Did you suspend your Mercury or Dove?

[shannonlovesflowers]

No shannon it didn't.
Unless something has changed and no one has informed me, the day before a holiday, florists are allowed to substitute. We always tried to get as close as possible to the original order, however, subs of any type were allowed.

That is how those rules were when there were WS rules....

joe

You are only allowed to sub if the order states "subs are ok" Regardless if it's a holiday or not.

Does that answer your question?

you know what I need to eloborate..... If the order says "subs are ok" then subbs are ok regardless if it's a holiday. if it says no subs, then duh, no subs allowed. If it doesn't say one way or another, I get really nervous, and we usually call or send an ask to see what is appropriate. maybe thats a better explanation

 

[RC in Dayton and Cincinnati]

Randy, were most of those outbounds destined to large cities or medium/small markets?

I don't know Joe. I'll check tomorrow.

But I suspect most were to small towns where there might only be 3 or 4 florists in the town. In larger towns where there are dozens of florists you usually can find someone to fill the order.


RC

 

[Twila]

NavyBrat...You are the Bomb!!! To be able to do 250 prom orders AND Mother's Day AND still be available to talk about it---Well all I can say is...
:yourock::yourock::yourock::yourock::yourock:

Like Bloomz said, we never suspended our Merc, never have and hopefully never will. That is the VERY nice thing about having Church groups do all our deliveries for us. We can focus ALL our efforts of the other things besides the tons of deliveries!!! JB and I have said so many many times before WE WILL NEVER GO BACK TO DOING OUR OWN DELIVERIES FOR MOTHER'S DAY AND VALENTINE'S DAY!!! Actually, because of having our Church groups (notice I said "our"), we could have taken a bunch more deliveries. I was making jokes to our temporary people that I was going to strap on a "Sandwich Sign" to their backs and have them go outside and get us some more business. One of them was outgoing enough, that she just might have done it. Actually, I had two of my daughters best friends this year-it worked out great. They plan to come back at Valentine's and my daughter has felt left out, so she will be coming back at V-Day as a designer too. I guess the plan worked!!! - Grandpa will watch the three little ones(which he loves to do).

I'm feeling pretty good about how everything turned out: our staff, flowers, ordering, flower menus/brochures, delivering, overtime, personalities and everything inbetween. I would call this Mother's Day a success. I'm sure this is probably is someone else's post, but I'm giving my comments here. Hope everyone else had a great Mother's Day too.

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

I don't know Joe. I'll check tomorrow.

But I suspect most were to small towns where there might only be 3 or 4 florists in the town. In larger towns where there are dozens of florists you usually can find someone to fill the order.


RC

you got that right RC. it is tough being in a small town. We are the most accommodating shop in town and are so limited. staffing is probably the biggest problem. then our closest wholesaler is in Albuquerque. Let me tell you, It's tough!! I guess that's why I just understand why some shops have to do what they have to do.

Please don't anyone think for a moment that we enjoy shutting off our dove. It kills me personally and Amy too. But we do the best we can and nothing less. I'm sure a
lot of other small town- in the middle of no where shops feel the same way.

 

[Sher]

Shut them down Sat afternoon for the same reason as Cheryl...too many FU orders that were ridiculous and was still sitting on about 5 that the failed to respond to requests for phone numbers, more money etc...turned it back on Sunday am and they crap started to flow in again...all for they same thing...finally just kept rejecting with a nasty note. The new rules of FTD are going to be interesting as none of the big senders seem to get it...too wait for 10 hours for a response is just not acceptable for us...again we are in the middle of three muti-community of oldie goldies...and they all think they are the only ones getting flowers..
All in all sales were down as we expected but not quite as much as I anticipated...hard to figure with a big wedding, five proms and a funeral...but like someone else said...glad it is over...lol
And thanks to Twila and JB for the orders as well as a few others of ya! Nice to have friends and to get cute messages on the orders...totally freaks my staff out....
Sher

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

"a big wedding, 5 proms and a funeral"
sounds like a movie!!!

 

[CHR]

we kept getting the same stupid orders over and over for below our minimums or for things that we were not codified for. I don't think that has ANYTHING with being unprepared. It has to do with being able to focus on the locals or people who had enough sense to call US directly rather than 800flowers or any other online og.

