New/Old Scam -The 'benefit' of being in a wire service

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CHR

CHR

Design matters
Nov 28, 2002
8,951
8,442
113
Anaheim
www.avantegardens.com
State / Prov
CA
Pushing the advertising envelope, your fellow 'marketing partner' members are now using your shop name and cilty in URLs to dOG.

From our friend Weasley Berry:
800 - 628 - 9371 Top FTD Shop - Top Teleflora Shop
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Send flowers Today through a local Florist to CA California! CA California same day CA California flower delivery. Fowers, bouquets, plants, balloons, delivered directly from a CA California flower shop. Our flower shops send flowers for birthdays, celebrations, anniversaries, sympathy and more. Family owned florist since 1946. Fast CA California delivery. Voted Best Florist.
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This text is at the top of tens of thousands of pages with our individual store names below it.

Expressions in Bloom http://www.flowers-nationwide.com/EXPRESSIONS_IN_BLOOM-28583-Corvallis.html

Smith's of Midland http://www.flowers-nationwide.com/SMITH'S_OF_MIDLAND_INC-46065-Midland.html

Martin's http://www.flowers-nationwide.com/MARTIN'S_THE_FLOWER_PEOPLE-47098-Toronto.html

Holden's http://www.flowers-nationwide.com/HOLDEN'S_FLORISTS_(DUNDAS)_INC-48331-Dundas.html

Flowers from the Rainflorist http://www.flowers-nationwide.com/FLOWERS_FROM_THE_RAINFLORIST-45090-Sunrise.html

The Bloomery http://www.flowers-nationwide.com/THE_BLOOMERY,_INC.-35683-Butler.html

Avante Gardens http://www.flowers-nationwide.com/AVANTE_GARDENS...FLORALS_UNIQU-34686-Anaheim.html

Visser's http://www.flowers-nationwide.com/VISSER'S_FLORIST_&_GREENHOUSE,-34709-Anaheim.html

Everyday Flowers http://www.flowers-nationwide.com/EVERYDAY_FLOWERS-34625-Tustin.html

The Flower PLace http://www.flowers-nationwide.com/THE_FLOWER_PLACE-34728-Fountain_Valley.html - - this listing is particularly deceptive since Flower Place isn't in any wire services.

I didn't have time to look up everyone but I'm pretty sure your shops will be listed, too. Start here http://www.flowers-nationwide.com/ and scroll down to the state listings. Choose your state, then town, then click on the link that says "For a list of Florists near Your Town click here"

If you are a member in FTD or TF, Weasley Berry - and no doubt other OGs will soon copy the model - feel it's perfectly acceptable to collect orders in your name on your behalf. After all, you agreed to be a member and you WANT incoming orders - right?

To the FC members who say that Weasley Berry is only "using the system" and it's 'our fault' if a consumer orders through this site becasue we should have marketed our sites better, I say Bull Sh*t.

Such a program should be 'opt in' for the members foolish enough to prefer Wesley Berry getting their own orders, rather than themselves. That all of us have to 'opt out' is a travesty.

Please write FTD and TF and ask them for a ruling on whether this kind of exploitation of our memberships is permissible by OGs. TF is doing it now with the 'storefronts' so they are unlikely to say anything to Weasley.

IMO if you fill for Weasley, you're nuts.

Expect a landslide of this kind of site. This may be the final straw for us in WS participation.
 
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CHR said:
From our friend Weasley Berry:


IMO if you fill for Weasley, you're nuts.
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:hammer::hammer::hammer::hammer::hammer::hammer::hammer::hammer::hammer::hammer:

Nice that they include an OPT OUT link, we'll see if it works....
 
I called their 800 . . . .

Talked to a young lady who directed me to "Dan".
Dan said "I will pass this information on the the Webmaster" and they will remove my shop from their list.

We'll see. . . .
 
I have emailed Frank Stornelli....

and cc'd Mike Soenen about this illegal abuse.....this MAY BE the last straw!!
 
Mikey the Flower Guy said:
and cc'd Mike Soenen about this illegal abuse.....this MAY BE the last straw!!
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Last straw for you or for "them" Mikey?

I'm sorry Mike, but you, me and 2-3 others complaining about Weasley Berries is not going to do any good. I firmly believe that Ed C was let go from Tf for raising too many questions regarding OG's and I honestly do not think wither company cares as long as they get the orders.

Weasley is perhaps the most blatant, scummiest operator out there today, he has pages for every city, claims to be everywhere and yet neiter of the BIG@ will do anything about it.
 
BOSS said:
Last straw for you or for "them" Mikey?

I'm sorry Mike, but you, me and 2-3 others complaining about Weasley Berries is not going to do any good. I firmly believe that Ed C was let go from Tf for raising too many questions regarding OG's and I honestly do not think wither company cares as long as they get the orders.

Weasley is perhaps the most blatant, scummiest operator out there today, he has pages for every city, claims to be everywhere and yet neiter of the BIG@ will do anything about it.
Click to expand...

I've gotten a panic reply...just you watch and see!!
 
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I asked to be removed from their other fake directory site two years ago and it's still there. :mad:

Time to go public. Using Wesley's name in the title of the post was intentional. :fdevil:

Having a blog may come in handy............

