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

As with Mark, I could find nowhere to get a breakdown of what the service fee entails. When you click on the "Service Fee Options" is puts a drop-down under the delivery date and gives you the choice to choose a different date. Interestingly, I chose Sunday for my delivery and it was the same fee. In fact, no matter what date, the fee was still $15.99.

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I *believe* that the florist agreement, as with Bloomnet, specifies that a certain dollar amount (with Bloomnet is was $7.99) is INCLUDED in the price shown.

Clearly, by having the drop-down for different delivery dates appear when the consumer clicks on that link for "Service Fee Options" will cause them to think the fee is delivery-related which couldn't be further from the truth.

Edit to add here ~ I went to the site and immediately chose Same Day, Florist Delivered. I was given exactly three choices. A vase of gazers, a vase of red roses, or a vase with pink and red roses and maybe some other flowers, I don't remember. I chose the gazer vase. It took me to another page of drop-ship options with a message that the item I had chosen was not available. So I went back and chose the red roses. Just thought that was interesting....
 
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CHR said:
Can anyone find IN WRITING correspondence from FTD regarding how many dollars are included in order values for delivery?

Can anyone get a screen shot from FTD's site where they disclose local delivery is included in arrangement prices?

I appear to be blocked from work from viewing FTD.com today.
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Rhonda, in post #51, above refers to having printed out Apatoff's FTD letter mentioning florist delivery costs.

Alternatively, who has a current FTD Resource Guide? I am looking at the last issue I have, dated May 2009 and on the page printed on blue card, it mentions a breakdown, for the florist, of their then fee policy....$40 piece is $35 + $5 delivery.
 
I 'phoned FTD. The service rep., verbally, advised Gold Membership waiving Shipping OR Service Fees costs $39.99, automatic renewel. If florist delivered, you do not pay the Service $15.99 (current rate). If drop-ship, you do not pay either the Service $15.99 NOR the UPS/Fedex fee be it $20 or $30 or whatever. The Service fee covers the Customer Guarantee associated with the order. (HA!).

I 'phoned back a second time realising I should have asked about the florist delivered item delivery fee. I got a different person, Kathy. She told me that if I ordered on-line or over the 'phone, for florist delivered item as a Gold Member I would not pay the $15.99 Service Fee NOR the florist delivery fee of $13.99, occasionally $14.99. Somewhat surprised at hearing this I advised that where do I see this on-line in the check-out process? She assured me it was there...as a Gold Member the $29.98 ( service+ florist delivery) would magically be deducted. I doubted her....she assured me.... I am not signing up $39.99 and for flowers just to prove her wrong.

Frankly, I think the florist delivery fee refund is utterly bogus and Kathy simply did not know what she was talking about....I doubt FTD would have them actually make such a statement. The problem is, it is "she said....he said". IF it were true, why use the OR in the Gold membership blurb?

And as for the $13.99 (occasionally $14.99), utter rot as we know.
 
FTD has a building full of lawyers to write their policy. You are wasting your time trying to paint them into a corner. They deceive their customers and they deceive their florists, but they keep it legal.
 
jamie said:
FTD has a building full of lawyers to write their policy. You are wasting your time trying to paint them into a corner. They deceive their customers and they deceive their florists, but they keep it legal.
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A while back, I would have agreed, today however I no longer do. The word is getting out to others than florists, and now some are watching like national news media, online folks who watch this stuff and more florists than ever... just need to keep the snow ball rolling...
 
"They deceive their customers and they deceive their florists, but they keep it legal."

Legal Deception? Fraud is not legal. FTD has more money to place deceptive ads and sites and listings than any brick and mortar florist or even group of florists. Deception/Fraud is not legal. But to make the law work, you have to spend money and hire lawyers to fight FTD and all the OGs, and that simply will not happen. Come to think of it, I haven't heard anyone use the term "Truth in advertising" since the 80's.




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I think that consumers would have a good chance at a class action against Fee'TD for accepting all those same day delivery orders at V-Day with no "reasonable" expectation that they would actually be able to provide the service they promised. If you get one too many pissed off lawyers who didn't get any lovin' valentine's night then I'd think they could wrap up TF, JF, WB, 800, FYF, and several others as well. It's common knowledge in our industry that EVERY Valentine's Day there will be tens of thousands of people who pay for flowers through these companies, and they never get delivered at all. The pattern is evidence enough to at least get the ball rolling.

