WHY do any of you stay with FTD?????

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countrypetal

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I just wanted to pass this along because i found it interesting.

I was grocery shopping in OWOSSO MI at my local KROGERS and there in front of my eyes is a big FTD logo in their window.

I am so glad i am no longer FTD . It just goes to show anyone can claim to be a florist ! and FTD is doing nothing but lowering the value and professionalism of what you and i are putting our life work into.

Just think for a moment - if anyone was actually to go to Krogers and get flowers - there is NEVER anyone at the floral counter. They would have to page any joe blow from any part of the store to come help. You could be talking to your meat cutter about flowers! AND any time i have looked at their flowers - they are not in a cooler, the roses are soft and spongy and would last at best a 1/2 day, the lilies have the orange pollen stains and the edges of the flowers are all wilted, the plants are dry and dead.

Is this really the image that FTD is trying to give to people what a florist is ?
I just dont get why any of you are still hanging on to ftd. But when people come to your shop and say they can get flowers somewhere else for $9.99 dont complain because untill you realize FTD is going against you then you are part of the problem!
 
Or soon to be Teleflora

ALL wire service do things to add to their bottom line. I am not FTD like you, Still am teleflora. I am with them because of the daisy systems I still have with them. Until that is paid off in 26 months I can't do anything. After that I am in the liberty to do something. You will find that some stays because of the brand, techonology, product etc.

I am just waiting for 1 wire service that will only deal with real florist.
If one of them do this, they would see many florists supporting them. If they go out of bounds...they loose.

Luc
 
Heather, the answer is easy. Money. Whether it is right or wrong, I am not making that judgment. Some florists say they could leave anytime, but would have to let 3 employees go because to loss of income. The main reason they don't switch to a lesser evil, TF and FSI is because of the money and time.

But the reality is most florists in the US/Can don't know how bad it really is.
 
Dazeal said:
The main reason they don't switch to a lesser evil, TF and FSI is because of the money and time.

But the reality is most florists in the US/Can don't know how bad it really is.
Click to expand...

I find the idea that Teleflora is a lesser evil rather humorous - FTD and TF are pretty much dead even. We are both FTD and Teleflora, though I suspect we will be down to one service after May.

I doubt we'll be service-free anytime soon because being able to transmit orders to other florists through the services saves us a lot of time. We send a large volume of orders and calling out orders just takes too long. Your mileage may vary, but for us, a wire service is still worth the hassles.

Audra
 
I had both FTD & Teleflora until last winter. I dropped Teleflora because they had just signed up another shop in our area and most of the orders coming to us were from 800 Flowers and Teleflora.com. We had one of their websites and had maybe 2 orders, I'll give them 1/2 dozen, over a two year period (waste of money). They would not give a small town discount as FTD does, but offered so many months free if I would stay. I didn't, they signed up shops with NO experienced designers, not open while delivering, more crafts than flowers, etc. Their excuse? Gee our rep couldn't get there in time for the next book...
FTD is just as bad, they themselves have broken all the rules of membership, I see another thread coming up .... but I have need to service my customers by finding a shop in other places. I now offer to send the order for them charging a sending fee or give them phone numbers of hopefully legit florists for them to call and place their order. I used to process my credit cards through FTD and have changed that. I leased their stupid Wings system-dumb move for a small town shop. I now have mercdirect running on my laptop, simple, easy. I also decline to fill orders for those I know are gathering or question the sending shop. I will say that FTD.COM orders are usually above my design pricing, but have no problems asking for more money and delivery charges. Convenience is the word. Convenience for many of my "older" customers who don't have credit cards or internet. And yes, I have gone online to double check for shops not listed in FTD for customers. They have requested I search for them as I wrote an article for our local paper concerning the internet and order gatherers.
One is just as bad as the other and as Luc said, when a service/clearing house comes along that is for legitimate florists, who will act as a clearinghouse only, and has the density that FTD used to have or what Teleflora has now...then FTD will be gone also. I guess I'll be rotting in my rocking chair before that actually happens. In the meantime, I will continue to refuse orders from Krogers, Penney's, Sears, Stop N Shop, etc etc etc. by just stating, I do not fill for sending only entities (but wanna bet some of those are being cloaked by .com???)
 
