teleflora billing statement questions

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sacflowerman

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Feb 27, 2009
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West Sacramento
www.foreveryourz.com
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CA
I have a few questions if anyone can relate to this, or know more info about these items? Sorry in advance if these questions were already brought up on a previous thread somewhere.

1. I pay $149.95 membership fee per month.
2. Monthly charge of $23.00 for using Tele Flora credit card services.
3. Every web order i get i pay Tele Flora $3.45 (I have Tele Flora website)
4. We have the Dove POS system. I pay $118.53 per month for maintenance fee.
5. Network quality fee $20.00 per month
6. Extra cities listed $8.00 each per month

My question to you is, can i reduce some of these charges ? If so how? Without telling them we are going to drop them,what else did you do or say? What are your fees for these items? Comparable?


The one that really gets me is the $118.53 maintenance fee. I called and asked what exactly it was and i got the run around. I asked if i cancelled it what would happen? The guy said it would take 60 to 90 days by the time everything got proccessed to restart the program once i dropped it. He said that they would not help me if i had a problem with the POS if i did not pay the $118.53 a month. I asked if there was any other plans for help with POS and he said no. It was this plan or nothing?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
 
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sacflowerman said:
i have a few questions if anyone can relate to this, or know more info about these items? Sorry in advance if these questions were already brought up on a previous thread somewhere.

1. I pay $149.95 membership fee per month. This is your charge for basic service

2. Monthly charge of $23.00 for using tele flora credit card services. Where ever you clear your credit cards, you will pay a fee

3. Every web order i get i pay tele flora $3.45 (i have tele flora website) you have a choice to use other website services

4. We have the dove pos system. I pay $118.53 per month for maintenance fee. I think you will have to live with that

5. Network quality fee $20.00 per month even i can't get by without paying this fee

6. Extra cities listed $8.00 each per month don't list your shop as serving other cities

my question to you is, can i reduce some of these charges ? If so how? Without telling them we are going to drop them,what else did you do or say? What are your fees for these items? Comparable?


The one that really gets me is the $118.53 maintenance fee. Sorry, that goes with owning a dove system. All order entry systems have a fee, that's how they support the system. Nothing's free. I called and asked what exactly it was and i got the run around. I asked if i cancelled it what would happen? The guy said it would take 60 to 90 days by the time everything got proccessed to restart the program once i dropped it. He said that they would not help me if i had a problem with the pos if i did not pay the $118.53 a month. I asked if there was any other plans for help with pos and he said no. It was this plan or nothing?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Click to expand...

i am being blunt, but it appears you are not up on the business side of running a flower shop. If you are relatively new to the florist business, put learning the business side at the top of your priority list.

Being a florist is more, much more than creating designs. Maybe it's 80% knowing the businss and 20% knowing the designing.
 
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sacflowerman said:
I
1. I pay $149.95 membership fee per month.
2. Monthly charge of $23.00 for using Tele Flora credit card services.
3. Every web order i get i pay Tele Flora $3.45 (I have Tele Flora website)
4. We have the Dove POS system. I pay $118.53 per month for maintenance fee.
5. Network quality fee $20.00 per month
6. Extra cities listed $8.00 each per month
Click to expand...

Answers:
1. this is the standard TF membership cost. BAsed upon your city, I doubt that they would reduce this cost.
2. This is the normal cost of TF credit card services.
3. If you have a TF website, this is the cost per order to receive your order over the Dove. You could eliminate this cost, and the cost of TF webhosting by having an outside firm do your web site.
4. $118.53 per month is the normal Dove maint fee.
You could drop Dove maintenance, and save the $$.
TF has told you correctly -- they will not talk to you if you have a DOVE POS problem and are not on maintenace. the question you need to ask is how often to you need help with Dove POS that you need the maintenance? (We have the Daisy system, and actually went for over 2 years with no maintenance, with no problems.) This is a decision that only you can make, based upon your personal need for asistance.
5. yep -- that's what it costs.
6. You can drop all extra city listings --saving yourself these $$ per month.

Hope this helps.

Cheryl
 
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$118 per month isn't horrible for tech support.

