CheapFlowers.com and the Art of Half-Truths and False Promises

Cheapflowers.com has received an amazing amount of press for being perceived as offering the 'cheapest' flower-sending service around. Despite the claims found on the cheapflowers.com home page, real florists would like to enlighten both the press and consumers with the truth about cheapflowers.com and its claims to providing the best consumer value.

Cheapflowers.com says:

- We offer the same fresh flowers as other florists, but at much lower prices.

Cheapflowers.com offers the same service as any other company that gathers orders and redistributes them to real flower shops. Dollar for dollar, real local florists' prices are usually lower, sometimes much lower than cheapflowers.com if shoppers order direct from real florists that deliver their gifts.

- To understand how we save you money, you first need to understand how the flower business works.

But if customers understood the flower business, they'd be contacting a local florist direct in the city they need flowers delivered, instead of cheapflowers.com.

- Anytime you order flowers for delivery outside of your local area, the florist uses a floral network such as FTD or Teleflora to relay your order to another florist in the location you want it delivered.

You mean just like your company does as displayed on the logos at the bottom of your home page?

- This florist creates your flower arrangement, delivers it, and then charges a reduced price to the florist who took the order. The problem is that the florist taking your order does not make enough profit from this, so they charge you an extra fee.

This is absolutely not true for many local florists. Many local shops charge no relay fee what-so-ever and/or will happily provide you with the name and phone number of a real florist in the area where you need you flowers delivered so you can contact them direct for your special flower needs.

Cheapflowers.com doesn't need extra service fees when national florist wire services liker FTD, Teleflora and FloralSource will happily kickback large rebates to cheapflowers.com for every order they send through one of the wire service networks since cheapflowers.com does such a good job at fooling consumers into believing they delivered flowers for ‘free’.

- They call it a "delivery fee", "wire fee", "service fee", or "surcharge" and most of the time don't even tell you about it until right before you pay for the order.

Cheapflowers.com must be thinking of other online-only wire service non-florist affiliates because most real florists will be happy to disclose all charges - up front.

And while we're on the subject...

Mr. CheapFlowers.com,

While you're telling consumers and the press about the all the deceit on the web, why don't you come clean and admit that your promise of 'free delivery by a local florist' is absolutely not true? You know, FTD knows, Teleflora knows and FloralSource knows that local florists deduct their delivery charges from all your orders prior to calculating the flowers they'll use to fill them. Delivery is not free. You've just bundled an estimate charge into your prices. Your use of the word 'free' is false and misleading.

But the floral wire services need your orders so they won't stop you or any of their other affiliates that shade the truth to deceive consumers with false promises. They need orders in their system and don't really seem to care much if the public is pitched the truth or not.

So why don't you admit that you've really padded the price of each arrangement, plant and bouquet to take the local florists' delivery charges into account. And admit that local florists can and do send smaller arrangements when you don't collect enough money to cover both the flowers and their delivery prices? And why don't you admit that ordering flowers, bouquets and plants direct from the local florists that deliver them is the cheapest way to get the most bang for the buck?

And why do FTD, Teleflora and FloralSource allow you to cloak you orders to florists behind another company name?

Real Florists know why.

Isn't it time you told shoppers the whole truth?