Why consumers fear wiring out flowers...

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Rhonda

Rhonda

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Nov 1, 2002
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Millinocket
www.millinocketflorist.com
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Maine
Had a customer of mine stop at a shop less than 40 minutes away from me to order three easel sprays for her mother's burial. After she ordered she came home and asked me my opinion of the shop. Having had quite a few bad reports concerning the shop in the past 4 years, I told her I had my doubts but she had picked out of a book, spoke to the "designer" and was assured she was spending plenty of money for what she wanted. Well she called today and asked me my opinion (am waiting to see the pictures, but..)
When she arrived at the cemetery there were 2 not 3 easel sprays, laying propped up against the stone (no easels which she had repeated to the order taker). One $100 spray contained little more than 1 dozen carnations and some "purple filler flower" (probably monte casino aster or statice). The other spray $175 contained doz and half of the same color carnations and filler. She came down to see the $175 easel spray I was making at that moment. My spray was approx 5 ft in length and about 3 ft width containing, bells of Ireland, sorbonne lily, stock, blue bird roses, solidago, carnations, mini callas, veronica and sword fern, seeded euc. She almost cried. I checked with a very good friend on her easel sprays and she and I are almost the same, $100 easel all carnations approx 40 carnations (depending on the filler flower). That is costing 20% labor and carnations at $1.50 each. Although this was not a wire service order, I had a service in that same town just two weeks prior and I used a shop which was formerly Teleflora who graciously took my credit card and filled a couple of family orders for me. By chance, the person who ordered them arrived to pay his bill and I asked about the designs. He was very pleased and said they were "soothing" while they were at the wake. It was very apparent the shop I used (even tho I hate using a shop with "Crafts" in it's name) did a good job.
I do not know the outcome of my friend's (customer) visit to the shop who ripped her off but I am waiting to see the pictures of the pieces but I do know I will never use that shop again even though they are the only shop with a wire service in that town. She is an FTD member and is also on the Board of our State Association. I personally have had to make them redo arrangements we have sent to their area and my customer who ordered them complained immediately upon delivery.
It is no wonder some people don't want to use wire service. My friends mothers burial proved to me that you must be very careful even when ordering from a picture in a selection guide. If I hear what the shop had to say to her, I will update.
Sorry for the rant.... :boggles:
 
You know Rhonda, I posted something similar to this a while back and got roasted by some of the "old timers" in the flower business for assuming that just because I did not like the work did not mean there was anything wrong with it. I agree with you 100% and I also feel that the biggest threat to the industry today is not Walmart or Costco, it's the florists them selves when they do things like this. It's no wonder people stop buying flowers...

Jim
 
We are experiencing the same thing getting a birthday bokay delivered in Washington, DC. Shop failed to deliver, claimed they could not contact the recipient. Sender talked to the recipint in her destination OFFICE 3 times that day. Owned promised and failed to deliver the following morning! Clark
 
HI Clark

In the past when I have had a flower shop say this to me I immediately call the recipient number I gave them & if I get someone I tell them there is a flower delivery coming to them. Then I call back the florist and say i just called and someone is home to accept NOW!!.. and then I put them on my do not use list.. one of the best things about technology is we can remove these poor performing florists from our data base and not get burned again.
This was the reason for wire services.. and I think we need to hold the services FTD,Teleflora, et al responsible.. we pay our dues & it is their responisiblity to weed out the bad ones.. so I do of course call member services to report the problem..
Maybe we dues paying members need to start a revolt at convention and tell them we want these flowershops weeded out.. or coded in the directory as "not so good"
 
We experianced a dilly last month- placed the order for an elderly client a week in advance. She called the day after no flowers had arrived. I called the "florist" who claimed her son delivered it late the day before. I asked the "florist" for delivery signature and asked her to redeliver if none found she said ok. Next day my cust called again , no flowers. Called the "florist" asked to be faxed delivery reciept. She says "stop treating me like a child- we don't get signatures here, no one in town does" . How can you operate like that!!! Again asked for redelivery --no flowers. I refunded the cust . this makes us all look like poop! We had to call another florist in the aea to have the flowers deliver (at our expense) late isn't that great! :hammer:
 
Rest assured all appearances of that shop in our directory are marked "DO NOT USE". There are 8 of them. Also FTD was requested to send a letter of apology to the sender. Clark :hammer:
 
