Have any of you fellow brick/mortar florists been successful in having this fee removed from your combined report(s)? I have been blindly paying the FTD Quality Services fee for years. I wonder how they test the order gatherers? My guess is that they don't/can't. I have always agreed in funding this test program, but if EVERY SINGLE FTD MEMBER ISN"T ELIGIBLE TO BE TESTED, (ie: order gatherers and box stores seem to be exempt) I find the fee to be just another money grab. I am sure I read recently that Telef is starting to charge this fee as well ... (but not for long for me, as I am mailing my termination letter this afternoon to Teleflora).
Here is my two cent's worth about what FTD (or Telef for that matter) "should" do. They should only let real brick/mortar florists be members. It was like that before. The "Quality Services Tests" made sure of it. You had to have a certain quantity and quality of flowers in stock, answer the phone profesionally, deliver your own in-store made arrangments on time, have a nice looking store etc. Just think of the "market share that would be gained" (that should be read "real florists" gained) by the ONE/FIRST wire service that adopted this "new" strategy. After all, it is we, the real florists, that do all the work. If it wasn't for us, the order gatherers and wire services wouldn't exist. And they know it, or at least ought to know it! So what should we florists do? We should figure out a way to show the wire service(s) that "one" of them can make more money if they join our side, and kick all the gatherers out of our "club". OK, do you think FTD or Telef would drop the order gatherers to join our side? Before you answer, remember this one thing: we florists do the work that generates the mighty dollar. And as far as the direct shippers go ... well, they honestly don't worry me much. Just ask yourself this: if you were a consumer, and wanted flowers sent out later today or early tomorrow, would YOU call a direct shipper? I would rather not have a wholesaler handle my time sensitive retail order. And up here in the "land of the wind chill factor" (Canada) be warned that the courier trucks are not heated. Anyway, I just wanted to put my first post up on this board. Now it is time to go and do more of the grunt work. Thanks for reading. Good luck this Valentine's day!
Here is my two cent's worth about what FTD (or Telef for that matter) "should" do. They should only let real brick/mortar florists be members. It was like that before. The "Quality Services Tests" made sure of it. You had to have a certain quantity and quality of flowers in stock, answer the phone profesionally, deliver your own in-store made arrangments on time, have a nice looking store etc. Just think of the "market share that would be gained" (that should be read "real florists" gained) by the ONE/FIRST wire service that adopted this "new" strategy. After all, it is we, the real florists, that do all the work. If it wasn't for us, the order gatherers and wire services wouldn't exist. And they know it, or at least ought to know it! So what should we florists do? We should figure out a way to show the wire service(s) that "one" of them can make more money if they join our side, and kick all the gatherers out of our "club". OK, do you think FTD or Telef would drop the order gatherers to join our side? Before you answer, remember this one thing: we florists do the work that generates the mighty dollar. And as far as the direct shippers go ... well, they honestly don't worry me much. Just ask yourself this: if you were a consumer, and wanted flowers sent out later today or early tomorrow, would YOU call a direct shipper? I would rather not have a wholesaler handle my time sensitive retail order. And up here in the "land of the wind chill factor" (Canada) be warned that the courier trucks are not heated. Anyway, I just wanted to put my first post up on this board. Now it is time to go and do more of the grunt work. Thanks for reading. Good luck this Valentine's day!
