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The Bloomery Florist Boutique - Butler, PA 16001 - Butler's Florist of Distinction

Since 1998, The Bloomery has been Butler's florist of distinction. Our design staff has nearly 70 years of experience, and has been part of hundreds of weddings. We can be found online at www.bloomery.com and www.bloomeryweddings.com.
Beware of American Blooms and BloomsToday

We received a new phone book last week (Verizon's Northern Allegheny/Butler County), and of course the first thing we look at is the "florist" entries.  Right off the top, we feel sorry for anyone hopimg to find a local florist by using the yellow pages.  Verizon has sold out to what we florists call "order gatherers" or "skimmers".  We count 6 entries for Blooms Today (including a full page ad), plus additional entries for American Blooms, America's Florist and From You Flowers.  None of these florists are located anywhere near our area.  Blooms Today and American Blooms are both the same company, from Haymarket, VA.  America's Florist is located in New Jersey, and From You Flowers is part of ProFlowers.

The scam works like this--each of these businesses places ads in yellow pages, and pretends to be a local florist.  When you call, they tack on "order fees" from $9.99 and up (find examples at http://www.floristdetective.com/wst_page10.aspx).  Then, using a wire service such as Teleflora or FTD(see http://www.floristdetective.com/wst_page13.aspx for an explanation of how these work), the order is relayed to a florist actually in the area.  The sender keeps 20% of the order value, plus whatever order fee was charged.  The prices on the arrangements are also typically higher than what a real florist charges.

If you look at Blooms Today's ad, you'll see the claim "We deliver to all hospitals & funeral homes".  That is a complete lie.  Blooms Today is not a flower shop, and does not make any deliveries at all!  They also make the claim that they are "The #1 Floral Sender Through The Entire FTD Network!"  That is true, and the reason is that they rely on real florists to deliver every order they take.  They don't exist to serve you better--they exist to only to collect order fees and the like.

The problem with these businesses is that the person taking your order is typically clueless when it comes to flowers in general, and what's in our cooler specifically.  You are grossly overcharged for poor service.

Even more serious are skimmers.  They pretend to be local florists just like order gatherers, but then change your order.  Say you order a $60 vase of beautiful flowers.  When the order is transmitted to the local florist, the skimmer sends it as a $40 mixed arrangement.  There are sad examples at http://www.floristdetective.com/wst_page16.aspx.

Remember that the goal of yellow pages advertising is not to present accurate information to consumers--it's to generate revenue by selling ads.  In that, Verizon has succeded.

For more information on order gatherers and skimmers, visit www.floristdetective.com.  For information on yellow pages advertising specifically, visit http://www.floristdetective.com/wst_page11.aspx.

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Posted: Sunday, November 19, 2006 12:17 PM by bloomery

Comments

avantegardens said:

We received our new Yellow Pages today from AT&T, the most widely read YPs in our market. The first ad is Blooms Today and guess what? They claim to 'deliver' to all hospitals and funeral homes here, too. From Virginia? Nice FTD logo.  Hope the FTD members here enjoy subsidizing their competition.

The #2 ad is 1-800-flowers and they do have stores here in Orange County under their own brand as well as the dwindling pool of local Conroy's franchises.

Our ad is #3 - yes, we jumped back into the print Yellow Pages for the first time in years. The prices have fallen dramatically and we were able to combine print with online ads at a very reasonable cost.

I had a long talk with our new YP rep (there's been a revolving door of reps over the last few years) and told him how local florists used to all have ads in the YPs. After deep discounting national full-page buys like those of 1-800-flowers, FTD, Blooms Today (American Blooms, Flowers Sent Today et al) and other order gatherers, local florists were pushed so far back they simple said 'forget it'. We did.

I doubt the national print buys made up for all the lost local sales to florists.

We know many consumers will be turning to the web insted of picking up the YPs but believe there's still enough book usage to warrant placement - if the price and placements are right.

# November 21, 2006 3:08 PM

Carol Cunningham said:

I ordered a FTD flower arrangement for my 15 year old son girlfriend, to be delivered to the high school on valentine's day, order was placed on 2/4/2007. No flowers, e-mailed Blooms Today got a generic message

"due to high volume of orders we cannot track this order until feb 16th and will not be able to call you back for 72 hours monday - friday if you need assistance now you can call 800-520-0573". I called for tweleve hours the phone is busy even at night?

The first add in our local phone book was Blooms Today, I have learned a very important lesson I will take time to use our local florist, first time to order over the internet.

# February 15, 2007 6:30 AM

joe1972@yahoo.com said:

Nothing is stopping you from using the same advertising strategies as BloomsToday. It's not like they have restricted access to yellow pages. Don't blame them for your marketings teams lack of creativity.

Innovation is is the heart of being American. Maybe if you can't stand the heat you shouldn't be in the game.

# September 8, 2007 4:20 AM

bloomery said:

@joe1972,

Few people consider blatant lies to be innovative advertising strategies.

# September 8, 2007 3:10 PM

Chet Cohron said:

Once they get your name, address, e-mail and credit card info, then they sell this information to other PARTNERS without your concent.  They get a kick back on that I am sure and this should be against the law.  I signed or clicked on nothing stating that I was turning my personal info over to the world.   This is a scam and it will probably take a class action legal action to slow them down.  

If you get a receipt from them via e-mail...you will note that there is a place on the bottom to delete your e-mail from FUTURE contacts...try it!  It doesn't work and there is no such reply e-mail address.   Another odor of being a scam.  This is not a florist...just a bunch of people working from their homes selling stuff through YOUR LOCAL FLORIST and getting a kick back...then selling your info for another KICK BACK.  It is a scam..stay away from these companies.

# December 1, 2009 12:37 AM

main floral said:

Finally. Someone is speaking the truth. Thanks for this, Real Flowershops are suffering from these monsters. It has to stop, or the floral industry will crash. Consumers just don't understand... Because the whole thing is a dishonest and tangled mess. Who's really paying the price here. Flowershops everywhere have to reject these orders, to put them out of business. Also people need to have more information about these businesses. Thanks for taking the time to help get the word out.

# January 6, 2010 10:45 PM
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