My word of advice to everyone--next time READ EVERYTHING CAREFULLY. Sleazy companies like Trilegiant and Affinion make money by people who don't read, like you! They then turn around and convince executives at big companies that they'll bring in lots of free money. The executives are COMPLETELY CLUELESS and just see dollar signs, not realizing that they are PISSING off customers and destroying their companies. You see more and more of this at banks, car rental places, retailers. They live off of PT Barnum's adage--there's a sucker born every minute. Think about it--if a guy on the street came up to you and said they'd give you $15 if you sign a piece of paper, would you do it? If not, then why are you clicking on a big button that says YES when you don't have any idea what it does??

Do them and us all a big favor--be a SMART consumer and put these sleazy companies out of business!!!!

dontclick

It's good advice to check what you're clicking on, but who would reasonably expect that this would even be a part of the process of ordering flowers?

It's perfectly legal*, but that doesn't make it right.

(*Probably. Not a lawyer here.)

gamaliel

They do the EXACT same thing so you can "save" 50% off your first order ... from there on out your gonna get nailed from some other company.

If you hAve to prepay for a discount, its generally a scam.

AMetamorphosis

What's most interesting or disappointing depending on how you look at it is this little factoid I've obtained from people that work there: People that actually use their services lose this company money. If you actually use their discount programs, they actually lose money on you. What they're hoping is you sign up, and either don't notice or forget, and they keep pinging your credit card every month or every year.

trilegiant

MissedTheExit

Here is their review page on Yahoo Shopping: [shopping.yahoo.com]
1-800-Flowers gets a 1& 1/2 out of 5 stars, a poor service rating.

Here are their subsidiaries, via Wikipedia: [en.wikipedia.org]

Fannie May Confections, Inc.
Harry London Candies
Fannie Farmer Chocolate
Cheryl&Co. - gourmet cookies
Plow and Hearth - home decor
WineTasting Network - a distributor for California wineries
Ambrosia Wine - the WineTasting Network's direct-to-consumer wine club
Hearthsong - a children's toy company
Magic Cabin - a children's toy company
The Popcorn Factory
Wind and Weather
Problem Solvers
Bloomnet

Call a local florist, like several people suggested. You'll get better service.

marsneedsrabbits

graffiksguru

In my situation, there was no check box. I'm very careful about how I use credit cards online, thanks to my paranoid parents. I did some research and some sources claimed that WebLoyalty (the ones who got me) automatically sign some people up simply by them purchasing from a participating online retailer, no opt-in required. I don't wholly believe that, but for the last seven months I've been slowly digging backwards through credit card transactions trying to find when, where, and how WebLoyalty got me, because I know I didn't opt-in or un-opt-out for anything.

chrisjames

Also this product is a collection of health and entertainment discounts built for 800flowers by livewell with discounts on all sorts of things. The breakage is the people who actually use the benefits vs. those who dont and just get billed. You can milk significant savings out of these programs but it takes active use and drive to do it, not often worth it over all especially if your the type to see "free" money and just submit to things.

kitf0x

cybercjh

nytmare

snoop-blog

Note: for new websites that I choose to do business with (rarely), I do scour every single word. Oh, and for Go Daddy, who I'm slowly leaving for all their post-sales garbage they force me to read lest I make a mistake. But for normal transactions? Fine print? Yeah, the consumer can be legally wrong, but those web sites are pricks.

balthisar

Here is a free clue:

If scammers would be up front about what these checkboxes did, instead of LYING and then hiding a retraction behind a link or in small text, then they would not be accused of fraud via credit card chargebacks and would not get blasted on this website.

But they are scammers. So the won't. And guess what ... most of us aren't going to blame the victim either.

kbarrett

mgy

mgy

Don't check boxes you don't want to agree to, and don't leave any boxes checked that you don't want. This is what we call smart.

Lately the Consumerist complaints have been really dumb. Customer idiocy is not a valid complaint against companies.

(sure, web sites probably should not provide forms with pre-checked opt-in boxes, but it takes only a few brains to uncheck such boxes.)

krom

Gorky

I have come across a handful of e-comm sites on the internet that sent me off to a third-party site for other offers, some of which were quite dubious. I do not, nor will I ever, complete an order when they do that. And I will call and cancel if it's post order.

zentec

SacraBos

sagis9

I have an HR rep in our corporate office that really went above and beyond for me, and I'd like to send her something nice. I was considering 1-800-FLOWERS, but after ready this article and the comments, I think I'll avoid them in future.

Corydon

bravo369

I only shop at Amazon.com and some airlines (directly, no third-parties), and I've honestly never checked any discount or rebate boxes, ever. I've never seen any. I always go straight from adding to cart to checking out and paying. Even though it's technically not a scam how it's set up, I don't understand how my card got signed up, nor why Amazon seems to allow this, if they are aware of it.

chrisjames

why do flower companies in particular feel the need to escalate the weasel arms race? like stanfrombrooklyn says, all it does is irritate customers and hurt their brand.

tinders

For the people who I'd just like to send something SMALL too (like a co-worker on a bad day), I don't need to spend girlfriend-worthy prices.

I second the google-maps-for-local-shop idea.

weakdome

LiveWell seems to be a program that if you join will give you various discounts at certain websites.

[livewell.net]

bonzombiekitty

stanfrombrooklyn

A quick google search pulled up some sort of health web site.

mike

timmus

mdkiff