TF's web hosting is convenient but expensive. if you can do the picture changes yourself, you could go with an independent vendor and save some money.

you could eliminated $8 per month per city by getting rid of the ASB listings.

other than that, you might be able to negotiate a bit on the Dove expenses.

joe
 
I was told once that you can negotiate a whole lot of these charges if you are good at it...I am not so I pay full amounts...but those all sound pretty right...

Where Dove POS is a windows based system, I think you would be foolish to drop the help desk/maintenence fee...all you need to doi is get a virus and you are all done....my pos freezes up all the time and I need help with it...and they are a call away..yeah it sucks but this is what we chose now we have to pay the piper until we can chage it..
 
sacflowerman said:
I have a few questions if anyone can relate to this, or know more info about these items? Sorry in advance if these questions were already brought up on a previous thread somewhere.

1. I pay $149.95 membership fee per month.
2. Monthly charge of $23.00 for using Tele Flora credit card services.
3. Every web order i get i pay Tele Flora $3.45 (I have Tele Flora website)
4. We have the Dove POS system. I pay $118.53 per month for maintenance fee.
5. Network quality fee $20.00 per month
6. Extra cities listed $8.00 each per month

My question to you is, can i reduce some of these charges ? If so how? Without telling them we are going to drop them,what else did you do or say? What are your fees for these items? Comparable?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Click to expand...
You should talk to Jim, the rep for N CA-Nevada Unit, he will be in Sacramento at Flora Fresh on Sunday, March 22. He should be able to work with you on certain fees. We sent a registered resignation letter to TF. Because we are the only florist in the ZIP we are in, I think that's why TF was able to adjust our fee. The other thing going for us is we didn't buy into their POS system, not listed in ASB and we are not members of FTD. Florists usually google for the closest florists to the recipient before they dove their orders, and since you've been around that many years, there should be enough florists who know to look for you to send their orders. I have florists that send orders to our shop even as far as Rancho Cordova even if we're not listed in the DOVE for that city.
By the way, I hope you signed up for the education event at Flora Fresh. It would be a great learning event or use it to network with other florists who are still around, not just in Sac, but also around the area.
 
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I realize that TF web orders cost $$ per transaction, but what about a non TF website, don't they charge for processing shopping cart transactions, or is that included in your monthly fee?

Trish
 
sacflowerman said:
I have a few questions if anyone can relate to this, or know more info about these items? Sorry in advance if these questions were already brought up on a previous thread somewhere.

1. I pay $149.95 membership fee per month.
2. Monthly charge of $23.00 for using Tele Flora credit card services.
3. Every web order i get i pay Tele Flora $3.45 (I have Tele Flora website)
4. We have the Dove POS system. I pay $118.53 per month for maintenance fee.
5. Network quality fee $20.00 per month
6. Extra cities listed $8.00 each per month

My question to you is, can i reduce some of these charges ? If so how? Without telling them we are going to drop them,what else did you do or say? What are your fees for these items? Comparable?


The one that really gets me is the $118.53 maintenance fee. I called and asked what exactly it was and i got the run around. I asked if i cancelled it what would happen? The guy said it would take 60 to 90 days by the time everything got proccessed to restart the program once i dropped it. He said that they would not help me if i had a problem with the POS if i did not pay the $118.53 a month. I asked if there was any other plans for help with POS and he said no. It was this plan or nothing?

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks
Click to expand...

You can negotiate the removal of the Network Quality fee since it's really a bogus fee attached to nothing concrete. Especially since their reps have been given "permission" to sign up florists working out of their homes/garages it adds to the continued debate of monitoring quality. Many florists have been successful in getting this fee waived.

Also, additional city fees are always negotiable and worth dropping as is their overcharged credit card processing fees. You could research competitive costs of a straight credit card processing company for comparisons to see where you rank.

Also, research having your own website with your own floral designs. The response to your orders will be greater, you'll be more competitive to the other "me too" Teleflora shops out there and you won't have to pay to receive your orders off of your website! In this economy every over payment of funds hurts your bottomline.

Hope this helps!
 
Tuberose said:
I realize that TF web orders cost $$ per transaction, but what about a non TF website, don't they charge for processing shopping cart transactions, or is that included in your monthly fee?

Trish
Click to expand...
Some non TF web hosts do not charge per order fee, some do, but very minimal. One website host is based near you, in Everett. The basic site is $19.95 per month, no charge per order - check my website, it's a basic one but it gets a lot of action.
 
lori042499 said:
I was told once that you can negotiate a whole lot of these charges if you are good at it...I am not so I pay full amounts...but those all sound pretty right...

