Pres. of FTD Calling next week

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Phone Call Follow-up

Just to let you guys know....Most of you were right. "Whether we like it or not, it just is, has been and will be for a long time to come. They do business with us, Teleflora, and 1-800"----His exact words. No real solutions. Just crap. He said he will call Flowers and Cambridge and see what they can do. In other works...NOTHING. Oh yea this was a great line...."maybe we need to open us anther shop there to releive some of your fustration!" Was that not a great line! Can't beleive he said that. I truly do think I will be dropping FTD ASAP! F**K Them! Seems as if my e-mail was right...."They only care about how much money is in there bank account!" Says he will call later today or tomorrow with a solution. I doubt that happens. Phone call lasted about 4 mins. He was on hold longer than waiting for me to get to the phone than we talked. NO BIG SUPRISES!
 
Your comment : "use the wire service to your advantage" makes me nervous. Look at the costs associated with the wires then calculate your cost to receive each order. Unless you get in a HUGE amount of incoming orders or, better yet, refuse all incoming and just send, there's practically no way you're ahead of their business. You're paying them to fill their orders and your consumer believes you've shierked them if it's not what they paid for in the first place.

The only way to win at this game is to have your own website, with your own photos and designed by someone who understands the floral industry. As long as you stay with the wires you lose in the end. Not just my opinion, it's been mathematically proven. Add to that, their Credit card system is the highest in the entire credit card industry. Prove me wrong and I'll buy you dinner!
 
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spentflowers said:
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The only way to win at this game is to have your own website, with your own photos and designed by someone who understands the floral industry. As long as you stay with the wires you lose in the end. Not just my opinion, it's been mathematically proven. Add to that, their Credit card system is the highest in the entire credit card industry. Prove me wrong and I'll buy you dinner!
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opinions vary and I believe you owe me dinner. lol



PS please explain "highest in the entire credit card industry" cuz no one beats 0% matching - trust me I've tried.

:itchy:
 
bloomz said:
opinions vary and I believe you owe me dinner. lol



PS please explain "highest in the entire credit card industry" cuz no one beats 0% matching - trust me I've tried.

:itchy:
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What you have to understand that the view of Wire services is very different depending on what angle you view them from...You are seeing it from a high sending angle there are alot of perks that go with that...O% matching I assume is they charge you 0% on money cleared up to your sending...fillers do not see that as a perk to them because they send so little...as a filler I use this as a perk...they allow me to turn over my product and carry new fresh flowers every day for my customers...some people think I am crazy but I would rather it go out the door with my name on it for a few bucks profit than into my dumpster costing my hundreds a week...last week would be a good example, I had lots of incoming wire business but very little incoming local business without the wire orders I would have thrown away my weekly stock or I would have had to use older stock in arrangements for this week, I personally hate throwing away flowers and to be honest would have felt the urge to use them in arrangements just because I paid for them, not good for business but throwing them in the bucket week after week is never good either...every one has a different veiw of "use the WS for what they are worth"...and for each business it may make sense it is not an cut and dry situation for most businesses, it is complex and needs complex management....like a semi bad co-dependent relationship...as long as it doesn't escalate to murder each side has some pros and cons..
 
spentflowers said:
The only way to win at this game is to have your own website, with your own photos and designed by someone who understands the floral industry. As long as you stay with the wires you lose in the end. Not just my opinion, it's been mathematically proven. Add to that, their Credit card system is the highest in the entire credit card industry. Prove me wrong and I'll buy you dinner!
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I'm afraid I have to disagree. It's not the only way to win. And, as a matter of fact, it is very difficult to win using your own photos. A few people here are very good at it. A lot of people are not.

And, as to the credit card being the highest in the industry--well, I don't agree with that either.
 
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I would like to point out that flowers Cambridge is not me.
I didn't realize he was in other wire services besides FTD. All his images are FTD. The way the system is none of the wire services will throw out an order gatherer. There are plenty on flower chat that will not fill or want order gatherer orders. However many more florist want their orders. The order gatherer's keep members in the wire services.
The shop in question started out as a florist called flowers of the day. After the woman's Husband entered the business . He came from a non florist background. I think he saw potential in his original web site. http://www.ftdfloristsonline.com/flowersoftheday. Then he changed his name to flowers. He has done well with his web site
http://www.ftdfloristsonline.com/flowers . I think consumers believe he is FTD. He advertises nationally with ppc.
He has no flowers just an order taker.
 
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BOSS's Quote of the day!!

lori042499 said:
"use the WS for what they are worth"...and for each business it may make sense it is not an cut and dry situation for most businesses, it is complex and needs complex management....like a semi bad co-dependent relationship...as long as it doesn't escalate to murder each side has some pros and cons..
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I love the last line!:spam:
 
lori042499 said:
.every one has a different veiw of "use the WS for what they are worth"...and for each business it may make sense it is not an cut and dry situation for most businesses, it is complex and needs complex management....like a semi bad co-dependent relationship...as long as it doesn't escalate to murder each side has some pros and cons..
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Quote of the week!

