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I work in a flower shop. A little after we open for the day, around 9:30, I received an order to be delivered to a funeral from a wire service. I had other orders for that funeral that I have already delivered, and I knew that they had to be delivered before 9:00 am this morning, as per the request of the funeral home. I refuse the order. Then, I have the following conversation over messages from said company.

Me: “Too late for delivery. Funeral needed to be delivered by 9:00 am.”

At 9:45 am:

Wire Service: “Our records state that the funeral is at 12:00. Proceed with delivery for this order.”

Me: “The visitation starts at 10:00 am; the funeral home is a half-hour away, plus the time it would take to assemble the order makes it impossible to get there in time. If you want this delivered, I need a home address for the family.”

I once again refuse the order.

At 11:30 am:

Wire Service: “We told our customer it would be there for the service. Proceed with delivery.”

Me: “No, you’re not the ones that get blamed for being late. We are. I will not take it.”

The wire service begins to resend the order every thirty to forty-five minutes. Each time, I refuse it, growing more frustrated that they are wasting my time and printer paper every time they resend the order.

Finally, around 2:00 pm, I turn off the order service, blocking all orders from coming in for the day just to get them to stop… only for them to start again the next morning.

Me: “Stop sending this order. The funeral was yesterday. If your customer wants something delivered, they need to call us directly with a home address.”

Rinse and repeat, with them sending the same order over and over to be delivered to the funeral home until I once again turn off the wire service in the afternoon…. only to get the same order the next morning.

Me: “STOP SENDING THIS ORDER! THE FUNERAL IS OVER! I WILL NOT TAKE IT TO THE FUNERAL HOME WHEN THE FUNERAL WAS TWO DAYS AGO!”

I call the company that manages the ordering system, but they can’t help me with getting them to stop other than what I have been doing or blocking them from our system completely. While it is tempting to do so, they account for about 25% of our monthly sales.

The wire service then sends the order back three times that day before sending this message with it.

Wire Service: “How much extra money do you need to get this order delivered?”

I put in the maximum amount it will allow me to enter.

Me: “$999,999,999,999 — possibly more since the funeral is over and I am just unsure how much it will cost to build a time machine, but send the initial funds and I’ll let you know when I need more.”

With that, they finally stopped sending that order, but unfortunately, I never got the money I requested.