How FTD Ruined My Mother's Day

[BOSS]

My worry is that as with our case, the customers are blaming real florists in general for the screw-ups.

I do not think that this is the case.

Like I have said previously, **they** will burn through the consumer base, and as blogging continues to grow, the word will spread, and more and more consumers will come back to local florists.

 

[lori042499]

Not sure with Dove, but with mercury you can suspend FTD orders and still receive your own web orders over mercury.

I cans suspedn and still get my web orders with dove

 

[bloomz]

I may have read that wrong too, Ted, but given you can suspend Merc or Duck and still get web orders - you have a responsibiliy to the industry to suspend, fill, or reject. You can't just let them sit there unfilled cuz you're too busy.

Did I read it wrong?

 

[Bigted]

Am I reading this right. You had 100 orders on sunday from ws. Why did you leave the Dove or merc on?

When you say "you will be way to busy to reject these today" Is that really the senders fault or the shop that isn't going to have the time to reject them.

I will appoligise if I am reading this wrong but something is very wrong in your shop if I am reading this right.

No problem Eric. We don't shut the printer off, we suspend Merc and Dove--just like you're supposed to do. In fact, we suspended multiple times on
Saturday, and called HQ to get them to stop sending orders. Then, we came in Sunday morning to the big pile of orders for that day. All day Sunday, we have a line out the door. Just no time to mess with that many orders.

 

[bloomz]

Right on - I understand now - sorry.....

 

[CHR]

I stand corrected about the Merc/Dove suspensions and website orders. Bad recollection on my part since it isn't an issue for us now.

Ted, it's unbelievable that the sending systems wouldn't suspend despite repeated attempts. I hope the WSs/OGs don't try and pin the problems on you.

 

[sfox]

My question

Ted, this IS a great opportunity, to market to those "recipients" of all those non deliveries, as TOTO has suggested!!
As an FTD member, I have literally stripped every reference to FTD from my shop, correspondence, literature, business cards, and 'We're delivering flowers" vehicle cards, and my lazy ass hasn't yet switched my vehicle plates...which will be the final nail!
HQ is indeed out of control, they are even not corresponding with each other..I have several internal ask/answers that reflects that they are out of control internally!!
This is clear evidence that FTD has lost direction....staff are frustrated, customers are angry, the blogs are full of anti FTD sentiment, and there are dark clouds in the horizon......

Why should headquarters care, they have a steady revenue stream from florists who @@@@@ about how FTD is going down hill, yet mail in those dues and fees every month.

This same FTD is giving flowers a bad rep with the consumer, but somehow all their mistakes are suddenly going to turn the public into flower buyers at florist shops. You guys are smoking some really good stuff because as the consumer get burned buying flowers, they turn to other gifts....anyone heard of Amazon.com. Better yet just look at FTD and 800FLWRS websites and you can see the largest majority of items for sale are non floral items. 800Flowers likes to boast when it reports it's stock reports about the continuing growth of sales and profits from nonfloral gifts.

 

[David]

Message over Mercury from Just Flowers

Here is a message I received on an order that was delivered. They must have sent this out on all there orders that had Mothers day delivery.

OTHER - Can you please confirm that this order was delivered. If
it was not can you please deliver on Monday with an apology note from Just Flowers and let us know ASAP so that we can let our customer know. If you need to call us you can reach us at 800.880.5921. We have staffed phone lines just for florists calling us so it will be answered quickly.

 

[Frank]

Why did you leave the Dove or merc on?

Eric, Perhaps most shops "Suspend" their Mercury systems on Mother's Day Sunday but not all do (we did not). We still had customers call or come in Sunday morning that needed an out-of-town delivery, SAME-DAY, to their Mom. After a phone call or two to find a fellow florist that was still accepting same day orders, we were successful in finding fellow FTD florists to fill about 1/2 dozen orders for us! Everyone was happy - we were for satisfying our customer, the filling florist because they obviously had the capacity and flowers to fill another order, our customer because we helped them out with a last minute gift need, and of course, the Mom - who was a recipient of beautiful flowers! A WIN-WIN-WIN-WIN situation.

I just love it when florists help florists!

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

Why should headquarters care, they have a steady revenue stream from florists who @@@@@ about how FTD is going down hill, yet mail in those dues and fees every month.

