Deceptive Advertising – The Truth About Order Gatherers

Deceptive advertising – you may have been a victim. If you type “Houston TX Florist” into any search engine, can you tell which of those are true local florists with a brick and mortar store and who is just pretending to be local?? Currently over half of those who appear to be local are really order gatherers.

What is Order Gathering?

The term ‘order gatherer’ was coined several years ago to describe floral service marketers, both real and virtual. They aggressively promote the sale of flower arrangements and related gifts which they intend to broker to local florists for fulfillment, primarily via affiliations with national florist wire services. I bet you have heard of some of them. Some of the common order gathering companies are ProFlowers, FTD, and 1800Flowers. Many order gatherers practice deceptive advertising.

Why Local Florists Oppose Most Forms of Order Gathering?

Real local florists have several concerns about some of the order gatherers, and their commonly used deceptive advertising practices including:

• the use of misleading ad titles and text that confuse consumers by featuring specific city names. This means that they do not operate local flower shops that directly service the locations they state. And the print ads fail to clearly inform consumers as to how these orders are ‘serviced’
• the use of the phrase ‘we delivery to’ when the brokers only ‘relay to’ or ‘forward to’ local florists for fulfillment, implying a service which they do not provide.
• the failure to itemize and explain all fees to consumers, making price comparisons difficult
• the fraudulent claiming of 'free delivery'
• the failure to inform consumers that delivery charges will be deducted from the value of dollars sent to local florists

The average ‘service fee’ of $15.00 USD. A privilege fee charged just for forwarding orders to local florists, boosts the cost to consumers, giving the appearance that florist-delivered flowers are higher priced than they need be.

What the Real Cost of Ordering Flowers

Local florist end up getting the blame when your husband tells you he spent over $75, and you are not happy with your small bouquet. Let us break down a $75 bouquet ordered from an order gatherer versus your local florist.

ORDER GATHERER $75 BOUQUET

$11 average service fee, about $5 tax, leaving $59 for the bouquet. They will advertise free delivery, but when the order finally arrives to the local florist, they will still deduct a delivery fee of about $10 leaving $49 for your bouquet. (of the $59, the flower shop is only paid about $43)

LOCAL FLORIST $75 BOUQUET

about $10 delivery fee, about $5 tax, your bouquet will be $60

Also, if you pick out a picture from a website or selection guide, your local florist will be able to immediately tell you what flowers and containers are currently available. When a local florist fills an order for an order gatherer, they are allowed to substitute flowers and containers as necessary and are not required to let you know ahead of time.

At Enchanted Florist, you can check us out 24/7 online at www.EnchantedFloristPasadena.com or at our actual store at
4416 Fairmont Pkwy Suite 104 Pasadena, TX 77504 (832) 850-7677. We are a real florist and deliver flowers Pasadena and the surround Southeast Houston area. Call a local flower shop to get the best flowers at the best prices.

Owner Debbie Wright, AAF, TMFA has worked feverishly over the last decade to put into place laws to prevent deceptive advertising. Some efforts have passed through to become Texas laws, others are still in progress.

Much of this information has come from the very informative website www.floristdetective.com so feel free to visit their website for more information on deceptive ads including comparisons to actual order gatherers.

Enchanted Florist

4416 Fairmont #104

Pasadena, TX 77504

(832)850-7677

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