First, let me make a promise. Our floral shop will NEVER deceive our customers by using the deceptive marketing tactics that will be mentioned here. As a consumer, We all realize the convenience of ordering products or services using online retailers. However, there has much news recently about many online retailers deceptively charging their customer’s credit cards by offering a promise of ‘Save $10 on your order” or some other similarly worded enticement.
What has come to light is that thousands of consumers have unwittingly become enrolled in a ” rewards club”or some other similarly named program by some on-line retailers. The company that you trusted and placed your order with, passes your credit card information to an affiliate of theirs. Without the consumer knowing that this has happened. That is until you receive your credit card bill. Many people that don’t review their credit card statement don’t even realize that this is happening and they are being charged every month without any benefit and without knowing it.
There are many big name companies that have been using these deceptive marketing practices. In the floral industry, three of the biggest names have been implicated. They are FTD, 1-800 Flowers and Proflowers.
As a result, many millions of dollars have been deceptively taken from consumers.
On the Real Florist Blog, Cathy Rulloda has written a great piece about this. Please click on this link for more information about the Senate’s investigation into deceptive online marketing .
Senate Investigation of Deceptive Online Marketing
This blog post has many links to articles written by The Washington Post, The Associated Press, the Motley Fool and other watch dog sources. You can also read about how these on-line retailers have been using these deceptive marketing practices are being investigated by Senator Jay Rockefeller and his Senate committee dealing with commerce in the United States.
As Consumers, all of Us need to be able to trust the businesses that We deal with. Hopefully, our friends and customers will benefit from knowing more about some of the unethical tactics and deceptive marketing schemes used by many of the on-line retailers that don’t deserve our trust.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Thank you for the efforts reinforcing the fact that Real Local Florists are the best way to order floral gifts. No hidden agendas, no “kickbacks”, no deceptive gimmicks such as found by using some online services.