This same FTD is giving flowers a bad rep with the consumer, but somehow all their mistakes are suddenly going to turn the public into flower buyers at florist shops. You guys are smoking some really good stuff because as the consumer get burned buying flowers, they turn to other gifts....anyone heard of Amazon.com. Better yet just look at FTD and 800FLWRS websites and you can see the largest majority of items for sale are non floral items. 800Flowers likes to boast when it reports it's stock reports about the continuing growth of sales and profits from nonfloral gifts.

Correction...GREAT STUFF

 

[TOTO]

YUP! That's the RUB SFOX!

Why should headquarters care, they have a steady revenue stream from florists who @@@@@ about how FTD is going down hill, yet mail in those dues and fees every month.

This same FTD is giving flowers a bad rep with the consumer, but somehow all their mistakes are suddenly going to turn the public into flower buyers at florist shops. You guys are smoking some really good stuff because as the consumer gets burned buying flowers, they turn to other gifts....anyone heard of Amazon.com. Better yet just look at FTD and 800FLWRS websites and you can see the largest majority of items for sale are non floral items. 800Flowers likes to boast when it reports it's stock reports about the continuing growth of sales and profits from nonfloral gifts.

What bothers MEE MOST (and should bother every REAL FLORIST too) is that, when the floral consumer gets burned, it's WEE FLORISTS they blame.

And, only because, the MEDIA and the CONSUMERS do not understand how these NEWEST SKIMMER SCAMS work.

We've all witnessed the MEDIA'S floral pre-holiday reporting as they continue to do their test purchases via the BRAND sites or 800 numbers. Path of least resistance due to laziness on the part of their producers

Always the same results of THIS IS WHAT WE ORDERED but THIS (dead thing) (small thing) (other thing) IS WHAT WE GOT!

It would behoove WEE REAL FLORISTS to join together as INDEPENDENT BUSINESS FLORAL RETAILERS with ONE Independent Florist's Association which can address OUR NEEDS and can work for us to EDUCATE both DA MEDIA and DA PUBLIC.

It would also require WEE REAL FLORISTS to stop enabling the very networks who insist on coming in between US and our CUSTOMERS for either DA SKIM or the BAIT & SWITCH.

 

[Mikey the Flower Guy]

well, in THESE parts.....customers have wised up!!

 

[Eric S]

Sounds like one messed up situation.

Hope things worked out for the best Big TED...

Perhaps next to the fire alarm switch you should have an emergency WS shut off switch?

I do feel for you no hard feelings!

 

[CHR]

Another blogger talking about FTD:

FTD = Failure to Deliver (aka the Chronicles of Customer Service H e l l)

Having learned my lesson the first time, I again pretend I’m placing an order, but this time find David, who says he can’t help me refund my missing order, but he’ll transfer me to the right person. Apparently this is the other way to get to the top of the customer service queue, since Michelle answered right away. I explain the non-delivery situation to Michelle, and my previous call with Leanne, and she tells me that Leanne has flagged my file, and is still waiting for a response from the local florist. Transcript of what happened next:

Michelle: Until we are able to communicate with the florist, we won’t be able to complete the refund.​

Me: OK, can you tell me who the florist is?​

Michelle: I… I don’t have that information, I’m sorry.​

(Oh, you just lied to the customer. Unforgivable sin #2.)

Me: Well Leanne did.​

Michelle: (Breathes heavily.) Umm, let’s see. (Pause.) I can see who the florist is, but I wouldn’t be able to give you their phone number.​

Me: That’s OK, I have Google.​

Michelle: I’m not able to provide you with information of who the florist is, because in order to process a refund for you, you do have to go through FTD.​

Me: Mmmkay, that’s fine, I’m just going to call them myself and make sure they call you back and tell you why so we can get this expedited.​

(Talking over each other)​

Me: So you can’t tell me who was supposed to deliver the flowers that weren’t delivered?​

Michelle: That’s right. Unfortunately, I’m not able to do that. It wouldn’t… it wouldn’t be helpful to the florist to have the both of us contacting them.​

Me: It wouldn’t be helpful to the florist, but it would be helpful to me. That way I can know not to do business with them in the future in Tucson.​

Michelle: I’m sorry, I’m not able to give you the florist’s name or number. I have… (call cuts out)… take care of your refund. But until we hear back from them, there’s nothing more that Leanne or I can do.​

Lesson learned: Don’t use FTD. Call a local florist and be happy.

