One of the big attractions of buying things using the Internet is avoiding the middleman. By buying direct from the manufacturer, or at least from a wholesaler, you avoid a whole lot of transport, storage and advertising costs added to the price of the product, as well as general business overheads. It's easy to think that florists online are the same. So when you've got a sick cousin who lives in New York, you might think the best thing to do is get online and do a search for "New York florists". By ordering flowers locally for your cousin, you believe you'll get fresher flowers and cut out any extra fees charged by a centralized ordering service.
Of course the big problem with the Internet is that appearances can be very deceiving. Unfortunately this has happened to the florist industry online. National companies set up websites or advertisements online, which appear to be for a local florist in New York, for example. But although you might think you're ordering flowers from a New York florist, so you get a better deal, in fact your order gets sent to a central booking office and is then sent on to a local florist - with extra fees included.
It's a very frustrating situation, because it's not always that easy to spot the bogus advertisers. Often they have thousands of web pages online, each one targeted to a specific city. They also pay high prices to make sure their ads are at the top of the list. The phone number is a local number, so it looks genuine, but then it redirects to a central location. Many consumer groups and other authorities have condemned this practice for its misleading nature, but it still happens.
Of course the big problem with the Internet is that appearances can be very deceiving. Unfortunately this has happened to the florist industry online. National companies set up websites or advertisements online, which appear to be for a local florist in New York, for example. But although you might think you're ordering flowers from a New York florist, so you get a better deal, in fact your order gets sent to a central booking office and is then sent on to a local florist - with extra fees included.
It's a very frustrating situation, because it's not always that easy to spot the bogus advertisers. Often they have thousands of web pages online, each one targeted to a specific city. They also pay high prices to make sure their ads are at the top of the list. The phone number is a local number, so it looks genuine, but then it redirects to a central location. Many consumer groups and other authorities have condemned this practice for its misleading nature, but it still happens.
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