We never turned the Dove off, but having it on was a complete waste of time. 8.5 of 10 orders were rejected. I should have turned it off.

Either some wise-*ss florist forwarded us every $30 order they received for a town that's a 30 mile round-trip (which we are NOT listed to serve through TF), or we were the target for a bunch of completely idiotic and/or under-priced arrangements from the TF catalog.

And 'Real Florists' were sending stuff like "4 Casa Blancas with assorted spring flowers - must be delivered before noon - $45" and "showy basket of roses, lilies, and premium flowers - must be signed for by recipient - do not leave with neighbor - $45".

Dianne - at our store, the machine was abused. We received orders for codifieds (which we didn't carry) and orders well below our minimum. It goes against my nature to suspend, but I should have.

The Dove is done in our shop as of tomorrow.

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

We never turned the Dove off, but having it on was a complete waste of time. 8.5 of 10 orders were rejected. I should have turned it off.

Either some wise-*ss florist forwarded us every $30 order they received for a town that's a 30 mile round-trip (which we are NOT listed to serve through TF), or we were the target for a bunch of completely idiotic and/or under-priced arrangements from the TF catalog.

And 'Real Florists' were sending stuff like "4 Casa Blancas with assorted spring flowers - must be delivered before noon - $45" and "showy basket of roses, lilies, and premium flowers - must be signed for by recipient - do not leave with neighbor - $45".

Dianne - at our store, the machine was abused. We received orders for codifieds (which we didn't carry) and orders well below our minimum. It goes against my nature to suspend, but I should have.

The Dove is done in our shop as of tomorrow.

Miss Cathy,
I love you.

 

[Rhonda]

The day before a holiday such as Christmas, Easter, & Mother's Day (used to include Thanksgiving also) and Valentine's Day itself,
Open Order Day.........$$$ only, no specifications.
Any order we sent out was for a designer's choice Mother's Day arrangement (or table arrangement in some cases). We stopped calling out orders on Thursday after spending 4 hours hitting redial to shops to get one order through for a dish garden. When they finally answered the phone, their first words "if it's fresh flowers, it will not go until Monday"......it was dishgarden, deliver Thurs, Fri, or Sat. She said "Thanks, you're a peach" and they delivered it that day, Thurs.
After that, I didn't send any more out.
We didn't sign for Dove this time because of FU, FST, and the others. We received one call from TF headquarters for doz roses - red - delivered before noon Sat (call came in Sat a.m.).. We were out of red, wouldn't deliver them before our pre-ordered ones were delivered...and the operator or whomever it was gave my employee a very rude cussing out. She hung up on them and I assured her that was fine by me because had I been there and answered that call, the sender would have had red ears from my response.
This discussion was held once before and if a shop has a full time person sitting at the computer to sling messages back and forth, keep their machines on. Small shops can't afford to have someone sit there for that reason.

 

[NavyBrat]

Dianne - at our store, the machine was abused. We received orders for codifieds (which we didn't carry) and orders well below our minimum. It goes against my nature to suspend, but I should have.

The Dove is done in our shop as of tomorrow.

Cathy,

I hear ya...still...for the real florists out there who need orders filled we are always open. Unfortunately, I spent a good amount of time sending "REF" messages to FU and other shops for undervalued orders. I am a fast typer (a definite advantage) and I know our system well. It only takes me a minute to "REF" an order with the following message: "If you'd like us to fill this order for you-please resend with (required dollar amount)." I certainly could have spent this time more productively, but we are a large sending shop and I feel I owe the courtesy to other florists to ~stay on!~

 

[blumen]

We did not shut off our Mercury.

Fortunately, we received no orders from any order gatherers that I caught. We've been telling them for a LONG time not to bother sending to us as we won't fill for them, and it seems that they have all gotten the message. We had no trouble with junk orders that we had to reject.

Beginning late Friday, when customers requested delivery going out of town, I just passed on the phone numbers of florists in that town for my customers to call direct. It saved me the hassle of resending orders two or three times after being rejected by florists that had their mercury machines turned off. My customers seemed to appreciate my explanation and my help in getting them to a local florist.

