Malina
St. Marys,#2Consumer Suggestion
Fri, March 21, 2003
As a person whose family has been in the floral business for a long time please let me tell you the following... You most likely will not get good service, good pricing, or good product by ordering flowers from 800 numbers or on web sites. The best bet is to go to your local florist and place an order with them. They are familiar with the reputations of many florist shops in different cities and will only steer you to what they think is a quality business. They will also go to bat for you if you have a problem (flowers not arriving, flowers dead, etc) trying to help solve the problem as quickly as possible.
andrew
allentown,#3Consumer Suggestion
Fri, September 27, 2002
as the owner of a small private flower shop for the past 15 years i whish i could explain the web and wire service rip off's in detail. here is a quick study, the web company takes a commission, the wire service takes a commission (FTD, TELEFLORA) the florist that is actually doing the work gets 70% of the money you paid (this does not include any service fee charged by the first two agents) the florist get paid 30 days after completion of the order and also pays monthly dues to the wire service of at least $150 - $300 monthly. calling direct (using the web yellow pages) puts you in direct contact with the person making your arrangement AND using your credit card gives you an agency to dispute any problems. as for this particular situation, dispute the credit card charges, you are entitled to a refund, not from the florist, but from the agency you origionally paid, the credit card company can help you with that.