Sick Joke or Weird Prank?

[calulu]

So I haven't posted in a while, nothing worth while posting except the usual assortment of weirdo sexual fetish guys and guys buying expensive crap for strippers.

Last night someone called that had ordered a gourmet snacks and fruit basket for a vegan and the florist had put a pound of raw bacon in the center. Okay, so that is freaky and I can see being upset. But the sucky customer part happened when the recip insisted that we pay her several hundred dollars pain and suffering for being subjected to the horrors of raw meat.

Don't know if the florist actually did this or if someone was simply trying to scam the company. Leaning towards scam.

[Kittish]

I'm going to go with scam. I spent 5 years in floral design, and I cannot imagine ANY florist shop putting raw meat into any gift basket unless the order specifically called for it, and even then, they probably wouldn't be happy about doing it because their coolers aren't cold enough to safely hold something like that plus the fact that a gift basket is likely going to spent a LEAST several hours in a delivery vehicle. And all that's entirely aside from the fact that not following the order means the shop is out of money when the customer demands a refund because the recipient didn't get what was ordered.

[JLRodgers]

I would think it would be a scam based on the money (of course, asking for the money back, plus the difference in having to get a rush order from someplace else I could see)....

At the same time knowing what some people do with vegetarian/vegans to "tease them for being stupid", that would be a pretty tame thing. For that matter, I've known a few people put something in food that a person is allergic to because they think it'd be "funny", or putting meat at the bottom of a salad for a vegetarian so they were eating "meat" without realizing it because it'd be "funny".

[Ben_Who]

Another half-baked theory from Ben Who: the "friend" put meat into the arrangement, wasn't prepared for the horrified reaction, and tried to pin the blame on theflorist to save face. I saw similar in high school all the time.

Love, who?

[BookstoreEscapee]

Does the company even have anything that includes raw meat in their catalog in the first place?

[calulu]

Nope, not a thing with raw meat. Now sometimes we'll get a florist that is ESL that might put the wrong things or cheaper things in the basket, like yesterday I had someone that went to Kroger, got cheap sale items to put in the basket without removing price tags and tried to pocket the difference. I'm pretty sure this one is a scam. Waiting to hear back from the florist.

[JLRodgers]

Yeah, if you have no raw things, most likely a scam, or a "friend prank gone wrong" as Ben_Who mentioned -- at least a lot higher chance to the point of anything else being almost impossible.

[Andara Bledin]

A pound of bacon isn't exactly cheap, either. And no florist would ever have something like that on hand.

I'm with Ben on the "friend" putting the bacon in there and not being prepared for how badly the recip would react to the "gift."

^-.-^

[Shalom]

I would have told them this is a Kosher establishment and we wouldn't even have bacon on the premises, so they must be mistaken.

(Not that there's any such thing as kosher flowers, but still. Like Calvin said to Hobbs regarding the monsters under the bed, "They lie, I lie.")

I'm reminded of an exchange I read on notalwaysright.com regarding someone who called in a complaint, claiming he'd found a used prophylactic in his sandwich. Sandwich guy says "Not possible, we don't do safe sex here." and the guy says "Well played, sir" and hangs up...

[bubblelittlepally]

I'm going to go with scam or someone they know is screwing with them, kind of off the wall to assume some rogue florist is out there putting bacon in people's arrangements.

[bainsidhe]

Mmmmm, bacon.

[MsSasha]

As a vegetarian of 5 years, I feel like I should chime in just to say.. just seeing meat is not offensive. Meat exists even if I choose not to eat it, someone sending me a pound of bacon would not mortally offend me. It definately sounds scammy to me

[Andara Bledin]

I've known some vegans who would absolutely flip out over something like that.

I still vote that the giver put the bacon in there for the receiver and didn't expect her to lose it so completely and is now trying to blame the florist for it to get out of being the focus of the crazy.

^-.-^