A Just Flowers Story

[Kimber K]

I was going to post this at the end of one of the other WS/OG posts but they were getting pretty long.
Ok... Long long story short (I'll do my best)
I've received 7 phone calls since Saturday 3PM to fill a Dozen Rose order for right here in Toledo. Got the sneaky suspicion, (even though the first caller identified themselves as so and so from such and such flower shop in Somewhere ) that it was an OG order. She asked if I could fill the order, I said Maybe. Dozen Roses? Nope... I don't have enough decent Roses to make a Beautiful Bouquet... "That's OK she says, they can be short." Ummmm NO, Not out of my shop, thank you. (And that's what I told her) She says a mixed bouquet of Gazers and roses is fine (that's what I had in the cooler and offered to her.)

She asks me if I'm TF or FTD. "No." "Well then will you do a 20% discount?"
"No" "Well, I can give you $57 total, including delivery". Now this would be FINE except that she originally asked for a Dozen Roses. For $57?
So I point blank asked her if she took the 20% off the top of that $57 offer. She denied it.. I asked her again what shop she was from. WAS she a REAL Flower shop. "We're a sending only shop" she says. Hm..
"Do you have a real building with REAL flowers that you sell to Customers?"
"No". I told Her "No Thank you for the Order."
Ok.. 6 more phone calls later.. same kind of scenario...
And finally, late this morning A gentleman calls.. Recognized the address he was trying to send to as the one they called about on Sat. This is the REAL guy! Trying to send his friend flowers.
We chatted... Wanna know what that OG was trying to charge him for that order he was trying to send? $65 for the Roses, and a $20 service charge (what he thought was the delivery fee) because he was sending to a REMOTE AREA! The address is right here in town! A Grand Total of $85 for the $57 they offered me. I'm not sure how they came up with the $57...

FTD called, TF called, Just Flowers called....And I'm not even sure who the others were.
This is why I don't want to be affiliated with any of these guys.
Poor guy! I filled his order just now for a Grand Total of $55!! He was sure happy

Kim

 

[twiggy]

I've gotten a couple of those orders--

I sometimes feel bad for the operators who have no Idea what kind of mess they have gotten themselves into when they took that (probably) minimum wage job.
I wonder how many have since then discovered they may have been duped when ordering their own flowers??

 

[BOSS]

And the deception continues....

Good job Kim!

 

[Chezbloom]

WOW! Just....wow. It just goes to show that real customers will find you and you don't need to belong to any WS to get real orders for 100% real dollars. Sling the red dots if you will but as long as flower shops are members of any WS this crap will continue and the lying (Bad) Og's, not Bloomz G-d forbid will continue to destroy what is left of this industry. With no one to fill their skimmed lying crap orders, they will die and I for one could care a less.

 

[Kimber K]

I know!!
I kind of felt bad that SOMEONE wasn't getting their Valentines flowers... but I knew almost from the start of the conversation that something wasn't right. I refuse to associate my shop with that kind of thing. I wasn't going to fill that order for them, no way, no how!
That poor guy spent 4 days trying to get those flowers delivered through them. All it took was one phone call here and $30 savings and he got his order filled. He said he had no idea who he was calling. Just called the big add in the phone book. Sad Sad Sad.
And Chez, you are so right.. if we all take a stand and stop filling for them, they can't survive.

I was so appalled to find out that they charged him the $20 because of the remote area??? That house was less than 3 miles from my shop.
They probably told him it was "remote" because the other two shops in Newport are 7 miles away. They are both TF/FTD and I think one is also 800.

Craziness.. just craziness!

 

[Carrieann]

around and around we go... :tread:

 

[fortinos]

I had a call from just flowers today. They wanted us to deliver an order codified with ftd for 47.99 for 28 dollars. They had discounted the item on their site. When we explained that we were no longer tel or ftd they said if we would give them an 20/80 split they would give us a credit card number.
I am still unable to believe the gall of these organizations !
We explained we do not take orders from ogs and then ended it there.
Not only did we not have to deal with this nonesense over the holiday weekend , but we could pay attention to the local customers that live in our community.

 

[mvf]

Just Flowers blew up my phones too. Had about 10 attempts from them. Last one came on V-day at 5pm looking for a delivery that day. HA HA HA, I appreciated the laugh they gave me. None of their crap was syphoned threw my shop.

