Hot Topic: How and Why to Avoid Florist Order Gatherers

The topic of online-only, 'virtual florist' and phoney local florist order gatherers is heating up on the web these days.

Amy Stewart, author of the upcoming Flower Confidential, recently blogged about wending her way through a sea of order gatherers to find a local florist to deliver flowers to a family member. She provides some good tips about sorting the fake 'local' flower shops from the real thing.

Kenji, of Huntington, NY Flowers Insolita wrote an informative article about how a new online fee switcheroo (hidden in the shopping cart) lets FTD top member order broker justflowers.com aka flower.com aka flowerdelivery.com aka virtualflowers.com whack flowers off orders despite the "Save $10" claims on their home pages.

How did Kenji discover this consumer dollar switching?  His store received an order from the broker and they filled it to full value - only to received a complaint that there weren't as many flowers delivered as shown in the picture. Of course, the broker never referenced a photo or provided a quantity - they just instructed Flowers Insolita to send some sunflowers in a vase.  The shopper had paid nearly $70, but after justflowers.com et al deducted their 'service' and 'handling' charges, the local Huntington florist only had about $45 for the actual arrangement.  And the industry wonders why consumers think flowers are 'expensive'?  

The Tennessee Attorney General's office slapped phony 'local florist' Teleflorist, Inc. of Southampton PA with fines and ordered restitution paid to state residents that were defrauded with their fictitious local flower shop names and phone numbers. Shoppers were unwittingly forwarded to an out-of-state call center, with their orders being re-routed to real local florists - after the order gatherer had added 'service charges' and removed hefty commissions.

Unfortunately, Tennessee is one of only a handful of states that aggressively pursue these fake 'local' phone listings and websites. Legislation in California, passed by both houses of the state legislature, was vetoed by former Governor Gray Davis at the urging of Telecom companies - who just happen to profit handsomely from the listings and call forwarding services.  More than one 'Anaheim Florist' and 'Anaheim Flower Shop' local listing forwards to distant call centers and - would you believe anaheimflorals.com is actually an FTD hosted order gatherer site from a company in the state of Washington?    

For more great tips on how to avoid deceptive florist sites and fake local phone listings read Bloomery's excellent post on the subject.  

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