There's a negative for non-WS businesses as the WS/OGs fight the tide of complaints

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Simon Says

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We all know that FTD, TF & 1-800 and (many of) the OGs are still facing 1,000s of complaints about non-delivery or product below expectation for Val-D 2012.

SAF will blithely ignore the entire situation and, again, when the WS/OG situation occurs in May 2012 and then again at future holidays: too much advertising revenue too loose and all this despite the frustration and disappointment numerous consumers feel as a result of the WS/OG behavior. We've also seen in other recent postings here apparent evidence of how the BBB finds that the $ is mightier than ethics.

We probably feel inwardly -and in some instances outwardly- delighted about this scenario. However, there's the increasing potential that the WS et al are sending flower senders into the hands of other forms of gift-giving, be it on-line or B&M, as this WS fiasco continues with each passing holiday.

Innocent (ie.: non-WS florists) are being tainted with the brush of incompetence that stains much of the industry. FTD has stated frequently on fb the the fault lies with the florist despite evidence to the contrary with complaints of drop-ship items not delivered.

It does, however, appear that there are increasingly relevant areas of the country that some or all of the WS cannot service, especially during major holidays. Is the WS model closer to breaking point in 2012 than ever before? Will it break by say 2015? Will florists be caught & damaged in the debris of the WS model collapse?
 
Imo, only florists who have not already built their own local customer base will feel any pain due to what wire services do or don't do. I can say without doubt that what FTD or any of the other floral services do has no bearing on me whatsoever. I've never been painted with that brush because my customers know me. The only way they would blame me is if I accepted an order and then did not deliver what that service promised. (Which is why I don't belong to any services, I don't like other people making promises in my stead....)

I can't say I agree with the "innocent" part though. Just because a florist is non-wire service does not make them a quality florist. A lot of the complaints DO originate with drop-ship yes, and another chunk of them come from consumers who have ordered on line through a service which ultimately has to go to a florist to be filled. I truly believe that a florist who accepts a wire order and delivers a shoddy product is doing so 100% of the time, not just for wire orders but for all orders.

jmo
 
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anytimeflowers said:
I can't say I agree with the "innocent" part though. Just because a florist is non-wire service does not make them a quality florist. A lot of the complaints DO originate with drop-ship yes, and another chunk of them come from consumers who have ordered on line through a service which ultimately has to go to a florist to be filled. I truly believe that a florist who accepts a wire order and delivers a shoddy product is doing so 100% of the time, not just for wire orders but for all orders.

jmo
Click to expand...

Linda,

Agree, completely, with you that a poor florist is a poor florist whether they belong to WS or not and your final sentence is spot on, imo. And some first rate florists are members of one or more of the Big 3 WS for their own reasons.

My "innocent" comment meant that non-WS florists could find that the activity of the WS based industry simply turn
consumers at major holidays increasingly to other forms of gift-giving as florists per se get an increasingly negative image. Could florists end up in the consumers eyes as not much better than a used-car salesman?
 
I went to Mexican after VD and when I walked in to our favorite place, saw several of our customers there eating. As I walked by one table, they pointed to a guy sitting at the table with his wife, "he bought boxed flowers"....then he laughed with the rest of the group. I ask on a 1 - 10, how was your experience?.....he said, "one would not be low enough". I think they are imploding "to some degree" and customers are learning the real meaning of buyer beware!! I recently visited the Wizard and I got my courage............
 
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Yes there is a negative... a wide brush...

And yes, I do think the industry will suffer more, the sad part is it's going to suffer because of things out of our control. That said, there is a lot of direct negative energy focused exactly where it should be, and more people (consumers) are beginning to spread the LOCAL word...

And I have heard from some very interesting "media outlets" the last couple days... I look for the pressure to increase from here on out, focused on price shifting, deceptive marketing and more...
 
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BOSS said:
Yes there is a negative... a wide brush...

And I have heard from some very interesting "media outlets" the last couple days... I look for the pressure to increase from here on out, focused on price shifting, deceptive marketing and more...
Click to expand...

Yes, where is the main-line media in all this? True, one should invariably be careful what one wishes for but drawing back the curtain to reveal division of the average consumers $ is surely something long overdue.
 
Hate to say it folks, but I have preached for years that seeing the wire services fall flat on their face with the consumer can not be anything but bad. The reality is that the vast number of flower buyers only do it a couple of times a year at most, Valentine's, maybe Mother's Day, possibly a birthday or sick friend. So these folks don't know a Proflowers from an FTD, from a Teleflora, or from flowers in general. I suspect what many of them take out of the bad press is that " flowers are a rip off" or something similar. Imagine for a moment that you are Joe Consumer and know "nothing" except what your read, watch, or hear on mainstream media

- Prices sky rocket at Valentine's (obviously it's gouging by the greedy florists)
- Lots of consumers are complaining about bad or dead product ( yeah, flowers never last)
- Reports all over the place about orders of flowers that were paid for but never delivered

Now also imagine your thought process on the above when you learn that this occurred to people dealing with "brand" names and publicly traded companies ( you know, the big guys who really know what they are doing), I suspect that by this point you have come to the conclusion you are better off buying jewelry, a dinner out, chocolates, lingerie, you name it, after all everyone "knows" that roses don't last.

