Doug, there are other posts about filling florists not living up to standards and even being rude and obnoxious, but the reason a bunch of people jumped on the Bloomex post is directly related to the fact that OG's don't play fair or on a level playing field. They want all the easy money (non labour intensive) finding ways to make an extra buck without lifting a finger.
Here are a couple of examples from our shop today....had an order to go to a city where one of the members here is located (they are an OG with a brick and mortar shop), so I thought I'll just send it to them....guess what - they suspended their mercury!!!..........dang there's four more days till Christmas and they are so busy stealing orders for other cities that they don't have time to make a table center before the 25th?? oh yah they may get some pine pitch on their fingers and then mess up their key board!!! Then there's the order that was for a small town in Alberta, good thing my staff looked it up in the directory and found a delivery charge by 2 florists of 15.00 and our customer was happy to pay it.......catcher here is there are 3 florists listed serving that town, one of them is a branch of yours and their del charge is (drum roll) double that of the other 2, yep 30.00 so my guess is they don't want to do the work either. Then there's the incoming order from a known OG for 6 orange roses in cube vase.........duh we're in a small town and it's Christmas not Halloween!!, sent them a message telling them we didn't have Orange roses but would try for tomorrow but no guarantees........guess what their too busy stealing more orders that they didn't even have time to acknowledge my message.
The way I see it most retail florists were either born into the business or lured into the profession by their love of flowers, and or retail as well as being independent owning your own business. In order to compete as a retail florist you almost have to belong to a wire service so you can fully service your customers (I know some will say not true). With that being said we would be glad to fill orders for other like minded business people, but the senario has changed drasticly over the last years and continues to get worse. The wire services keep changing their fee structures and imposing new fees and new labour intensive rules that all have to be paid out of the money left after the seller takes their 20%. I could add a lot more but really have to get back to work and get some more pine pitch on my fingers.............
You seem to make a lot of assumptions without the need for actual facts to back them up, but then why look into the situation when it so easy to lay blame.
1) Your brick and mortar "OG" may simply be busy with their own local walk-in or phone-in customers, or maybe they are short staffed. Trust me I have tried sending many an order to "real" florists, days before a holiday only to find their Mercury suspended, or better yet they take the order and then don't deliver it for the holiday because as they explain "they had to look after their own customers first". Whatever the case, suspending Mercury service prior to a holiday is not a problem unique or indicative to any one group of members.
2) I have no idea where our "branch" that you allude to is located geographically, but I can tell you in Alberta there are times that a delivery run to a small center "also served by" can take 45 -60 minutes each way. So I suggest that our store who is listing a $30 delivery fee probably has quite a hike to get there, we do suggest to our stores that the list all area's that they can service as it is up to the sending store (the customer) to decide.
If what you are saying is that they list a $15 delivery fee, then request a $30 when you place the order, that is another situation and is definitely wrong. I suggest that you let me know the particular store and I will contact them directly about it.
I do find it odd that you go to great lengths to build a case of how difficult it is for a florist to make money then you take a shot at the florist that requests a delivery rate that accurately reflects what they need to cover their costs.
And here I am just as guilty of making assumptions without facts, I thought the double standard won this board was only applied to OG's and WS's. Thank you for showing me it also is applied to select retail flower shops as well. It is good to see all are treated equal.
On a last note, this thread has seen more action (postings) in the last two days than since I started it, and still not one problem fulfiller listed. I think I will ask the board admin to remove the "sticky" and let it die a natural death.
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