FTD Taking a Beating in the Blogsphere

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CHR

CHR

Design matters
Nov 28, 2002
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Looks like FTD is getting hammered for non-delivery/non-communication throughout the blogsphere. I ran across this rant and saw that a whole bunch of bloggers have linked to one another to roast the Mercury Man.

I did post a response on this one since the fellow was angry about non-delivery due to the fact the hospital receptionist didn't know his Valentine worked there. Not really FTD's fault.

Otherwise, it looks like a full-blown feeding frenzy.
 
Yikes.. watch out for the last entry on that "feeding frenzy" link. Definitely X rated.

Beth :~/
 
I think PF has/had their fair share of problems but they're much better at damage comtrol because they have much better margins and replace immediately. 1800 and FTD want to 'investigate' and get back to ya'.

Did you ever think that perhaps some of those PF cheerleader posts were ...um.... 'inspired' by their media savvy parent company?

PF was smart enough to pull their products from BizRate today so that none of their consumer feedback will show. That leaves 1800flowers and FTD to take the public post-V Day beatings.
 
CHR said:
...
Did you ever think that perhaps some of those PF cheerleader posts were ...um.... 'inspired' by their media savvy parent company?
....
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Yes, actually I did notice that, CHR...also, they have a *ton* of splogs who have scraped promo comments and are posting them as blog stuff to try to drive adSense traffic.

And also you are correct about the media savvy-ness of PF...lets face it they are NOT a flower company they are a marketing company that just happens to be selling boxed flowers. They work the net and radio with uncanny precision/

Hmmm...does anyone know how high PF bid for clicks?
 
Beth said:
Yikes.. watch out for the last entry on that "feeding frenzy" link. Definitely X rated.

Beth :~/
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Beth - The link goes to Google's most recent blog listings for FTD. Not sure what you saw.

12Bucks - Not sure how high the PPCs went but IIRC PF's marketing budget was around 20-21% of gross sales when it was a publicly-owned company. That's 8-10X the average flower shop.
 
CHR said:
Beth - The link goes to Google's most recent blog listings for FTD. Not sure what you saw.

12Bucks - Not sure how high the PPCs went but IIRC PF's marketing budget was around 20-21% of gross sales when it was a publicly-owned company. That's 8-10X the average flower shop.
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Yeah.. it seems to have moved off the front page. Good thing. LOL
It's now on page 2, title "Valentines F***ing Day". Lovely.

Beth :~)
 
Proflowers is in the trash

The fight against of proflowers will continue. I have never seen so many customers displeased with ordering from them. There are truly thinking they are getting a bouquet of arrangened flowers. Many of our UPS and Fedex drivers shared stories of walking into office buildings with proflower boxes and laughs coming from the recipients. They really think it is a joke and I think we will see things turn around. It will take time since they are dug in so deep and we florist will have to work harder to show them why its better to order from us. The fight has just begun and we need to listen to our customers more then ever. I had customers today comeing in for arrangements to replace there boxed orders. Again they are under the impression they will be getting an arranged flower arrangement and are in the dog house because of the box of flowers was delivered.

I had so many complements about our blog and mostly about Avante Gardens Blog. People are paying attention and reading. Cathy you have many peoples attention and they are really loving your blog. Keep it up as long as you can. The count down to mothers day has begun and I think we flower chat members can come together and put together an even better blog campaign.

Rock on flower chat!!!!!! And lets get those blogs going today!!!!
 
To dismiss the proflowers threat in any way is to not deal with reality. They have a super efficient model that meets the needs of a lot of people. They are not going away. If they did, someone else will pick up ball (FTD is certainly trying). Eventually, the lack of growth will hurt them and force them to move into different products, as their existence is based on continued growth. Our mission is to differentiate our shops, our product and our service from them, and we will be fine.
 
Bigted; said:
.... Our mission is to differentiate our shops, our product and our service from them, and we will be fine.
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Yes, that is a very powerful mission statement, and every florist should paste a copy of that on their back wall, but history shows again and again that existing companies inevitably fail to not only respond but to even recognize the true threat that disruptive technologies represent to existing business models.

We will keep plugging along, for now, but as our UPS driver told us Wed. she has seen a steady increase over the past 5 years of PF boxes, and this year was by far the largest shipments she has ever seen from PF...not very promising. Since we have yet to see the type of uprising against direct shippers in the media (and don't expect to see it...not with the amount of money PF throws at them) like we are seeing against the WSs, there is every reason to think that the DS model will continue to rise.
 
