What would you do ?

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joanne

joanne

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Oct 31, 2002
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dunnville ontario canada
www.heathertonsflorist.com
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ont
Hi all. I attended a funeral the other day for a man that we have known a long time. After the service went to the reception. While there the Mother of the Funeral Director said out loud that on the day of a funeral they will not be accepting any flowers. I told her that we try very hard to send them to the home of one of the family but many times thats not possible,as they could all be from out of town. So i asked her what she would like us to do, said she didnt care but remember dont bring any flowers as they will not accept them.She was very nasty, i tired to explain that a lot of times with short notice to funerals people dont find out till the day of the funerals and we try to tell them to let us take to home but many times they insist that we deliver to funeral home.Almost think i should give them the phone number of the funeral home and let them explain THEIR NEW POLICY!!!. Dam this has me upset
Joanne
 
joanne said:
While there the Mother of the Funeral Director said out loud that on the day of a funeral they will not be accepting any flowers.
Joanne
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Joanne, I'm confused. This woman associated with the funeral home is saying that, as policy, this funeral home will not longer accept flowers just on the day of the funeral, or not accept flowers at all? Is the complaint that the flowers are arriving later than she deems acceptable? We often have customers who ask that we by-pass the funeral home and deliver flowers to the church (or wherever). Would she object to that also? This new policy, if I'm understanding correctly, of no flowers delivered for the service on the day of the service, is completely unreasonable to me. I'd also be tempted to give out the FH phone # in order for them to explain their policy to the customer.
 
Our Fh's accept deliveries up to 15 minutes before the start time on the day of service...

If we can not make that time line, we inform the customer that the delivery will be made to the family at their home later in the day, and explain the reason why (FH's rules).
 
I would take them to the church or the site of the ceremony if it is not at the funeral home.. It may be that the funeral home can not or does not want to transport these late arrivals to the service due to space issues or time issues or just plain laziness... so just take them to the church.
My reason for not giving out the funeral home phone number to the customer is that it will probably pi## off the FD and then you start a whole new battle with someone who can really impact your business.
There must be a reason for this change of policy and if you can tactfully find out why and work around it ight be better in the long run
 
We have a funeral home in our area which also does not want flowers delivered on the day of the service. Reasoning, many times they have more than one funeral scheduled for the same day (not always) and do not want to risk getting flowers mixed up between services for lack of time to sort them correctly. In addition; there are usually family members and vistors there throughout the day and delivery vehicles coming and going impead the flow of traffic in thier parking lot when they show up while attendees to the funeral are arriving.

We generally will call the funeral home to check the time of service for this funeral home prior to taking the order and inform the customer of the policy. If it is possible we will offer an alternative to deliver to the home later in the day or to the church if time permits and services are held somewhere other than funeral home.
 
I know of one FD that refuses ALL flowers AFTER visitation begins.

Luckily I don't service that funeral home.

I have been known to send a home arrangement or plant or silk to the funeral home AFTER the body left the funeral home enroute to church. My FD's are pretty cool about taking stuff to the family if it is out of my way.

Joe
 
It has become a minor issue here too, the RC church's will not allow any more than 5 pieces in the church for the service , so the families have to pick out the 5 they want taken , and late deliveries sometimes get left at the funeral home and none of the family ever sees them.
 
joanne said:
Hi all. I attended a funeral the other day for a man that we have known a long time. After the service went to the reception. While there the Mother of the Funeral Director said out loud that on the day of a funeral they will not be accepting any flowers. I told her that we try very hard to send them to the home of one of the family but many times thats not possible,as they could all be from out of town. So i asked her what she would like us to do, said she didnt care but remember dont bring any flowers as they will not accept them.She was very nasty, i tired to explain that a lot of times with short notice to funerals people dont find out till the day of the funerals and we try to tell them to let us take to home but many times they insist that we deliver to funeral home.Almost think i should give them the phone number of the funeral home and let them explain THEIR NEW POLICY!!!. Dam this has me upset
Joanne
Click to expand...

Joanne....how many shops deliver into Dunnville??
I some areas, certain shops have been "banned" from delivering to particular funeral homes because they "refuse" to follow the policies set by the FD!!
It's like any business owner...YOU set the 'rules" in your establishment, and some FD's have done exactly that...shops showing up late, showing up DURING visitation, showing up while the parking lot is filled, and laneways congested, then a shop delivery shows up, and stops traffic flow!!
I'd approach the "mouthy" one...find out where this "policy" came from..what is it's purpose??
 
mikey

i am the only real florist here in town. i mean one that has a store front. The woman is a first class real @@@@@(sry)she can and will do anything in her power to make my life miserable,(she is hooked up with a basement betty). we have had many issues before. I am going to talk to her son the director if and when i can find him available, lately he has note posted on door to go to local bookeeping place for assistance if he is not there . I dont like anymore than anyone else delviering the day of a service and told her that but there are times it cannot be helped. He is so lazy that most times we are told to bring our key and take the flowers in the front door (nice touch...gag) but if you see the back room (Bigger Gag) its a disgrace to even have to try to get flowers in there let alone find a plce to put them
Joanne
 
Most of our funeral homes are understanding about when we bring things late. We usually give them a call ahead of time letting them know that there will be a late delivery and they are at the flower doors as soon as we arrive. Some of them have flower lights too, so we just flip the switch and they come and put the flowers out. They understand that we are just trying to help our customers in fulfilling their wishes to send flowers for the deceased.

There is only 1 funeral home that has a policy of no flowers after services begin, but we have been able to sweet talk them several times. Not like we intentionally get pieces their late.

Of the 20+ funeral homes here, I think there is only 1 that hates us. There are several reasons for that, but hey, what can you do. We have built a relationship with 2 of the 4 that we personally service (the rest are serviced through a delivery pool), and we get free easels and vases that were left over from pieces the families didn't want.
 
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