping track.

Oooooooooh...and maybe they'll get a *bounty* of 50% of all the fines (read TAXes) they manage to put on the books...

I'm telling you the permanently suspended machines will hit record proportions!

 

[bloomz]

Why should they reject. Send an ask message with an offer to substitute. Then give FTD or the florist a choice to allow the sub or cancel. If it's not FTD.com then forward.

HEY!

STOP MAKING SENSE! lol

I think David's point is, you don't need to sit on an order for 2 or 3 days hoping to get some good sunflowers in like Cathy's scenario predicted.

and, no I don't think that's professional.

 

[Cheryal]

Finally, someone who actually thinks! Of course this is about FTD forcing florists to fill order gatherers orders. Nothing more, except a new way to make a more money. How about the darned orders from the gatherers that are way under valued... I send a price increase request... and then what happens? Nothing! It sits on my desk long past delivery date. People, people, people.... this is a one way street your walking on. I will be wire service FREE in a couple of months. 2 years ago I quit FTD and have doubled my profits since. Can't wait to see what happens when I quit the last one.

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

Voice of reason there - I'm sure there's all kinds of scenarios that can and will come to bear.

I'm *fairly* confident that with orders properly handled, no one will be fined inappropriately.

But I could be wrong - I was that one time.....:tunes:

opinions vary.....

Hey JB....I think I'll just send you the 30 bucks already!!:FTDme:buttwiggl

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

FTD won't need to do this. The big OGs will report every violation--real or imagined. At a minimum of $10 it's worth keeping track.

I'm up 40 bucks then already, 30 from .com, and 10 from a brain dead shop in Edmonton

 

[TOTO]

Don't You Get It?

This (fine) is just another PROFIT CENTER and another PASSIVE STREAM OF REVENUES gleaned from the MOM and POP shops into the coffers of BIG BROTHER!

Who, in their RIGHT MINDS, would allow an OUTSIDE SUBCONTRACTOR, to dictate the TERMS of how, any Independent REAL FLORIST would accept and fill any order from a THIRD PARTY, albeit at a DISCOUNT of 30% plus NOTHING for your COST of DELIVERY!

Not only do they FAIL to observe your own MOs, they insist on sending you JUNK ORDERS at TOO LOW SRPs coupled with ridiculous recipes, coupled with ridiculous time constraints.

After which, you're expected to deal with their junk in two hours, or face a FINE!

How about this? Don't send me your JUNK and don't waste my time, and DON'T EXPECT ME TO WASTE MY TIME in having to deal with YOUR JUNK!

In fact, I'm going to FINE YOU for SENDING ME YOUR JUNK to begin with!

 

[bloomz]

Who, in their RIGHT MINDS, would allow an OUTSIDE SUBCONTRACTOR, to dictate the TERMS of how, any Independent REAL FLORIST would accept and fill any order from a THIRD PARTY, albeit at a DISCOUNT of 30% plus NOTHING for your COST of DELIVERY!

They/we're far far from the only industry that does stuff like this.

Cell phone companies, Home Depot, Coke and Pepsi are just a few that come to mind.

They all dictate to their vendors.

But Toto - I don't think you have to worry about getting fined by FTD.

Cuz...:yourock:

 

[BOSS]

I think David's point is, you don't need to sit on an order for 2 or 3 days hoping to get some good sunflowers in like Cathy's scenario predicted.

and, no I don't think that's professional.

I agree...but then you'll get the dodo's like I have this week already... I have 3 incomings sitting in the CO Box, going on 3 days as of this morning. 1) No card message included, 2) No white available, sent ASK for color, and 3) incorrect address.

So now, if I do not get a response today, I will reject them, since in many cases this is the only message that gets a response (as you know Jon) but under the new rules I would get TAXED because it has been more than 2 hours.

So, in the future, I (we) will simply reject out of hand, but then the wires will get the reject fee and it'll cost me (and you) to do it that way.

I'm telling you, the permanent suspensions will grow to epic proportions, and the auto-rejects will also become a huge issue.

 

[theRKF]

I agree...but then you'll get the dodo's like I have this week already... I have 3 incomings sitting in the CO Box, going on 3 days as of this morning. 1) No card message included, 2) No white available, sent ASK for color, and 3) incorrect address.

So now, if I do not get a response today, I will reject them, since in many cases this is the only message that gets a response (as you know Jon) but under the new rules I would get TAXED because it has been more than 2 hours.

So, in the future, I (we) will simply reject out of hand, but then the wires will get the reject fee and it'll cost me (and you) to do it that way.

I'm telling you, the permanent suspensions will grow to epic proportions, and the auto-rejects will also become a huge issue.

I doubt it.

Most florists don't read the announcements in their statements. Heck, most don't even reconcile their statements.

I'm putting $20 on the line that some between October 08 and Feb 09 a newbie will pop up here on FC ranting about this "New" fee from FTD, asking "Did you know about this?"

Ryan

 

[bloomz]

I'd also shoot a guess that if an ask has been sent it will do something different - I bet they will get some growing pains ni administering this.

