Teleflora Orders and Containers

Flowergirls

Flowergirls

New Member
Aug 20, 2010
33
18
0
Amherst
State / Prov
OH
This is my first post on flowerchat. So much GREAT information. My sister and I opened our flower shop in May. We both have floral experience but have never owned a shop. Needless to say - we are living and learning by mistake........

I have a TF question - We signed up for Teleflora in June and it has been very disappointing. We have probably recieved 10 orders since we signed up. We ordered one box of containers (the gift box ones). We did pre-order the holiday containers but after 2 weeks with 0 TF orders I decided I do not want to get stuck with all these holiday containers. So I called TF and told them to cancel the order. The lady that I spoke with asked why I was cancelling and I told her because we are not getting any orders and I don't want to be stuck with expensive TF containers. She said the reason we are not getting any orders is because we have not bought containers. Do you have to buy containers to get orders?? Sorry if this is a stupid question -but this is the first time I've dealt w/ TF. My former shop was WIRE FREE..........hmmmm
 
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Thanks for your first post!!!
and to answer your question: No no no, you don't need containers! They are so full of it.

The only time I have found having the containers generate orders is at Christmas when people are looking for the specific containers they have seen in other shops.

For every day orders we almost NEVER sell specific TF containers because it's so hard to find a shop who carries them.
(Totally not a stupid question by the way!!)

You'll find a lot of opinions on wire services here.
My opinion is that it works for US, but for a shop that just opened, you probably could get by with just phoning out orders on your credit card.
And might I say that in a town with your population (about 12 000 according to wikipedia) there won't be TONS of orders anyway.
 
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Welcome!
I've been a TF member for almost 25 years, and I have never, ever bought a single container from them.
Don't let them screw with you.
Buy them if you think they will work with your image, and don't buy them if you don't want to.
They are no different than any other company selling containers. Don't be bullied, just do what you think is right for you!
God luck!
JP
 
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If you DO purchase containers from Teleflora or from any other wire service for that matter......Keep this bit of info top of mind. THE ONLY TIME you have to recreate a pictured design is for an INCOMING order......from Teleflora or another shop. THAT IS IT !!!!! YOU ARE PERFECTLY FREE to create your own design in that container. Trust me, I have been in shops that used them exclusively for wire order only and those that did not. I had NO problem whatsoever telling either TF HQ, another shop, or a customer that we were SOLD out of that particular item/container because we used them up creating and selling our own design.
 
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What she said is only true for TF.com orders those are the only orders TF has anycontrol over and trust me you don't want them...do a search on wire serv ice stuff you will find oodles of info on how unprofitable the orders are...I am still a member and am peeved at the fact that the new catalog is made up of many arrangements in tf specific containers, so this is where they want to make the money they aren't making in memebrship...do not buy the containers unless you think it will sell in your shop, sell items your customers want and forget about smeone elses brand, you will understand this 5 years down the road when you are working hard to pay someone elses salary and not your own...you can follow my posts from day one til now and see how my attitude changed over the years towards these companies...

Oh yeah, welcome to flowerchat stick around, this is the best place to learn a thing or two!
 
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I have to ask you why did you join Teleflora?

If the answer is to recieve orders from them and they have not done this to your satisfaction then its time to let them go.

You have given them membership and advertizing dollars and they have not come through. And if you have waited two weeks with no orders then its safe to assume they don't have the orders. This will not change just because you don't have every container.

You have a website that with them so why would have to give them money for orders and money for a website that you can recieve the same orders from? They already have Bonaminios, Zilch, Zelek. They have even more on Find A Florist. So its very clear that you are already fighting for orders with all of them.

Tell Teleflora that you would like your membership waved for the first 6 months until you start recieveing orders from them. Besides if you just joined I'm sure your not in the directory yet anyways and that won't happen until the next update.
 
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Thanks everyone for the great advice. I cancelled the container order. To answer you Eric - we joined TF to get more business. haha. They also maintain our website. We originally went with another company and paid them $400 to get us on the search engines and create a website but neither happened. We ended up losing about $600 with that scam company. Teleflora promised us search engine placement and did the website and came through. I am not happy with TF for a variety of reason - but I do like how they offering marketing support for our shop (all for a price I realize). Anyway - like I said in my original post - we are living and learning. I will get rid of TF after my trial period. The orders are just not coming in as I expected and it's costing us money to stay with them.
 
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make sure you cancel before you get put in the next directory.....check with your rep immediately and find out when that is or you won't get canceled, and I agree you don't need their containers and even with .com orders it does not get you orders, and If I ever buy containers its because I like them and know I can sell them even tho they are high dollar, but never let them sit on your shelf waiting for an order because...............best of luck to you!!
 
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I believe to get out for a jan 30th exit the dead line is sept 20th there abouts...
 
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make sure you send your cancellation request certified, return receipt requested to both headquarter and for the DOVE (if you have this).

also.
the guy who host this forum does a wonderful job with florist web sites. I have a strider site and it's been money well spent. check it out Florist 2.0

Also
take some time and read read read here for lots of good information about this biz. Good advise from those of us in the trenches.

good luck on your new endeavor.
 
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<--- small town, small shop (used to be TF - long story) BUT I do have some requests for some of the holiday containers and I have a friend I get 4 - 6 of when I need them. When I was TF, we split containers with other shops, all shops were codified for the items.
and before anything is said about it, remember TF coded items have been sold in dollar stores so buying them from someone other than TF is not a sin.
 
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We're so glad to have you here, and so glad you are a quick study!

Strider IS a great company to have a site with. Just know that you need to belong to one of the wire services OR purchase a John Henry Everyday Design CD in order to have images on your site. I very much doubt you have you own yet, but that is something that you need to do in order to have a site.

Here is my Strider site, also. I started out with John Henry Images, (Strider puts them in for you but you must "own" the rights to the images. As the months have progressed, I have added quite a bit of my own as well.

http://www.any-timeflowers.com

Keep posting!
 
Thanks, Kristine, Rhonda and Linda - glad you're happy with your sites!

FlowerGirls,
For a florist starting out like you your money is much better spent on options other than a wire service - unless you have a lot of orders to send (ex: a large corporate account or three). For the price of a TF membership you can have a Point of Sale from FloristWare or MAS, a Florist 2.0 web site from us at Strider, and have money left over to spend on your marketing efforts.

As a newer shop, even if the WS flooded you with orders they would be such a high % of your total business that it would be impossible to make money. Here's a link to a very useful spreadsheet that can help you with the wire service figures: http://www.flowerchat.com/forums/downloads.php?do=cat&id=3

If you want to chat about the details for a web site, give me a call next week at 800-314-8895, or email [email protected].
 
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Flowergirls, kind of off the subject of the containers, but on the subject of the wire services... you may or not be aware of the two groups of florists in our (Cleveland) area that are currently or are working to go wire service free. They started out as one group, but it seems they have branched off a bit. ANYHOW... the one group is starting a series of monthly meetings to help florists learn marketing without the wire services. I know one of the coordinators, as of about a month ago they were hoping to get this started in September but were looking for a location (not at a wholesaler) to hold the meetings. I never heard the outcome. I will email her on Monday and let you know what I hear. It might be a good resource for you.
 
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Thanks Sarah - I would definitely be interested in a regional meeting. Please keep me posted!
 
Flowergirls said:
Thanks Sarah - I would definitely be interested in a regional meeting. Please keep me posted!
Click to expand...
I've emailed the coordinator and am awaiting her response. Will let you know what I hear.
 
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