Today I'm talking with Robin, who has for the most part of her life, lived above and run a family flower shop in Port Moody. How are you?
I'm good. So you tell me that you have a few memorable stories to tell me about your time working there. Do you want to start with maybe a story about a customer.
Sure! As Wendy had said, I have been working at a flower shop for about seven years, and within those seven years you get to meet lots of different customers with different personalities. One of the customers that I can remember quite vividly is someone who had come in to complain about flowers. Sometimes we do get lots of complaints about flowers due to the fact that they have wilted or they haven't opened, and other situations that can arise with flowers due to the fact that they are living. They do need care, they do need water and sometimes people don't know how to take care of them and so they'll return 'em saying that it was our fault that they are dead. Right.
One lady came in and she complained that her flowers had died and she had purchased them the day before. She brought in the receipt with the total of the amount and stated that she would like her money back for the flowers. I proceeded to open the packaging on the flowers and look through all the flowers to see, you know, what had happened, if it was due to the fact that she hadn't cut the flowers and put them in water right away, etc. When I looked at the flowers, they seemed fine, most of them. Some of the tulips were a little wilted, but that's normal for tulips - sometimes they do droop over. And there were some roses that were opened, probably faster than would be normal. So I agreed to the fact that I would give her back all of her money and that I would let her take the flowers that were still fairly decent, so that she can enjoy them still at home. I looked at the receipt and I went to the total, and then I proceeded to give her back all of the money that was at the total of the receipt. When she left, I was fine with it, you know I I'd rather have a customer come in and be happy with our service and know that, you know, we are willing to give them a product that they will enjoy And accountable for whatever items you give them Exactly. But then when I looked through the receipt more "detailedly", I noticed that she had not brought back all the flowers that she had purchased. So there were, I think, $20 more worth of flowers that she had left at home that she did not bring back to us for us to look at.
Oh!
I did not know this!
And she didn't mention it? She did not mention it the whole time. So I had given her back her money for all the flowers, including the $20 worth of flowers that she had kept at home, and so we were sort of shorted $20, which made me very mad and very frustrated because I felt cheated.
Right.
And it, at first it seemed strange that she did have a receipt, because rarely people ask for receipts when they purchase flowers.
Right.
So then it started making me wonder, "Was this a whole plot"? That maybe she had come in earlier, the day before, and asked for a receipt, knowing that maybe, you know, she wouldn't be able to take care of the flowers or something like that and then come back the next day if something had happened, and then she would be able to get her full money back, but also keep the flowers that she had at home still. Right.
So that was one customer that I was not very pleased with. I think, for many days after, I kept re-evaluating how I had dealt with the situation, and thought maybe if I had done it differently, if I had looked at the receipt and maybe realized that she did have flowers maybe I could sort of catch her on that and tell her, "Oh look, there are $20 worth of flowers that you did not bring into us. I'm not going to give you the money back for that 'cause obviously those flowers are still okay." It must be really difficult, because most people want to believe that, you know, most of the people are really, basically good people and that you want to be able to trust people.
Exactly.
And, especially in a family business, you build relationships with your customers, and I can understand that it wouldn't be your first concern to think that someone is trying to trick you To trick you, or rip you off, or trying to, you know, get the best of your business, you know, with your niceness, and your givingness that they would try to just come in and sort of cheat you out of money. So that was kind of frustrating.
Well, I think that people should believe that, for the most part, a lot of people are good people, but for the people who aren't, I guess you could just like attribute it to a learning experience. Um hmm.
Do you have any, maybe, romantic stories?
I do. When you work in a flower shop there are lots of people that come in to buy flowers for, you know, a significant other, you know, either to go out on a date, or for an anniversary. So once there was a gentleman who wanted to be kind of a romantic sort of guy and was going to get flowers delivered to his wife, who worked at the library. But he wanted it signed "From a secret admirer". He gave us instructions that if she did phone the store and ask for the person's name or the phone number, to not give it to her and just to say that it was someone who came in and wanted to give her flowers. That's a very romantic way to make your significant other feel really special and attractive still. Yeah! I think he thought it was really romantic. But then when we delivered the flowers to her, obviously she was really grateful that she was getting flowers, she immediately assumed that they were from her husband, but when she opened the card it said , "From your secret admirer". I think she did ask her husband if it was from him and he denied it, and said, "Oh, no, it's not from me, it must be from some secret admirer," and then I think they just left it at that. But then the husband came the next week and asked to deliver some more flowers to her, signed, "From your secret admirer". He proceeded to do this for, I think, a whole month.
