No TECH, no order ??

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Uh...HEY GUYS! This is going on NOW...

...here in the Philly area.

An ex-employee of a Wire Service shop got hold of an old directory, and is placing orders via the phone, PRETENDING to be 'ABC Florist,' using a common name (ie. Sue, Lisa, Kate) and is GETTING AWAY WITH IT! This dates back to the beginning of March, and has been out there for over a month.
We have had at least 4 of these orders come through our shop alone.
The "law" has been informed, and is "investigating" but having trouble catching the perp. The w/s involved has been told, has sent out a notice via their "technology" letting people in PA (in PA only now...) know about this shop (basically, do not accept phone orders from this member, per the member's request).
From what we know is here is the M/O: the ex-empoyee is hooked in with the drug crowd. Either she has an addiction or something, but seems to be collecting $20~30 for "discounted" floral gifts of $100. (sometimes she gives you your delivery charge - yes, she does ask for your delivery, how nice!)
She knows the "system", and is exploiting it. When something doesn't get delivered, she moves on to another florist.

** THIS IS A TICKING TIME BOMB WITH THE FUSE LIT!!! **
Already, an "adjustmet" has been filed with my shop on one of these orders.
The w/s rep. told me to dispute it, since "it was called in and filled."

OK...but WHO is going to pay for this? WHO is responsible?
I took the order according to the rules and regs. of the W/S. I took the order and filled the order in good faith that this was a valid order.
Technology itself cannot stop this. As long as the "old way" of calling orders out is still done florist to florist.

It is my determination that the wire service is financially responsible.
If not, then I cannot continue to accept phone-in orders...the "trust and good faith" will have been broken.

- Herb R.
 
Technology itself cannot stop this. As long as the "old way" of calling orders out is still done florist to florist.
Click to expand...
Technology can stop or greatly minimize this very easily if you are willing to slightly increase the amount of time that it takes to enter a phoned-in wire order.
It is so simple in fact, that I will have it implemented in flowerSoft by tomorrow.
If this is a problem, it has to be stopped. Credit card companies are insisting that you collect the CVV2 code, it takes a little longer to do this but merchants are asking for it and the customers are supplying it. Something similar can be done with phone-in orders.
 
Just had to respond to this...
We had this happen to us and this is what we did...

We were actually on the charged florist end of the scam.
3 different florist charged us for orders we did not send to them, I reported to (FTD at the time) that we did not send the orders out.Each florist provided headquaters with a copy of the order that they filled on our behalf. FTD would not eat those orders and they held us respondsible for them. I called each recipient and got the phone number of the person who sent them to them and then I called the senders. I explained that I knew they had placed their orders frudulently and that the police would be investigating it. If they did not place the order themselves then they would be wise to tell me who they had gone through to do it. They could answer my questions or the police's questions. They quickly gave up the name, address and telephone # of the culpit. A low life scum out selling the service of sending flowers and charging them only a fee to do it. Then I called the police and filed a report. 2 days later they came to my store to tell me they had done all they could and unfortunately my case would not be going anywhere. Being very pissed and knowing the police had really done basically nothing. I called the guy myself and bluffed him. I told him that I knew the police had been by to talk to him and that they had just been in to talk to me. I told him that we had tied him to several more orders(which we had't) and that the directory he told police he had retreived from the garbage was now being considered stolen property and that the police were here to get our OK to up the charges to a felony. I told him if he wanted to avoid these new charges he had 24 hours to make good on the orders. He ask me where he could meet me and I told him in my store, with cash in hand and we would drop all charges.

He showed up the next day with the cash!
That was one of the most rewarding moments in this business.
Florist really do where many hats, don't they??

Mrs Knife
 
Like I said, it is traceable. Good job.
flowerSoft will now implement a security scheme (for those who opt to turn it on) that can greaty reduce or totally eliminate the number of fraudulent orders that a shop receives.
 
It is a shame that you had to do all this!!!

I've been in similar situations that I had to do others work..but you did nothing wrong to accept the incoming order..I think it was the wire service;s responsibility to pay for this fraud.. not you.. that is part of what their responsiblity is for all the dues & fees we pay.. they need to secure their service not us or what is the value of this service to us... I hope the' big 2' think long and hard about how the industry is changing and where they hope to be in it.. Technology is important and they do it well, and obviously the internet is big and they have made a place for themselves on it.. but the wire transfer piece of their business is their big golden jewel that keeps lots of us involved.. and they should be real careful to keep this jewel shiny for us.. because if & when it gets tarnished enough there are other ways for us to do our business,, .
Some times Big Business forgets to look at the Big Picture..
 
This is ridiculous

If this flaw is in the system of a service provided vendor you belong to and also pay into such as membership fees per month, than your the one who is not smart?.

This is the biggest flaw in any Wire Service System..Who are you? oh a Number! let the sale begin and never except a Credit Card put thru your system in shop as we speak on the phone because after all We must have confused you with a 100% sale.

Sorry about my sarcasim also with this discussion.
 
It is just a number.

This is one of those treads of conversation that you can't fail to be amazed at. It is just a number. A 6 digit number that identifies a florist within a specfic membership. We have seen comments on the treads here and the other board talk about destroying the directory or eliminating it completely, not accepting telephone orders and only accepting electronic sent orders and how technology could solve this problem. All of these solutions aren't going to stop it from happening. If the bad guy wants to find your 6 digit ID number, there just are too many ways to get it.

You might destroy YOUR directory, but the other florists in your area may not be as concerned. You can tell everyone if they eliminate the book and only us a disc to update the florists data on their computer. A hi-tech thief can either hack into your computer or the host computer if they need the information and that's only if they can't find a old disc that has been discarded.

This is not a question about the system or the level of technology. It is about a very small portion of the population of this industry. When most or all of these situations are checked out fully, you generally find that is or was someone from within the industry trying to take advantage of something they already knew. We have a local wholesaler who had to put a padlock on their dumpster to keep a specific florist from taking old discarded flowers after they close. We have had a local cemetary report that someone has taken floral arrangements from grave sites shortly after the servcies were over, presumably for reuse. We have had funeral directories tell us that they don't leave any old easles or even plastic pot liners in the flower rooms any more as they general disappear after floral deliveries. Not all florists are GOOD people. Hense, there should be no excuse not to review your monthly statements, WS, CC, bank and wholesaler every month. You have only yourself to blame if your don't.
 
BOSS said:
The whole thought that started this thread, was that "IF" florist begin to not trust the phone, and only allow orders sent by viable electronic (trackable) methods that it may lead to further consolidation in the industry toward those that have technology (including fax).
Click to expand...
But I concur with you to Griff...it's a 6 digit number... perhaps down the road we'll end up with encoding (for electronic sending).

There are always unscrupulus florists around, but the minority. As to the order thing, I was only hypothisizing on the possibility...
 
BOSS, don't you think it would be....

interesting if the person who started all this conversation on the other board would actually post if the additional listings on his monthly report were in error and easily corrected or someone who was actually trying to take advantage of the system. And if so, was it another florist or an "outsider"?
 
I would think Gregg may post the results, once final or figured out...

So far, no satisfaction that I am aware of...
 
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