FTD is bleeding me dry and won't let me out

[lori042499]

Meish, no harm done in admitting it...it is frustrating and sometimes the frieght or flight instinct kicks in and we all bury our heads in the sand..I spent 2 years of my life in that mode and just unburied myself from the fiasco..So now I have come clean too...nothing bad wiull happen and none of us think you are stupid or bad, many of us understand and have been in your shoes many times...Just keep at it and sooner or later you will be free....

 

[concord]

I do not miss those statements one little bit. I used to dread figuring out all those stupid fees and then reconciling the orders filled and sent to make sure I really had filled and sent them. Now I use all that free time to market to my local customers. Less head aches, more money, it's a win win!

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

I do not miss those statements one little bit. I used to dread figuring out all those stupid fees and then reconciling the orders filled and sent to make sure I really had filled and sent them. Now I use all that free time to market to my local customers. Less head aches, more money, it's a win win!

Meish...take Helen's post WITH a grain of salt.......

 

[CHR]

Really, the reconciliations with the OGs disputing properly filled orders (just hoping florists don't notice) used to make my blood boil. Removing your shop from the very bad game can restore sanity and the joy of being a florist. Spoken from first hand knowledge.

 

[BOSS]

Meish...take Helen's post WITH a grain of salt.......

And a shot of Jose'

 

[posyprincess]

I just read about your issue with Telflora.
I am a new member and wanted to try it out for 3 months. I have had nothing but problems since I joined .
I was billed for the first month , and I could not even send or receive orders. my computer was non compliant with their software, and they had to send me a component in order to be compatible. THat took about a month.
Then the next bill 2 bills came, and I had to call each time and question every fee. Fees that were not diclosed at the time I signed up. All of a sudden I got my next bill and was being charged for over 200.00 for advertising fees that I did not sign up for. I called to inquire ,and each phone call takes at least 2 weeks for someone to get back to me.
I finally had sent a termination letter,. and got a call. All they wanted to do was entice me to stay a member without rectifying the charges that I was complaining about. 2 more weeks have gone by since they said they would get back to me.
I had to send anothe email stating how displeased I was at the way they are treating a new member, and how easily it could have been to resolve. If they had just credited back the charges, it would have all worked out.
All of this waiting and no resolve just adds fuel to the fire.In the meantime I got hit with late fees and interest for not paying.
I refuse to pay when it hasnt been resovled yet.
I they are trying to get me to stay a member if I agree to accepting their bribe until the end of the year.
In my opinion,. their managment skills are backwards with total neglect of customer service.. with "WE members " being their customers.. the ones they seem to forget who have made them into the corporation that they "were".
We have to stand up for ourselves, and fight for what is ours.
By the way.. I called FTD and asked them what the cut off was for the May directory , I was first told it was Feb 18th, then she put me on hold for @ 4 mins, so that she could check with member services . She then told me that it was March 1st.
Her name was Edith.. I asked her twice.

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

I just read about your issue with Telflora.
I am a new member and wanted to try it out for 3 months. I have had nothing but problems since I joined .
I was billed for the first month , and I could not even send or receive orders. my computer was non compliant with their software, and they had to send me a component in order to be compatible. THat took about a month.
Then the next bill 2 bills came, and I had to call each time and question every fee. Fees that were not diclosed at the time I signed up. All of a sudden I got my next bill and was being charged for over 200.00 for advertising fees that I did not sign up for. I called to inquire ,and each phone call takes at least 2 weeks for someone to get back to me.
I finally had sent a termination letter,. and got a call. All they wanted to do was entice me to stay a member without rectifying the charges that I was complaining about. 2 more weeks have gone by since they said they would get back to me.
I had to send anothe email stating how displeased I was at the way they are treating a new member, and how easily it could have been to resolve. If they had just credited back the charges, it would have all worked out.
All of this waiting and no resolve just adds fuel to the fire.In the meantime I got hit with late fees and interest for not paying.
I refuse to pay when it hasnt been resovled yet.
I they are trying to get me to stay a member if I agree to accepting their bribe until the end of the year.
In my opinion,. their managment skills are backwards with total neglect of customer service.. with "WE members " being their customers.. the ones they seem to forget who have made them into the corporation that they "were".
We have to stand up for ourselves, and fight for what is ours.
By the way.. I called FTD and asked them what the cut off was for the May directory , I was first told it was Feb 18th, then she put me on hold for @ 4 mins, so that she could check with member services . She then told me that it was March 1st.
Her name was Edith.. I asked her twice.

Just so you know....Edith, is one of the VERY BEST reps that FTD has...she's my "go to" gal!!

 

[posyprincess]

Footnote: I have not sent or received orders in 2 months.. My bill is now 575.00
REALLY FTD?
SO GLAD I JOINED!

