No ws no cc ???

[Joe Mioux]

If a florist chooses to not be WS affiliated that is fine, but at least have a credit card to send orders!

Today, some shop from IA called and wanted us to send them a statement for an order they wanted to send us.

I told the lady she needed a CC, she didn't have one, She gave an excuse why she doesn't have any CC's.

She hung up without giving me the order. About 15 minutes later she gives me the order with the Customer's CC. I took it but I didn't like doing it. She assured me that the owner told her to use his card.

From now on, my policy will be the customer must call me with their own card.

I have a question for those of you who are not WS affiliated.

Do any of you ask the receiving florist to send you a bill for your outgoing orders?

Do you ever use your customer's cards?

just curious.
joe

 

[Patty]

No and no.
We have a shop credit card for calling out orders. I'm not comfortable giving out the customer's card info.
If the shop doesn't have a cc for whatever reason, why don't they just give the customer a phone # for the florist?

 

[concord]

That's crazy! Why would we want to invoice a florist ? In this economy there are a lot of failing shops and I wouldn't want to extend credit to one of them! I'm all for being WS free but it's not realistic to go with out a credit card, too!

 

[SpringCity]

I use my own cc. I would never just ask someone to bill me.

 

[Spookyflowers]

I agree how can they not have a credit card? If not for ordering from another shop but from wholesalers.
I've had shops give me a customers credit card but I run it when I have them on the phone.
I'd be worried that this shop is in touble and maybe trying to pull a fast one.

 

[Dazeal]

Off topic a little, sorry Joe: It's my opinion, and I know I am weird, that if I didn't have a WS, the best service I can offer my customer and the best thing I can do for my industry is to give my customer the florist's number direct and the florist can fill at 100%. yeah so I don't make a buck, but I create a loyal local customer.

 

[Joe Mioux]

It's my opinion, and I know I am weird, that if I didn't have a WS, the best service I can offer my customer and the best thing I can do for my industry is to give my customer the florist's number direct and the florist can fill at 100%. yeah so I don't make a buck, but I create a loyal local customer.

Daz, a few years ago, I think you and I went a round or two debating the merits of giving the customer the receiving florists phone number.

In this case, I would have been much more comfortable taking the order directly from the customer, rather than the sending florist.

+1 Daz.

 

[BOSS]

Today, some shop from IA called and wanted us to send them a statement for an order they wanted to send us.


Do you ever use your customer's cards?

just curious.
joe

Yesterday, I called one out to a shop in Michigan, they are not in a ws and do not take American Express, so they offered to send me a bill....

And no I would never compromise a customers credit card...

 

[marigold]

If a florist chooses to not be WS affiliated that is fine, but at least have a credit card to send orders!

Today, some shop from IA called and wanted us to send them a statement for an order they wanted to send us.

I told the lady she needed a CC, she didn't have one, She gave an excuse why she doesn't have any CC's.

She hung up without giving me the order. About 15 minutes later she gives me the order with the Customer's CC. I took it but I didn't like doing it. She assured me that the owner told her to use his card.

From now on, my policy will be the customer must call me with their own card.

I have a question for those of you who are not WS affiliated.

Do any of you ask the receiving florist to send you a bill for your outgoing orders?

Do you ever use your customer's cards?

just curious.
joe

I would never use my customer's credit card to send the order.
too confusing. I would not knowingly accept an order from another
florist who was using their customer's credit card.

I send out orders using my business card all the time.
I would not ask someone to bill me. Are you kidding? Don't even
ask me to bill you; I rarely send a bill to people I DO know.

 

[duanermb]

Off topic a little, sorry Joe: It's my opinion, and I know I am weird, that if I didn't have a WS, the best service I can offer my customer and the best thing I can do for my industry is to give my customer the florist's number direct and the florist can fill at 100%. yeah so I don't make a buck, but I create a loyal local customer.

Firstly, it sounds like the florist is in trouble, with no CC available. (We were there at one point and it sucks. Actually have extended credit to a few that were honest about being strapped right now)

I have to agree an disagree with this one. I have come full circle with this issue in some respects. I used to think it should be a transaction between the filling florist and the customer to keep it local. I now think that it does make sense to make the transaction between you and your customer for many reasons. I just don't think its worth 20% etc. It should be a reasonable amount with no other associated fees.

