Bleeding the Turnips

jamie said:
I am no longer in FTD, so I can't say for 100% what their policy is now.

However, under the old reciprocity guidelines, you could easily have reciprocity waived if you sent all of your orders through FTD. It did not matter how many per month you sent as long as 100% of them were through FTD. They would only waive the fees for 6 months at a time, and it was not uncommon for them to "forget" to waive them from time to time, so you would have to call and get a credit.

I had never found a "rejection fee" that many of you talk about. They charged you a mercury fee whether you fill or reject an order, but you could also call every month and ask that those fees be credited back to you for all rejected or canceled orders. I called on the 11th of every month, and never had a problem getting those fees refunded.

This new policy just does not bother me or surprise me. FTD is a for-profit company that has to answer to stockholders. They need to have short term positive news, so they are squeezing members for a fast cash infusion. It is no coincidence this is happening right before Mother's Day, which is the biggest wire holiday of the year.

Do I feel sorry for FTD member shops? No. They are my competition, and this is not some bad stroke of luck. This is simply the latest screw being turned. I was a member for three years, and noticed this trend right away. The people still in FTD are either, sending shops who are turning profit through clever marketing, high service fees, and awesome rebates or filling shops who either don't have the brains to do the math or the backbone to make the decision based on the math.

The same shops who are paying these fees are probably also overpaying for flowers, phone service, and most everything else. They are probably also owed thousands of dollars in old house charges. You can't help those who won't help themselves.
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Hi Jamie...the same still holds true, IF you're FTD ONLY......it truly IS SILLY if you subscribe to more than one, and I AM one.....
I WON'T shy away from FTD, AND the other guys, being largely responsible for the greed aspect of our industry, and MANY shops left, BECAUSE of, and IN SPITE of, the fact they couldn't or wouldn't change!
It's true, about the stockholder leverage, OVER the folks that do the work, but, that's ancient history......we DID have a "choice",and MOST of the folks that CHOSE to sell, are ALSO the folks that have largely left.
And there are old guys like US, who see things for what they are.....a footprint in a mudpuddle...:)
 
BOSS said:
Only works if there is someone to send to... currently they are approaching around 8000 florist members, Bad Bobby Norton did a study years ago and determined it would take about 9000 to cover 95% of the country with the other 5% being not worth worrying about. 8000 seems a bit short... and now we are seeing drop outs from the Top 100 Members and more... over 160 drops last month alone...

Now, FTD claims it's a net as they are signing up members (I doubt its a net myself), but I question what the quality of those shops they are signing up are? As we saw at Valentines, MANY of the consumer complaints were caused by the filling florist, not the wire service of choice, so couple decreased membership numbers with degradation in quality, and their problems (and those of sending florists too) are likely only to get worse. I'll bet the complaints after this Mothers Week will be somewhat horrific to those of us that run quality operations.
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MARK, I trust your grapevine, IF 8000 members are left, FTD is toast, and unsustainable...I'm hoping for peanut butter with my toast,but,alas the writing is on the wall, and I am sad...really!
 
Mikey the Flower Guy said:
MARK, I trust your grapevine, IF 8000 members are left, FTD is toast, and unsustainable...
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Honestly Mikey, I think it could be done with even less, but for that to happen, the company needs to be realistic in their approach to the issues. It needs to be a win win for both the company and the florists. I think they could make even more, with fewer members than they are today.

I think of it this way, right now they are playing the numbers game, backwards... I mean does it really make sense to have 150 (older number) members in Toronto? Or Dallas? Or Midland for instance 3 when one can handle it? Why wouldn't they want a good, reliable member that can handle a city of 50,000 easily, rather than 3 mediocre members? I know, membership dollars, but honestly, there would be many, willing to pay more for exclusivity.

They need to limit online selections, dump the paper book and several other silly ass set-ups they have to make it work, but it could be done.
 
BOSS said:
Honestly Mikey, I think it could be done with even less, but for that to happen, the company needs to be realistic in their approach to the issues. It needs to be a win win for both the company and the florists. I think they could make even more, with fewer members than they are today.

I think of it this way, right now they are playing the numbers game, backwards... I mean does it really make sense to have 150 (older number) members in Toronto? Or Dallas? Or Midland for instance 3 when one can handle it? Why wouldn't they want a good, reliable member that can handle a city of 50,000 easily, rather than 3 mediocre members? I know, membership dollars, but honestly, there would be many, willing to pay more for exclusivity.

They need to limit online selections, dump the paper book and several other silly ass set-ups they have to make it work, but it could be done.
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IF we were to return to our "origins" whereby ONLY the large cap markets could be serviced, then I would agree with your theology, BUT, it's NO LONGER "appropriate" to exclude many smaller markets, to re-balance the portfolio!
8000 TOTAL end points OR LESS, is NOT sustainable, based on the number of customers that I "re-direct" based on non-member towns currently NOT serviced!.....I ALWAYS find a way, but, dwindling coverages, ALSO contribute to dwindling reasons to be a member..er, partner, er whatever we are referred to as now
 
Mikey the Flower Guy said:
8000 TOTAL end points OR LESS, is NOT sustainable, based on the number of customers that I "re-direct" based on non-member towns currently NOT serviced!.....I ALWAYS find a way, but, dwindling coverages, ALSO contribute to dwindling reasons to be a member..er, partner, er whatever we are referred to as now
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I would agree... IF... I was worried about **wire** coverage... but I'm not... there will still be florists to direct consumers to directly ;)
 
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Case and point on numbers?? When the newest directory came it was twice the size as the one before. Why?? Because the Maine listings for just one state reference, had shops listing as serving small towns .. for instance, a large Portland ME florist is listed in over 15-18 towns surrounding the area where the book before, they were listed for about 4 and that large florist (3 stores) expanded all the stores listings to those small towns surrounding... so .... and then the second largest "city" the same, extra towns were listed serviced.... expanding the Maine listings by a great many pages. I'm sure if they did that to all the states, that is why the directory "looked so large"... It was almost as blatant a "photo shop" as their online images.
 
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after reading all of the posts in this thread - I am glad we will be out of FTD at the end of this month
 
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