Today was our last day with bloomnet!!!!
Oh what a good day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:bangles:
Oh what a good day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:bangles:
bye, bye, bloomnet....
- Thread starter Carrieann
- Start date
- Status
Joe Mioux
Well-Known Member
wildflowerschicago
New Member
No, still have teleflora. It took me TWO YEARS to talk my mom into dropping 1800, I don't know if I will be able to ever talk her into going wire service free.
All of the above and so much more!!!!
I had a countdown sheet up on the wall in my office. I have been counting down the days all month!! Better than counting down to christmas!!!!
And as a bonus for the day,
Mom threw a rep from FTD out of the shop today!!! RUDELY
AND, I booked a wedding for Sept. 09 (farthest out I have ever gotten a deposit)
Mom threw a rep from FTD out of the shop today!!! RUDELY
AND, I booked a wedding for Sept. 09 (farthest out I have ever gotten a deposit)
Joe Mioux
Well-Known Member
well atleast you are staying with a good WS.
TF makes me so much money that I can't keep it all counted.
joe
(for those of you with no sense of humor that last sentence was meant as a joke)
TF makes me so much money that I can't keep it all counted.
joe
(for those of you with no sense of humor that last sentence was meant as a joke)
Well, never having been a shop owner, but with loads of experience and seen what the wire services do ....... If and it is a BIG IF, I had to go with a wire service, I have to say that Teleflora seems to be the least offensive......the lesser of the evils if you will.
Joe Mioux
Well-Known Member
Rick,
once you get past the stereotype of a TF as a WS and all the other iditiotic noise, TF does offer the florist some really good retail flower shop services.
The ws part is a small part of TF's overall package. The best thing they ever did was buy and keep all the good stuff from AFS.
am i in the tank for tf? Nope. they just provide services that I want and some that I don't.
Joe
However Joe, being a designer.....I admit to really missing that bi-monthly issue of PFD. Teleflora lost me as a huge fan when they decided to dump PFD in favor of Flowers&
I wish somebody would resurrect PFD. Maybe I can do that eventually.
I wish somebody would resurrect PFD. Maybe I can do that eventually.
Ditto that - FTD also provides some great services that I wouldn't like to try doing without.
They're not my enemy, they're just a vendor I have to watch like a hawk is all.
Kudos to you. I want to be wire service free, but we don't depend on them for orders. It wouldn't hurt us if we didn't have it, so our thought is why drop?? THey keep us busy on slower days. The trick is staying profitable.
To play devil's advocate a little, what went wrong with the wire services? I've not been in this industry since birth, so I can't track it's history back and see. When did they stop being a friend and became a foe? I read so much hatred towards the wire services on here, and sure, I roll my eyes sometime and oh yes, Jim McCann at 1-800 flowers has received an email or two from me complaining about the misleading $14 service fee, but seriously, when in history did the story change and florists begin hating them so much??? And yet they still keep 'em.... sorry, hate to seem odd I'm just wondering.
To play devil's advocate a little, what went wrong with the wire services? I've not been in this industry since birth, so I can't track it's history back and see. When did they stop being a friend and became a foe? I read so much hatred towards the wire services on here, and sure, I roll my eyes sometime and oh yes, Jim McCann at 1-800 flowers has received an email or two from me complaining about the misleading $14 service fee, but seriously, when in history did the story change and florists begin hating them so much??? And yet they still keep 'em.... sorry, hate to seem odd I'm just wondering.
Joe Mioux
Well-Known Member
The ws' are sort of an oligopoly.
they charge too much for their core service of WS networking.
they also became competitors with the .com og sites as well as the 800 number deal.
they know they can get away with adding little charges here and there and most shops don't realize that all those little service charges, sending fee charges, quality assurance fees add up to big money.
When they started being competitors for local customers.
When they gave the likes of Urban Florist 'New Member of the Year' awards.
When they stopped carring much about consumer quality on both the sending and fulfillment sides.
When they allowed non-florists to sell their products, and gave higher rebates to them than they do 99.99% of real florists.