why customers fear wiring out flowers

Had quite the experience last night with funeral flowers. We did the family flowers for a cousin's mother's service and took them to the funeral home which is in the next town, and that was for Wednesday night's visitation. Last night, Thursday, we went to the visitation on a personal level. I got to first hand see the work done by the florist in that town. WOW!!!! Never in my wildest dreams or experiences in this industry have I ever seen such disgusting work. First of all the designs were trying to be fan shaped and were all one dimensional ... just as if they cut every flower the same length, stuck them in the oasis to make a globe and then cut it down the middle to make 2 arrangement. But the best was the quality. The solidaster was as brown as if I took brown spray and gave it a coat, the babies breath looked like it was airdried for 2 weeks, the roses were old and transparent, the yellow lilies were transparent and the edges of each petal had curled in so much that they looked like spokes on a wheel and in one arrangement the focal point was a white hydrangea, and it looked like it hadn't seen water for 3 days and all the petals were hanging down over the front of the dish. The deceased daughter grabbed me and took me around to see all the flowers and not being a quiet person, she went from design to design pointing out the terrible stuff ... and said that's why the family asked us to do their work. I have never, as I said, seen anything like it in my life, and I grew up in this business. I have to ask the wire service rep if they know how bad this shop is. We had alway received complaints when we had to put an order thru to them and were glad when another shop opened (and haven't received a bad report yet from her) Now I know why people were complaining. I talked to someone else and they said yes their work is always that way and no one can figure how they stay in business. I wish I could have taken pictures because no one will ever believe me. WOW!!!!!
 
Pam said:
... and no one can figure how they stay in business.
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Very scary indeed! We have one other shop in our city and it is such a junk shop. I also do not understand how he stays in business, other than they send people out on street corners (not our city) to sell roses and he has a rinky dink "wholesale flowers" co he runs out of the back of his store. I don't personally know anyone who buys from him, it must be for his street corner people. Even businesses near him some to us. We hear stories that would just make you cringe, he's a kook also.

When I send a wire out order I hand pick the florist from the list (computer/don't even unwrap the book). It's still just a good guess at best. Sad to say, but I do believe the fact that most senders do not see the flowers on the recipient's end is the one reason we do not get more complaints on wire outs.

When we fill a wire in order I do it as if the sender is MY customer, as in essence he/she is. If I have to just settle I usually reject or forward. I don't take advantage of "similar". These are just good practices IMHO.
 
All stories have a common denominator..

Wire Service Orders Yes? Let me go back and reread this tread......

Ok, Yes they are either FTD or TF sent and received orders. I'm not shocked that you florists use terms as "junk" or flowers being transparent and brown. Those filllers did their duty of "shaving the order first and then using recycled flowers".

We left because NO ONE is checking the Qualifications of Members and TF has never had a Quality Check Program EVER...only the Rep coming into your store with this inspection sheet and that is when and If they come to you.

I'm still wondering since going Direct to the Filling Florist with CASH(CC) why I have NOT RECEIVED ONE COMPLAINT about the flowers sent?

Maybe because the work ticket printed out for the filling shop looks like a real customer called in? I don't know.....sure is strange that we have had not one complaint in over 250 orders sent out direct. :dunno:
 
Shel
Who checks the quality of the florist direct shops?

Sure many are good, (such as you) but it also seems to me that there probably are many who don't have a wire service not because they don't want one but because they can't afford one?

What makes you think you're sending to a professional shop?
 
Gee! I knew you would Pipe in!

bloomz said:
Shel
Who checks the quality of the florist direct shops?

Sure many are good, (such as you) but it also seems to me that there probably are many who don't have a wire service not because they don't want one but because they can't afford one?

What makes you think you're sending to a professional shop?
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Who checks on my outbound Jon? MY CC that is who.. not some fussy fluffs at FTD or Tf, where is their checks and ballances? Oh in signing up more members for your orders through the Membership sign ups? Really Jon, do you really think that 'steve' the rep in west virginia has signed up members that will not "shave bloomzies orders " when you have an order outbound to their area? Your only guessing when you hit that "send button" in your system with fingers crossed. So you tell us directiees why were so bad trying to do this industry a favor in giving the Filling Florist and our Consumers MONEY NOW to the FILLER when sending out a FLOWER ORDER? Please tell us what is the difference of getting your money off an incoming order at 100% via a CC verses a Lame Duck Ws Order...the Rebate? the commision? or do you think it is Pride???????? I think( i know) you folks are working on commision and when we folks who once walked into your path of floral blah blah and figured out that it's a just a cycle of blah blah we stepped up and made a difference BUT you WS folks continue to fuel the VIRUS.

iffin my CC is charged for CRAP then guess what? the PLASTIC COMPANY say's that I'm the protected one from BAD PRODUCT since I'm the purchaser...is that right? as long as you are not willing to replace the product and you don't have a SIGNATURE on file of the CC you ran thru your MACHINE YOUR SCREEWWWWED! I know all about this PLASTIC GAME even if it's your local customer. The PLASTIC COMPANYS taught and told me! In fact they said that Florists are the #1 business for CHARGEBACKS! so are you going to tell all your customers on the phone you cannot except a CC?

Can't afford a WS? GET FREEKIN REAL....the CLUB is the one who is making it NOT AFFORDABLE for those shops......

My name is MICHAEL too and I have MOORE stuff just like the jack ass who makes movies.

Hey bud..we WERE with THEM for 44 FREEKIN years only to be crapped on....so what is your point? did we miss out on something that they didn't like from us??????????Oh I know what they didn't like...we weren't SUCK A S S ES.
 
Geez Shel, I just asked a simple question in a nice way.

Did I deserve all that bullshirt?

Sorry you're so freaking sensitive.