LOL Brandon, you did it again;)

This is Heather, I think her name is Kelly. Sorry if I am mistaken countrypetal.
C'mon Dazeal your slippin' :)
 
Dazeal said:
But the reality is most florists in the US/Can don't know how bad it really is.
Click to expand...

This I agree with, but I too feel it is changing and fairly rapidly, judging by site stats (various sites) and the number of unique visitors daily. Also by the growth in link sharing and how word is spreading, conntecting Real Florist sites to other Real Florist sites and the FD too...

As we go forward, the word will continue to pick up steam and spread faster and faster. The spring floral shows should prove a good garden this time around for new "recruits"....
 
Well i am not an expert at this - but it would seem to me by the time you pay all your fees etc..etc.. and by the time you get your spilt you would have to have a super high amount of incoming orders to say your making money on anything. Especially by the time you pay an employee .

Order or no order why would you want to be with FTD and be put at the same level as a grocery store? Seems like a slap in the face to me.

Oh well - we got rid of FTD and we have not missed it. And if we were to get rid of Teleflora we wouldnt miss them either !
 
rofl "C'mon Dazeal your slippin'" I've never gotten back up! :) Me and myname problem. lol sorry. lol

I rank FTD lower than TF since they have butterfieldblooms.com and TF doesn't have this "fresh from the farm" program yet.

Order or no order why would you want to be with FTD and be put at the same level as a grocery store? Seems like a slap in the face to me.
Click to expand...

Because it's not that easy for them. They have been with FTD for a million years, made relationships with sending FTD florists all over the nation and would cost a lot of money and time to switch from one WS to another. For you and I it is easy to judge these guys, but if it were us in their shoes, we'd be doing the same thing. :(
 
countrypetal said:
it would seem to me by the time you pay all your fees etc..etc.. and by the time you get your spilt you would have to have a super high amount of incoming orders to say your making money on anything. Especially by the time you pay an employee .
Click to expand...
Or a really high amount of OUT going orders...I doubt, unless you are really REALLY good at COGS, that much money can be made on incoming orders, unless you do a huge volume.
 
HUM - i dont think i would be doing the same thing if i was in their shoes ! Just because i am not a push over . It only took ONE time for me to go into meijers grocery and see the FTD product and logo and the next day i was kicking them out. I was not going to pay those fees for them to go behind my back and push product directly to my customers.

Funny thing is i could never get a rep out here for anything, but after not having ftd for close to 2 years now - they send someone out here claiming we had ftd product displayed etc.. and they needed to check out our shop. Needless to say she didnt find anything. Oh and this was right after we got a call to re-enlist :) and i declined.

Oh well - that is my little rant.
 
Dazeal said:
Heather, the answer is easy. Money. Whether it is right or wrong, I am not making that judgment. Some florists say they could leave anytime, but would have to let 3 employees go because to loss of income. The main reason they don't switch to a lesser evil, TF and FSI is because of the money and time.

But the reality is most florists in the US/Can don't know how bad it really is.
Click to expand...

2 cents worth:

TEL - just as bad as FTD - each has their own issues...
FSI - No REAL tech (not just a website), and not enough end points with QUALITY florists (I know some of the ones listed in Philly with FSI and wouldn't send an order there if they were the LAST florist on Earth)...those were the reasons we dropped FSI...

- h.
 
Audra said:
I find the idea that Teleflora is a lesser evil rather humorous - FTD and TF are pretty much dead even. We are both FTD and Teleflora, though I suspect we will be down to one service after May.

I doubt we'll be service-free anytime soon because being able to transmit orders to other florists through the services saves us a lot of time. We send a large volume of orders and calling out orders just takes too long. Your mileage may vary, but for us, a wire service is still worth the hassles.

Audra
Click to expand...

DING-DING-DING!

Audra gets the Cigar!!!
Just too many out-bound orders to deal with (gawsh darn-it!)

To Me, FTD is just cheapening it's own image, brand, whatever you call it.
Soenan (sp?) is to blame here...started with Bob...

- h.
 
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