Added: Flower Buying Advice - click on the first search result.

If you write about this on your blog, please post it here and I'll link to it.
 
I'm curious ... and I just want a definition here:

What makes this site/service/directory/thing worse than others? Even years ago Phlop was using florist names, and many other sites still do. I know of at least one who has florists requesting to be ADDED to their list.

Is it the fact that Wesley B is using the florist name in the URL that makes this worse? Or the separate page for each florist?

Why is this worse than a phony directory?
 
All the above.

They still won't take our shop info out of their first 'directory'. At least Phillip did that.

Most every other directory, even those run by OGs, include our phone number along with our name. In the case of Wesley Berry - our names are just spider food for search engines.

We do not endorse consumers using Wesley Berry to get to us (or anyone else.) In fact, their company is implying an endorsement by us by publishing our business name on their site. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Gifttree uses real local florists on their doorway pages, too. If our shop were one of them, I'd be just as concerned.

Ryan - are you OK with WB listing your company and creating a URL with your shop name in it?
 
Oh, no ... didn't say I was ok with it.

In fact, I've already "opted out" of his site.

I just wanted to clarify why this was more bad than other bads.

Ryan
 
So bear with me, as I am hardly as knowledgeable as most of you on the ins and outs of the internet, but how does one company create a url using another companies name in it?...seems like that violates copyright or something. Wouldn't an approach to the registrar or hosting service be a means to have it removed???

Sher
 
It's a grey area, since the perception is WB is showing you a list of shops (which is true) that serve an area. The problem is the motivation is to generate sales for himself, based on the names and addresses of other shops. I wonder if he's actually able to track which florist entry page a customer used to make sure the order goes to that shop. Otherwise, it would seem to be misleading the customer even further.

Since the shop name is page of the page name, not the domain name, there isn't much of a case for a copyright dispute.

Ryan
 
Sher said:
So bear with me, as I am hardly as knowledgeable as most of you on the ins and outs of the internet, but how does one company create a url using another companies name in it?...seems like that violates copyright or something. Wouldn't an approach to the registrar or hosting service be a means to have it removed???

Sher
Click to expand...
Hi Sher, It's very simple to inlude any text (or someone elses domain name ) in your website. Any thing that comes after ".com/" can simply be added by naming an html file what ever you wish, and then uploading it to the server. I'm not sure of the legality of this, especially if the names they are using have copyrights??? But I'm going to find out. I have a Pre-Paid Legal membership and it won't cost a penny for me to call my attorney and find out. When I get an answer I'll let you all know. It doesn't look like they have not used my name in their url yet. Maybe because he just hasn't got that far yet or maybee because he's researched and found out I have a copyright on BLOOM'IN BEE. Anyway I'll keep a close eye on his site.
 
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How many sites do you suppose Weasley has????

xxw.locateaflorist.net
xxw.flowers-nationwide.com

Has anybody found any others?


These two are very similar. They both offer you an option to opt out of the directory, however when I tried to opt out of xxw.locateaflorist.net it did not work.

In a previous post I told you all that I would let you know what my attorney advises me to do and I can't discuss the details yet but, let me just put it this way. If you have requested to take your name off of his site(s) but get no response, then there may be a legal issue. However when I asked about the deceptive marketing practice that he chooses to employ, it is about the lowest thing possible without actually being illegal.
 
I missed this thread last week.

I think this may be the last straw as well. Its time to make a stand I will be making a call to our TF rep about this and most likely giving our notice. I will just have to eat the POS system. If they are not going to anything about it I will.
 
Buzz said:
How many sites do you suppose Weasley has????
Click to expand...
The number of sites is really irrelevant, but he does have several.

The bigger issue is his use of doorway pages, with code that changes the pages to reflect to search criteria.

My guess, (today) is that Weasley is up over 35,000 doorways...but I'll bet it's more than that!

Eric...you go man...and good luck. I have directly brought this *issue* to the attention of both FTD and TF, even speaking to the web guys at TF last summer before this new round of pages surfaced. Honestly, I don;t think they give a rip, as long as they receive the order volume.
 
And a large issue is that there is no way to 'opt out' well they say there is a way but the link never works and no phone or email is returned..
I wonder if this is a way to get them.. They use our names without permission.. no way to opt out,.. must break some FCC law or other. Perhaps even the 'bait & switch' one which seems the law most prosecuted by the FCC.. who is it that has a lawyer on retainer?? this might be a great class action suit.

I don't know how we can get the FCC really involved but if we could, the WS could be brought into it because they turn a blind eye on these scammers.. maybe even facilitate them.. and using our money (dues) has to constitute at least a breach of the fudiciary laws??

It seems we can not reach the big guys at the Ws with common sense and fair play.. could we do it by bringing this all out into the public..it would hurt all of us..but maybe it would be worth it to clean up everyone's act and reclaim an industry that used to be worthwhile and honorable.
Skimming and curtailing are both against the written rules of all the WS.. they just chose to ignore them to get the big guys to send orders.. but this might be a way to start it.. We would need copies of original orders given to a skimmer and copies of the resulting merc or dove or 800fl order to the filling florist.. but that would constitute unrefutable proof in a court of law that the consumer was defrauded.. and that should be taken seriously by the FCC.
 
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