K
kcflorist
Guest
Hello:
For several weeks I have been aware of the messages on both FlowerChat and FloristBoard regarding me and my business. I decided not to jump right in and address the issues for a variety of reasons. First, we have just been too busy with our new store. Second, I did not want to get caught up in the rumors, attacks, speculation etc. But I do think things are at a place where I can explain some things that might put things into perspective. I am not looking to engage in a debate or Q&A so forgive me if I post this and don’t jump right back in to address any “concerns” some people have brought up.
I have heard that I am in jail, I have cancer, I have left the state, my business was closed, etc. Here is what has happened. Many know that three years ago my wife (Heather) and I separated and eventually divorced. Because she thought she was going to get screwed during the divorce she used company money to pay obligations she thought she was going to be responsible for. Altogether she did about 30k in damage. In the divorce I got the store (Katz Floral Design) with the understanding that I would take on all of the liabilities in return for Heather not getting any of the assets or profits. What it also did was put us deep in the hole with FTD. That Mother’s Day was the largest holiday for us ever. It generated over 1200 in web orders.
For three years I ran KFD and maintained a significant balance with FTD. Did they ever try to shut us down? No. Did they ever suspend us? No. Well, they did shut down the computer from being able to send orders but someone “high up” in the company told me that if that ever happened to just call the orders out. Everyone at FTD knew that we were calling them out because they knew if we did not have the means to send, we would not be able to fill as well. All they ever asked is that we try to keep the outbounds lower than the inbounds. We obviously had a strong relationship with the company for them to continue giving us rebates, sell us Marketplace products ever holiday, etc. In other words, we were just like every FTD member with the exception of having a high balance that they not only turned their head to but allowed us to increase that balance by selling us product and flowers.
Fast forward to this past Mother’s Day. My problems did not begin with FTD but rather the landlord at our store. We suspect they were suffering their own financial problems because they tried to tell all of us tenants that we were looking at a rent increase and they wanted rent pre-paid otherwise there were going to terminate leases. I met with my staff and asked if we really wanted to stay at a location where the walk in business was really slow and the rent was high. They said we should move on so we told the landlord that we did not want to hang around. They didn’t expect us to call them on that one but we did. I met with my attorney to discuss our options about getting out of the store. We basically decided that if I wanted to make a clean break, and also shake off some of the debt that I had inherited when I first married Heather, that I was going to have to do two things. First, close KFD down completely. Second, file bankruptcy. Now why do that? Because many of the accounts we had included personal guarantees. That included my landlord and FTD. Closing KFD would have meant they would have just come after me and my personal assets. It might sound like a tough decision but it wasn’t. I cannot convey how much stress was taken off of me when we began closing KFD and began the bankruptcy process. I am not ashamed of the filing. I was paying bills going back to before I ever got into the business, bills belonging to the prior owners who happened to have been Heather’s grandparents.
Now I did have discussions with FTD about finding a way to assign us a new FTD code number under our new business name and then we would work out a deal to pay off our balance. What I offered was actually much more than my attorney thought I should but I was trying to show that we genuinely wanted to work the balance off. They did not go for it. I understand why but consider this. FTD had to be included in my bankruptcy so they knew they were not going to get paid. Why turn down a person who is saying they want to work something out to pay the balance down? Their decision is theirs and I had no problem with that. Where I had a problem was in the fact that FTD did not ONCE ever say they were terminating our account. They did not mail us a letter, pick up the phone, send us an email or anything. Even with our system suspended we were TOLD to call our orders out.
We began to figure out something was wrong when we got messages from florists in late July saying the orders they reported to FTD were not being paid. A good friend of mine told me he called FTD and they said we were suspended NOT TERMINATED. Once we were able to contact those florists and verify the order came from us we paid them via credit card. Our concern to this very day is that we suspect that once the word spread that we closed, others florists (local competitors) were calling out orders using our code number. We all know that anyone with access to a member book can do it. We know of two orders to Hawaii that never originated from our store that we reported to FTD as having come from us.
Where we are at today is a new store. We decided to go with our web name (KCFlorist) as our store name. We have closed and dissolved Katz Floral Design. I can now operate our new store without any of my ex-wife or her family’s past hanging over my head and I get a fresh start. But what I find curious is that FTD asked that we just agree (in writing) that we are not calling out any orders under KFD. We had no problem agreeing to it because once we learned the florists weren’t getting paid we were taking care of the orders directly. So why did FTD send out the slim cast message on Monday? Only FTD knows but I suspect it is their way of trying to give me a final slap in the face. You see, KCFlorist (my new store name) was never a member of FTD nor did we ever call out any orders under that name. This is their way of trying to let all FTD members knows that we are no longer FTD and that we are questionable. I know some real thought went into their message and they knew exactly what they were doing. Trying to kick the legs out from under me and my new store before it is full operating was the intention.
