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We no longer accept ANY orders through the floral wire servies, Teleflora or FTD. After 16 years as members of FTD
we decided to discontinue our membership. When we joined in 1989 we had to meet rigid standards to be accepted as a FTD member which was important because then being a FTD Member was a reliable indication that the florist that you were dealing with was a professional and you could count on them.
In early summer 1989 we had the FTD membership tester walk in, unexpectedly, introduce himself to Jane and request that she do a series of arrangements to prove her competence. Jane proudly met and surpassed the requirements which started our 16 years as members.
Unfortunately, there are no such procedures required anymore and it takes little more than a few dollars to become a "Member" so there are many poor quality shops and even some that aren't flower shops (those just take a large part of your money and send along only a portion of it to another real shop to have the order filled - and they even receive a rebate per order from the wire services without having to fill the order!).
Many people who order flowers, especially from SOME online virtual "flower shops" (virtual because they are order gathering services not really flower shops), are being disappointed because those sites promise discounts, free delivery and sometimes impossible deadlines. Most times the delivering florist doesn't even know of the circumstances of what was promised to the sender with some of these "florists" promising discounts that are really just less flowers for less money, delivery charges that were supposed to be free but are deducted from the price and promised delivery times that just aren't available. We've experienced this over the past couple of years and are no longer willing to be involved.
We feel that we can now serve our customers more economically and reliably this way.
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