Last month the two biggest names in online flowers, 1800FLOWERS.com and FTD.com, were summoned by the US Senate Commerce Committee for records of their participation in post transactional marketing programs labeled “scams,” “robbery” and “theft” by both angry consumers and US Senators. 
The congressional report lists both 1-800-Flowers and FTD as having received more than $10 million each in ‘bounties’ for turning shoppers’ credit card numbers over to investigation targets Affinion, Vertrue, and Webloyalty. Another division of FTD’s parent company United Online (UNTD), Classmates.com, raked in more than $70 million in the scheme.
Read CNET News coverage of the hearing here.
The CEO of FTD’s parent company, United Online was featured in a scathing article by Greg Sandoval of CNET News for having the temerity to blame the victims for being tricked by the smoke and mirrors ‘discount’ offers which ended up costing each duped shopper $10 to $20 monthly.
FTD is doubly dubious because they unwittingly enrolled all their thousands of websites hosted for local florist in WebLoyalty’s program and made it an ‘opt out’ – so some of the brick and mortar stores also felt the ire of fooled consumers. According to congressional records, The FTD local florist program, FTD Florists Online, netted the company between $1 and $10 Million in bounties, too.
Note to CEOs of both FTD and 1-800-Flowers: You can’t market the beauty and emotional benefits of flowers in the front of your sites while picking shoppers’ pockets at the back – and earn loyal fans.
It’s not just FTD.com and 1-800-Flowers.com
Another notable national flower seller, ProFlowers.com, has also received myriad complaints about it’s post transactional marketing agreement with a company called EZSVER. EZSVER was not part of the Senate investigations, but the net result is the same – consumers claim to have been unwittingly enrolled in an automatically debited ‘club’ after being offered ‘free shipping’ or a future discount.
Ethical lapses
From The Motley Fool: It’s a Dot-Com Minefield by Rick Aristotle Munarriz -
“The bigger problem, though, is that investors will question the ethics of these online merchants that have no problem handing over billing information in deceptive add-on deals.”
They should.
FTD, especially, used to be the ethical standard bearer of the flower business. The logo was synonymous with trust in flowers and florists. Not anymore.
Too much of the online flower world in the last decade has been built on lapses in ethics by the retail industry leadership, including:
- paying large bounties and commissions to affiliates who use false addresses and deceptive advertising to mislead consumers into believing they are purchasing from legitimate local florists in a community.
- using product photos that show more flowers than the recipes and descriptions they provide to local florists who actually make the deliveries.
- misleading consumers into believing the extra service charges ($12.99-19.99) actually pay for shipping and local delivery. (The companies pocket those fees and by contract, the florists subtract their delivery charges from the prices indicated on the products.)
Whither the ethics indeed… Paging Senator Rockefeller.
More coverage of the Senate hearings:
PC Magazine: Is Your Favorite E-Commerce Site Ripping You Off? by Chloe Albanisius
Information Week: Lawmakers Slam Deceptive Marketers by Thomas Clayburn
The Associated Press: Senators Blast Web sites for Scamming Shoppers by Lolita C./ Baldor
Washington Post: Rockefeller takes on aggressive online sales tactics, report finds firms misleading consumers by Cecilia King
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the problem on photos is very frequnt and it’s a shame because there’s nothing worse for a consumer to receive different good than the ones he expected . This is a major issues that every website should consider
I hate shops like this, the bigger a shop gets the worse the service gets…
And that is real for online shops as well as normal retailers.
Online florists have brought bad reputation to the florist fraternity!!! I hate them!!
You are sooooo right!!! We just dropped Ftd, finally couldn’t handle it anymore. It was a very hard choice because our older customers know Ftd as it was, not as it is today. We’re really frustrated with fake florists also, large and small. It’s horrible how many little puraunas are out there on the internet too. Thanks for reaching out… and informing people of these ugly bussiness practices. We really need help! We’re trying to get the word out as well on our blog and link back to you when we can.
Thanks Again, Main Floral of Anoka, MN
http://www.anokaflowers.com and http://www.mainfloral.net