Some of you FTD Florist may not know this but....

[Luc]

So The other flower shop in town decide to leave FTD. This just happened at Mother's Day. They kept calling me at Mother's Day to fill their order and I always declined.
After Mother's Day I decided that maybe I can fill those orders so I can get my food with potential new customers. I always wondered why the orders finish with an odd number like 20 cents or 80 cents etc.

So Last week they called again for an order. I took the order and when the total came up that I had, it was $43.80 for a vase to include del. So at the end of the conversation I said the total with tax is $49.49 (tax was 5.69). She said that they will be using their tax id number. Told them they can claim the tax themselve like I do. She said she would need to get more money. Did'nt hear from them the rest of the day so I deleted the order. Sat afternoon they called back.
I told them that I would not do the order and that they are farting around with me and I asked point blank why are these order finishing with an odd number. She said that is what they have. I told them that they can get their tax back thorugh their HSt reports. They took 27% off BEFORE giving me the order.
That gives me another reason not to deal with FTD. Not only they take advantage of a discount, they actually want a bigger piece of the discount. I always thought that FTD was the bigger evil of them all.
It will be a cold day in hell before I help FTD unless the shop deals directly with me and I know them.
Remember the extra $10, they were only giving enough to cover the tax so they actually kept $4.31 which is more than their 27% discount

 

[steve]

Luc we all need to remember they are exactly who we thought they are and they are never going to change their spots.

 

[Tom]

Luc we all need to remember they are exactly who we thought they are and they are never going to change their spots.

One possibility is that they were playing with the exchange rate. Another, given that the other shop had left FTD, is that you were getting orders processed through FTD Domestic Retrans. If a sending florist has an order going to a town served by no FTD filling florist, the sending florist can send the order through Domestic Retrans (NOT to be confused with International Retrans!). Domestic Retrans will get on the internet, find a florist, and call them. We used to utilize this service occasionally as FTD coverage shrank and we had orders for towns with no FTD service. We stopped using it several years ago when we discovered that, by their own admission, they strip off 20%. So, if you send them an order for $50, they send it to the filling florist as a $40 order. I was speechless when, while trying to resolve a problem with an order, an FTD DR rep explained the process to me over the telephone.

 

[Luc]

One possibility is that they were playing with the exchange rate. Another, given that the other shop had left FTD, is that you were getting orders processed through FTD Domestic Retrans. If a sending florist has an order going to a town served by no FTD filling florist, the sending florist can send the order through Domestic Retrans (NOT to be confused with International Retrans!). Domestic Retrans will get on the internet, find a florist, and call them. We used to utilize this service occasionally as FTD coverage shrank and we had orders for towns with no FTD service. We stopped using it several years ago when we discovered that, by their own admission, they strip off 20%. So, if you send them an order for $50, they send it to the filling florist as a $40 order. I was speechless when, while trying to resolve a problem with an order, an FTD DR rep explained the process to me over the telephone.

Well tom they now strip 27%. I won't fill for them, don't care if it is a big order or not. I am not going ot be looked at a undervalue order filler for them when they sell something totally different. I wont even filled orders they try to push through Floral in Bourcherville, PQ, or St. Vincent Fleuriste in Quebec also. St. Vincent is Teleflora and they try to get those orders filed that way.

 

[theRKF]

This story intrigued me, so I reached out to some contacts at FTD for clarification.

In a nutshell, the order is treated like any other FTD order: 20% to the sender, 7% to FTD, 73% to the filler. The filling shop, even though not an FTD member, is expected to fill to full value for the 73%.

 

[Tom]

This story intrigued me, so I reached out to some contacts at FTD for clarification.

In a nutshell, the order is treated like any other FTD order: 20% to the sender, 7% to FTD, 73% to the filler. The filling shop, even though not an FTD member, is expected to fill to full value for the 73%.

Based on the circumstances of that particular order, and on what the FTD DR told me over the phone, the sending florist keeps the standard 20% commission, DR takes another 20%, and the FTD clearing house takes their 7%. The filling shop is expected to fill for the full value given them, but they're not told that DR has takenn 20%. If I get a chance tomorrow I'll try to look up the specifics of the order that made us aware of this. The DR person I spoke with on the telephone was very clear that they took 20%. Maybe things have changed since then. That would be good news!

 

[Tom]

Based on the circumstances of that particular order, and on what the FTD DR told me over the phone, the sending florist keeps the standard 20% commission, DR takes another 20%, and the FTD clearing house takes their 7%. The filling shop is expected to fill for the full value given them, but they're not told that DR has takenn 20%. If I get a chance tomorrow I'll try to look up the specifics of the order that made us aware of this. The DR person I spoke with on the telephone was very clear that they took 20%. Maybe things have changed since then. That would be good news!

The details, but first a caveat: FTD Domestic Retrans may have changed their policies since this happened; we have not used them since.
As I said originally, this happened several years ago. The order was going to a hospital in Maine for delivery May 24, 2008. (Keep 2008 in mind when considering prices). This was not to a rural area, but a for delivery in a community which at one time had multiple FTD shops. We sent the order for a $35 arrangement plus $8 delivery, a total of $43.00. Domestic Retrans asked for a price change to $69.00. We questioned the reasoning for that and ultimately cancelled the order. This is, word for word, the reply we received when Domestic Retrans confirmed the cancellation:

"CONFIRM CANCEL no problem. When Domestic Retrans has to call an order out to a non-member with our
credit card, we have to call it out at 73% as that is all we get when we receive the order. Therefore, this order
was totaled at $31.39 which is 73% of what was given. The florist needed $50 with delivery which is $69.00.
OPERATOR: Jessica SAT MAY 24 08 3:28P F2133J-1380 33-0365AA"

We sent the order via Domestic Retrans for $43. They attempted to get the filling florist to accept and fill it as a $31.39 order. The florist wanted a minimum of $50 including delivery, but in order for Domestic Retrans to give the filling florist $50, we would have to give Retrans $69 ($69 less 27% = $50.37). 73% is all Retrans gets after we keep 20% and the Clearing House takes 7%. Therefore a $43 order becomes a $31.39 order and a $69 order becomes a $50.37 order.

Unfortunatley, we all know that too many florists also operate this way. Send them a $50 order and they fill it as though it was a $40 order (80% of $50) or as a $36.50 order (73% of $50). I have Mercury copies of another episode with an FTD florist who, when our customer complained about what was delivered, provided details via Mercury message of how he computed the order value, deducting 27% and filling it for 73%.

I have to wonder how these florists would react if their wholesale offered a case of 24 vases for 27% off but only delivered 17 vases.