a Consumer Alert column..below hopefully is the text...any suggestions?
Internet Savvy and Internet Purchases
Searching for bargains on the internet using search engines such as Google and Yahoo can lead you in the wrong direction. For instance, search for “florist your town your stateâ€. What you find on the first page will be links to pages of “florists†all located in your town. You pick one and find their home page luring you to fill in the blanks and send your floral gift to someone you love or are just thinking of. What you don’t know is 99 times out of 100, that “florist shop†is located in Canada, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, and even India. You will be paying a service charge, sales tax, shipping charge, and most often a delivery charge on top of the price of the floral design. All will be charged to your credit card. What you won’t find on most of the “local florist†web sites, is where they are actually located. It is a game for them to hide their actual location. Only the most internet savvy can eventually find out the actual location of the florist they are looking at on the web page.
Case and point. Within the past month, my flower shop received an order through a wire service (a national company which is utilized by organized florists as a clearinghouse for the transfer of orders between the florists). The order was to go to a recipient I personally knew from a sender I personally knew. The wording on the order was just not quite correct and brought up many questions in my mind. I called the sender to ask about the order. She proceeded to apologize for “messing up the order from your websiteâ€. I quickly explained that the website she had used was not mine. I explained who the order had come to me from, a shop in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I then explained to her what the order read for me to deliver and the total amount sent to me to fill the order. She was appalled at a few things. First and foremost, the website she had placed the order on claimed to be located in our town. Secondly, the shop charged her $29.99 for flowers, $10.00 for a vase, $10.00 for shipping. The sending shop had collected over $51.00 total from her for this order. The order arrived to me as “cut flowers include vase – shipped-†for a total of $36.49. The sending shop had not sent to me, the filler shop, what they had collected from the customer. We then attempted to cancel the order by her calling and emailing the shop. I, in turn, sent messages to the florist stating we could not fill the order and asking them to contact their customer. After return phone calls, the sender was told she could not get her credit card credited but would have to retain an “in-store credit†with that company. I had advised her to seek help from her credit card company on the charges. In turn, I rejected the order which came to me and I personally filled the birthday order for her.
What we were dealing with concerning the florist in Vancouver, British Columbia is what we call “Order Gatherers†and “Skimmersâ€. They are a group of internet “hijackersâ€. They are pretending to deliver flowers and gifts to every town and city in the United States, Canada, and around the world. Some of them even “personally deliver†your order. The claims made by these “gatherers†are ludicrous. They are most of the time not even a legitimate flower shop. They are located in telemarketing booths, answer their phones “Flower Shop†or “Flowers and Gifts†using fraudulent listings in yellow and white pages in phone books. The State of Maine and other states have recently produced legislation against fraudulent listings in our phone books. It is now illegal to state, for example, Hometown Florist 1-800-123-4567. Listings must have a legitimate street address. The internet is not so policed as of right now. It is full of “gatherers and skimmersâ€. The “Gatherer†is simply put. They gather orders by using “keywords†in their websites drawing search engines to their links. Many list Maine and then every town in the state. All of their town links lead to their own website NOT to a florist in the town you are seeking. The “Skimmer†is one who adds charges such as shipping, vase charges, delivery charges, and then retains an amount of the total order for themselves, thereby “skimming†dollars for themselves. The “wire services†have condoned such practices by offering rebates to large senders therefore making it a prolific living on the internet. But it is entirely offensive to legitimate Real Florists who have to fill these orders at a discount due to the clearinghouse they belong to. The two largest clearinghouses are also gathering. FTD.com and Teleflora.com have found it to their advantage to gather on the internet and relay to their member florists. The most well known gatherers are those such as 800Flowers, Hallmark, and Flowers by Sears, FTD, Proflowers, and Teleflora. They do not retain retail flower shops and are not full time florists. Known “gatherers and/or skimmers†are Vancouver Flower Company (urbanflorist.com or artisanflorist.com and many more), Karins of Vienna, VA (flowersforyou.com and many others), Beneva’s Floral (coasttocoastflorist.com and many others). Many of these gatherers even go as far to utilize fraudulent maps of the town to show their false “street locationâ€. These are just three of many on the internet. If you do wish to order flowers out of town, there are two KNOWN solutions to finding a Real Florist. Use your local florist, they have the expertise to send your order to a real flower shop and the guarantee of timely delivery, quality, and recourse should anything happen to not fulfill your requests. If you do wish to utilize the internet for ease of ordering, check www.realflorist.com and www.floristdetective.com. Both of these sites can explain how to find a REAL florist to fill your order. Check out locateaflowershop.com, ilocalflorist.com, or flowershopnetwork.com for listings of REAL florists.
How to be certain it is a real flower shop? Call them, ask their street address, and ask for their web site address. Most flower shops have toll free numbers. Make that personal contact the first time then you can be assured of their REAL website for future orders.