I know many have jumped to conclusion about what has been going on but I ask that you consider this. FTD’s message came out 10 weeks after when they say we were no longer FTD. Why did it take them 10 weeks? Why did FTD send us a Top 250 plaque on July 5, 2006 4 weeks after our “terminated” date? Why do I go to FTD.COM today, click on the Find A Florist link, enter my ZIP code of 64114 and still find myself listed? Why is FTD still sending me florist-only emails? Does it sound like FTD terminated us? Sounds more like the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. And for the record, my attorney is telling me that there are only 7 florists who are currently unpaid for reported orders. That came from FTD. No, thousands of florists did not get burned, frauded, whatver. We already indicated we will take care of those orders we can verify to have come from us. Some already have and we paid them with our company credit card.
I hope this sheds some light on things. Sometimes it is best not to speculate or assume what is going on without actually talking to the people involved. What is different for me from a few months ago? I am no longer FTD (duh), I have a brand new store where the rent is going to save me 24k per year and I have no business ties to my ex-wife anymore. For me, life is not doing to bad right now. My kids (5 and 10) are in school, my blood pressure is under control and I am just trying to make the most out of what I have.
Gregg
PS - Thank you to those who did not jump immeidately in the gossip and bashing before having had a chance to talk to me or read this. The usual suspects put up the comments about being criminal and stuff like that. Maybe knowing all of the facts first helps downplay the situation now that it is known. I am not embarrassed or ashamed by anything that me or my store has done in the past few months. My only mistake was allowing FTD or others do all of the talking. And what was the point of their slimcast? To confirm that we are not FTD. Well, neither is McDonald's and Taco Bell. The just want two things to be out there...our name linked to something negative because you have to assume something bad if FTD is going to put out a slim cast message. But I am ok with that. In all honesty I really don't have anything bad to say about them. They did their thing and I did mine. If I am able to get up in the morning and go to bed at night, the little @@@@ that happens in between really shouldn't matter.
PPS - People are wondering why are phones just ring? Until we got the new store we were only working 9-2 PM and only got our new phone system put in a few days ago. I am still trying to learn how to setup the auto attendant.
For several weeks I have been aware of the messages on both FlowerChat and FloristBoard regarding me and my business. I decided not to jump right in and address the issues for a variety of reasons. First, we have just been too busy with our new store. Second, I did not want to get caught up in the rumors, attacks, speculation etc. But I do think things are at a place where I can explain some things that might put things into perspective. I am not looking to engage in a debate or Q&A so forgive me if I post this and don’t jump right back in to address any “concerns” some people have brought up.
I have heard that I am in jail, I have cancer, I have left the state, my business was closed, etc. Here is what has happened. Many know that three years ago my wife (Heather) and I separated and eventually divorced. Because she thought she was going to get screwed during the divorce she used company money to pay obligations she thought she was going to be responsible for. Altogether she did about 30k in damage. In the divorce I got the store (Katz Floral Design) with the understanding that I would take on all of the liabilities in return for Heather not getting any of the assets or profits. What it also did was put us deep in the hole with FTD. That Mother’s Day was the largest holiday for us ever. It generated over 1200 in web orders.
For three years I ran KFD and maintained a significant balance with FTD. Did they ever try to shut us down? No. Did they ever suspend us? No. Well, they did shut down the computer from being able to send orders but someone “high up” in the company told me that if that ever happened to just call the orders out. Everyone at FTD knew that we were calling them out because they knew if we did not have the means to send, we would not be able to fill as well. All they ever asked is that we try to keep the outbounds lower than the inbounds. We obviously had a strong relationship with the company for them to continue giving us rebates, sell us Marketplace products ever holiday, etc. In other words, we were just like every FTD member with the exception of having a high balance that they not only turned their head to but allowed us to increase that balance by selling us product and flowers.
Fast forward to this past Mother’s Day. My problems did not begin with FTD but rather the landlord at our store. We suspect they were suffering their own financial problems because they tried to tell all of us tenants that we were looking at a rent increase and they wanted rent pre-paid otherwise there were going to terminate leases. I met with my staff and asked if we really wanted to stay at a location where the walk in business was really slow and the rent was high. They said we should move on so we told the landlord that we did not want to hang around. They didn’t expect us to call them on that one but we did. I met with my attorney to discuss our options about getting out of the store. We basically decided that if I wanted to make a clean break, and also shake off some of the debt that I had inherited when I first married Heather, that I was going to have to do two things. First, close KFD down completely. Second, file bankruptcy. Now why do that? Because many of the accounts we had included personal guarantees. That included my landlord and FTD. Closing KFD would have meant they would have just come after me and my personal assets. It might sound like a tough decision but it wasn’t. I cannot convey how much stress was taken off of me when we began closing KFD and began the bankruptcy process. I am not ashamed of the filing. I was paying bills going back to before I ever got into the business, bills belonging to the prior owners who happened to have been Heather’s grandparents.