On another note: a friend of mine was telling me that her neighbor told her that she was answering phones last week for PRO-Flowers !! ??
The calls were routed to her home phone. So not only are they sending their calls to India they are having them answered by: wealthy suburban , "I need more money so I can buy more coach bags", clueless, know NOTHING about flowers, women!!!!
And the kicker is : this woman is a customer of mine...... REALLY ?? !!
I can't wait till I see her again, I'm actually salivating !!

Jennifer

 

[Pandalou]

I had a couple of messages on my answering service from Just Flowers - 11:00 p.m. on the 14th, wanting me to take an order for flowers. Didn't call them back.
My 800 number is close to Pro Flowers, we got a few calls during the holidays for them. After Valentine's Day we have received a handful of calls, all complaints. Poor customers!

 

[Connie]

We lost count of the times that Just Flowers called our shop trying to place an order for purple orchids. The requests then turned into a bouquet of purple flowers. Then, mixed flowers. The latter requests were left on the answering machine.

The amount that they were offering us to fill the order began going up as time went on. It started off as $35 +/-, and the last message on the machine was for $84. I'm simply guessing that it was for the same order.

We don't fill for them, but we were completely sold out of orchids, and by the time the purple flowers requests came along we had run out of that color also. We did not even bother to return the calls left on the machine.

I do regret that someone did not get her Valentine flowers.

 

[Excptnl]

Our phones were ringing all day from pro flowers...we informed them that we would not take any of their orders over the phone.....we needed them to be merc'd over....None of them came....on friday, when we shut off ftd and forwarded some phones to after hours, pro flowers had the nerve to give wire order to ftd after hours....I ripped ftd and pro flowers..

At least they were decent orders $95 for a dozen white roses arranged, etc...

 

[jaloweaifd]

We recieved seven phone calls for the same order from justflowers this VD. I took the first one and the last four. On call 1 the sender wanted a vase of red roses and pink lilies for a total of 50.00 i asked the called if her customer udnerstood that during valentine's that was going to be an awfully small bouquet. she hung up on me.

by the time i got the same call for the same order the 5th, 6th and 7th times which happened within minutes of each other, i had no pink lilies and no patience left. i asked to be put on their "do not call" list. (doubt that will ever happen) and i assume that the recipient never did get his/her flowers.

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

Our phones were ringing all day from pro flowers...we informed them that we would not take any of their orders over the phone.....we needed them to be merc'd over....None of them came....on friday, when we shut off ftd and forwarded some phones to after hours, pro flowers had the nerve to give wire order to ftd after hours....I ripped ftd and pro flowers..

At least they were decent orders $95 for a dozen white roses arranged, etc...

Are you saying you fill proflowers/og orders if they are kind enough to send them to you over the merc?

please tell me I'm reading that wrong...

 

[mvf]

I Just don't understand why anyone would fill any of these orders.
It's like prostituting yourself or selling your soul to the devil.

I don't give a crap how much the order is for, I'm not filling it.

But some still do. And with each single order filled they get that much more powerful.

We're not allowed to curse.....so I'll stop now.

Jennifer:soapbox:

 

[BOSS]

BOSS's Quote of the day!

I Just don't understand why anyone would fill any of these orders.
It's like prostituting yourself or selling your soul to the devil.

I don't give a crap how much the order is for, I'm not filling it.

But some still do. And with each single order filled they get that much more powerful.

Yep, yup and uh huh...

 

[jaloweaifd]

And so it goes again. Today I got a call from FTD. They were trying to send an order to me from Headquarters. I asked if it was from FTD.com and that I don't fill .com orders. The operator said no it was from Just Flowers. I told her now, I don't fill order gatherer orders. She proceeds to tell me "it's not just flowers sending it, its from FTD..." I said no.

Just flowers then calls five more time about the same order. I proceed to ask to be taken off their call list. I proceed to demand to be taken off their call list. I start automatically asking for a manager. I get transfered and disconnected. And THEY CALLED BACK. Seven total phone calls again regarding the same order which i had no intention of accepting, and as it got later in the day, the requested delivery date changed to Sunday.... UGH!

--James

 

[bloomz]

I Just don't understand why anyone would fill any of these orders.
It's like prostituting yourself or selling your soul to the devil.

I don't give a crap how much the order is for, I'm not filling it.

But some still do. And with each single order filled they get that much more powerful.

We're not allowed to curse.....so I'll stop now.

Jennifer:soapbox:

When it comes to Proflowers orders - I'm pretty darn sure I agree with you.

