Duncan Mcallyn had a lousy experience with FTD at Valentine's Day, and I followed up with some reasons why local florists are your best choice. Every Wednesday, I receive an industry newsletter, and in today's newsletter, there's more FTD news.
FTD recently kicked Vancouver Flower Co. and Lovin' Blooms out of its network for a number of violations, including “curtailment”. Curtailment, also known as “skimming” in the industry, where the sending florist charges one price, but sends a reduced order value to the receiving florist. For instance, a customer might be charged $50 for flowers, and $10 for delivery. This should be sent to the reciving florist as such. A skimmer would send the order for $45 with $5 delivery, and keep the additional $10 for themselves, plus whatever rebates and usual percentages they are eligible for. The receivng florist gets the order and fills it to the value of what was sent, but not what the customer was charged. While not completely illegal, it's certainly unethical.
IMHO, FTD's actions are very close to hypocrisy. If you notice in Duncan's post, he was charged a $10 “service fee”, which is not passed on to the receiving florist. You have to search FTD's site long and hard to find mention of this fee before you place your order. FTD is toeing the line of being a curtailer itself by calling this a “service fee”. In the customer's mind, this fee is part of the price of the flowers.
Another practice to be aware of is “order gathering”. This is where a company, which may or may not be a florist at all, creates websites that appear to be a florist in the local market. You'll see these in your yellow pages as well if you're in any size metropolitan area. We have 4 order gatherers advertising in our local YPs, and Butler is only about 40,000 people. FTD finds themselves playing in this area also, with its recent purchase of Florist.com and three other major web properties.
Finally, FTD is expanding its program with Wal-Mart. Avoid ordering flowers through walmart.com like the plague. If there is any problem with your order, you have to contact walmart.com to have it rectified. The price will be slightly lower, but there's still that “service fee“ to make up the difference. That will be a painless process, I'm sure.
My advice: find a good local florist and stick with them. You'll be amazed at the service and value you get. In my experience, there is a direct correlation between the design of the shop's website and the quality of the flowers. Think about it--design is what we do, so it should permeate into everyting we do. Order gatherers and skimmers do a great job of trying to appear local in an effort to rip you off. If you're in doubt, look for the florist's address. Most local florists will make their actual address pretty apparent (it is part of SEO after all). If in doubt, call and ask. If you need flowers in the Butler, PA area, please visit us at www.bloomery.com.
You can read more about skimmers and order gatherers (including a list of OGs) at The Florist Detective.