PhillyPhlorist said:
We pay VERY close attention to codification, delivery areas, min. prices listed for products. You are a fool not to!!! Why create more work for yourself by sending below min. amounts? We check the codes at the point of sale, while the customer is still on the line or in the store so we can actually be intelligent about taking the order!
This is weak, HC... I respect ALMOST everything you say, but this is weak. Yea, you have a point on the OG's, as they will ignor codifications - at least, depending on what POS system they are using. And, well .COM - you can opt out of thier orders all together if you like. But, to say that the program is useless is unjust until proven otherwise...
- H.
You may check 'em. And good for you. But judging from the incomings we've been seeing from people who're supposed to be real florists, you're in a definite decreasing minority.
The drastic decline in overall quality of incoming orders can probably be attributed to the fact that the wire services no longer have any requirements for participating florists. Nor do they give new florists any significant instruction or training on how to take a wire order and transmit it.
As a result, the large majority of our incoming wire orders from FLORISTS in recent years have had major problems which had to be straightened out before delivery could be considered. Bad spelling, wrong recipient names, bad addresses, no phone numbers or incorrect phone numbers, and a TOTAL DISREGARD FOR CODIFICATION OF THE RECEIVING FLORIST are but a few of the problems that we see from the "new generation" of wire service florists on a daily basis. The resulting hassle is part of why we've all but completely phased out the acceptance of ANY wire orders.
And I didn't say the program was useless. As I said before, I suggested this very thing and campaigned hard for it some years ago.
Back then, I thought that if anybody in power could be convinced to listen to what florists thought, there was a chance of saving the wire service industry. I've long since given up on that little fantasy.
Because of my change in thinking conerning the wire industry's lack of a future, I just think that delivery charge codification is too danged little and too danged late. Chewing gum and band aids won't plug the holes and seepage in the hull of a ship that has already been destroyed by bionic termites. So I guess I'd have to conclude, even though I didn't say it before, that in light of this situation, delivery codification is useless.
Besides, as Boss pointed out, a delivery charge codification cannot possibly address the numberous situations where one zip code's area ranges from in town and 5 minutes to 25 miles out and 2 hours for delivery. So, given that we ourselves have that situation in more than one zip, I'd say the codification is pretty much useless. And I stand behind that.
Wish that weren't the case but IMHO it is. Even if delivery codification has real merit, management hasn't been willing to address the REAL problems and by the time they do, the sinking will be a thing of history.
So yeah. Maybe you're right. Maybe what I said was the same as saying it's useless. If not, and after thinking about it I'm certainly saying it now. But it's no more useless, outdated, and obsolete than the wire service industry that it's designed to have some sort of effect on.
They selected me and I dropped out last July! 