Bigted said:
To dismiss the proflowers threat in any way is to not deal with reality. .
Click to expand...

As much as I don't like them you are correct. Their earnings or volume doesn't lie. Many, many consumers are using them. We will have to be better and on some items compete in price.
 
FTD's 'Failure To Deliver' made one news broadcast:

Flower Fiasco Experienced By Some On Valentine's

Everything is not coming up roses for some people who ordered bouquets on Valentine's Day.

Every year, more and more customers are opting for the convenience of ordering flowers online. But if your flowers went astray, you may find it's almost impossible to get through to customer service.

Nathan Chambers spent $95 online with FTD to send red roses to his fiancée. "Throughout the day yesterday I was waiting for the phone call, thank you so much for the flowers, never heard anything at all."

When he called FTD customer service, he got a recording that said, "Due to the holiday rush we are temporarily unable to connect you to a customer service agent to confirm your delivery status." And he says those same phone lines have been jammed for 24 hours.

"I'm very disappointed and angry at the lack of customer service that's being shown," Chambers says.

And it's not just FTD. 1-800-Flowers and Teleflora are also being flooded with calls.

Longtime florist John Sellai says when florists are overwhelmed they start rejecting orders. "You don't have enough time or any other reason, you can reject it, send it back into the system."

And that's where the consumer gets stuck, because the order never finds it's way to a florist.

If you ordered with a credit card, you can dispute the charge with the company.

But Sellai says, "For maybe every disappointed customer, there's probably 100 with big smiles on their faces that got them."

But for the ones with out the smile, it's not so fun. Chambers says, "If you're going to spend almost $100 on flowers and not have the service deliver them as told, I'm very disappointed."

CBS 5 ConsumerWatch called FTD, who contacted Chambers. A spokeswoman said his order was delayed because of "product availability," and added that they will refund his money and send his fiancée a make-up bouquet.

----------------------------------------

Some respected tech industry bloggers are weighing in with FTD complaints today, too. They seem to understand about the issues with the sheer volume of orders but are angry they can't get through to customer service and only get 'canned' email replies.
 
Dateline Cincinnatti

According to my inside sources, as of yesterday, Thursday there were 400+ Proflowers boxes sitting in a FedEx warehouse in Cincinnati that were not going to get delivered until today and Monday...

I don't know about you all, but I think Proflowers is our own best advertisement against themselves...

I love it when a plan comes together ;)
 
CHR said:
FTD's 'Failure To Deliver'

A spokeswoman said his order was delayed because of "product availability," and added that they will refund his money and send his fiancée a make-up bouquet.
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And how many times can you do that and maintain a profit? Wonder where this will show up on Wall ST reports?

Sure they had some happy customers, but I'd bet they are all south of a line from Atlanta to San Fran where the temps were more moderate.
 
From a Virginia TV Station, CBS 10 -

Wilted Valentine's Day Flowers

Did you get roses for Valentine's Day that didn't live up to the cost?

If so, you're not alone. A WSLS employee received a dozen multi-colored roses from FTD. The roses were shipped without any water from Miami and delivered through DHL. When they arrived, they were severely wilted.

We called the FTD's customer service line and received several different recorded messages. One said that due to heavy call volume no one could take our call. Another message said the wait time to talk with someone was 60 minutes. And one time, the automated system simply hung up on us.

We checked with other tele-florists and found similar problems.
We did get through to Proflowers.com who told us they will deliver a new arrangement if the original bouquet was not adequate.

If your roses are wilted, e-mail us at [email protected]
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And that's one of the reasons why PF will continue to succeed. Their product may not be perfect, but their customer service is tops.
 
I did'nt receive wilted roses, but I email'd them anyway... and of course included a "few good links" including the youtube video ;)
 
Why would ProFlowers replace FTD's drop ship roses???? That is what the story made it sound like....
 
Well FTD online customers experience the same issues....

I particularly find this part interesting from "the rant" link.

[I]"The system that takes my money works like a charm, and I understand that order processing is a different ball of wax than customer service but this is ridiculous. So I end up calling my house several times clandestinely asking the kids if the flowers got there. No dice."[/I]

The bold highlighted part sounds very familiar!

Oh OH....

"Two full days after they guaranteed delivery, they can neither confirm nor deny that the delivery has been made. I'm livid. Never again in life will I use FTD and I recommend that you take your business elsewhere. If you are feeling especially fed up with incompetence and in the mood to break things, you could do a lot worse than a brick through any FTD logo you see."

Note to self, remove FTD logo today.

Joe
 
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