So called Florists ripping off other florists

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Flowerchatter03

Flowerchatter03

Co-Owner and Floral Composer
Oct 14, 2007
1,737
1,500
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Cross Lanes
www.crosslanesfloral.com
State / Prov
West Virginia
There are multiple posts here ranting about wire services ripping off florists but what do you do about other florists who try to rip you off other than putting them on a "do not use" list?

Yesterday, I needed to wire an order to another state. I went through our choices and decided on a florist who is in the same zip code as the funeral home. My customer wanted a planter, dish garden or plant. I chose a florist who lists their starting prices at $30 with a $9 delivery. I sent the order to them with a total of $45.

I get a message back that they needed $10 more for delivery. So, I call the florist and ask why they are requesting the additional money. I am told that everything is going up. I tell them that they are supposed to abide by the prices THEY placed on the Dove. I am told that FTD (wrong wire service) hadn't changed it even though they have requested it.

She goes on to tell me that she was sure that my prices have gone up too. I tell her that we don't charge that kind of delivery fee in our own zip code. She explains that they have a wide delivery area and I tell her that if she can't fill the order, then refuse it and I'd send it to another shop.

There was one more shop in that specific zip code. I call and ask if they can fill the order. They tell me of course. I give them the info and my order is placed.

Just for fun, I go out to mapquest and see just how far this funeral home is to this florist. According to mapquest, it is 2.70 miles. So they needed $19 to deliver 2.70 miles WTF? Needless to say, they are now on our DNU list.

I would love a website where you can go and give feedback like on ebay. The opposing party can list their rebuttal (like ebay) but I would love to know what other florists are doing this type of shady business practices so I can avoid them like the flu.
 
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Is it worth reporting to TF?

V
 
Flowerchatter03 said:
Yesterday, I needed to wire an order to another state. I went through our choices and decided on a florist who is in the same zip code as the funeral home. My customer wanted a planter, dish garden or plant. I chose a florist who lists their starting prices at $30 with a $9 delivery. I sent the order to them with a total of $45.
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Hence the reason I give out 3 phone numbers to my customers, especially on orders under $50.00.

Everything is going up, and while a $30.00 in store customer sale is OK, a $30.00 even plus delivery wire order is no longer a viable sale. I know your order was more than that...but the point remains...

Florists are terrible at maintaining their minimum order amounts...one local shop had $15.00 as little as 2 years ago....
 
I called a florist today had the address for the person but did not have the phone number ask them if they could look it up in the phone book while I gave them the order she said no she couldn't do that so I told her I would find someone else that wanted to make some money and hung up. Give me a break! I called another and had no problem they looked it up and would take it today.
 
More dishonest than that is shops the double and triple report incoming wires.
 
I have came across those duplicate orders on my wire service recap.
How can you charge for an order that was sent through Dove system?

ANyway I would be very surprised if Teleflora Monitors people like that to see if it is their practice to double charge on a regular basis. TO me that mean fraud and they should be expelled from the wire service.
Again it comes down to shops who don't take the time to read their statements and recap it.
Luc
 
I've been told that it is SOP for some shops. One month last name, next month first name, etc
 
Just FYI, just because something is 2.7 miles away it doesn't mean it is easy to get to. For example, I am approx 3 mi to a FH but if you call me at 3:30 & need something to go to the FH the same day because I accept orders until 4 pm for all the last minute people it would take 30 min. in traffic to get there. A $10 delivery fee would be reasonable when you have to pay for the driver, gas, vehicle wear & tear, etc....Sometimes as florists we want to take it out on the other florist when they won't do our orders for a low price when in reality everyone in this business should go up on prices. We are trying to compete w/WS & their prices & they are not realistic when we have to fill an order at 100% but only get 70% or so they say when in reality we end up with much less. If there was a way to do orders Florist to Florist it may be a better way for all of us to stay profitable. I would rather listen to the florist directly than thinking they are being unreasonable. We are all here to turn a profit.
 