When they dictated price, inventory and delivery fees regardles of actual expenses of filling florists.
When they raised incoming fees from 25% to more than 31%.
When they added unequal sending fees, knowing they sell more than 50% of the orders in their systems.
When they gave the likes of Urban Florist 'New Member of the Year' awards.
When they stopped carring much about consumer quality on both the sending and fulfillment sides.
When they allowed non-florists to sell their products, and gave higher rebates to them than they do 99.99% of real florists.
When they dictated price, inventory and delivery fees regardles of actual expenses of filling florists.
When they raised incoming fees from 25% to more than 31%.
When they added unequal sending fees, knowing they sell more than 50% of the orders in their systems.
ctherose
New Member
Good luck on actually being "done" with them. They received my letter last June ('07), finally called me in Oct. to confirm that I wouldn't accept any deals to try to make me stay and after months of calls, they finally told me last month I would for sure not be receiving statements anymore for extra listings and the late fees for not paying them. I'll believe it when I see no more statements for a whole year!
But seriously--yeah for you!!
But seriously--yeah for you!!
There isn't that many that hate them, just a highly vocal group of a dozen or so that make it sound like thousands.
And most of the so called "haters" still belong, so what does that tell you?::BS
LJVF
Well-Known Member
It's like Pimps (WS) and Ho's (Florists), can't live with them, can't live without.
Ya' know - 'hate' really isn't the right word for me. (I can certainly understand the haters that have been hit with the heavy legal end of those WSs.) The better words would be disdain and disgust.
July 31, 2008 was our last day in the 800TFTD world.
Oddly enough, our outgoing orders were up over 100% in July ('07 vs '08). :dunno: Thank goodness for BBrooks and MAS Direct - where delivering florists get more $/order and the systems aren't polluted with warped rebates and BS 'quality assurance' fees.
(Added: I'm also especially tickled that some of the biggest sending shops are now going direct 'cuz they also figured out the WS/rebate game wasn't healthy for them or the florists they need to fill their distant orders. Kinda warms my heart.)
(Added, too: I've actually had a Quickbooks sub-category under Wire Service Fees called 'BS'. :>)
July 31, 2008 was our last day in the 800TFTD world.
Oddly enough, our outgoing orders were up over 100% in July ('07 vs '08). :dunno: Thank goodness for BBrooks and MAS Direct - where delivering florists get more $/order and the systems aren't polluted with warped rebates and BS 'quality assurance' fees.
(Added: I'm also especially tickled that some of the biggest sending shops are now going direct 'cuz they also figured out the WS/rebate game wasn't healthy for them or the florists they need to fill their distant orders. Kinda warms my heart.)
(Added, too: I've actually had a Quickbooks sub-category under Wire Service Fees called 'BS'. :>)
We actually sent our letter in March to be out at the end of April. In the contract it says you must give a months notice. Well, we knew they got our letter because we sent it certified. My mom called them to be sure we were set. They said yup your set but you realize you will be charged monthly fees through July right? To make a long story short... The very fine print of the contract says if you drop within a directory listing you will be charged until that directory is up. So we decided to stay in full (basiclly because they were making us) until the directory was up at the end of July.
They only thing that makes me nervious (sp) is that on Wed I was arguing AGAIN with a rep about needing $20 more on an order and I mentioned we were done in a day. She asked if we had everything set up for that. Very snobily (is that a word?) I might add. I told her we were all set.
Just to be sure my mom called HQ to ask them, they say yup, everything is all set you are done as of Aug. 1st. She asked for them to fax something in writing saying that. They refused!!! She talked to five people and they all said their was nothing they could or would fax. That we were all set and would just stop receiving statements.
Not having anything in writing is a little scary. The only thing we have is our termination letter and the cert. that they received it.
I'm still not totally ws free, still have teleflora.
And we are profitable with them, have to watch things very closely to stay that way and say no no no no to all their little "add ons." For the most part teleflora works for us, for now.
- Status