Bigted said:
I'm afraid I have to disagree. It's not the only way to win. And, as a matter of fact, it is very difficult to win using your own photos. A few people here are very good at it. A lot of people are not.

And, as to the credit card being the highest in the industry--well, I don't agree with that either.
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Spot on and I think she owes us both dinner.

Where we eating?

I prefer filet cooked medium rare.
 
bloomzie, mark this down, sfox agrees with you. The rates you get are the best anywhere.

Now the reason you get those rates and they mean so much money to you, is because you are a huge web based order sender. FTD can afford to give you that sweet deal because they are taking money out of the pockets of most other FTD florists and after taking their cut allowing you to gain too.

So in the bloomzie's eyes a wire service is a good thing. Bloomzie needs those "other" florists to fill his orders and pay those fees to FTD so that he benefits.

Now bloomzie, nothing wrong with what you are getting from FTD. You deserve it, but rubbing in the face of all those other florists who are paying through the nose, is not a nice thing. [/B]
 
sfox said:
bloomzie, mark this down, sfox agrees with you. The rates you get are the best anywhere.

Now the reason you get those rates and they mean so much money to you, is because you are a huge web based order sender. FTD can afford to give you that sweet deal because they are taking money out of the pockets of most other FTD florists and after taking their cut allowing you to gain too.

[/B]
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Fox...I am one of your biggest fans..but on this one, I think you are wrong...I am small potatoes on sending out...and I get 0% as well...
sorry...
Sher
 
It's very easy to prove. The 0% is based upon sending only. Your business sells more then out-going wires and if you are like everyone else, that too is dwindling. Your credit card processing covers ALL SALES in your business, so the WS charges a completely different processing fee then the sending volume offers. If you need me to walk you through your batching statement let me know. So far I've been 100% correct. But there's always that one exception I assume.
 
spentflowers said:
It's very easy to prove. The 0% is based upon sending only. Your business sells more then out-going wires and if you are like everyone else, that too is dwindling. Your credit card processing covers ALL SALES in your business, so the WS charges a completely different processing fee then the sending volume offers. If you need me to walk you through your batching statement let me know. So far I've been 100% correct. But there's always that one exception I assume.
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The art of negotiation could change that for you!!
a little less than you think.....
 
spentflowers said:
It's very easy to prove. The 0% is based upon sending only. Your business sells more then out-going wires and if you are like everyone else, that too is dwindling. Your credit card processing covers ALL SALES in your business, so the WS charges a completely different processing fee then the sending volume offers. If you need me to walk you through your batching statement let me know. So far I've been 100% correct. But there's always that one exception I assume.
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It is?



A bank once tried that trick on me, factoring out the 0% part, and beating the rest by .05%

It didn't fly with them either.

I look at the big picture. I don't know the actual number, but it's less than 1%.

You still owe me and Ted dinner. Yum. :squish:
 
spentflowers said:
The 0% is based upon sending only. Your business sells more then out-going wires and if you are like everyone else, that too is dwindling. Your credit card processing covers ALL SALES in your business, so the WS charges a completely different processing fee then the sending volume offers.
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The wires have no idea as to what product was sold, so the 0% applies to ALL sales, up to the amount of wire orders (cash, check, cc or house account). So if your monthly sales in wire outs is $10,000.00 then the first $10,000.00 of ALL SALES done by credit card are at 0%, then the balance at the rate negotiated.

But, I was wrong...once.....:ssmoke
 
Granted, this is not my strong suit - but I remember from talking to my old shop owners both before and after the transition from one owner to the other.....and from what I understand.......The wire services don't advertise it, but your CC processing rates are negotiable.....The old owner was paying one rate, and because the new owner was able to get a better rate through a different processor, basically the wire services said that if the shop stayed with them, they would either meet or beat the rate offered by the other company.

So, maybe it is not the size of the shop or the amount sent or recieved that affects the processing rates as much as going head to head and just fighting for your rights.
 
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bloomz said:
I look at the big picture. I don't know the actual number, but it's less than 1%.
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True - was the same for us. I used to love dealing with the CC sales guys who came in the store. "Beat 0.9%? No? Kthxbai!"

RWK said:
but your CC processing rates are negotiable.....
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Everything is negotiable. You just have to have leverage, like a better offer.

Ryan
 
So you're get a free dinner too!

Where we going???
 
spentflowers said:
So far I've been 100% correct. But there's always that one exception I assume.
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The last time I used a calculator, even "one exception" will not make a challenge 100% correct. Vegas doesn't care if a bet misses the spread by 1 point or 100.

But there are plenty more than one exception.

Rates are negotiable. Also published rates are not guaranteed, they can go higher or lower depending on a companies risk factor.
 
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