Bobbies Flowers

Bogus On-line flower shops Skimming $$ off floral arrangements

Skimmer Report

You paid how much for those flowers and delivery?

The reports of skimming - the selling of arrangements and delivery services to consumers for one price followed by the forwarding of less-than-full-dollars-paid to the florists that fill the orders - have sadly been rolling in. We addressed the issue briefly on this page and have seen enough of these incidences to believe that this issue deserves its own space here on our site.

It's time for a big clean up with swift suspensions of any wire service member - and all their alias websites - caught skimming funds. Egregious cases should be turned over to appropriate law enforcement agencies.

Quite frankly, we local florists are tired of devoting time to and being blamed for the problems created by delivering under-valued orders from these companies. Consumers expect and deserve their full value and the future of flowers-as-a-gift depends on it.

Thanks to FloristDetective.com for their help exposing these crooks and helping REAL FLORISTS take back the Floral Industry

Click on this Link to read the rest of the story:

http://www.floristdetective.com/wst_page16.aspx

Anatomy of a Flower Fraud

Anatomy of a Flower Fraud

A deception deliberately practiced in order to secure unfair or unlawful gain. A piece of trickery; a trick.

One that defrauds; a cheat.

One who assumes a false pose; an impostor.   

The Deception Starts With Advertising

In this case, it begins with a Google ad written to deceive shoppers into believing they will be purchasing from a local flower shop in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

See FlowerShopping.com, a local Cambridge florist, family owned and operated for over 90 years? It says so in the ad even though 1) they are not a local Cambridge florist and 2) FlowerShopping.com is not a 90 year old flower shop - just a call center in Mission Viejo, CA.

Yet here's FlowerShopping.com (along with 11Flowers.com - owned and operated by the same call center) as a Local Hartford Florist and Hartford's Finest Florist...

                                               

This is a great article on how telemarketers pray on the consumer by claiming to be LOCAL. Thanks to floristdetective.com for posting this. All REAL FLORISTS 

and flower shops want you to know the truth and the harm these BOGUS shops are doing to the floral industry. 

Here is the link if you want to read more:

http://www.floristdetective.com/anatomyofaflowerfraud.aspx

Real Florist vs. 1-800-Flowers a must read if you don't ever want to get ripped off again!!!

Here is another installment of how some internet floral sites and 1-800-flowers are ripping off the floral consumer. Weather you are buying flowers, plants, roses or gift baskets you will always be better served by using a real local florist. Bobbie's Flowers in Tempe, Arizona takes great pride in the fact that we provide quality products and outstanding customer service to all our customers. This is a great website dedicated to educating consumers about the practice of on-line floral order gatherers and bogus flower shops on the internet and in the phone book. The web-site is www.floraldetective.comand we encourage everyone to check it out for yourself and pass it on to your friends. Here is a some of what you will read on this site.

1-800-Flowers.com vs Florists

Is delivery really 'free' if 1800Flowers.com charges you twice and discounts once?

1-800-Flowers has done an amazing job of presenting their BloomNet subsidiary as a kinder, more florist- and consumer-friendly company than their chief competitors - FTD and Teleflora. Some florists believed them... until this Valentine's Day 2007 marketing campaign.

What better way to sell flowers to consumers than to promise 'free delivery', even if it's not entirely true. In a Clintonesque parsing of the English language, 1-800-Flowers has begun telling consumers that their middleman 'service/handling charge' of $12.99 pays for 'florist delivery' while the actual delivery charges florists receive are additionally padded into the prices of the florist-delivered flowers displayed on 1800flowers.com.

Please click here to read the rest of the story.

Bobbie's Flowers has been serving our customers since 1949 and are very proud of the reputation we have as being a quality florist with excellent customer service. When placing your on-line orders on our site, please use the promotion code "NO FEES" at check out and we will place your order going to anywhere in the U.S. for no fee.

Don't get ripped off by "Bogus" flower shops, Local florists deliver quality with customer service

Bobbie's Flowers is always trying to educate our floral customers and help them make a wise choice when they are ready to place their flower order. Weather you want a floral bouquet, roses, plants or a gift basket you will always be better served and save money by contacting your local florist. There are many "Bogus" florists in the phone book and on the internet that pretend to be your "LOCAL" florist. They charge you outrageous service/processing fees and then they contact a real florist in the recipients city to get the order made and delivered. The following is taken from  http://www.floristdetective.com/ and is a great website that tells the TRUTH about Phony flower shops.

Fake Locations

Fictitious Local Phone Listings

Fictitious phone listings, where out-of-area companies purchase local phone numbers and use city names to imply the operation of local businesses, are such a problem for consumers and real florists that the US Federal Trade Commission issued a Consumer Alert entitled Petal Pushers: Is Your 'Local' Florist Really Long-Distance?  From the article:

When you call, you're unknowingly forwarded to an out-of-town telemarketing 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 all.    

When shopping for flowers on-line you can avoid paying a service fee by going to www.bobbiesflowers.com and when you are checking out, enter "NO FEES" in the promo box and we will wave all service fees. We appreciate your business and take great pride in being your local flower shop. Please pass on our name to all your friends and tell them how to get great customer service without all the fees.

Ordering online-Don't get ripped off

I thought i would do another post on Phony Florist's. This florist in Canada posted this story on his blog about a gentleman who got taken for a costly ride. Click here to read more!! We will be posting about the cold chain process that all flowers and flower shops should need to be using. but, thats for another post.

Don't get ripped off!   Use a Local Florist!!!