Too much wanting it both ways with that company.

If I had a Dove and got them, I also would not fill FYF orders on principle.

I do however fill for Wesley as well as other florist OGs that can fill orders for us as well.


Addendum - just reread the $95 for a dozen roses - if we were overstocked with roses I may let them have a dozen for $95.

Local survival comes first.

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

When it comes to Proflowers orders - I'm pretty darn sure I agree with you.

Too much wanting it both ways with that company.

If I had a Dove and got them, I also would not fill FYF orders on principle.

I do however fill for Wesley as well as other florist OGs that can fill orders for us as well.


Addendum - just reread the $95 for a dozen roses - if we were overstocked with roses I may let them have a dozen for $95.

Local survival comes first.

We don't and wont fill for any OG, florist or not, who advertises that they are a local florist in Durango.

 

[leah]

We do not fill FYF or JF order. Period. Ever. We are counting down the final days until we are out of Teleflora. Had MAJOR issues with them this holiday. Does Teleflora call your shops before "doving" the order to you - you know to see if you deliver the zip code you are codified for, or verify you can deliver a specified bouquet - it makes me insane and further proves we are right to dump them. They are tying up my phone lines when they call or interrupting me from waiting on a customer who is physically in my shop. It makes my head spin.

If all that isn't bad enough - we recieved 3 calls from customers complaining their order was not correct. (1) They didn't get their upgraded arrangement. (2) They didn't get their bear, chocolates and balloons. (3) The flowers weren't delivered on the correct date. (4.) The name on the card was incorrect.

Fortunately, we had all our paperwork to back us up. We gave them Telefloral's customer service number. Heard back from Teleflora - (1) wanted to split the difference in the $ due "the mistake". (2.) wanted us to run the bear / balloon / chocolates out to the recipient at no charge. Although we filled the order to the correct total. (3) Wanted us to deliver something as an apology. (4) Wanted a bigger apology with the correct card.

Serious - March 1 can't arrive soon enough. That's when I'm finished with them. Oh, wait - I'm headed to the Connecticut Florists Association (NEFE) this weekend - leaving on Thursday, so I will be suspending the blasted computer on Wednesday afternoon. I can't wait!!

Leah

 

[strippinrose]

I was going to post this at the end of one of the other WS/OG posts but they were getting pretty long.
Ok... Long long story short (I'll do my best)
I've received 7 phone calls since Saturday 3PM to fill a Dozen Rose order for right here in Toledo. Got the sneaky suspicion, (even though the first caller identified themselves as so and so from such and such flower shop in Somewhere ) that it was an OG order. She asked if I could fill the order, I said Maybe. Dozen Roses? Nope... I don't have enough decent Roses to make a Beautiful Bouquet... "That's OK she says, they can be short." Ummmm NO, Not out of my shop, thank you. (And that's what I told her) She says a mixed bouquet of Gazers and roses is fine (that's what I had in the cooler and offered to her.)

She asks me if I'm TF or FTD. "No." "Well then will you do a 20% discount?"
"No" "Well, I can give you $57 total, including delivery". Now this would be FINE except that she originally asked for a Dozen Roses. For $57?
So I point blank asked her if she took the 20% off the top of that $57 offer. She denied it.. I asked her again what shop she was from. WAS she a REAL Flower shop. "We're a sending only shop" she says. Hm..
"Do you have a real building with REAL flowers that you sell to Customers?"
"No". I told Her "No Thank you for the Order."
Ok.. 6 more phone calls later.. same kind of scenario...
And finally, late this morning A gentleman calls.. Recognized the address he was trying to send to as the one they called about on Sat. This is the REAL guy! Trying to send his friend flowers.
We chatted... Wanna know what that OG was trying to charge him for that order he was trying to send? $65 for the Roses, and a $20 service charge (what he thought was the delivery fee) because he was sending to a REMOTE AREA! The address is right here in town! A Grand Total of $85 for the $57 they offered me. I'm not sure how they came up with the $57...

FTD called, TF called, Just Flowers called....And I'm not even sure who the others were.
This is why I don't want to be affiliated with any of these guys.
Poor guy! I filled his order just now for a Grand Total of $55!! He was sure happy

Kim

God, I am so sick of this subject..cant we all get the courage to collectivley do something about this...!!!! so much talk and we are all going down faster than we can say fast!!!...we must stop the bleeding...