Fake Online Florists Causing Problems For Legitimate Businesses, Customers
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FORNEY (CBS11) - Just days before Valentine's Day, a florist in Forney says she is getting the blame for unfulfilled flower orders and says it is not her fault.
"It's heartbreaking when your customers call you thinking you didn't deliver their flowers," said Kim Franklin, who owners Kim's Creations.
Franklin feels the problem is that when folks search for "Kim's Creations" or even just for a "Forney florist," a near identical business pops up on Google first.
Franklin said she is not associated with "Kim's Florist," which claims to be in Irvine, California.
"(They say) where are my flowers? I ordered flowers, they were never delivered," said Franklin.
Franklin said she keeps getting orders forwarded to her and all of the calls when customers claim their flowers were not delivered.
"That's when I have to tell them, unfortunately they made a website and people think it's me and it's not," said Franklin. "That's devastating. People are going through loses. They don't need to be ripped off in the middle of that."
When multiple calls were made to Kim's Florist, no one answered.
Reviews on Yelp echoed Franklin's sentiment. She has a message for the folks behind the fake site:
"All those people who are sending flowers to their loved ones that they're not getting, how do you sleep at night?" questioned Franklin.
CBS11 reached out to the flower referral service company about why's they're sending referrals to Kim's in Forney. We also reached out to Google about the ads they're running. Neither company has responded.
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