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You may have noticed that European Flower Company includes the term "real local florist" on our website. We do this to insure that people know that European Flower Company is owned by local residents, that we have a physical retail flower shop at 1284 Washington Street, that we are contributing to the local economy and tax base and that we will fill your order to full value. Through our business, we have made a major financial investment in Weymouth and will be here for many years to come as your Weymouth florist. We guarantee our flowers for five days (although we frequently are told that they last much longer) and, if for any reason, you have an issue that needs to be resolved, we will resolve it promptly.
Over the past two years, some flower "order gathers", cloaked as local florists have begun advertising as local Weymouth florists in an attempt to deceive Weymouth consumers. There is currently a "Florist in Weymouth" listing on Google local, with a fraudulent local address and a phone number that is forwarded to a call center out of state.
When ordering online, a florist listed as "local" may not be in the state, let alone the town you are searching for. These "order gatherers" frequently use bogus local addresses so that they will show up as a "local" on yahoo maps and other search engines. They will not be delivering your flowers themselves but will pass along or "wire" your order to a real local florist in your town but at nowhere near the price you paid for the order.
These order gathers/fake online florists frequently advertise "cheap flowers" or "free delivery" to attract your interest.They aren't filling your order so why should they care about how little they charge for the flowers? But when they try to forward your order to a local florist, they are either not able to get the order filled at the discounted price you paid or the arrangement will be very sparse and not what you expected, although the local florist who received the order filled it to the full value they received for the order.
Onine order gathers/fake florists may also advertise "farm fresh" or "direct from the grower". This means that the flowers are delivered unarranged, just a bunch of flowers in a box, perhaps with a vase also packed in the bottom of the box. Since these flowers are delivered by FedEx, DHL or a similar package delivery company, they have not been maintained in accordance with the Cold Chain flower care standards advocated by the Society of American Florists.
Most "order gathers" keep over 25% of the money you paid for the order, sending only 73% of the price paid to the local florist who is actually making and delivering your flowers. The local florist receives the order (at the discounted price) and will fill it to this value. You think that you are sending a $100 but you are really sending only a $73 arrangement. And the order gatherer/fake online florist has pocketed $27 for the pleasure of taking your order and sending it to a local florist. Doesn't sound quite right, does it?
Most local florists have websites that allow for easy online ordering and all local florists are happy to take an order over the phone. When you order through a real local florist, your order will be filled to full value and your dollars will be kept in the community.
If you are not familiar with the company's name, always check to make sure that an online listing is a real local florist. Mapping the listing won't help as "order gatherers' use fraudulent local addresses to trick customers into thinking they are a local business. The easiest way to check on a florist's location is to call the listed phone number and verify the physical shop address by telling the person who answers the phone that you would like to "come in in person to pick something out".
Hank Phillippi Ryan did an investigative report of an "order gatherer" , a real local florist and a local dissatisfied customer. Please click on the link below to view her report:
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