proflowers delivery fiasco blogged

this is from a friends blog about proflowers(boxed undesigned flowers arriving):



http://www.smithsflowers.com/blog/odd-stuff/proflowers-funeral

Yes, ladies and gentlemen this unsuspecting customer ordered from
Proflowers.com for a funeral. And yes, this is an actual picture taken in
a Philadelphia PA, funeral parlor recently. I do not doubt for one minute,
that the sender intended to send a beautiful bouquet. Proflowers.com
pictures many nice looking designs on their site, but they come, as shown above
in a box.
And before you think this is an isolated case, think again.
This type of thing happens time and time again, day in and day out all across
North America. Unsuspecting consumers trust a beautiful picture to convey
their emotions, but receive something much different.
We can’t blame the
funeral directors either. They are not floral designers, what would you
expect them to do? They either have to leave the box out back in the
garage or flower room, or simply set it in the parlor so that the family knows
it’s there. Usually they leave them out back, and give them to the family
when they are leaving to go home. But, in some cases as you can see above,
they place them in the viewing room for all to see. I certainly would not
want the grieving family to know I did not care enough to find a local real
florist, and sent flowers in a box.
When you need to send flowers either in
town or out of town, give us a call, or visit the florist directory on our site
and select one of our recommended real florists. Flowers in a box just
don’t cut it…ever.

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Tagged as: Boxed
Flowers
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Dan
Hamilton 03.13.09 at 11:34 am
Great writeup! Is it OK if I use it on
my website? I’m a real florist, too. This article tells it all and should be
required reading. Thanks!
smiths 03.13.09 at 2:43 pm
Of course Dan. All to often we’re
hearing of this happening at funeral homes across the country when people order
from ProFlowers.com and any of the other “direct from the fields”, flowers in a
box vendors. The consumer is duped into thinking they are saving money, when in
reality they are getting a box of flowers that sits in the flower room of the
funeral home or the freight room of a hospital.
I’ll send you the original
image in an email.
Spread the word.
Sachi 03.18.09 at 9:11 pm
You’re doing a wonderful job educating
the customer about the floral industry and thank you so much for adding Fleurty
to your directory!
Much Luv from CA!Sachi
Martin H 05.11.09 at 10:54 pm
Come on! - Surely it’s common sense
for the funeral directors to take the flowers out of the box? We know that a
huge amount of flowers being sent are by boxed flower delivery and this article
just seems to be trying to support “real” florists who deliver by
hand
Perhaps people are fed up with paying money to “real florists” and there
relay networks only to see a portion of the money spent going on the
bouquet?
Its the consumer that has shaped the future landscape of online
florists by demanding the convenience to order online.
Wake up and smell the
coffee - Much the same way as Yellow Pages directory is being ditched for the
online equivelant, you simply cannot stop the evolution of online
consumers.
smiths 05.12.09 at 6:51 am
Martin, thank you for visiting and your
comments.
Sure, I would agree that it is “common sense” for the funeral
director to take the flowers out of the box, but alas, what to do with them
then? They are not designed inside the box, they are simply strapped in in
bunches. Roses are shipped with the thorns on in a growers bunch the same way a
florist receives them, often with no foliage or vase.
I doubt too many
funeral homes have a supply of vases sitting on a shelf just waiting for a box
of flowers to arrive. Every funeral director I have spoken to about this, hates
it, often stating “I am not a floral designer” and they do not want some
unprofessional design in their viewing rooms. More often than not, they give the
family the flowers in the box, and the sender never knows, because they get a
“thank you for the flowers” card that never states “how” the flowers
arrived.
I agree with you completely about the siphoning off of funds by
“floral networks” hence my mantra of contacting a real local florist directly,
and that’s the very reason I offer links to other florists both here and on our
ecommerce web site. I want every customer to get their full values worth. It’s
the likes of FTD that often add on a “service fee” of upward of $14.95 that they
keep along with 30% of the purchase price that is fouling up the works for
consumers and florists alike.
Not sure about the “convenience factor” your
talking about. Most local florists have online presences, but I would agree the
internet is changing the landscape. One point, I do not consider Proflowers a
“florist”, rather a broker or middleman. I would never want to stop the
evolution of online consumers, every day our web business grows and I’m very
thankful for that. The thing that is changing more than anything, is long
distance customers are going around the likes of FTD and Teleflora and ordering
directly with the delivering local florist. That is a very good thing. The
florist gets paid 100% and the consumer gets 100%, it’s a win/win.
Next time
you have a chance, ask your local funeral directors for their thoughts on “boxed
flowers” and whether or not they put them in water, or send them home in the
box… I wonder if they take the thorns off myself.
adam 05.12.09 at 7:09 am
wow, Martin, common sense? Im sure the
funeral directors have all the time in the world to arrange boxed flowers in
between everything else they have to do! Gimme a break!
Great blog BOSS, keep
up the good work dude!Adam
surfsalterpath 05.12.09 at 9:09 am
>Come on! - Surely it’s common sense
for the funeral directors to take the flowers out of the box? < href="http://www.springcitydesign.com/" rel="external nofollow">Robin 05.12.09 at 9:20 am
Wow, that is something. Those drop-ship
companies probably get a lot of one-time customers but not much repeat business.
As a florist myself, I’m all for online ordering. People can easily order
directly from an me or any actual florist in an an actual shop.
Martin, your
quote: “Perhaps people are fed up with paying money to “real florists” and there
relay networks only to see a portion of the money spent going on the bouquet?”
does not apply to real florists, but online order gatherers and the big wire
services who collect fees from their members while competing against them for
customers.
If anyone is unclear on the difference, go to this website: http://www.floristdetective.com/
Believe me
Heather 05.12.09 at 11:21 am
As the wife of a funeral director I
have seen my fair share of boxed flowers arriving at the funeral home.
Funeral directors aren’t floral designers. They have no design tools and no
design skills and many times these items show up with no vase to even place them
in.
I do have some experience in floral design and even I am amazed when the
boxes show up. We once unpacked boxed flowers and attempted to display them at
the funeral home. When we opened the box we found 10 stems of iris (no greens,
no filler flowers) strapped into the box with shipping straps (that we had to
run around and find wire cutters to even get them out,) a short vase, and a pack
of “flower food”. We put water in the vase, I cut the stems (which is more than
any funeral director would have done), and added the “flower food”. It was a sad
sight. I was hoping that the sender would see it and sadly, she did. She wanted
the number of the florist who delivered the flowers and when we pulled her into
the office to explain how they were delivered she was mad at us (or embarrassed
with herself) for taking the flowers out of the box. Needless to say, we never
did that again.
When we hand over the box of flowers to the family they
often reply with the same question that we had when the flowers arrived, “What
are we supposed to do with that?”
Lily 05.12.09 at 3:12 pm
Martin,You sound like you work for the
boxed flower company. I bet you do!I for one am very happy to be informed of
something like this, how else would we ever know crazy things like this are
going on. I would hate to have sent flowers thinking I was doing something nice
for a grieving family only to later find out I had stuck them with a box they
had to drag home. The flowers in that box are probably dead ugh. The
horror!

Is there a consumer lesson here?