***written on the fly tonight so exact copy for paper is not finalized. Any input greatly appreciated. The editor is a friend and I asked about a letter to the Editor, she said absolutely NOT...It needs a headline for Consumer Alert. Gotta love the lady ! *** Thanks to you guys...any suggestions?***
Internet Savvy and Internet Purchases
Searching for bargains on the internet using search engines such as Google and Yahoo can lead you in the wrong direction. For instance, search for “florist your town your stateâ€. What you find on the first page will be links to pages of “florists†all located in your town. You pick one and find their home page luring you to fill in the blanks and send your floral gift to someone you love or are just thinking of. What you don’t know is 99 times out of 100, that “florist shop†is located in Canada, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, and even India. You will be paying a service charge, sales tax, shipping charge, and most often a delivery charge on top of the price of the floral design. All will be charged to your credit card. What you won’t find on most of the “local florist†web sites, is where they are actually located. It is a game for them to hide their actual location. Only the most internet savvy can eventually find out the actual location of the florist they are looking at on the web page.
Case and point. Within the past month, my flower shop received an order through a wire service (a national company which is utilized by organized florists as a clearinghouse for the transfer of orders between the florists). The order was to go to a recipient I personally knew from a sender I personally knew. The wording on the order was just not quite correct and brought up many questions in my mind. I called the sender to ask about the order. She proceeded to apologize for “messing up the order from your websiteâ€. I quickly explained that the website she had used was not mine. I explained who the order had come to me from, a shop in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. I then explained to her what the order read for me to deliver and the total amount sent to me to fill the order. She was appalled at a few things. First and foremost, the website she had placed the order on claimed to be located in our town. Secondly, the shop charged her $29.99 for flowers, $10.00 for a vase, $10.00 for shipping. The sending shop had collected over $51.00 total from her for this order. The order arrived to me as “cut flowers include vase – shipped-†for a total of $36.49. The sending shop had not sent to me, the filler shop, what they had collected from the customer. We then attempted to cancel the order by her calling and emailing the shop. I, in turn, sent messages to the florist stating we could not fill the order and asking them to contact their customer. After return phone calls, the sender was told she could not get her credit card credited but would have to retain an “in-store credit†with that company. I had advised her to seek help from her credit card company on the charges. In turn, I rejected the order which came to me and I personally filled the birthday order for her.
What we were dealing with concerning the florist in Vancouver, British Columbia is what we call “Order Gatherers†and “Skimmersâ€. They are a group of internet “hijackersâ€. They are pretending to deliver flowers and gifts to every town and city in the United States, Canada, and around the world. Some of them even “personally deliver†your order. The claims made by these “gatherers†are ludicrous. They are most of the time not even a legitimate flower shop. They are located in telemarketing booths, answer their phones “Flower Shop†or “Flowers and Gifts†using fraudulent listings in yellow and white pages in phone books. The State of Maine and other states have recently produced legislation against fraudulent listings in our phone books. It is now illegal to state, for example, Hometown Florist 1-800-123-4567. Listings must have a legitimate street address. The internet is not so policed as of right now. It is full of “gatherers and skimmersâ€. The “Gatherer†is simply put. They gather orders by using “keywords†in their websites drawing search engines to their links. Many list Maine and then every town in the state. All of their town links lead to their own website NOT to a florist in the town you are seeking. The “Skimmer†is one who adds charges such as shipping, vase charges, delivery charges, and then retains an amount of the total order for themselves, thereby “skimming†dollars for themselves. The “wire services†have condoned such practices by offering rebates to large senders therefore making it a prolific living on the internet. But it is entirely offensive to legitimate Real Florists who have to fill these orders at a discount due to the clearinghouse they belong to. The two largest clearinghouses are also gathering. FTD.com and Teleflora.com have found it to their advantage to gather on the internet and relay to their member florists. The most well known gatherers are those such as 800Flowers, Hallmark, and Flowers by Sears, FTD, Proflowers, and Teleflora. They do not retain retail flower shops and are not full time florists. Known “gatherers and/or skimmers†are Vancouver Flower Company (urbanflorist.com or artisanflorist.com and many more), Karins of Vienna, VA (flowersforyou.com and many others), Beneva’s Floral (coasttocoastflorist.com and many others). Many of these gatherers even go as far to utilize fraudulent maps of the town to show their false “street locationâ€. These are just three of many on the internet. If you do wish to order flowers out of town, there are two KNOWN solutions to finding a Real Florist. Use your local florist, they have the expertise to send your order to a real flower shop and the guarantee of timely delivery, quality, and recourse should anything happen to not fulfill your requests. If you do wish to utilize the internet for ease of ordering, check www.realflorist.com and www.floristdetective.com. Both of these sites can explain how to find a REAL florist to fill your order. Check out locateaflowershop.com, ilocalflorist.com, or flowershopnetwork.com for listings of REAL florists.
How to be certain it is a real flower shop? Call them, ask their street address, and ask for their web site address. Most flower shops have toll free numbers. Make that personal contact the first time then you can be assured of their REAL website for future orders.
***written on the fly tonight so exact copy for paper is not finalized. Any input greatly appreciated. The editor is a friend and I asked about a letter to the Editor, she said absolutely NOT...It needs a headline for Consumer Alert. Gotta love the lady ! *** Thanks to you guys...any suggestions?***