I did not have to turn off our Media99 website for Saturday. We were able to keep taking full-valued orders online up to our noon deadline to be filled the same day. (It is possible to do that if you are not spending your time filling discounted orders for ordergatherers.)

I did have to chuckle at the customer who called about 4:00 PM on SUNDAY, asking for a Mother's Day delivery. (Phones get forwarded to our home.) They commented that they waited until the last minute. No, my husband explained, they were about 24 hours past "the last minute."

 

[Knife's Wife]

We have never shut down... Funny thing though, Thurs. I switched over to a new computer, Heh!!! and we started getting in all these From you flower orders and TFHQ orders, It was pissing me off all day. I suddenly realized that when I switched over, those code # were no longer blocked. So I reentered the codes and, viola! we stopped receiving those annoying orders. I am reading here the Dove users had to turn off their dove because of these orders, just block them, that is what TF gave you this feature for, use it!!

Joan

 

[NavyBrat]

NavyBrat...You are the Bomb!!! To be able to do 250 prom orders AND Mother's Day AND still be available to talk about it---Well all I can say is...
:yourock::yourock::yourock::yourock::yourock:

Like Bloomz said, we never suspended our Merc, never have and hopefully never will. That is the VERY nice thing about having Church groups do all our deliveries for us. We can focus ALL our efforts of the other things besides the tons of deliveries!!! JB and I have said so many many times before WE WILL NEVER GO BACK TO DOING OUR OWN DELIVERIES FOR MOTHER'S DAY AND VALENTINE'S DAY!!! Actually, because of having our Church groups (notice I said "our"), we could have taken a bunch more deliveries. I was making jokes to our temporary people that I was going to strap on a "Sandwich Sign" to their backs and have them go outside and get us some more business. One of them was outgoing enough, that she just might have done it. Actually, I had two of my daughters best friends this year-it worked out great. They plan to come back at Valentine's and my daughter has felt left out, so she will be coming back at V-Day as a designer too. I guess the plan worked!!! - Grandpa will watch the three little ones(which he loves to do).

I'm feeling pretty good about how everything turned out: our staff, flowers, ordering, flower menus/brochures, delivering, overtime, personalities and everything inbetween. I would call this Mother's Day a success. I'm sure this is probably is someone else's post, but I'm giving my comments here. Hope everyone else had a great Mother's Day too.

Twila,

Thanx! We could have done more business as well...especially today. When the orders started getting deep because of the tremendous amount of prom orders, we asked our customers to accept Mother's Day deliveries on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Our customers were fine with this delivery arrangement, and it left it open for us to fill as fast as we could. It was a crazy, crazy week...the most overtime I paid was 6 hours to 3 employees. Of course, I logged in for a million hours OT...paid the usual salary! I like to run a really tight ship. It can be done.

 

[NavyBrat]

We have never shut down... Funny thing though, Thurs. I switched over to a new computer, Heh!!! and we started getting in all these From you flower orders and TFHQ orders, It was pissing me off all day. I suddenly realized that when I switched over, those code # were no longer blocked. So I reentered the codes and, viola! we stopped receiving those annoying orders. I am reading here the Dove users had to turn off their dove because of these orders, just block them, that is what TF gave you this feature for, use it!!

Joan

Joan,

Dang, girl! I thought I was one smart cookie...didn't realize I had this option. Exactly how do you block? I will investigate tomorrow. Sure would love to block the FU orders! Thanx for the tip!

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

Cathy,

I hear ya...still...for the real florists out there who need orders filled we are always open. Unfortunately, I spent a good amount of time sending "REF" messages to FU and other shops for undervalued orders. I am a fast typer (a definite advantage) and I know our system well. It only takes me a minute to "REF" an order with the following message: "If you'd like us to fill this order for you-please resend with (required dollar amount)." I certainly could have spent this time more productively, but we are a large sending shop and I feel I owe the courtesy to other florists to ~stay on!~

and see navy, as we are the only TF shop, the orders that we also politely refused with the same message just spins in TF que and gets sent right back to us. It's done over and over and over and over. Can drive the calmest of florists crazy.

BTW, when we found a florist with their dove off we would call the shop, and ask if they would take the order, most of the time they would because we are considerate to our fellow florists and we get a decent amount plus an open order aka designers choice.

