New OG?

BOSS

BOSS

FlowerChat Administrator
Oct 31, 2002
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www.smithsflowers.com
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MI
I'm not proud of this but,

Every time I see a new OG I call and give them one hundred questions. I act really stupid (not hard to do for me) and I keep them on the phone and just irritate the dog crap out of them. I've also done these three things (not proud of them) but effective:

1) I've used www.mechanicalturk.com and Indian based company that will do anything for money. Once ordered 1000 calls, "Ormond's real florists welcome you" and it cost .03 a call. So for $30, I had fun.

2) I called one last year, Hi this is Rick Rivers from, CBS evening news, we are doing a story next week on internet fraud of flower sites versus real florists. Our search found you in this town (Ormond Beach) so we wanted to call you in advance to give you a heads up. Our producers will be following up with you next week prior to the evening news..............listing disappeared next day.

3) Your driver just ran me off the road and I have the police on the way and they are on the line, I need your address? We have no drivers, we are an internet store. I yell, "officer did you hear that" they are ducking us? Then I change voices and become police officeer and say, "you are advertising that you have a shop in this town" and your driver has run a real flower shop van off the road? This doesn't sound right, I will have to forward this to our 'fraud" division for investigation. Good bye............listing went bye bye.

I call this a form of floral "torture", not as bad as water boarding.............
 
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You're one funny dude.... Mr. Rivers ;)

I did email "Cindys" at [email protected] (yes and odd email addy for a company)... in case anyone else wants to as well...
 
bootcampguy said:
Every time I see a new OG I call and give them one hundred questions. I act really stupid (not hard to do for me) and I keep them on the phone and just irritate the dog crap out of them. I've also done these three things (not proud of them) but effective:

1) I've used www.mechanicalturk.com and Indian based company that will do anything for money. Once ordered 1000 calls, "Ormond's real florists welcome you" and it cost .03 a call. So for $30, I had fun.

2) I called one last year, Hi this is Rick Rivers from, CBS evening news, we are doing a story next week on internet fraud of flower sites versus real florists. Our search found you in this town (Ormond Beach) so we wanted to call you in advance to give you a heads up. Our producers will be following up with you next week prior to the evening news..............listing disappeared next day.

3) Your driver just ran me off the road and I have the police on the way and they are on the line, I need your address? We have no drivers, we are an internet store. I yell, "officer did you hear that" they are ducking us? Then I change voices and become police officeer and say, "you are advertising that you have a shop in this town" and your driver has run a real flower shop van off the road? This doesn't sound right, I will have to forward this to our 'fraud" division for investigation. Good bye............listing went bye bye.

I call this a form of floral "torture", not as bad as water boarding.............
Click to expand...

Wow, just imagine how much further ahead you would be if you could focus all that time and energy into building your own business.
 
That is freakin' awesome! I love it! Reminds me of the Tom Mabe skits on The Bob and Tom show!

PS. That is helping your business if those looser fradulent a$$ holes take their sites down!
 
Flowerchatter03 said:
That is freakin' awesome! I love it! Reminds me of the Tom Mabe skits on The Bob and Tom show!

PS. That is helping your business if those looser fradulent a$$ holes take their sites down!
Click to expand...

Maybe in your spare time you can picket Costco, don't they sell flowers as well
 
Doug Munro said:
Maybe in your spare time you can picket Costco, don't they sell flowers as well
Click to expand...

My business is doing really well, but I still like to have fun with deceptive people or practices. Last year I took a whole day and went to a Costco. I ask the manager If I could watch his operation and learn. He said, "OK", so every customer I spoke with I ask many questions. I took good notes and realized at the end of the day why they buy there. The majority said that florists have lost their "mass casual" attitude and I learned allot. (blog on it posted here also). I don't fault Costco or any other big box guy, they are licensed and pay plenty of taxes. The key word that I look for is "deceptive".........Now if they start offering delivery to my area through deceptive gathering, CBS evening news will give them a call.
 
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Doug Munro said:
Maybe in your spare time you can picket Costco, don't they sell flowers as well
Click to expand...

No one has a problem with people who sell flowers. The problem is with people who say they sell flowers but they don't have any flowers. Plus they mislead people by lying about their location. This is the problem. If they really sold flowers in the city they claimed to be in then there would be no problem. When people search for a florist in a particular city, they are looking for an actual shop in that town. They are not trying to find a WS or an OG. A company posing as a shop in that town in order to mislead the consumer is the problem.
 
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Sarah Jane said:
No one has a problem with people who sell flowers. The problem is with people who say they sell flowers but they don't have any flowers. Plus they mislead people by lying about their location. This is the problem. If they really sold flowers in the city they claimed to be in then there would be no problem. When people search for a florist in a particular city, they are looking for an actual shop in that town. They are not trying to find a WS or an OG. A company posing as a shop in that town in order to mislead the consumer is the problem.
Click to expand...

It appears that my point in my two posts was missed entirely ( maybe I need to take an ESL night course). As a business owner the only business an individual has any control over is their own and if they plan to make it a success their efforts need to be focused on it. What the competitor does or doesn't do is virtually out of your control and wasting any amount of your two most precious commodities, time and money in attempting to make them change just means you have less of those commodities to invest in your own business.

