On June 1st, FTD will roll out new charges for flower shops that do not promptly reject orders – charging as much as $20 for a florist to reject an order! Yet another blow to the harried, underpaid florist. On its FAQ page, FTD couches this in terms of the benefit to the fulfilling florist: “The goal of the Delayed Response Program is to increase the level of quality in the industry by proactively asking for quicker response times from our network of filling florists.” So when do rejected orders happen most often? It is during busy holiday seasons like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day, when FTD is advertising unreasonably priced items. Florists are too busy to check orders every thirty minutes to see if they entail reasonable pricing. Make no mistake, the burden should be on the order gatherers like FTD and Teleflora to offer reasonable pricing and ensure that fulfilling florists actually deliver to a given area. Below is the pricing penalty structure from FTD’s website. Still more evidence that FTD is succeeding in squeezing the margins of local florist.