This is all about Fake Flower Shops, with Fictitious Florist phone listings and bogus SERP listings.FAKE FLORISTS ABOUND on the WWW, where out-of-area, NOT CITIES WHERE YOU ARE LOOKING ON THE WWW, companies purchase local phone numbers and use city names, and worse, fake addresses and fake business names, to imply the operation of local businesses, (phone companies call these 'phone numbers' "market expansion" lines). These profiteers are now such a problem for consumers and honest, hard working florists that the US Federal Trade Commission has issued a few Consumer Alerts over the past few years - One entitled Petal Pushers: Is Your 'Local' Florist Really Long-Distance? Excerpt from the article:
em>When you call a florist, you're unknowingly forwarded to an out-of-town telemarketing service bureau operation. The telemarketer takes your order and credit card information for payment, and forwards your order to an area florist. The telemarketer pockets a processing fee and usually a percentage of the sale as well. You don't realize you've been scammed until you get higher than expected charges from an out-of town company on your credit card statement, or learn that the flowers weren't delivered as ordered, or were never delivered at all.
There is more posted here: from Petal Pushers, an earlier alert: THESE FAKE FLORISTS - Are a real problem for everyone!
http://www.mspflorist.com/flowers/browse-info/category/flowerfacts-flower-rip-offs
Today I did my usual daily SERP test in MSN (BING) Yahoo and Google and see an ever more astounding number of FAKE FLORISTS stampeding the internet, masquerading as local hard working florists in MY MARKET AREA!This is UNCONSCIONABLE!
If this madness continues the corner family run flower shops will be, within a few years nothing but folklore, as these companies are taking prime positions on the www, and i am sure flower dollars in their entirety, that are intended, for local markets and shaving off substantial sums before sending the very same order back the very same market to a local flower shop (yes it is confusing).
When you shop for Flowers, of for that matter anything, do your very best to shop and keep as much of your hard earned cash, in your local or destination community, so your dollar, will not go thru endless loops of hands taking layers of your money away from your end goals!
When you shop online it is getting to be very difficult to filter the bad from the good, many folks simply abandon their quest for a floral purchase, or fall back on old time standby's like FTD which really is not an actual florist either as they are simply a virtual entity willing to take your money and keep a hefty percentage, over 20% before they send it back to that ever so hard working flower shop in your flower gift, delivery service area, at a substantial reduction in value. If you spend 100.00 at FTD.com the MOST a flowershop in minneapolis will see of this is 72.oo - your money simply disappears into the FTD corporation.
And the worst part, the receiving shop get these orders at this "discount", they are supposed to fill them 'to value'. Not sure exactly what this means, but your best value will certainly happen when you order direct from your local honest-to-goodness-florists - take the time - find a shop that will work with you that has walk in retail trade - a cooler full of flowers!
I have put together a dedicated web site to help folks with just this task - http://www.ipflorist.com/ in our spare time at our flowershop, we have done the programming and website design to publish this site - and invite you to use it, florists as well!
Here is how this FAKE FLOWER SHOP scam works:
....the worst part of this, most often you do not realize you have been scammed until you get your bill, as the recipients of flowers will most often not tell you they were dissatisfied with the condition of the flowers you sent them or thought the bouquet was 'small", for fear of hurting your feelings - They mostly, are grateful, someone is thinking of them - even if they get lousy flowers! These scammers know this! The only way you would know these flowers were less that what you had hoped for, is if you had a chance to see them in person or got word, thru a 3rd party!
Ok - The Dirty Details, There Are A Few, Of This Industry Every Flower Buyer Needs To Understand Now!
What is a Fake Florist?
A Fake florist is typically an entity that operates on the internet, or advertises in a manner that implies they are local, when in fact they do not even have a physical location in that market area, and often these companies go to lengths to purchase local phone #’s to give they appearance they are local. The most obscene instances they get preferred local listings by using FAKE addresses, or legitimate local addresses, but there of course, is no actual flower shop at these locals. It is not uncommon for Fake Florists to advertise in such places as the Yellow Pages or Internet Directories and give the impression that they actually deliver flowers locally in a specific area.
Then it gets worse, Your Order Often Shrinks --- you ask, What is an Order Skimmer?
Order Skimmers are frequently Fake Florists, and of late, more often than not, are actual florists that operate in an unethical manner. Order skimmers typically use one or more, well known national wire services such as FTD, Teleflora, or 1800flowers to operate taking your flower order (they market themselves on the www, tricking you to do business with them in cities where they do not exist), then send it back at to your destination city at a reduced rate, to a local flower shop, the very same task you set out to do and in essence stealing from you - And very often, not sending all of the total of your order to the receiving flower shop, or keeping the supposed 'delivery fee' for themselves. These order skimmers typically focus on gathering flower orders online, charging a large or unreasonable service fee (which is typically not disclosed to the customer but added to your bill at end of order at last checkout page), and sending the diluted dollar amount to a actual local florist (order may be 100.00 of flowers - they send 69.95 for 'big beautiful bouquet), the local florist, maybe the very florist you may have thought you ordered from, who then receives the discounted order, will often deliver a much smaller or cheaper arrangement than what the sender intended or requested based on the dollars actually sent to him. Often these Order Skimmers will include special notes on order trying to gain sympathy from the filling flower shop to get a bigger arrangement --- "All customer can afford, please make as bog as possible, etc... While they skim $$$ off the top!)