As with V Day, the thing that seems to get folks the most PO'd is the the long wait on hold for follow-ups, while the sales lines gets answered by humans right away.

 

[Rhonda]

I currently have a "failure to deliver order" sitting on my desk waiting for .com to reply to my ask on the day I received it. Called for a container we did not have (nor were codified for) and for flowers that were almost double the normal price. I asked for more money for a very similar container, the delivery to the next town (they had it located in my town) and for the holiday price of the flowers requested. They have ignored? or just not contacted the customer since last Thursday. It was not delivered....and the order is still in limbo.
Now on another side, had a customer of mine from out of town call to find out if Teleflora had sent us an order for her Mom (she placed orders on Friday but not this one she was calling about). She had ordered from Teleflora.com, the etched vase. Ordered it over a week before MD. Mom hadn't received it as of 1:00 pm on Saturday. She wanted to know who to call about the non-delivery since she had placed the order so early. I gave her the numbers for 800teleflora and the "corporate" number. Within 1/2 hour, I had headquarters calling me to find out if I could fill the order, call her and make a compromise on what to send. Told them, after they cancelled the order with whomever they originally sent the order to. They called back about 10 minutes later, gave me an order number and asked me to call the customer (who admitted she was a raving lunatic to the sales agent). I took it, called her (she is a regular customer of mine at holidays - direct - but she liked the vase and I wasn't shown "online" to have the container) and we made a decision on what to send to her Mom. Now that at least showed to me that Teleflora was customer oriented (that time anyway) and bent over backward to please their orderer. And the rep stated "guess we should have placed the order with you first"....he he....hmm, only been Teleflora for a month (this time). Considering one of the other Teleflora shops here closed at 2 on Saturday and the other shop has no trained designer (everything looks like a tissue box), imagine what happens in other towns? We aren't that big a place and if the order was lost, where did it go?

 

[Vitis MD]

Short! Short! Short!

Short! Short! Short! I'm looking for a M-Day drop similar to the V-day drop. Come on FTD Moma needs a new pair of shoes!!

 

[wilson39154]

More FTD woes...

I am not an FTD member and FTD called my shop to fill an online order for the next town (20+ miles away). I refused the order. They called back every day until I reluctantly agreed. I looked up the arrangement on the FTD website with the rep on the phone. They wanted to allow $36.00 incuding delivery! I saw online the order was $49.99. I informed the rep I did not have container similar. He blew me off and said just do whatever I could for the money, it didn't have to be the same. The recipient called twice this week screaming about the "ugly" arrangement I sent and that it was not what her daughter ordered and paid $69.00 for. I only received my minimum $35 plus $12 delivery. I made it as similar as possible in a color glass vase. FTD knew I could not fill it exactly or even close on the container. They knew they were scamming the sender and the recipient and apparently scammed me too on the $. I will NEVER take another FTD order - no matter what!!!

 

[Chezbloom]

I am not an FTD member and FTD called my shop to fill an online order for the next town (20+ miles away). I refused the order. They called back every day until I reluctantly agreed. I looked up the arrangement on the FTD website with the rep on the phone. They wanted to allow $36.00 incuding delivery! I saw online the order was $49.99. I informed the rep I did not have container similar. He blew me off and said just do whatever I could for the money, it didn't have to be the same. The recipient called twice this week screaming about the "ugly" arrangement I sent and that it was not what her daughter ordered and paid $69.00 for. I only received my minimum $35 plus $12 delivery. I made it as similar as possible in a color glass vase. FTD knew I could not fill it exactly or even close on the container. They knew they were scamming the sender and the recipient and apparently scammed me too on the $. I will NEVER take another FTD order - no matter what!!!

How did FTD pay you if you are not a member? I don't think I would even take a credit card from them. In fact, I would check the bills with a counterfeit pen before even accepting cash from them.

 

[3genflorist]

I had a upset lady accusing us of sending a order out without the red vase, I explained we didn't have a red vase special- she had the ticket in her hand as she waves it in front of me, I notice ftd.com......ah! can I see that? The answer is here.... shipped from & sent in a box, return address not our shop! I had to explain the whole REAL FLORIST thing & ftd.com, and yes, call them and complain the red vase wasn't what you got and the flowers are sad looking!!! IT'S ALL ABOUT EDUCATION ONE PERSON AT A TIME!!!
She now has our business card and website for next time.