Are you guys in a big city like Atlanta? Just wondering if you have seen our phone books here. All the suburbs have different directories. I deliver to 9 different cities & don't have all the directories. If I don't have a phone number for a recipient when I wire something out, I will ask my customer to see if they can get one for me to give to the filling shop. It makes everyones life easier. Half the time if I don't have a phone number, I take the order to the address given & if it is a problem then I will call the florist back, especially when half the people don't list their number in the phone book. I hate it when a shop doesn't even attempt the delivery without a phone number. Gas is expensive I guess... :) I will look up a number if I have a problem, not before I have a problem. Oh well different way of doing things...
 
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Flowerchatter03 said:
I would love a website where you can go and give feedback like on ebay. The opposing party can list their rebuttal (like ebay) but I would love to know what other florists are doing this type of shady business practices so I can avoid them like the flu.
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THIS is a great idea!!! I wonder what it would take to get something like that up and running. A florist reputation site....interesting concept.
 
I am going to side with the other florist a little bit. For the longest time, we had tried to get ourselves removed from servicing New Palestine. FTD never took it off (I haven't looked recently). We had florists saying we had to service that area. Not true, we tried repeatedly to get it off our listing, and if we did service it, it would be $50 delivery.

And depending upon when they changed their prices, perhaps TF hadn't put them in yet. There are number of possibilities. I wouldn't worry about it too much since you found someone to fill your order.
 
Floristique said:
Just FYI, just because something is 2.7 miles away it doesn't mean it is easy to get to. For example, I am approx 3 mi to a FH but if you call me at 3:30 & need something to go to the FH the same day because I accept orders until 4 pm for all the last minute people it would take 30 min. in traffic to get there. A $10 delivery fee would be reasonable when you have to pay for the driver, gas, vehicle wear & tear, etc....Sometimes as florists we want to take it out on the other florist when they won't do our orders for a low price when in reality everyone in this business should go up on prices. We are trying to compete w/WS & their prices & they are not realistic when we have to fill an order at 100% but only get 70% or so they say when in reality we end up with much less. If there was a way to do orders Florist to Florist it may be a better way for all of us to stay profitable. I would rather listen to the florist directly than thinking they are being unreasonable. We are all here to turn a profit.
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Right on sister!
 
I don't believe much warrants a $19.00 delivery charge for a short drive... unless the sender understood and agreed to a "rush" delivery.

Smells like bilking to me... like jacking up the price of lumber after a catastrophic hurricane.

V
 
Floristique said:
Just FYI, just because something is 2.7 miles away it doesn't mean it is easy to get to. For example, I am approx 3 mi to a FH but if you call me at 3:30 & need something to go to the FH the same day because I accept orders until 4 pm for all the last minute people it would take 30 min. in traffic to get there. A $10 delivery fee would be reasonable when you have to pay for the driver, gas, vehicle wear & tear, etc....Sometimes as florists we want to take it out on the other florist when they won't do our orders for a low price when in reality everyone in this business should go up on prices. We are trying to compete w/WS & their prices & they are not realistic when we have to fill an order at 100% but only get 70% or so they say when in reality we end up with much less. If there was a way to do orders Florist to Florist it may be a better way for all of us to stay profitable. I would rather listen to the florist directly than thinking they are being unreasonable. We are all here to turn a profit.
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In this specific situation, this florist has had Teleflora attach their listing with the funeral home listing. They certainly don't do this for free. What that means is, if you put in the city and the state and ask the Dove to find the funeral homes, you will get a listing of them plus their address and phone number. Some florists have the little facility symbol that lets you know they are close and deliver there and this specific florist did. Also, this was not a last minute call in either. I already gave them their $9 delivery. I think an additional $10 for a total of a $19 delivery charge is a bit excessive unless they are taking a limo to the funeral home!

It is the florists' responsibility to update this information. While I realize that there are times when it doesn't get updated, in my opinion, you stand behind your word. Your word is what YOU stated on the system that you would fulfill.

If you cannot make any money delivering a planter or plant for $45 to a funeral home (when your minimum is $39) that is less than 3 miles from your shop, then something is wrong with your accounting or buying ability.
 
