The California Legislature recently passed AB 2076, a bill which prevents out-of-area affiliate marketers – “Absentee Florists” – from using geographic misrepresentation to lead consumers to believe they are dealing with local florists – and the bill will be heading to Gov. Schwarzenegger’s desk in the next day or so for his signature.

How the bill benefits consumers:

- Buyers will get more flowers for their dollars by avoiding the hidden fees and service charges (often called ‘delivery fees’ but pocketed by these companies) and those fees range from $10 to $19.95. ‘Order gatherers’ also strip an additional 29%-31% of each floral order’s value via commissions and fees.

- Consumers specifically choosing to search for local florists – and supporting programs like the 3/50 Project – will have their dollars really spent with local businesses.

How AB 2076 benefits Californians:

- Local florists collect and remit CA sales tax while ”order gatherers’ – often out-of-state and even out-of-country – do not add this much needed revenue to our state treasury.

- Local florists also pay business and property taxes, employ tens of thousands of Californians and support our local communities. By using geographic misrepresentation, these affiliate marketers significantly reduce local business income and continue to cost the jobs of hard-working Californians.

We urge florists and consumers to fax letters of support to Gov. Schwarzenegger at 916-558-3160 as soon as possible, urging him to sign AB 2076.  It’s time California stand with the 26 other states who have passed legislation to prevent distant call centers from pretending to be local florists here in our state.

Below are just a few examples of the types of geographic misrepresentation this bill will address:

New Jersey call center posing as a local Brea CA florist – complete with a map ‘location’.

Phony Brea florist

And here they are, also claiming to be located in Fullerton CA

Distant call center (Colorado?)posing as two different local Anaheim flower shops – complete with claimed Google Places listings and phony addresses.

And a phony location in Buena Park CA…..

And another fake location in Walnut Creek CA… and hundreds of other California cities.

Fake ‘local’ flower shops also claim Yahoo Local listings – like these two examples:

And run ads deceptively claiming to be ‘Florists in Sacramento’ and having ‘Sacramento Flowers’ saying they’re ‘here in the city’ even though one advertiser is located in Oregon and the other sits in a call center hundreds of miles away in south Orange County.

These examples are just a very small sample of the kinds of geographic misrepresentation AB 2076 addresses.  We urge Governor Schwarzenegger to sign the bill and stand up for California taxpayers, legitimate local businesses and their hard-working employees.

We’d like to thank the California State Floral Association for assisting with this legislation and the California Cut Flower Commission and the Society of American Florists for standing in support of it.

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A report today from Mike Blumenthal discusses how team members from Google Maps have been phoning local businesses.

“Google has confirmed that as part of that additional level of verification, they have been calling businesses to find out business name and address.”

Over the last year, our flower shop has receiving a large number of calls (mostly from India) from IYPs asking us to verify our business information. Unfortunately, these types of calls have a well-known history of being used by scammers to elicit ‘yes’ answers to cram phone bills with bogus charges.

We’ve also received at least a dozen calls from companies claiming to represent Google Local (now Place Pages) with promises of #1 rankings – if we’ll only ‘verify’ our information and send them checks for about $300 per month. Sure.

So you can bet small businesses will be hesitant to answer Google’s queries – especially if the callers sound off-shore.

Miriam Ellis gives a terrific outline of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of this new call program over at Search Engine Guide and both she and David Mihm suggest Google send advance emails alerting businesses about the calls. Count me in the camp that sees this more as a ‘heads up’ warning to spammers to be on the alert for the verifications meant to catch them using geographic misrepresentation.

Rather than identifying themselves as Google employees, why not just call like normal customers would – and ask for the businesses’ addresses?  Home-based and come-to-you businesses have mailing addresses (which they were required to provide when claiming their listings) so the odds of getting a verified answer should be high – for real local businesses.

A tip to the Google staffers: Over the phone, phony local florists usually answer “Flower Shop”, don’t give out street addresses, say they’re just off Main Street or Church Street and are located near the Pizza Hut or Dairy Queen. That description pretty much works for any city. ;)

For legit local businesses, DO take Miriam’s advice and don’t hang up!

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Mother’s Day Flowers from Local Florists

May 2, 2010

It’s almost Mother’s Day Week and local florists across the US and Canada are getting ready to deliver your fondest wishes to Moms, Grandmas and the women who have been special ‘moms’ in your life. Today we’re highlighting signature floral designs – across a range of styles and budgets – available exclusively from these independent [...]

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Battle of the Flower Designers Championship

April 10, 2010

Please vote for your favorite flower arrangement and designer between these two entries: Belvedere Flowers – Philadelphia and Havertown PA or Avante Gardens Florist – Anaheim CA Read more about Belvedere Flowers’ design process for the championship finale arrangement. Read Avante Gardens Florist blog about creating their finale floral design. Voting is open from April [...]

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Round 2 Battle of the Flower Designers – Poll II

March 27, 2010

Please vote for your favorite flower arrangement and designer between these two entries: Everyday Flowers – Tustin, CA or Avante Gardens Florist – Anaheim CA Voting is open from March 27 – April 3 (noon EDT) , 2010 Please also vote in Poll 1 QuestionsView Results

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Round 2 Battle of the Flower Designers – Poll I

March 27, 2010

Please vote for your favorite flower arrangement and designer between these two entries: Twigs Flowers – Yerington, NV or Belvedere Flowers – Havertown – Philadelphia, PA Voting is open from March 27 – April 3 (noon EDT) , 2010 Please also vote in Poll 2 QuestionsView Results

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Battle of the Flower Designers – Poll IV

March 12, 2010

Please vote for your favorite flower arrangement and designer between these two entries: Anytime Flowers, St. Paul, MN or Belvedere Flowers, Havertown – Philadelphia, PA Voting is open from March 11 – 20, 2010 Please also Vote in: Battle of the Flower Designers Poll I Battle of the Flower Designers Poll II Battle of the [...]

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Battle of the Flower Designers – Poll III

March 12, 2010

Please vote for your favorite flower arrangement and designer between these two entries: Everyday Flowers, Tustin, CA or Mums and More, Wagner, SD Voting is open from March 11 – 20, 2010 Please also Vote in: Battle of the Flower Designers Poll I Battle of the Flower Designers Poll II Battle of the Flower Designers [...]

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Battle of the Flower Designers – Poll II

March 12, 2010

Please vote for your favorite flower arrangement and designer between these two entries: Affairs to Remember, Melrose, MA or Avante Gardens Florist, Anaheim, CA Voting is open from March 11 – 20, 2010 Please also Vote in Battle of the Flower Designers Poll I Battle of the Flower Designers Poll III Battle of the Flower [...]

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Battle of the Flower Designers – Poll I

March 12, 2010

Please vote for your favorite flower arrangement and designer between these two entries: Hollyhocks Flower & Gifts, Overland – St. Louis, MO or Twigs Flowers, Yerington, NV Voting is open from March 11 – 20, 2010 Please also Vote in: Battle of the Flowers Designers Poll II Battle of the Flower Designers Poll III Battle [...]

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