I do not think that florists will ever have a chance at winning a lawsuit over anything involving the terms of service. The WS companies can change ToS at any time, and you can always leave if you don't like it.
 
jamie said:
I do not think that florists will ever have a chance at winning a lawsuit over anything involving the terms of service. The WS companies can change ToS at any time, and you can always leave if you don't like it.
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The issue with the WS service agreements is that the terms can be -and are- changed quickly -with-in 1 billing cycle- and yet you are trapped into the service on a 3-month or 4-month basis. The WS claim this is to allow changes to be made to their (print) records (directories) but, in fact, this is proven not to be the case as terminated florists appear in editions printed after the appropriate papers are filed in accordance with the termination procedures. That, in of itself, is probably in breach of federal legalisation and, quite probably if pockets are deep enough, civil jurisprudence.
 
If you aren't a member of Flowers Canada, just an FYI: That organization contacted Google and asked for a reply regarding the AdWords debacle with ProFlowers. Google wrote back:

"Google allows advertisers to bid on competitor keywords as well as to use competitor terms in the ad text itself as long as advertisers do not make any false or inaccurate claims in their ads (see more here). We use a combination of manual and automated processes to enforce this policy. Ads that are found in violation of our policies will be removed."
 
Gina_Kellogg said:
If you aren't a member of Flowers Canada, just an FYI: That organization contacted Google and asked for a reply regarding the AdWords debacle with ProFlowers. Google wrote back:

"Google allows advertisers to bid on competitor keywords as well as to use competitor terms in the ad text itself as long as advertisers do not make any false or inaccurate claims in their ads (see more here). We use a combination of manual and automated processes to enforce this policy. Ads that are found in violation of our policies will be removed."
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If you read further, aside from removing offending ads (which they did within an hour of "discovery") for really bad ones they can suspend the ad accounts of offenders. I can't think of a better example but, just like wire services, the offenders that also bring in money get a pass on policy and retribution.
 
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That Google response is the same canned (non answer) I got. But you see, the PF ad clearly made a false claim. Also, I don't know that Google or PF removed the ad within one hour at all. I didn't Tweet the screenshot until Wednesday Feb 15th. And, Bice's Floral in Texas has the exact same screenshot that he took on Feb 15th. So in essence, PF is full of crap and Google supports PF because, as you said they don't want to lose the ad money. Seriously, watch for something similar on Mother's Day. I believe they are arrogant enough to do it all over again!
 
BOSS said:
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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Boss,
You left out one important stat, the one that shows that there are half the flower shops in existence today that there were say 15 years ago. While it's convenient to make statements like " Mine, and every florist I know that dumped the ws are more profitable on less work, and seeing increases each month", the fact remains that overall the traditional retail florist is getting an ever decreasing piece of the consumers flower dollar. Naturally those that remain will see some increase, the fewer that need to feed off whats left the better those few will do.

Now as for seeking out local florists in record numbers I am curious where that stat was obtained from? Again when you decrease the number of available retail outlets for the consumer, the remaining outlets may very well see a larger head count in each of their stores even if the over all numbers of consumers has shrunk.

The bottom line is that survey after survey indicates that the consumers flower buying dollar has moved to supermarkets and mass retailers or to other gift choices, leaving the traditional retail florist with an shrinking piece of the pie.

Not to rain on anyone's parade, but facts are facts. The goal for all of us individually must be to make the changes within our businesses and organizations to ensure that we are amongst those left standing when the dust settles. This is something that we speak with our own stores on constantly.
 
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Doug, I do not disagree with your points. Not at all. I talk to a lot of florists, and just going by what I'm being told, and taking my shop into account as well. My city has added 2 new shops in the last year (the pie should be getting smaller), but even with that, I added 278 NEW customers in December. One would could assume, that's because consumers are seeking out florists directly.

Doug Munro said:
the fact remains that overall the traditional retail florist is getting an ever decreasing piece of the consumers flower dollar
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Again, I would agree, but add... most of those are members of a wire service or 3, seems to be a correlation there somewhere ;)

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