So, here is the deal: Many of the advertisements seen for Valentine's flowers are from some of the largest floral companies such as Teleflora, ProFlowers, and FTD. Have you ever been to the floral shop by the name of these? Probably not! That is because these companies are essentially a 3rd party used to forward orders to local florists. How is this a bad thing? In my opinion, It's bad because you are wasting your $!!
Here is an example:
- You order a floral arrangement from an online website such as one of the companies mentioned above.- They will contact the nearest local florist to fill the order
- BUT, they will take $$ out for "handling", and give what is left to the florist to fill the order (often times forcing the florist to use less quality flowers due to lack of money!)
- Finally, the beautiful arrangement you ordered is not going to look like the photo you thought it would, I guarantee it!
More reasons to do your homework and save your $$:
Check out the Floral Detective's thoughts on FTD and Teleflora
What you see ISN'T always what you get (Yikes!)
Learn from their mistakes and/or misfortunes on Twitter :(
Lastly, the consumerist is on your side, buyer beware!
To make the MOST of your $$, I suggest you take the time to look up a florist and CALL them to make sure they have a physical address in the area you want to send flowers! This way you can be assured that your $$ is not shrinking before a florist can use it for flowers.
If you want help, leave a comment on where you want to send flowers and I will find a florist for you!!