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

I just read about your issue with Telflora.
I am a new member and wanted to try it out for 3 months. I have had nothing but problems since I joined .
I was billed for the first month , and I could not even send or receive orders. my computer was non compliant with their software, and they had to send me a component in order to be compatible. THat took about a month.
Then the next bill 2 bills came, and I had to call each time and question every fee. Fees that were not diclosed at the time I signed up. All of a sudden I got my next bill and was being charged for over 200.00 for advertising fees that I did not sign up for. I called to inquire ,and each phone call takes at least 2 weeks for someone to get back to me.
I finally had sent a termination letter,. and got a call. All they wanted to do was entice me to stay a member without rectifying the charges that I was complaining about. 2 more weeks have gone by since they said they would get back to me.
I had to send anothe email stating how displeased I was at the way they are treating a new member, and how easily it could have been to resolve. If they had just credited back the charges, it would have all worked out.
All of this waiting and no resolve just adds fuel to the fire.In the meantime I got hit with late fees and interest for not paying.
I refuse to pay when it hasnt been resovled yet.
I they are trying to get me to stay a member if I agree to accepting their bribe until the end of the year.
In my opinion,. their managment skills are backwards with total neglect of customer service.. with "WE members " being their customers.. the ones they seem to forget who have made them into the corporation that they "were".
We have to stand up for ourselves, and fight for what is ours.
By the way.. I called FTD and asked them what the cut off was for the May directory , I was first told it was Feb 18th, then she put me on hold for @ 4 mins, so that she could check with member services . She then told me that it was March 1st.
Her name was Edith.. I asked her twice.

OK, so what is your "advice" when someone "considers" what YOU went and did, WITHOUT "consulting" us first??......

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

Footnote: I have not sent or received orders in 2 months.. My bill is now 575.00
REALLY FTD?
SO GLAD I JOINED!

wait a sec......what on earth are you joining a wire service for, IF you haven't "SENT" an order in 2 months...please, please,please explain

 

[jamie]

Sorry if I had a double post, but I just had some connection problems......

It bothers me that you say you owe FTD at the end of the month since you also say that you don't send through them.

How are you sending your orders out of town? Are you sending through another wire service or are you using FSN or just calling with a CC?

FTD has built it's business over the past 30 years by sending lots of orders to local florists and keeping them happy with large checks each month. Even though there is very little actual profit earned.

Are you filling very many FTD orders?

You need to really scrutinize your statement and see where the money is going. It is all listed in black and white. I have some suspicions, but I can only speculate since I have only ever seen my own statements.

Please don't codify anything for Mother's Day or V-Day, ever. It is a total waste of money. FTD.com and the other OGs will flood your Merc as long as it is on, whether you are codified or not. Plus, if you don't have plenty of local business for Mother's Day then you have bigger things to worry about than making 3-5% off of a wire service order.

 

[posyprincess]

OK, so what is your "advice" when someone "considers" what YOU went and did, WITHOUT "consulting" us first??......

​

I am not sure what you mean by this....
and Why did I join a wire service if I haven't sent or received orders for 2 months?

Well. I was approached by a rep from FTD. who said he could help Grow my business . ( of course)
WHy else would anyone try anything in this economic climate?
I have not sent orders via FTD in 2 months because of all the nonsense with the bill. I use Teleflor .
But on the other hand,,FTD has not sent any orders in tow months, but have no problem continuing to bill me for their services as well as handsomely adding late fee AND penalty fees.
I have been a member of Teleflora for many , many years, and have never , ever had problems like this,. IF I ever did, the rep was on the phone same day or the following. I have never had a problem that went unresolved. and trust when I say, that The problems were, if any, very miniscule.
They go out of their way to make sure their customers are satisfied.

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

OK, so what is your "advice" when someone "considers" what YOU went and did, WITHOUT "consulting" us first??......

​

I am not sure what you mean by this....
and Why did I join a wire service if I haven't sent or received orders for 2 months?

Well. I was approached by a rep from FTD. who said he could help Grow my business . ( of course)
WHy else would anyone try anything in this economic climate?
I have not sent orders via FTD in 2 months because of all the nonsense with the bill. I use Teleflor .
But on the other hand,,FTD has not sent any orders in tow months, but have no problem continuing to bill me for their services as well as handsomely adding late fee AND penalty fees.
I have been a member of Teleflora for many , many years, and have never , ever had problems like this,. IF I ever did, the rep was on the phone same day or the following. I have never had a problem that went unresolved. and trust when I say, that The problems were, if any, very miniscule.
They go out of their way to make sure their customers are satisfied.

OK, you're gonna hafta start from scratch.....you are "contradicting" yourself......
Please re-read your own post, and you'll understand....maybe

 

[ChristiBrown]

When I cancelled FTD last year I stopped sending and recieving orders for three months from the effective date of my certified letter. You will eat the membership fees for those months and the directory fees. There is no getting out of it. If you accept or send any letters your 90 days starts over. It sucks to pay those fees, but then you will be free forever!!!

 

[secretgarden]

What Christi said, I turned off on Feb. 28th when my letter was sent in. I will owe for March and April but then I will never owe them again. We did get to cancel a few things to save money such as publications that we were receiving from them. Flowers in Profits is a ok mag but not worth $49.99 a month that is for sure The only thing I wish I would have done is taken our directory add out before we decided to stop, that extra $250 on the bill is going to hurt pretty bad. But we decided at the very last minute so now we are stuck. That is fine with me though because I will be rolling in dough after it's all over LOL LOL LOL. Well maybe not but it sure feels great to have that monkey off my back.

