God Bless Vigilante Consumers

[CHR]

Wow, I ran across this site and was amazed at the volume of complaints lodged against order gatherers by consumers. 'Tis a shame these flower buyers have been so abused. One can only hope they aren't turned off to purchasing flowers completely. At least they're trying to do something to warn others.

Just Flowers and aliases

Urban Florist

1-800-Flowers

ProFlowers

There are many more reports. Just use their search box an look for 'florist' and 'flowers'.

We all experience complaints from unhappy consumers at one time or another. A quick acknowledgement coupled with swift, appropriate action usually resolves most problems. A customer has to be pretty mad, and gotten no or poor resolution, to take it to the web and shout it to the world.

Too bad a link to this site doesn't pop up simultaneously as a consumer clicks on one of these companies' websites.

Added: Found two more.

Here's one where a disgruntled consumer actually built his own site to 'dis' an order gatherer - http://www.flora2000.info/

And a page that was mentioned on one of the RipOff reports. This one compares 1-800-Flowers to his local florist. Guess who wins?

 

[FlowerDiva]

And, God Bless you for finding this!!!!! Fantastic post!

 

[AboutTheImage.com]

Hi everyone,

I noticed that I was getting some traffic on my site as a result of this post. As a small business owner and a proponent of small business over big business I hope you have all found this useful. Please feel free to link to this story from your own websites to show your customers how a local florist can serve customers better than a faceless corporation.

Also, feel free to post a comment with information and links to order flowers from your local flower shops.

-Brent-
http://www.abouttheimage.com/2005/06/small_business_.html

 

[Frank]

Hi everyone,

I noticed that I was getting some traffic on my site as a result of this post. As a small business owner and a proponent of small business over big business I hope you have all found this useful. Please feel free to link to this story from your own websites to show your customers how a local florist can serve customers better than a faceless corporation.

Also, feel free to post a comment with information and links to order flowers from your local flower shops.

-Brent-
http://www.abouttheimage.com/2005/06/small_business_.html

I thought FlowerChat was only for members in the Floral Industry?

 

[theRKF]

I thought FlowerChat was only for members in the Floral Industry?

This was relevant to the industry, and the promotion of independent business. Besides, AboutTheImage.com has info that parallels our industry's needs.

It's about looking at the image as a product and marketing that image using much of the same business practices required to make a living from any product.

I suggest reading the "About" section from www.abouttheimage.com. It stresses the point that art and business savy have to co-exist for a creative business to succeed.

Ryan

 

[RJD]

Awesome find!

BTW - Thanks to you and Phil for signing our manager's book at AIFD (Polly Berginc). She's still tickled over the woven bird thing he gave her.