 

[Twila]

On my way to work (haven't even read the rest of the posts), but had to add my two cents. Here's a new one from just last year. Had an order going out of our delivery area, so we called the florist in the next town to see if she would deliver that day. It was a sympathy order (woman just got the call that her sister's husbands sister or family member had died). Before we took the order, we made sure the flowers would indeed be delivered that day. The next day, the woman called, very upset, cuz the flowers didn't arrive until late the next day. Someone called from our shop, and was told that they just didn't have time to take it. I called owner, thinking that I might have more pull or something like that (ha ha). I was told "We got too busy. Besides it wasn't for a birthday or anything--IT'S NOT LIKE THE PERSON WOULD BE ANY MORE DEAD THE NEXT DAY!!!" At that point, I was speachless!!! All I could do was refund my customer's money. Talk about unprofessionalism!!

What do you think??? You don't think this florist should be fined!!! They had been called and told us yes they would indeed deliver the order. They had plenty of time to call us and let us know that there were problems, but decided not to. We don't trust them with orders anymore.

OK, I'm off to work....Hopefully to make lots of Mother's Day Money...like all of us. Good luck to everyone!!!

 

[BOSS]

I'm putting $20 on the line that some between October 08 and Feb 09 a newbie will pop up here on FC ranting about this "New" fee from FTD, asking "Did you know about this?"

Ryan

Thats a sucker bet, because we both know it will happen.

 

[bloomz]

Here's a new one from just last year. Had an order going out of our delivery area, so we called the florist in the next town to see if she would deliver that day. It was a sympathy order (woman just got the call that her sister's husbands sister or family member had died). Before we took the order, we made sure the flowers would indeed be delivered that day. The next day, the woman called, very upset, cuz the flowers didn't arrive until late the next day. Someone called from our shop, and was told that they just didn't have time to take it. I called owner, thinking that I might have more pull or something like that (ha ha). I was told "We got too busy. Besides it wasn't for a birthday or anything--IT'S NOT LIKE THE PERSON WOULD BE ANY MORE DEAD THE NEXT DAY!!!" At that point, I was speachless!!! All I could do was refund my customer's money. Talk about unprofessionalism!!

What do you think??? You don't think this florist should be fined!!! They had been called and told us yes they would indeed deliver the order. They had plenty of time to call us and let us know that there were problems, but decided not to. We don't trust them with orders anymore.

And we paid for that order as well as refunding the customers money.

I doubt she would do that twice if she had to pay the fine. But she never even rejected it, she just decided to do it a day late, without notice to us so we could get someone else, or, since it was in a neighboring town (we don't normally deliver to) we have a special really awesome driver named bloomz that would have taken it.

This is someone who doesn't take important emotional statements seriously and needs to go work at a bank or something. It was important to our customer that her sister got the flowers right away that day.

She probably won't be buying flowers again - thanks Alice (the florist's name).

 

[Hal Conklin]

refund

I agree...but then you'll get the dodo's like I have this week already... I have 3 incomings sitting in the CO Box, going on 3 days as of this morning. 1) No card message included, 2) No white available, sent ASK for color, and 3) incorrect address.

So now, if I do not get a response today, I will reject them, since in many cases this is the only message that gets a response (as you know Jon) but under the new rules I would get TAXED because it has been more than 2 hours.

So, in the future, I (we) will simply reject out of hand, but then the wires will get the reject fee and it'll cost me (and you) to do it that way.

I'm telling you, the permanent suspensions will grow to epic proportions, and the auto-rejects will also become a huge issue.

be sure to ask for your1.25 refund on the rej also because they couldnt get all correct information maybe a price change of an additional 20.00 is in order !!!!

 

[bloomz]

Here's my first doozie where I WISH this rule already applied.

Guy ordered from Iraq on the 6th, order sent and delivered to Mercury machine at 2:11 AM (called Merc to verify) - they rejected this morning said "overloaded". They swear they didn't get this til this morning - but it wasn't true - Merc showed it delivered to their machine on the 6th.

I called them and begged them to take it and they finally did, but only on a credit card, AND I had to kick in another $20 of our money. They were the only one serving Round O, SC. I know a few of you will go hallejeau but I won't.

Highly unprofessional.

I really would rather have no coverage than coverage like this. OR just know out of the gate that I have to send on a credit card. about 30 minutes more and this poor soldier wouldn't have gotten his very important emotional message of love to his Mother - AND we can imagine all kinds of bad scenarios that could happen.

 

[BOSS]

Highly unprofessional.

I really would rather have no coverage than coverage like this.

I agree...

And your going to get your wish too, now that Mothers Week is over, we'll see coverage beginning to take severe hits. It was already apparent this week. I spent more time this week tracking down shops, and handling rejects than I ever have...it's just about gotten to the point where it's not worth my time.

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

I agree...

And your going to get your wish too, now that Mothers Week is over, we'll see coverage beginning to take severe hits. It was already apparent this week. I spent more time this week tracking down shops, and handling rejects than I ever have...it's just about gotten to the point where it's not worth my time.

I'd call it near epidemic....the number of places that were NOT serviced, is growing at an alarming rate!!

 

[Joe Mioux]

Does anyone have the cliff notes to this thread?

Let me ask a simple question.

FTD wants to penalize its member shops if you don't cancel the order within a couple hours. Correct?

What's the problem?

Looks like I am dumping FTD for the third time (technically twice but at one time I had two Ftd membeships)

No florist in their right mind would stay with them.

Don't get hung up on FTDPOS issues. You can dump them and they will still support your FTD software, according to an FTD source. He told me this a few years ago.

However, check with them, and then play hard ball with them.