Also it felt sooooo good to hang up on from you flowers or whoever it was the other day when they called =) I just said, we are not filling orders from them any longer. click! We figure we were one of the last shops in our town to take their orders, our min. is lower then the other shops around. So maybe that will get some of those customers calling direct, hey a girl can dream can't she

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

OK, so what is your "advice" when someone "considers" what YOU went and did, WITHOUT "consulting" us first??......

​

I am not sure what you mean by this....
and Why did I join a wire service if I haven't sent or received orders for 2 months?

Well. I was approached by a rep from FTD. who said he could help Grow my business . ( of course)
WHy else would anyone try anything in this economic climate?
I have not sent orders via FTD in 2 months because of all the nonsense with the bill. I use Teleflor .
But on the other hand,,FTD has not sent any orders in tow months, but have no problem continuing to bill me for their services as well as handsomely adding late fee AND penalty fees.
I have been a member of Teleflora for many , many years, and have never , ever had problems like this,. IF I ever did, the rep was on the phone same day or the following. I have never had a problem that went unresolved. and trust when I say, that The problems were, if any, very miniscule.
They go out of their way to make sure their customers are satisfied.

OK...so, IF you had come to FlowerChat and "asked" what do we think...we'd have said "you DON'T need more than 1 wire service AND your business WILL BE hurt by joining another!!"
You have stated that you've been a member of TF for many years....do you "think" that maybe IF you'd have been a member of FTD for many years that "maybe" you'd get a lot of orders from THEM as well???
It takes 3-5 months to get your shop into the "system" and into directories, that become YOUR "gateway" to other shops "finding " you, and when they DO, as a "new" member, do YOU think that MAYBE it takes a while to establish YOUR shop's reputation with OTHER shops??
Meanwhile, IF YOU HAD "ASKED"....do you "think" that maybe we'd ALL have chimed in and let you know, that MOST of us have been through this before, and MAYBE, we could have helped you "avoid" YOUR "predicament" that YOU, YOURSELF "created"??
IF you had come to FlowerChat and said your "intentions" were to join another wire service because you WANTED MORE INCOMING ORDERS, you'd have gotten a resounding "are you nuts??"
IF you'd have asked "can I grow my business" by joining another wire service, MOST of us would have chimed in " chances are, you'd grow your business with certain actions", and for a limited time, you COULD do so, as long as you had a set target in mind!!
AND, just so that YOU know, we can be THE SINGLE most important resource that YOU could have, provided you DON'T come here just to beatch about when YOU'VE screwed up a scenario, and want have a shoulder to cry on??......
Guess what we are here for both, BUT, remember, most of us here have already been through EVERYTHING you're describing,. and also remember, YOU made "the decision" to join FTD...WE could have helped YOU avoid the pitfalls of doing so.....

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

once you stop the merc you are pretty much stopping taking orders.
most shops will not use shops that are not merc if there is another shop in the town that is. Or so i found.
And the paper work headache that goes with manual filing!!!!

if you want to keep filling orders do NOT stop the merc yet. but do look over your statement and see if there are spots to cut costs.

hope you know, that you CAN send AND receive FTD orders ONLINE...without the in house MERC, but, the onus is ON YOU to go fetch the incoming!! Also, you CAN report incoming filled AND DelCon online as well!!

 

[BOSS]

If they had just credited back the charges, it would have all worked out.

It IS working out... FOR THEM.

Trust me, they will NOT credit back legitimate(their rules) charges once they have them on the books. FTD's main goal is to simply sign up the sheep and lead them to slaughter, thus continuing their fund collecting. If you let it go long enough, you will hear from their lawyers as many of us have, and they will win the battle.

They are trying to supplement the decline in order volume by continually signing up florists and padding the bills with anything they can, directory ads, technology, containers and more.

The "good old days" are long gone, never to return. For "most" florists, it's not in their best interest to belong to any wire service... especially FTD.

 

[Missy]

I find as florist we often lose focus of just what a wire service is to our business, it is simply that, a service that we offer our customers. No need for two, why would we duplicate any service, and depending on the demand from your customers for out of town orders, there may be no need at all. A membership to a wire service I would argue is never going to grow your business. Like all the services, they are in the business to make money, to provide you a means to send flowers worldwide easliy, again, just a service. Inwires are a penalty of membership to me. No more should any shop be bullied by these services. The need for these services is going to decline for sure as the majority of the population ages and our buyers become more savy to ordering over the internet. We all need to be careful that as the need for FTD etc declines, we don't let it take our business with it in the mean time. Go forward and if the use of a wire service doesn't fit your business, get rid of them, pay it out, in the long run you will be better off.

 

[theRKF]

they are in the business to make money, to provide you a means to send flowers worldwide easliy, again, just a service.

followed by

Inwires are a penalty of membership to me.

Just clarifying: When you say inwires are a penalty of membership, how is that compatible with you sending orders easily through the WS?

Either you're then penalizing the receiving shop by creating an inwire (doubt that, since I know your shop!)
or
You were referring more to OG/HQ orders, in which case it should be clarified