Florists Hope for a Law to Nip Copycats in the Bud : Retail: State measure seeks to ban telemarketers that advertise under local phone numbers or names without disclosing an address.
For decades, customers identified Fullerton Florist with its owner, Katherine Cordova, her talent for wedding arrangements and her loquacious Pomeranian.
But a few years ago, a New Jersey telemarketer started advertising under the same business name in the phone book and elsewhere. Cordova says she lost about 60% of her business in the ensuing confusion.
She isn’t alone: National telemarketing outfits have invaded local florists’ turf like exotic weeds, setting up under familiar names and stealing away long-standing customers, the California State Floral Assn. says. But the telemarketers contend that they simply are introducing another element of competition.
The state Legislature recently acted to nip these practices in the bud, passing a bill that prohibits flower vendors from advertising under local phone numbers or fictitious names unless they disclose their true addresses. Gov. Gray Davis is expected to sign the measure into law by month’s end.
Disclosure ensures that consumers know whom they are dealing with and alerts them to service fees tacked on by out-of-state operators, the bill’s proponents say. It imposes no penalties on telemarketers such as 1-800-Flowers that do not use deceptive names.
“It’s just a matter of honesty and forthrightness,” said Assemblyman George House (R-Hughson), the bill’s author. “It doesn’t prevent anyone from doing business.”
Some telemarketers, however, say florist trade groups are trying through regulation to gain an edge that their members have lost in the marketplace.
Thomas Meola, president of thrivingRandolph, N.J.-based telemarketer Lower Forty Gardens Inc. and the most vilified figure in the flower-trade feud, has purchased phone listings that pair thousands of city names nationwide with such labels as “Florist,” “Flowers,” “Florist of” and “Florist in.”
But Lower Forty owns no stores, no warehouses and not so much as a single bloom. Consumers’ orders come into its phone bank and are funneled out to about 4,000 florists that give Meola volume discounts. The company’s sales grew 45% last year, Meola said.
He disputed floral groups’ contention that his tactics are unfair and deceive consumers.
“Does anyone have exclusive right to a geographic name?” he said. “If you use a generic name, you can’t protect it. If I can deliver what I sell, how am I the bad guy?”
The Society of American Florists began a nationwide campaign for disclosure laws about three years ago when a bumper crop of telemarketing operations such as Meola’s sprouted up. Fourteen other states have passed measures similar to California’s.
About 250 flower businesses with local-sounding names but no physical locations advertise in California, the state floral association said. Shops with Anaheim, Buena Park and other Southland cities in their names compete with similar or identically named phantoms. Several connect callers to a phone bank in Tampa, Fla.
When bouquets go awry or do not live up to expectations, customers sometimes misdirect their ire at local shop owners without realizing they had placed orders with out-of-state twins, California florists say.
“The customer calls the local shop to complain, and there’s no record of the order,” said Don Corey, owner of Yuba City Florist and chairman of the FTD Assn., a network of florists. “You have an unhappy customer who thinks he’s been taken, and he’s not even your customer to begin with.”
Telemarketers usually add on service fees of $9 to $12 an order, twice as much as a local shop typically charges, Corey said.
Meola, who imposes an $8.95 service charge, said he gets just one complaint for every 200 sales and offers customers a 24-hour unconditional guarantee. FTD wants telemarketers regulated because they are eating into the fees the wire service collects on long-distance orders, he said.
Meola said vague language in the California bill will make it difficult to determine who falls within its jurisdiction or to compel telemarketers to give their addresses.
“What’s a ‘true’ location?” he said. “Do I have to have a warehouse, a store, or what? It’s hard to enforce a law like that.”
Florist associations, however, say just passing disclosure statutes acts as a deterrent. In Connecticut, which enacted its law in 1997, most telemarketers have opted to stop advertising under fictitious local names rather than reveal their headquarters, flower industry leaders said.
“We have five or six cases pending, but basically the ads have disappeared,” said Bob Heffernan, executive vice president of the Connecticut Florists Assn.
At Fullerton Florist, Cordova said she hopes the California law will separate her shop from pretenders. Violators face fines of up to $2,500.
“When people are kidding around, they say, ‘What’s it going to take, an act of Congress?’ ” Cordova said, in between her dog’s staccato barking. “This pretty much has. It may not seem like a big deal, but it’s our living--it’s a big deal to us.”
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Stemming the Deception
The Federal Trade Commission issued an alert about deceptive flower-selling tactics in April 1998, giving tips to help consumers protect themselves:
* Deal only with florists that list a street address with their phone number. If you ask directory assistance for a number, also ask for an address. If a florist hesitates or refuses to supply an address, hang up.
* Check out florists’ complaint records with the Better Business Bureau and the state Department of Consumer Affairs.
* Ask florists to itemize charges to find out in advance about service, handling or processing fees.
* Remember your options if an arrangement doesn’t arrive or doesn’t meet expectations. You can complain to the florist, wire service or telemarketer or dispute charges through your credit card issuer.
Source: Federal Trade Commission