Then there is the potential problem of Flowers in a box --- you ask, What is a Direct Shipper?
Often web sites show beautiful flowers arranged, tastefully by skilled hands, you say WOW this looks nice, seems affordable and order them. By the time you check out you have been upsold and have had fees assessed to your order... you think OK, it looked good on the picture, and keep clicking - Enter your CCard info and you are done... Then some days later you discover these flowers arrived in a box with feeble instructions on how to arrange them. You sent these to a person that was elderly and could not see as well as you do, you are feeling ooohh... not so good about your purchase all of a sudden... We hear stories, some much worse, every week similar to this at our flower shop here in Minneapolis, from people that have been burned by these sometimes HUGE companies that are not completely forthright in telling of the fact these are not ACTUAL FLOWER ARRANGEMENTS -- Direct Shippers are entities that frequently work directly with flower growers or wholesalers, are internet based, and rely on national delivery services such as UPS or FEDEX to allow them to often, resell and deliver these flowers-in-a-box. Direct Shippers are sometimes able to provide flowers at a lower cost claiming to cut out the middle man (the hard working local florist). It may be true that direct shippers are able to ship fresh flowers, keep in mind, often while those flowers are in transit, they are typically exposed to conditions that drastically reduce their life. These flower packages are frequently shipped with all other types of cargo exposing them to extreme conditions such as freezing temperatures, extremely warm temperatures, no water, and exposure to ethylene and carbon monoxide gas which contributes to a much shorter vase life.
The only flowers we have had success with Direct Shipment are Tropical Flowers and Orchid Leis - We offer these on our site http://alohabouquets.com/ they come direct from the Big Island of Hawaii --
How do Order Skimmers and Fake Florists operate?
Order Skimmer’s and Fake Florists have to rely on customers to find their phone # on their website via the WWW in SERPS's or in advertisements on the internet (ADWORDS Etc) publications such as the Yellow Pages are in my opinion no longer a real means of getting this data out - is all WWW. That said, the customer places his order with the company, on the phone or on their *these OG's as they are referred to in the industry, web sites, who then transmits the order through a wire service FTD, TELEFLORA, BLOOMNET. The wire service sends the order to the local florist who delivers the arrangement at a reduced rate. THESE HARD WORKING FLOWER SHOPS DO NOT GET ALL OF THE MONEY YOU INTENDED FOR THEM - THEY GET THESE ORDERS AT A REDUCED RATE
The following example is for demonstration purposes only, and not specific to any particular order gatherer. fake flower shop, or wire service.
Customer decides to send a dozen roses for $80:
Customer unknowingly contacts an unscrupulous proprietor of flowers and places order.
unscrupulous proprietor of flowers deducts (Skims off the top) $7.
unscrupulous proprietor of flowers sends order through a national wire service (FTD TF BLOOMNET).
Wire service receives order, now valued at $72, and sends to a local florist in recipient’s area.
Wire Service deducts handling fee of 7%.
Actual local florist receives order now valued at $66.96.
Now consider this - They are Obligated to send the originator of this order a 20% commission, further reducing what cash is actually available to fill this $80.00 original order...
...So the florist that receives this 80.00 order has to send the originator, the FAKE FLORIST a WHOPPING $16.00, (on skimmed order of 72.00 submitted to WS commission is $14.44) for the privilege of taking this 'Wonderful' order...
Now the actual florist making this delivery for this 'Skimmed' 72.00 order has to deduct a delivery fee which typically ranges from $9.95 to $12.95 - leaving florist with a measly sum of approximately $60.00 for the actual flowers - but wait - this hard working local florist has to pay the commission on this 72.00 (assuming it is a 'skimmed order') to the tune of $14.44 at months end with the monthly wire service reconciliation.
This actual florist filling this order that started out as 80.00 will get the pittance of $ 45.56 (Remember, often the supposed delivery fee added at and of order is not passed as part of the order - this is the added fee structures added at the end of your orders when ordering from these vendors. On FTD.com they refer to this fee as "Service Charge : $14.99" - this fee at FTD is not passed to florist thank you very much ftd for the privilege of doing business with you!)
Recipient Flower Shop ends up with order that is frequently diluted by as much as, in this case which is not uncommon 44.04% YIKES - This Hundreds Of Times Everyday In This Country - Stop The Madness - Call Your Local Florists, In Person, Avoid Fake Florist flower scams! Follow these tips prior to placing your order!
Ask family or friends for recommendations!
Deal only with shops that list a legitimate street address (check it out) with a local phone #
Ask, "How late are you open, I would like to stop in and pick up some roses" (this one usually stumps them as these clowns have no idea what city you are calling from
Ask for directions to the 'flower shop' to determine if the shop is indeed “local”
Ask the flower shop to itemize your charges, insist on this!
Ask any personal questions about the local area you can think of to help you determine if this is indeed a local shop
Enter the shops 'local' area code and phone number into search engines - if this is a legit shop in locale, they will return many search returns that will be 'on target' for that city
Finally feel free to use the web site i created to help filter out the bad eggs, http://www.ipflorist.com The Internet's Preferred Florist Association