For instance, I called Mauldins in Albuquerque (the one Melody owns because I know her, not too well we've met here and there. we send everything to them) on Wednesday or Thursday because they had already shut off their dove because they too were getting the silly orders that I too was getting. And she was happy to talk to me and take my order.

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

We have never shut down... Funny thing though, Thurs. I switched over to a new computer, Heh!!! and we started getting in all these From you flower orders and TFHQ orders, It was pissing me off all day. I suddenly realized that when I switched over, those code # were no longer blocked. So I reentered the codes and, viola! we stopped receiving those annoying orders. I am reading here the Dove users had to turn off their dove because of these orders, just block them, that is what TF gave you this feature for, use it!!

Joan

we have blocked a lot of og's but somehow they still get through. Drives me crazy!!

 

[shannonlovesflowers]

Joan,

Dang, girl! I thought I was one smart cookie...didn't realize I had this option. Exactly how do you block? I will investigate tomorrow. Sure would love to block the FU orders! Thanx for the tip!

if you have the dove you just go into "maintenance" click to "do not send request" and plug in their tf code.

 

[NavyBrat]

and see navy, as we are the only TF shop, the orders that we also politely refused with the same message just spins in TF que and gets sent right back to us. It's done over and over and over and over. Can drive the calmest of florists crazy.

BTW, when we found a florist with their dove off we would call the shop, and ask if they would take the order, most of the time they would because we are considerate to our fellow florists and we get a decent amount plus an open order aka designers choice.

/quote]

Shannon,

Agreed! The other shops in our town always shut down. If I receive the same order twice-I send "REF" message stating clearly that if the order is sent to us a third time, I will "REF" at my leisure. I don't play games. I understand your frustration, Shannon. We just choose to handle it differently. You don't have to keep justifying your position to me. Whatever works best for you is the way to handle it. I believe in keeping my machine turned on for florists who have legitimate orders. There's nothing more to it than that. This isn't a battle of who's right or wrong. You should run your business the way you see fit...bottom line.

 

[MANORVILLE]

Hello all,
Seems I must be lost, as I wound up here, in this thread !!!!!!!!!!!

OK only kidding !

Think we're all frazzled and tired.
I know I am, as we just now closed the doors, signed out the last driver, and actually gonna walk outa here soon.

I ran full out with all three WS until late last night. 800 orders were not ever in the picture for today, and we kept the other two on.

DIANE------------I'm alive ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As NavyBrat can tell you all, it was a tough holiday week for us.
We took serious hits due to staffing in all areas, as a result of attitudes, sickness and employee family member deaths.
Figure we ran on 50-60% of normal staffing.

I got quite ill, maybe had a minor ticker wake up call, and had to pick up a lot of slack, make unpopular decisions, and quite honestly work my staff like dogs until 7:30 tonight. At 47 I'm not quite ready to kick off so I figured the big guy upstairs was just sending me a message to WAKE UP, so I kept on going !
( Staff, including drivers all mutinied at 11:30 yesterday morning, as one "PRO", undermined the whole thing.)
Without boring you with the details, I ignored their pleas, told everyone that they were underestimating me and their abilities, and reminded each and every one where the door was.
No-one packed and left !
Every order that came in was filled, every delivery that could be made, was made, every confirmation that the 5 friends that ( just showed up to help) is complete, and the bad addresses etc ( which were the worst I've ever seen ), are 80% complete. ( hours on bad AD's etc....)

Walkin started at 7 AM and the bursts were almost too much to handle.
Stronger than in the last three years I think at this point.
A big surprise in this economy IMHO !
Many orders over 75, which made me quite happy.
Sold out on most, including the doggie TF and FTD codified things that didn't generate orders.

In short............we, ( all ), made it through, we're alive, have a lot to be thankful for, and need each other to be strong, to face the tough times ahead.

Proud to be an FC Member !

PS Thanks TOTO I saw what ya did for me ! Sempre Fi brother !!!!!!!

 

[NavyBrat]

if you have the dove you just go into "maintenance" click to "do not send request" and plug in their tf code.

Shannon,

Thanks so much! May I now inquire why you don't do this yourself to prevent the problems you mentioned?