Now I did have discussions with FTD about finding a way to assign us a new FTD code number under our new business name and then we would work out a deal to pay off our balance. What I offered was actually much more than my attorney thought I should but I was trying to show that we genuinely wanted to work the balance off. They did not go for it. I understand why but consider this. FTD had to be included in my bankruptcy so they knew they were not going to get paid. Why turn down a person who is saying they want to work something out to pay the balance down? Their decision is theirs and I had no problem with that. Where I had a problem was in the fact that FTD did not ONCE ever say they were terminating our account. They did not mail us a letter, pick up the phone, send us an email or anything. Even with our system suspended we were TOLD to call our orders out.
We began to figure out something was wrong when we got messages from florists in late July saying the orders they reported to FTD were not being paid. A good friend of mine told me he called FTD and they said we were suspended NOT TERMINATED. Once we were able to contact those florists and verify the order came from us we paid them via credit card. Our concern to this very day is that we suspect that once the word spread that we closed, others florists (local competitors) were calling out orders using our code number. We all know that anyone with access to a member book can do it. We know of two orders to Hawaii that never originated from our store that we reported to FTD as having come from us.
Where we are at today is a new store. We decided to go with our web name (KCFlorist) as our store name. We have closed and dissolved Katz Floral Design. I can now operate our new store without any of my ex-wife or her family’s past hanging over my head and I get a fresh start. But what I find curious is that FTD asked that we just agree (in writing) that we are not calling out any orders under KFD. We had no problem agreeing to it because once we learned the florists weren’t getting paid we were taking care of the orders directly. So why did FTD send out the slim cast message on Monday? Only FTD knows but I suspect it is their way of trying to give me a final slap in the face. You see, KCFlorist (my new store name) was never a member of FTD nor did we ever call out any orders under that name. This is their way of trying to let all FTD members knows that we are no longer FTD and that we are questionable. I know some real thought went into their message and they knew exactly what they were doing. Trying to kick the legs out from under me and my new store before it is full operating was the intention.
I know many have jumped to conclusion about what has been going on but I ask that you consider this. FTD’s message came out 10 weeks after when they say we were no longer FTD. Why did it take them 10 weeks? Why did FTD send us a Top 250 plaque on July 5, 2006 4 weeks after our “terminated” date? Why do I go to FTD.COM today, click on the Find A Florist link, enter my ZIP code of 64114 and still find myself listed? Why is FTD still sending me florist-only emails? Does it sound like FTD terminated us? Sounds more like the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing. And for the record, my attorney is telling me that there are only 7 florists who are currently unpaid for reported orders. That came from FTD. No, thousands of florists did not get burned, frauded, whatver. We already indicated we will take care of those orders we can verify to have come from us. Some already have and we paid them with our company credit card.
I hope this sheds some light on things. Sometimes it is best not to speculate or assume what is going on without actually talking to the people involved. What is different for me from a few months ago? I am no longer FTD (duh), I have a brand new store where the rent is going to save me 24k per year and I have no business ties to my ex-wife anymore. For me, life is not doing to bad right now. My kids (5 and 10) are in school, my blood pressure is under control and I am just trying to make the most out of what I have.
Gregg
PS - Thank you to those who did not jump immeidately in the gossip and bashing before having had a chance to talk to me or read this. The usual suspects put up the comments about being criminal and stuff like that. Maybe knowing all of the facts first helps downplay the situation now that it is known. I am not embarrassed or ashamed by anything that me or my store has done in the past few months. My only mistake was allowing FTD or others do all of the talking. And what was the point of their slimcast? To confirm that we are not FTD. Well, neither is McDonald's and Taco Bell. The just want two things to be out there...our name linked to something negative because you have to assume something bad if FTD is going to put out a slim cast message. But I am ok with that. In all honesty I really don't have anything bad to say about them. They did their thing and I did mine. If I am able to get up in the morning and go to bed at night, the little @@@@ that happens in between really shouldn't matter.
PPS - People are wondering why are phones just ring? Until we got the new store we were only working 9-2 PM and only got our new phone system put in a few days ago. I am still trying to learn how to setup the auto attendant.
