With Valentine’s Day quickly approaching, many of you throughout the Milwaukee area will be searching the web looking for ways to send gorgeous floral bouquets to your loved ones. For most, if you aren’t familiar with any local florists or flower shops in your area, it can be hard not knowing where to turn. While a quick google search can yield an overwhelming amount of results on which floral service you should use to deliver flowers on a special occasion, our florists at Belle Fiori want you to be cautious about how you spend your hard earned money when it comes to deliveries.
Ordering something without seeing it can be risky, and while many sites and ads display gorgeous images of overflowing bouquets, it’s hard to know what the finished product will look like in reality. We hate to see people receive wilted, sparse arrangements that look nothing like what their giver intended upon delivery.
So we’re here to share a few tips with all of you out there in Southeastern Wisconsin. We hope these tips courtesy of Daley’s Florist on how to avoid getting scammed this Valentine’s Day ensure you get the most for your money-and a beautiful bouquet this season.
Tips for ordering flowers for delivery and how to get the best value, service and selection.
There is an imposter out there who is looking to take advantage of your thoughtful gesture. Florists refer to them as D.O.Gs, Deceptive Order Gatherers. They are tricky and relying on you to fall for their trap, but not you, because now you will know how they work.
Tips and Information:
– Spend $60 before tax at a real local florist and approximately $52 of that goes toward the arrangement itself. Spend $60 before tax on an order gatherer website and expect approximately $32.50 goes toward the arrangement. (Which do you think will look nicer?)
– Avoid clearing house type companies that pose as real florists. These scammers are known to send out low quality, cardboard box flowers or worst yet nothing is ever delivered at all.
– When doing an internet search for a local florist be careful, check the physical address of the business.
– Call them! Pretend you want to come in and pick something out. These fake listings will tell you they only do deliveries.
– If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Websites that show slashed prices and sales on their site are usually bogus. That’s not how a real florist works.
– Extremely high service charges. A $15 or $20 service charge is a huge red flag. This is not the same thing as a delivery charge.
– Order early for best selection. However, a real florist will rarely charge extra for same day delivery.
– If they answer the phone “Flower Shop” they are not a real florist. They pay to have listings for every town and could very well be based in an office building 3,000 miles away or even a foreign country.
– Check their reviews and their Facebook page. This should give you a good idea of who they are. Thousands of reviews are not a good sign. They pay people to leave positive ones to try and balance out all the negatives.
It doesn’t need to be hard to send a floral delivery. The easiest way is to know the name of your local florist. They can help you send anywhere and make sure you get what you want for a reasonable price.