A Rose By Any Other Blame

(I live in the northeast, so Valentine’s Day in February tends to be very cold, typically below freezing. I work in a family-owned flower shop which has been in business since the late 1800s. Two days after Valentine’s Day, I get a phone call.)

Caller: “My husband sent me flowers and they never got delivered!”

Me: “I’m sorry, let me look this up for you.” *does so* “Ah, yes, I see that they were fresh-cut pink roses wrapped in a bouquet. No one was home to accept them so we left a phone message and a note on the door. They would not have survived in the weather, and the water tubes only last so long.”

Customer: “I never got a phone call!” *then contradicts herself* “Well, I spoke with the delivery guy — who, by the way, sounded like he wasn’t even old enough to drive — and told him to leave them!”

Me: “Ma’am, we instruct our delivery people to only leave flowers if there is a safe, warmer place to leave them where they won’t freeze, so I apologize he did not do as you said, but he must not have felt comfortable leaving them. And I assure you, all of our delivery drivers are actually over 21. We hire many ages of drivers. He’s a temporary driver for the holiday, so he was only doing as I instructed him.”

Customer: “He should have left them if I told him to! My husband took a chance ordering from you people! He could have gone to a nicer, bigger flower shop, but no, he decided to try to support you people and look what happened!”

Me: “I would be happy to replace the flowers today. I’m sure you’d prefer fresh flowers, and would have been very sad to come home to frozen roses on your doorstep.”

Customer: “You have no idea what I’d be sad about! That’s a question for a psychologist, isn’t it? How dare you speculate as to what I’d be sad about?! You don’t know me! I don’t want pink roses, anyway! They don’t match my décor! He should have bought me cream-colored roses or something!”

Me: “Well, ma’am, I guess you should tell him in the future that you’d prefer a different type of gift. Please let me know if you’d like them replaced this week.”

(I called her husband and explained the problem, and gave him a partial refund in the meantime. I never heard back from her, but he apologized up and down.)