Why cloak?

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Rhonda

Rhonda

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Nov 1, 2002
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Had OKC calling today to place an order from Beneva's in Sarasota. Why cloak the order? My dove is working fine....is theirs offline? Or are they such superstars that they have OKC do their phoning for them?
BTW, told them to call the other two Teleflora shops to place their order. Don't like cloaking....They were still calling at 5 minutes of 5. Probably the third operator to try to phone out the order. Sheesh, why do the other two shops close at 4?
 
I discovered Cloaking years ago..

I tried to tell everyone about it and I got booted out of TF for saying it.
FACTS....so who is the loser? not me only those Cloaked members who need the incoming orders.
 
Rhonda, I think that Beneva has a problem getting orders filled because they skim their orders. I stopped filling for them a couple of years ago. I would get orders across the system from them for $20 to $30 less than they had them adverstised for on their website. Particularly during the holidays. In fact last year at Mothers day they kept sending me orders for one of the codified items at $20 less that SRP. I sent asks for more money and they just ignored the ask. So I would wait a day or two and if I did not hear from them then I would reject the order. Once I rejected the order they would call me and try to get me to take it. Nope, then TF would call me and try to get me to take it. Nope! Any way my point being that they are really bad about under valued, skimmed orders so they probably have to resort to cloaking to get them filled.

Jim
 
Dumb Question, OK two

Rhonda said:
Had OKC calling today to place an order from Beneva's in Sarasota. Why cloak the order?
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Honest question...if it was a "Cloaked" order, how did you know it was from Beneva's?

Second, Does Teleflora list "Sending Florist ONLY" on their Dove orders like FTD does on Mercs?
 
and more to this subject.....

Blue Mikey says, and Jim re-iterates, that they've been tracking cloaked orders for some years now, and IF that's the case, then THEY are responsible for starting this trend to NON FILLING for OG's, and we all owe them a debt of gratitude!!
NO, really, THIS BOARD, and other florist boards, ARE the source for real florists, and it is BECAUSE of discussion boards like FlowerChat, that the OG's are starting to get annoyed at us, and wonder what's wrong with fill shops.
The real truth IS, we have started to fight back...it's nice to see!!
I'm proud of you all....
Mike
 
BOSS said:
Honest question...if it was a "Cloaked" order, how did you know it was from Beneva's?
Click to expand...

When they call us with a Teleflora HQ Do Not Report and give us a telephone number for the sending shop, we ask for the shop name and location as well.

Audra
 
I requested the shop, they said Sarasota, and I again asked, what shop?
They then told me.
 
Both ftd and teleflora call more & more with these orders , we won't fill unless we have a shop name and phone number , one last week was from a certain shop in Toronto who has been told umpteen times that we will never fill for him , took a while to get it out of the girl at dom. retrans who I then told to send a message back to this person that he could kiss my backside , as I told him the last time he called himself. Don't seem to get the message but they figure if HQ. phones it in we will do it , or try to get us to fill it with a credit card. We now a system that any orders coming by this method gets passed to me to do the triage. Its sad we your incoming have to be scrutenized to see where its coming from before you even consider if its going to be filled.
 
I'm so happy to have 200 or so other people to dilute the incoming. We very rarely get hit with the OG orders because there is also someone else HAPPY to take them.

Luc & Rock have admirable control over their territories - but that control sure can be a headache!

Ryan
 
FYI..on Beneva site, doz roses $69.99, they wanted, roses and mylar delivered for $64.99
 
Just to clarify -

Beneva is the name of a real shop in Sarasota. The OG version is Coast to Coast. Both are owned by Art Conforti, who by most accounts, is an excellent retailer and has become very, very successful because he 'gets it' that marketing (backed up with quality work) is the key in this industry. (That being said, we don't fill their orders either.)

On their customer service page, way down at the bottom, under the heading Currency: All transactions are in US currency. All inclusive pricing includes a $9.95 transaction fee but does not include a 7% sales tax. This means that any item shown with a price as Delivered! could be transmitted to shops for basically $10 less than shown.

Is this technique deceptive? Well, it doesn't say 'free delivery' (one of my pet peeves) and, ideally the price shown includes transmission and delivery so the answer, IMO is NO.

This shop was featured in SAF's Floral Management last year for their highly effective marketing of local wedding services.

I read elswhere that Art is slated to receive a big award. If it's the one I'm guessing it is, then all h*ll may break loose in the states.
 
Art

Yes, Art is one slick marketer, and a good business man...

What award are you thinking, as I heard he already got some award in the last couple days. And how would that allow for "all h*ll breaking lose in the states"?
 
Rosie, you crack me up!

I'll say one think, Rosie. If my spirits are low I can always count on you to get me to laugh.

Here you are being so careful to point all the accomplishments of this individual and then say, "we don't accept their orders either". You sure do know how to "cut to the chase".

Here is an individual that has their banner ad in almost every search engine so it always shows up in every florists local neighborhood market and yet some florists refer to him as a very good marketer. What a strange industry. If another florist decided to open up a flower shop at the end of your block in town and used every means possible to divert your customers to their shop instead of yours, I can only wonder if you would feel the same way - they are a great marketer!

Which now begs the question. On the other board it was announced that the creator of coast to coast is going to introduce a new directory for all his fellow florists to join and you can utilize HIS marketing talents so customers can contact you directly with their orders. Now, how many of you are willing to fork out money and sing up for this one??
 
Griff said:
On the other board it was announced that the creator of coast to coast is going to introduce a new directory for all his fellow florists to join and you can utilize HIS marketing talents so customers can contact you directly with their orders. Now, how many of you are willing to fork out money and sing up for this one??
Click to expand...
Not ME, and notice I used the word "slick" as in Willie, and more....

Not saying I like or agree with the practices, but ya have to admit, the guy is, well... slick :(
 
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