Where Dove POS is a windows based system, I think you would be foolish to drop the help desk/maintenence fee...all you need to doi is get a virus and you are all done....my pos freezes up all the time and I need help with it...and they are a call away..yeah it sucks but this is what we chose now we have to pay the piper until we can chage it..
Click to expand...

You paid how much (total including interest) for a pos that "freezes up all the time" that you need help with? And how much monthly do you pay for maintenance for them to help you fix it all the time? What other business can sell such faulty equipment and then charge extra on a MONTHLY basis to fix it? I am flabbergasted.

I can't imagine selling sick and dead flowers all the time and then asking for a monthly fee to replace them.

Lori, can't you at least see a little, tiny bit why people in the WS haters club go WTF? Please tell me you understand a tiny bit?
 
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Just call them and tell them, couldn't find the post, but some TF person is on here asking questions from HDQ hit them up, Now is the chance, also on the web thing, I know this great guy on here who does them, I would call him, or even PM him, I am sure he could help you out, Our very own Ryan,,,,

Does this qualify as spam??? No I don't thinks so,
 
inferno63 said:
You paid how much (total including interest) for a pos that "freezes up all the time" that you need help with? And how much monthly do you pay for maintenance for them to help you fix it all the time? What other business can sell such faulty equipment and then charge extra on a MONTHLY basis to fix it? I am flabbergasted.

I can't imagine selling sick and dead flowers all the time and then asking for a monthly fee to replace them.

Lori, can't you at least see a little, tiny bit why people in the WS haters club go WTF? Please tell me you understand a tiny bit?
Click to expand...


It freezes up all the time like any windows program does...it is part of the computer world...why must you do this crap all the time it gets so tiring?
 
lori042499 said:
It freezes up all the time like any windows program does...it is part of the computer world...why must you do this crap all the time it gets so tiring?
Click to expand...

I have a desire to understand the logic behind florists who make these decisions. A natural curiousity I guess. I ask questions when I don't understand. It really is that simple. Really.

I would not say that my computer or my operating system freezes up "always"...in fact, I would say rarely and I am sure I wouldn't pay that much for a computer that I have to pay additional fees for help to operate.

It is just a quest to understand not passing judgement.....just make me understand. Do you complain and ask for a resolution? I would be making them fix it or give me my money back.
 
We have the Teleflora POS and 2 months ago it crashed and I mean CRASHED! Because we grumbled but paid the monthly maintenance, Teleflora replaced not one but 2 hard drives and one mother board. The tech guy was here 3 times for a total of about 20 hours of TF's time. It didn't cost us anything except for any incoming orders we may have lost. Supposedly, TF Headquarters was contacted about us being down and any incoming orders for us were to have been phoned to us but of course that didn't happen.
 
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inferno63 said:
I have a desire to understand the logic behind florists who make these decisions. A natural curiousity I guess. I ask questions when I don't understand. It really is that simple. Really.

I would not say that my computer or my operating system freezes up "always"...in fact, I would say rarely and I am sure I wouldn't pay that much for a computer that I have to pay additional fees for help to operate.

It is just a quest to understand not passing judgement.....just make me understand. Do you complain and ask for a resolution? I would be making them fix it or give me my money back.
Click to expand...



Yes tech support is just that....You have a problem, software, hardware, programming bug, etc...you call they see what the problem is and work around it, open a ticket to fix it or send you out new hardware...If you get a virus they fix it...if your hard drive crashes they fix it...if your hard drive crashes, who fixes it? Luckily when you have quickbooks or whatever national program, you call their help desk in india and the philipines and maybe get some help or you can google some one of a million other peoples experience, but with this TF built it so they are the ones who hold the answers...just like broderbund holds the answers to printshop software...
 
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We have a pos system, we have the daisy system we have had it for 12 years. The pos system cuts down on errors and paperwork. I like the fact that they can dial into our computer and repair the problem without me staying on the phone half the day with them. One of our computers crashed and they dialed in thru ecare and repaired the system.
I hate the fees that we have to pay for that. We have cancelled everything we can with Teleflora. Now I am going to ask for the $20.00 to be taken off monthly. Thanks for that suggestion.
 
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