Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Another Reason Why We Don't Participate in National Wire Services



Consumer Reports recently published an article regarding the quality of flowers purchased online from national wire services. This article will make you think twice about ordering from this impersonal method of ordering flowers and may perhaps encourage you from purchasing your next flower order from your neighborhood florist. Read on to find out why.

Thinking of thanking your favorite Mom with a Mother’s Day bouquet? The results of our study show that the blooms she receives might bear little resemblance to the blooms you thought you bought. Local flower shops vary across the nation, of course, so we ordered from three national florists that send at least some of their orders from central locations, which should let them control quality. Those threw are 1800Flowers.com, FTD.com, and ProFlowers.com. We chose roses, tulips, orchids, and mixed bouquets, for a total of 24 deliveries. We paid $57 to $87 for the flower, optional vases, and assorted delivery charges.

When the flowers arrived at our headquarters, their first appointment was with our photography department, where they were arranged to resemble their website photo as closely as possible. (We had to eliminate a few deliveries that were destroyed by a snowstorm.)
We then asked 16 people to compare the paired photos and judge how satisfied they’d be with the real bouquet, from thrilled to horrified. Judges were comparing the ad to reality, so what mattered was not how attractive a received arrangement was but how closely it matched what the buyer intended to send. We then crunched the judgments to determine the order of satisfaction.

For pictures of what they viewed online before ordering versus what they actually received at their doorstep, please read on...

Here are some pictures of what we found: online pictures versus in-person pictures.

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