Griff said:
OK. Charlie, how do we take advantage of it?
Well, I've already posted my opinion on what we should do on this immediate issue today. But since you missed it, I'll do it again.
1. Copy the FTD letter and press release from this board, Floristboard, or any number of places on the Internet and make sure that every newspaper, radio station, and tv station in your market area is given a copy of it. HAND DELIVER it if necessary. Add your views from your FLORIST prespective on the subject. And make sure it gets printed and broadcast in your area. Do NOT take "no" for an answer. These people come to you and ask for your advertising dollars. They owe you their support in exposing the frauds of this industry and their resulting legal problems. They also owe their listening, viewing, and reading public the right to learn about these frauds through their resources.
If you're in a small town with small town media, you just might be able to get invited to an interview, either in your shop or at the radio/tv station. The festering and growing situation that caused this lawsuit is certainly the fodder for local public interest shows and columns. Offer to write an article yourself for the paper.
2. Write, call, e-mail or whatever the U.S. Justice Department and your State Attorney General. Send them a copy of the press release covering this lawsuit. And then ask them, point blank, why in the H--- they haven't been doing the jobs they're paid to do by enforcing the laws that are already on the books to prevent this kind of fraud, deception, and unfair business practices. CC each and every one of your inquiry letters, e-mails, etc. that you send them to each and every newspaper, radio station, and tv station that serves your area. And make sure they know you did that. Invite the news media to contact the Justice Department and the State Attorney General and ask them the same questions. NOTHING GETS A BUREAUCRAT TO WIGGLING LIKE CALLS FROM THE NEWS MEDIA ! ! !
3. Write, call, AND e-mail your state's U.S. congressiional representatives, U,S, Senators, and your state government elected representatives. What are you going to talk to them about? Use your imagination and SEE #2! Ask THEM why in the H--- THEY haven't been doing their job by seeing that the bureaucrats that work for them on the state and federal levels do THEIR jobs and enforce the laws that are already on the books to ensure fair business practices, prevent false and fraudulent advertising, and prevent the public from being defrauded by scams being broadcast OVER THE PUBLIC AIRWAYS by the nation's talk show hosts. Ask them why they've allowed the FCC to turn the nation's airways into an interstate highway for liars, thieves, and scam artists. And don't mushy mouth around. Plain talk while sounding mad as H--- and letting them know that you're talking to every news hound that will listen works best with politicians. If you're effective in your presentation, you can bet that the s--- will soon start flowing DOWNHILL.
Tell your Congressional reps and Senators that you want the Justice Department to get involved in or take a look at the FTD/Pro lawsuit and get you and the rest of the nation's florists in it as plaintiffs or co-complainants. This thing seems to have the makings of a class action. And since Justice has sat on their duffs through many many complaints about this outfit, now that something IS being done, they need to get off their duffs and start representing the thousands of small business florists who have also been injured by the false claims of Pro Flowers and others like them before they start to look just plain silly. Make it plain to your Rep that this is exactly what you want to see and that you want to see it NOW ! ! !
4. And I almost forgot the FCC. You call them, write them, and e-mail them. You should know what to say by now. Ask them why they haven't been doing their job by protecting the public interest from the scams that have taken over the nation's talk radio shows on the nation's public airways. And let THEM know that you're posing the same question to your news media outlets AND your STATE and FEDERAL representatives. Tell 'em to expect calls from your news media AND your representatives. Like I said, NOTHING gets bureaucrats to wiggling like phone calls from people that they spend the day hoping to NEVER hear from.
5. Talk to EVERY florist you know or contact during the day. Make them aware of what is going on and the need for them to get involved. Make sure that they understand that their involvement is for THEIR benefit and THEIR future and not about whether or not FTD is involved or what FTD's agenda is.
How's that for a start, Griff? Think you can get started on this first thing tomorrow am? I've been working on it much of today. I've gotten some favorable responses so far. I'm hoping to stir enough ruckus up tomorrow to start seeing this showing up in the media locally this week. We'll see.
Griff said:
FTD's sue seems to be . . . . . . .
Now is the time to express your views. How do we stop the insanity??
You are probably right about the others, of course. But that's COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY IRRELEVANT to the point I'm making. The point is that the FTD lawsuit, regardless of their motive or agenda, IS an opportunity to get this problem in front of elected representatives, news media, and the public. If we leave this particular issue to Pro Flowers and FTD to work out, it will probably just quietly be worked out in offices between lawyers with maybe a little blip on the stock pages. But if we make enough noise and if we can manage to get America's florists involved in a lawsuit seeking damages for false and misleading advertising from Pro Flowers, even if we don't get any money out of it, that's a victory. The ultimate goals, of course, would be to cost them as much money as possible, hurt their marketing effort as much as possible, stop their false advertising, and maybe, if possible, put them completely out business.
How much can we accomplish? Just depends on how much NOISE we make. Our politicians are all unashamedly bought and paid for by special interests. If Pro Flowers is actually guilty of all of the unlawful activity alleged by this lawsuit and others, it's reasonable to assume that Pro Flowers has signed on to what has become the American Way and owns the loyalty of the Right Politician(s). What else would have kept the federal and state regulators from even looking into these issues, as rampant as they have become and as many complaints as have been filed?
You know what state they're based in and what countries they're dealing with. Do you think it's possible that they were smart enough to learn from the alleged Wal-Mart/Chinese Communist marriage and consequent purchase of the U.S. Government and make some of the same types of mutually beneficial arrangements with our "bought and paid for" politicians using the help (and money) of their friendly foreign government connections? Well, if you don't see this as feasible, possible, or likely, maybe you'd better forget this issue. Cause you just can't solve a problem that is so big that you don't begin to understand it.
Now, given the above, if it has any merit . . . or even if it doesn't have any merit, we florists don't have a chance of going against Pro Flowers in a civil action. If you don't know by now that the Justice System is completely and totally about who can afford to out-lawyer whom, I'm not going to try to explain it to you. Point is . . . WE CANNOT DO IT.
But, since FTD does have the bucks to at least get this in court, 30,000 or so very angry florists certainly do HAVE THE POWER TO STIR UP A RAUNCHY SMELL THAT IS NOTHING AKIN TO FLOWERS. How do we do that? By doing what I have outlined above and then doing everything in your power to see that every other florist you know does the same thing. Our POWER is strictly tied to how much NOISE we can make. If we can make enough NOISE to cause politicians, bureaucrats, and judges alike to feel compelled, for the sake of their own political survival, to start doing the jobs that they've likely been well paid to ignore, then we'll have accomplished something. But it's going to take a bunch of us who are willing to loudly and prominently make a LOT OF NOISE to do it.
Like I said before, I fully expect that 29,990 out of 30,000 or so florists would just as soon be stupid and lazy enough to sit back and depend on somebody else to make their livings by either sending them wire orders or filling wire orders for them while they watch their industry die before their eyes. They will NOT jump on this opportunity and use it for the means of retail floral salvation that it may have the potential to be. So far, according to my informal poll on both boards, I'd say my count was wrong. Looks like it's more like 29,996 instead of 29,990. Question is, where do YOU stand and what are YOU going to DO ? ? ?
That enough to get you started? You asked for it. Don't be rattling my beehive unless you can stand my bee stings. NOW, STOP DEBATING ALL THE IRRELEVANT CRAP AND GO DO SOMETHING ! ! ! TIME'S A-WASTING ! ! !