If you truly want to inflict damage on your competitor (for whatever reason) do it by working on your own business, this way as your business grows theirs will certainly shrink.
 
Doug Munro said:
Maybe in your spare time you can picket Costco, don't they sell flowers as well
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean, Doug. Costco is an actual brick and mortar business that employs local people. What the subject is "people" who pretend to be a business in a local area and, IN FACT, are not there. I would also have a problem with any other type of "business" who are deceiving the general public. I used to work for the Better Business Bureau so I am very familiar with what is considered deceptive advertising and what is not.
 
We are not talking about our competition, we are talking about someone who states that they are located in a town that they, in fact, are not there. They continue their sites with deceptive information, with their goal being that the general public BELIEVES that they are a local company when they are actual not. This is deceptive. They do not fill the orders for customers. They pass it along and charge big money for doing that.

Companies like this do not just "go away". It is our responsibility as business owners to stand up against companies who are not running a reputable business.
 
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Flowerchatter03 said:
Not sure what you mean, Doug. Costco is an actual brick and mortar business that employs local people. What the subject is "people" who pretend to be a business in a local area and, IN FACT, are not there. I would also have a problem with any other type of "business" who are deceiving the general public. I used to work for the Better Business Bureau so I am very familiar with what is considered deceptive advertising and what is not.
Click to expand...

So as an ex Better Business Bureau employee, what is your opinion in the tactics described in the posting i have quoted below? Are these legitimate business tactics, are they underhanded, or do they border on harassment. Or does the end justifies the means?

Are these practices something that the BBB would recommend to its members? I only ask due to the fact that you have opened the door regarding your expertise on legitimate business practices. You will note that in your quote I "bolded" a section regarding "people who pretend to be something they are not.

bootcampguy said:
Every time I see a new OG I call and give them one hundred questions. I act really stupid (not hard to do for me) and I keep them on the phone and just irritate the dog crap out of them. I've also done these three things (not proud of them) but effective:

1) I've used www.mechanicalturk.com and Indian based company that will do anything for money. Once ordered 1000 calls, "Ormond's real florists welcome you" and it cost .03 a call. So for $30, I had fun.

2) I called one last year, Hi this is Rick Rivers from, CBS evening news, we are doing a story next week on internet fraud of flower sites versus real florists. Our search found you in this town (Ormond Beach) so we wanted to call you in advance to give you a heads up. Our producers will be following up with you next week prior to the evening news..............listing disappeared next day.

3) Your driver just ran me off the road and I have the police on the way and they are on the line, I need your address? We have no drivers, we are an internet store. I yell, "officer did you hear that" they are ducking us? Then I change voices and become police officeer and say, "you are advertising that you have a shop in this town" and your driver has run a real flower shop van off the road? This doesn't sound right, I will have to forward this to our 'fraud" division for investigation. Good bye............listing went bye bye.

I call this a form of floral "torture", not as bad as water boarding.............
Click to expand...
 
BOSS said:
an "Image being displayed without permission"... right on their front page...
Click to expand...

That's a fantastic way of dealing with people who are lazy and stupid - stealing your images not by saving them to their own server but just linking to yours.
 
Doug,

dOGs are truly of the biggest sources of complaints so it's a good idea florists know who the WSs are foisting on them. When a dOG pretends to be local and then flips an order to a real shop, despite telling the dOG about substitution and following the WS rules, the consumer hasn't been 'filled in' so he/she expects EXACTLY what was seen in an image. Pile on the skimming and there's a huge down-side to dealing with these pretenders.

No one wants to be stung in this game, especially local florists who do the real work, so it behooves us to know the posers.

Mark, it's been a while since Cindy's hit my radar but IIRC it's based at a business in the Houston area with a different B&M name.
 
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CHR said:
it behooves us to know the posers.

Mark, it's been a while since Cindy's hit my radar but IIRC it's based at a business in the Houston area with a different B&M name.
Click to expand...
I agree, folks should know who's dealing, when they put their money on the table.

And Cathy, I should have the "who is" info Monday... I still have friends in low places...
 
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Doug Munro said:
So as an ex Better Business Bureau employee, what is your opinion in the tactics described in the posting i have quoted below? Are these legitimate business tactics, are they underhanded, or do they border on harassment. Or does the end justifies the means?

Are these practices something that the BBB would recommend to its members? I only ask due to the fact that you have opened the door regarding your expertise on legitimate business practices. You will note that in your quote I "bolded" a section regarding "people who pretend to be something they are not.
Click to expand...

Well Doug for your information the Better Business Bureau handles consumer to business situations, disputes etc. They do NOT handle business to business situations at all. Therefore, they wouldn't recommend or have a say regarding anything that transpires between two businesses.

As for the post you quoted, is it childish? Yes, but I still find it most humorous. Would I do those things? No because I don't have the time or the energy. Doesn't make it any less funny to me. :)
 
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Doug Munro said:
Maybe in your spare time you can picket Costco, don't they sell flowers as well
Click to expand...
They don't sell flowers they sell CRAP
Let me rephrase this, they sell CRAPPY FLOWERS.
Poor flowers !! I bet they wish they did not end up in this trash can called COSTCO.
Flowers belong to a flowers shop NOT a food and whatever sells shop, like COSTCO, WALMART, SAFEWAY , SAVEMART, CVS and Cie.
The Hell with them. :jester
 
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