complaint- wire out

[KABERS]

I know we've had these threads before, but I still feel this is one of the biggest problems with our industry. Sent this order fsn - to Italy - first time and last time i'll be doing an international order. Had 14 days advanced notice. Even if they couldn't get the ginger, don't you think it should have been a similar style?
fsn sends international orders through ftd and teleflora. -another reason I won't do it again.

I gave my customer a full refund and e-mailed both pics to fsn. waiting to see if any refund will be forthcoming from them. Not holding my breath.

 

[CHR]

Ginger are not a flower commonly available in Italy, especially pink ginger. Even the tropical foliages would be tough to get and at a premium price.

We never sell a picture when sending internationally since the customs, traditions and product selection can vary wildly from one country to the next.

We usually sell a dollar value, supply the occasion and have the florist make what's appropriate with in-seasonal flowers.

Additionally, international florists do not have access to US Teleflora photos and FSN should not reference a TF picture since it would create copyright issues. It's a proprietary image owned by TF for their exclusive use.

Selling flowers for international delivery can be a real challenge.

 

[RWK]

Have to agree with Cathy on this one......As someone who has sent and handled a good many international orders....I can speak with experience.

Regional and country customs are so different, that it is ALWAYS ( yes a blanket statement ) best to allow the florist in the country to do what is seasonally available and traditional for that country. I am surprised you got an arrangement in a container. That arrangement is typical for Italy.

For instance............let's take the common white chrysanthemum - and explore country traditions.....( from wikipedia - In some countries of Europe (e.g., France, Italy, Poland, Croatia), white chrysanthemums are symbolic of death and are only used for funerals or on graves - similarly, in China, Japan and Korea, white chrysanthemums are symbolic of lamentation and/or grief. In some other countries, it represents honesty. In the United States, the flower is usually regarded as positive and cheerful

So to Italy, Japan, Korea, China......don't send a white mum plant. In fact.....I can't recall exactly, but in either China or Japan, chrysanthemum with a certain number of petals are forbidden to be handled by anyone but the royal family.

My point to all that is this.........Sending International is a tricky affair at best. THis is one of those cases where you really should allow the filling florist the leeway to make the best choices available from what they have there.

 

[lori042499]

Jen,

I also had the pleasure of handling many, many international orders and found that leaving it up to the florist on the other end is always best...I find one of the biggest problems with wire-ins to be that the florist on the other end sells out of their very small world...The sell with their prices in mind, their delivery charges, their products...all because usually they just start selling to the customer before knowing the where and occasion first..after they sell what they have in the store and take the address in idaho, then they realize that now they have to atrat over and explain why the person may not get what was just sold to them...I am 10 miles from a major city, I can get everything known to man, especially with 14 days notice, but not everyone is that lucky...I keep in mind that some shops have to drive miles and miles to go to the market and do it once or twice a week only so what they have is what they have...some of these countries have very remote countryside villages that don't have the selection of the worlds flowers and may only have varieties grown in their own back yard...This makes wire-ins the more difficult process to fulfill...just keep this in mind when selling to anyone who walks through your doors, ask questions first, find out wy they are there, who they need flowers for and the occasion, find out where it is going and when, then sell what you know you can do...you will be able to sell the appropriate items without having to reslae and back paddle or take your chances and hope everything works out well..

 

[BOSS]

International is a shot in the dark. As Cathy said, selling price+occasion+color works best...

For Italy, you could run it through Ital Florist in Toronto... Italo and his family have a kind of mini Italian wire service, they are Italian, speak it, know the customs and know the florists there personally in many cases...

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

International is a shot in the dark. As Cathy said, selling price+occasion+color works best...

For Italy, you could run it through Ital Florist in Toronto... Italo and his family have a kind of mini Italian wire service, they are Italian, speak it, know the customs and know the florists there personally in many cases...

very good advice, was speaking with Italo yesterday, on another matter, however, Italy is NOT one of those places where you can send one of those selections!! We send a fairly hefty volume of overseas, and this "problem" is NOT isolated to Italy.
Over time, you learn, that it IS best to leave to designing specs, to the fill shop, and have a wish list attached, IF AVAILABLE.....it's rare to get exactly as pictured!

 

[KABERS]

I hear what you all are saying. My Italian customer picked that arrangement on line not fsn. I actually have the old telefloral pics on my website from when I was teleflora - and I know they gotta come off and use my own (bad bad bad).
But the bottom line is an unhappy, flower buying, customer. If I had a "do over"on this one, I wouldn't even try. Luckily we have hardly any requests for international in this area.

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

Yup, totally agree with Cathy...

PLUS....A billion years ago I met this woman at a design show who was a European designer, not famous mind you just from Europe. She was a good designer but at the time I thought her style was weird (she had a portfolio with her) which I also thought was sort of unusual, but whatever.....Now I know that her style was European.
Anyhoo- We got in a deep discussion about design and designers. She told me that "All European designers think American designers are inferior."
And I was pretty young and totally offended and I'm sure I said something back totally tacky....BUT later I took it upon myself to check out what European designers do....Designers all over the world.
Back then FTD had those international selection guides and I had never really looked at one, but once I did I saw how different styles were all over the world.
And that's how I've handled international orders ever since, by telling customers, Design is different all over the world, they don't design like they do here, not usually anyway....But since the invention of the internet, and the more and more popular it becomes it seems international have sort of fizzled out. Thank goodness.

 

[KABERS]

Just wanted to let you know fsn does not use ftd or teleflora to send any orders. I've been set straight. they do use an affiliate.

 

[OB1]

The ONLY reason I remain a member of Teleflora is so that I can continue to send orders overseas. We send alot of orders overseas. I always sell by price, as laid out in the membership guide international section, with an extra 20$ or so added on to cover delivery etc. In almost 25 years, I've had 2 unhappy customers, one because the recipient recieved too many flowers, and the other, oddly enough, last week, because there was an error on the order, and the recipient recieved a plant instead of flowers. One call to teleflora international, and they immediately admitted it was their error, and sent the correct arrangement at no charge, with an apology.
Like the others here have said, Never specify, and allow the filling florist to send the appropriate selection.
And, please do not take this the wrong way, but as the floral professional, it is your job to explain to your customer that choosing a selection from any catalogue, including an online catalogue, is a challenge for a national order, but it's a recipe for disaster for an international order.
Sometimes it can be difficult to tell a customer that their choice is not appropriate, but as far as I'm concerned, that is what makes us the professionals. It is our job to help our customers make appropriate choices when they choose to send flowers, not only in our home town, but world wide as well.
JP