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I am not defending the receiving florist but some things to consider.

2.9 miles in Chicago, La, Miami, New York Boston (or their suburbs) $19 would be nothing and try those places at rush hour or during street construction.
(last summer our funeral home street was ripped for sewer and water, we detoured 6 miles one way to get there - normal delivery 1.5 miles round trip)

Was your order last minute? Was this going to be a stop and drop or did you give them enough time to route this on regular delivery.

We aren't very far from our funeral home either, but we also service a huge geographical area within our zip code. If my driver has left and is at the outbound sections of our del zone, your order just became a special messenger delivery because I either A) have to call in the "guy" who will come in and deliver these or B) find an employee who will take it in another vehicle - if they are even available.

And if your order is outside or close to the funeral home cut off times - well that is another issue.
 
Inka, if any of those things play into the daily procedures of the shop then they are responsible for making sure that information is published. Obviously construction issues can't be written in the directory, but the rest certainly can be.

V
 
Something to ponder from Seth Godin:

Proximity to Pain

The closer you are to the point of need, the more you can charge.
Pizza at the airport costs five times more than pizza on the way to the airport.

Tax audit services in the middle of an SEC investigation cost triple what they cost before one.

Scalped tickets cost more than ones bought in advance, by mail.
Emergency towing in a strange town costs more too.

The single easiest way to increase your fees is to get closer to the pain. It's interesting to note that no large-scale advertising ventures are closer to the pain than the Yellow Pages or Google. Both of which are insanely successful.
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As fewer florists serve a market via a WS, the pain factor will likely go up, especially in the area of delivery charges - which have been underpriced for as long as I can remember.
 
As I said before, no, the order was not last minute. I sent it out around 1:30 in the afternoon when I received the order. Also, if it would have been late, they could have rejected it "too late for delivery" or they could have said it would need to go the next day IF their driver was in another part of town which I doubt. Instead, they chose to ask for $10 more dollars. I spoke to the shop myself and it was never mentioned that it was a late order or their driver was out. They tried to tell me it was only because their cost of goods had increased.

If you cannot make money using the services of a wire company, then get out of it or list your REAL minimums and be done with it. If you don't want to take an order for less then $50 then have the jewels to put your ACTUAL minimums on the system. Stop wasting the time of other florists who are trying to get an order filled.

This is not a situation where I was trying to get the other florist to fill an order for more than they needed. I didn't ask for a TF blah blah for a total of $45 when it should have sold for $55. All my customer (who is a local church) wanted to do was to send a plant to a funeral service for one of their members to let them know they were thinking of their family during their time of sorrow. Remember, we are here to fulfill a service to people and, in turn, that service provides us with money to run our operation and to make a profit.

Where are the florists who actually run their business to (dare I say it) to SERVE the public? This is where the OG's will always be lacking. If our industry doesn't focus on the SERVICE, why shouldn't people use the OG's? People who call a local business are generally looking for that personal service that they cannot get anywhere else.

If brick and mortar florists can't trust other brick and mortar florists to stand by their word, where does that leave us? How would a florist to florist service helped my customer in this situation? This was a florist to another florist. It wasn't Headquaters calling!
 
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I'm going to side with Flowerchatter on this one. It seems that the filling florist should have come up with a better excuse than it did.

However, we rarely send any order going to a funeral that's below $50.00. We usually encourage to send to the families home if it's below $50.00.
 
ya it's a pain that the wire directory only comes out every 3 months.

don't know about you, but our gas is now $4.15/gal, If I had a crystal ball three months ago I would have bought gas futures........

So I should jack my directory listings up next time to try and cover the gas prices. So how much should we figure?

All I am saying for whatever reason, the florist should have done a better job explaining why they need more. They didn't - not very professional.

BUT
if we continue to look at the minimums in an out dated directory - that is our fault.
We all should start tacking on $5-$7 more for delivery and perhaps more for product as we all start feeling the effects of higher transportation costs.
 
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