 

[marigold]

Off topic a little, sorry Joe: It's my opinion, and I know I am weird, that if I didn't have a WS, the best service I can offer my customer and the best thing I can do for my industry is to give my customer the florist's number direct and the florist can fill at 100%. yeah so I don't make a buck, but I create a loyal local customer.

This is how we offer it when my customer calls and wants to send flowers out of town:
"We can do this one of two ways.
I can take care of the order for you, where I give the florist 100% of
the amount you want to spend including a delivery and my fee is $12.95
for this service. OR, I am more than happy to look up a florist for you
and give you a number for you to call yourself.

I really don't care which way they go. If I give them the number, they
think I am awesome and are my loyal customer.
Some people just want me to take care of it for them.
Either way is ok with me.

 

[Hal Conklin]

really

That's crazy! Why would we want to invoice a florist ? In this economy there are a lot of failing shops and I wouldn't want to extend credit to one of them! I'm all for being WS free but it's not realistic to go with out a credit card, too!

we have a number of florists who share orders between themselves and bill monthly to save 2% as far as the cc goes that option is there also for the florist if need be for those who dont share many orders. The key word here is options... My point is why not bill if you have a relationship. Agree on 14 days instead of 30 its still better than 45 from the wire services. Just my 2 cents...

 

[marigold]

we have a number of florists who share orders between themselves and bill monthly to save 2% as far as the cc goes that option is there also for the florist if need be for those who dont share many orders. The key word here is options... My point is why not bill if you have a relationship. Agree on 14 days instead of 30 its still better than 45 from the wire services. Just my 2 cents...

Agreed. If you have a relationship with certain florist, no problem.

 

[duanermb]

we have a number of florists who share orders between themselves and bill monthly to save 2% as far as the cc goes that option is there also for the florist if need be for those who dont share many orders. The key word here is options... My point is why not bill if you have a relationship. Agree on 14 days instead of 30 its still better than 45 from the wire services. Just my 2 cents...

Concur Hal. AMEX for F2F?

 

[Rhonda]

I have a close # of friends with shops that I do billing on. 20% (not on delivery) and they always pay within 10-14 days. Other than that...goes on a CC if I don't know them or interact with our state florists' association.

 

[lori042499]

I worked for a very weird shop a long long time ago. The owner has since died and shop is defunct...

We used to use the customers cc to call out orders...I was never comfortable with that, but it was way before this day and age where cc are so suscepitible to fraud and florists were way dumber than they are now...I cannot remember exactly how we did it, but I do remember using their card because we didn't have one....it was one of the starngest employments in my history lots of iffy crap going on and the owner went by aliases, yeah it was that shady....crazy shady...

 

[Joe Mioux]

the florist blamed an employee for running up over $3000 in CC charges on her card. From that incident, the florist chose not to have any credit cards.

joe

 

[Flowerchatter03]

Surprisingly there are florists who still do business like they did 40 years ago. I called a shop for a customer and wanted to give the lady our cc'd number but she said no she would just bill me. Got a bill over a month later and it was handwritten!

Also had a shop that is about an hour from here call with an order and was asked to bill them. So we did. When we got our payment, the owner of the shop wrote a note on the bill stating "I took my 20% discount". So, we had to write off the remainder. And no, they did not ask at the time of the order.

I'd be careful about giving out a customer's cc number. Not sure if that is really a legal transaction. If they customer decided to dispute the charge, the merchant can be out of the money and a fee on top of it.

If that shop didn't want to have a cc'd, then they could have used their debit card. Even my own mother has one of those!

 

[Bigted]

It seems to me that giving a customer's credit card number is a serious violation of the new identity theft rules that go into effect in November. Every shop must have an identity theft policy in place or they will leave themselves exposed to some serious liabilities. I can't believe that giving a customer's cc# over the phone to someone else would be a valid part of this policy. It's certainly not part of ours.

 

[makescents]

I use my debit card... I live by Dave Ramsey.. so we do not have any CCs - BUT doesnt EVERYONE have a VISA or MC debit card? What? Does she not have a bank account? That is so lame... She just didn't have the money..

Talk about unprofessional!