As for where the "main-line media is in all this", hell they are throwing gas on the fire. Think about it, when was the last time you heard a news report detailing how happy everyone was with their flowers that arrived on time and looked beautiful? Wouldn't be much of a news story, hardly even a decent human interest piece.
 
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We still need to do what's best for our business and our own customers. I can't think of a single industry or institution that doesn't have a black eye, creepy uncle, or embarrassment in their history. The bigger they are the harder they fall and the news eats it up. I love that social media may actually help get the truth out there and we don't have to rely on biased news outlets anymore.
 
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That has got to be a class action lawsuit. I did not get a chance to check searches for my shop, but I bet it was there as well. It's time to tap your representatives from state associations, SAF, FFC, etc etc. There has got to be an attorney willing to look into it. I bet Proflowers tapped into every shop name with more than a 1000 hits a year. This will only get worse unless we stand up and do something about it.
 
Jamie, I believe you are correct. Did you see the PF TV commercial that showed a local florist turning a guy away and putting a "SOLD OUT" sign on her door? I did. I wish I would have gotten screen shots of all the Minneapolis florists I found that showed the same result, e.g. Their shop named followed by $19.99 SOLD OUT and then a link to PF. PF would NEVER advertise that they were SOLD OUT. And I typed in real brick and mortar flower shop names with NO floral related generic words. I typed in simply, 'Bachmans' with the same result, also Pazabello and Soderbergs. But I only got a screen shot of our store. PF counts on real florists being too busy to ever sit and google their shop name on a busy holiday. My guess is they had it up all day on 2/14. This is really some shady stuff.
But, Lawyers want money and I don't have the money to do squat!!!!
 
Actually, I think we can prove (which we can) there should be a lawyer out there who would take the case. They make a percentage of the suit and PF has plenty of money (or so) their parent company does. I recently was involved in a mastercard class action, the girl who started it over fees that we're assesed. She won and we all got checks. This is one area that I think FFC should be in.......imo
 
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Let me start with I don't like it. But, it does appear to be an honest mistake.

The Proflowers representative stated that they used the broad term "{keyword} bloom" which could be matched with any keywords to trigger their ads, which just happened to say, "Sold Out" and in this case showed up with the variable keyword "Chez"

I'm willing to be that all the other flower shops who would show up like this had "flowers, florist, florists" etc in their shop names as those would be used as trigger keywords like bloom was in this case.

Again, I agree it blows, but it's well within the parameters of what Google allows, and akin to the Brand Protection developments from FTD where they had been asking that people add FTD as a negative keyword. A suit would die out fairly quickly and the best you could ever hope for is that they would require that every flower shop in the US be added to a negative keyword list by Pro Flowers. Not likely going to happen.

Added: I stand corrected on the keywords as I just read above that Bachmans etc were also affected. So likely a market specific campaign. But on the other hand, it's still similar to the FTD brand protection dealio.
 
If it was an honest mistake, why would the same exact thing happen when I typed in only the word 'Bachmans'.?
If a person did not know that Bachmans is a large florist, they would not use the word 'Bachmans' in a search term for florist. It would not have triggered anything. And the TV commercial for Proflowers pretty much set the tone for this adword campaign. But, hey.....Money talks. Brand protection is for all our brands not just FTD, PF, TF and large companies. It should apply to all of us. And actually, it violates the terms for Google Adwords.
 
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Chezbloom said:
Jamie, I believe you are correct. Did you see the PF TV commercial that showed a local florist turning a guy away and putting a "SOLD OUT" sign on her door? I did. I wish I would have gotten screen shots of all the Minneapolis florists I found that showed the same result, e.g. Their shop named followed by $19.99 SOLD OUT and then a link to PF. PF would NEVER advertise that they were SOLD OUT. And I typed in real brick and mortar flower shop names with NO floral related generic words. I typed in simply, 'Bachmans' with the same result, also Pazabello and Soderbergs. But I only got a screen shot of our store. PF counts on real florists being too busy to ever sit and google their shop name on a busy holiday. My guess is they had it up all day on 2/14. This is really some shady stuff.
But, Lawyers want money and I don't have the money to do squat!!!!
Click to expand...

Which was why I suggest you speak to your association representative. SAF has lawyers. Your state associations should have legal resources as well. This could also be an opportunity for FFC to show some teethe. There is even a possibility that FTd or TF could get involved if any of the sites affected were hosted by those wire services. FTD has tussled with PF before and won. I will be contacting saf Monday. It is the only organization I am in
 
The jig is up... A bunch of folks got caught this time out and now Google is listening, BrandChannel has contacted the FloristDetectives and several States Attorneys General are going to get a lesson in consumer protection and lost tax revenues in May.

Doug, I understand your argument, but you're wrong. Mine, and every florist I know that dumped the ws are more profitable on less work, and seeing increases each month. That dies not fur with the theory that consumers are seeking alternative gifts.

I will agree they are shying away from *national companies* and the likes of Wesley, simply by @@@@ty service, but the are seeking out local florists in record numbers and learning the game .
 
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I agree, they got caught and this won't die. They used names of some hard-hitters in our association, INCLUDING the shop of our current president. I would say the fur is going to fly. I emailed her right after I saw Laura's post.
 
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