Can someone who is wire service free perhaps answer a simple question without going into attack mode?
 
bloomz said:
Shel
Who checks the quality of the florist direct shops?

Sure many are good, (such as you) but it also seems to me that there probably are many who don't have a wire service not because they don't want one but because they can't afford one?

What makes you think you're sending to a professional shop?
Click to expand...
Just because he's giving the order direct to another florist, does not mean that florist does not belong to a wire service.
Years ago, when there were a lot more wire services around, I had to add a field to flowerSoft's florist database to indicate whether a florist belonged to FTD or not. A lot of florists used to check for that when deciding whether a shop was good or not.
 
Let me answer that Blue, I've had my 2 cups this morn.

First and foremost Bloomz, I feel it's the simple words 100% that have tickled the receiving florist to go the extra mile for us DIRECTIES. Most recievers can not believe I do not want a CUT(20%) for all my HARD(?) work of taking an order. I explain also that I charge my sender a FEE for this service, and thats where I make my money. I make a point also to let them know they are getting PAID today not 45 days from now, (smoke & mirror money). Alot of the florists say "THAT'S THE WAY IT SHOULD BE". Any more I just smile to myself, and say "your right"

It's been almost 3 years for us going DIRECT(bypassing middlemen) and had nothing but praises from my towns customers.
 
Ya know

It's funny, that when you consider the number of shops across North America, and the what maybe 10% that go direct do not seem to realize that most often the shops they deal with are members of at least one wire service.

Yes, you are sending 100% but are they filling at 100%, there is no way to know or check. The mention of no complaints, is a good sign, but I don;t get complaints either, and I send out 3000 orders a year theu FTD, and with an average order amount of $54.27 for product plus delivery.

Sure you get one here, one there, but dang, it's less than 1% and always corrected to the customers satisfaction. And I would bet, that every shop has that or more, of their own orders they screw up for themselves.

Have a DAY!
 
is is indeed about $$$

more and more direct orders are a RESULT of the WS privilege fees added on to orders -

lets look at ftd for this

The FTD® Burst of Color™ Bouquet

http://www.ftd.com/catalog/product.epl?product_id=C2-3440

note "Plus a service charge of $9.99"

savvy web users know this is really a "privilege" fee and the "reward to them is the special advantage, benefit granted to them by working with ftd, a name brand" which in my opinion is the easy way out for consumers. shure they can get "branded items" and have a reasonable expecation of what will actually be delivered -- but for a price
 
Boss, in my mind there are three ways that this industry is made up.

1) The florist or non florist, that want someone else to do the grunt work for them.

2) The florist that wants to stay busy or has employees to keep busy, and not care so much of the bottom line. As long as things keep rolling along. (turning money). Trying to get ahead of the GAME.

3) The florist that has fiquered out there is no way to get ahead of the GAME. And have opted out. The 10% you feel that are out of the game, I'll bet 3yrs ago, the number was probably 1%. Times are a changing. It may not be for everybody but it was the best decision I've made so far in my business.

And those shops that are at least one W.S., do realize that my money is NOW. It's called cash flow, and I feel that is what is missing from their business.
 
Jerry, to a point I agree with your, and others comments.

However, reality is, that with the volume I (and others) have, there is no real option for phoning out orders as it is not cost effective.

Many will suggest, that I (and others) are not "Real Florists" simply based on our volume, and while this is not true, thats the fact. Many of us have spent years cultivatinng our local business to grow, and gain customers, and they expect certain things.

As to the 10% (made up#) I do not think they have opted out of anything, they have made business decissions based on their individual wants and needs. I do not hold it against anyone that decides to do it differently, as they know whats best for themselves. I do have a problem tho, with those who condesend and bash those of us that are not willing to do it "THEIR WAY", or because of OUR business model can not do it their way cost effectively.

I will always take a direct order, and I will always give the 20% to that shop for doing the work on their end, as one of the prolific members here, I even do it for them on international orders when they can not call a foriegn country. So in essence I am only making my rebate, as the 20% I get on the order has already been given to the originating shop. But I do it anyway, to help a friend in need.

Yes, it is different strokes for different folks, but that should not make anyone right or wrong, as some here would suggest, it only makes us different.
 
snip-->I will always give the 20%...

boss, hats off to you -

at is amazing how many times i get ws affiliated shops tell me no we do not accept direct orders, aven at 100% value - if you want us to tkae your order you need to use the "wire service"

mark you are a great - "trend setter"!!

do you have your shop listed in the different f2f directories?

we would be thrilled to add your shop as a direct send for our minneapolis shop...

PS - if i had to pick two days in my life that were defining moments, one for pernonal one for business - the gaylen pyle seminar forever changed my way of thinking and "running my business" and was a day of reckoning

in my personal life - the day the first space shuttle blew up, with the school teacher onboard, in 1987 - i was at work - selling tires at goodyear, and was told to "get back to work", when i wanted to watch the news... i went immediatly to the time clock and punched out - for the last time - been self employed since...

FIND gaylen pyle - this man can give you invaluable tools and insight to this industry ...
 
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