Wow!
And so every week, I think, we were delivering flowers to her at her place of business, at the library, with the flowers signed, "Your secret admirer. After a while, I think she started to get a little paranoid. She didn't know who they were from, 'cause her husband, I guess, had continued to deny that they were from him. So I think her and her colleagues started to let their imaginations run wild and started to think that maybe it was some sort of person that was sort of stalking her, or harassing her, etc. So they phoned and asked "You know, look. I really am concerned about who is sending me all of these flowers. I would really like to know who it is." So my mother said, "Look, we cannot tell you who it is, due to the fact that the person who purchased it does not wish to have his name revealed. However, I will speak to him." So my mom spoke to the husband and said "Look, I think your wife is getting a little concerned. Maybe you should tell her that it was from you." I think on the last… I think the husband then again ordered another bunch of flowers, but this time he personally delivered to her and when he delivered it, he admitted to the fact that he was the one that had delivered the flowers for the whole month and it was him who was the secret admirer. I think the whole lie registered, like, I think they were relieved.
Right.
At the same time, sort of thought they were kind of like silly for thinking that it was some sort of other person that was harassing her. I think they were just trying to like make some sort of wild, imaginative story just to… I don't know, for fun. But it was romantic in the end, and I think she was really appreciative of all the flowers, so What really strikes me is maybe the husband's ability to lie, because for a whole month he'd probably been denying the fact that it was her and watching her get really worried and concerned and, you know, she seemed to work herself up into this big, stressful thing that she shared with everyone at work, so it's amazing that he could lie for that long! I think, I think he at the end, like I think after the second week or so, she stopped telling him. I think she just sort of kept the flowers at work and was trying to deal with it within work, not trying to get her husband upset that there was some sort of secret admirer.
Oh!
The poor girl!
So I think she was thinking that there was some sort of guy that was after her that wasn't her husband and she didn't want to tell her husband 'cause then her husband would get mad. So it was just a whole sort of like emotional thing for her, and in the end it was her husband, so it was quite sweet in that manner, but I think it just didn't work out in the way that he had expected it to. You know, this story sounds a lot like a plot from a sitcom show on television!
It could be!
Yeah? Well do you have any other stories?
I have another story that's not really related to the flower business or to any customers. However, it did occur when I was working at the flower shop. There was one day in which my sister, who is a recent driver, she's a new driver and she has to have the green "N" on her car to, you know, tell everyone else that she is a new driver And were you working at the store at the time? Yeah, I was working at the store at the time, and she was coming to pick me up. And at our store we are located within sort of a strip mall… Yes. …and so I asked her to just, you know, stop the car in front of our door and then I would run out and jump in the car. When she got there, I was busy with a customer, so I couldn't, you know, just run out and jump in the car and just leave with her Right. so she went and parked the car. As she was parking the car, she went in to the Parking stall? The parking stall at a weird angle, and she… I wasn't there, so I don't know for sure but gently rubbed against the truck that was beside her. Okay.
She then told me that the person, the owner of the truck, came out of the truck and started yelling at my sister.
What was the owner like?
The owner… she was a middle-aged women, probably about 38, very short, and she was driving a huge truck and she came out and started yelling at my sister saying, "Look at the damage that you've done to my car! This is at least worth hundreds of dollars! Two hundred or three hundred dollars. Give me your phone number now and I'm going to phone you and you're going to have to pay for this damage." Okay.
At the time, I think she even asked for the money up front.
Oh!
I think she asked for a hundred or two hundred - something like that amount of money, and said, "You're going to have to pay for this damage". My sister, who was probably 17 at the time, very young, didn't know what to do, just said, "Fine, I'll pay for it, here's my number, I don't have any money right now, but I'll pay for it. I'll talk to my parents and somehow we'll get the money for you". So I guess she was too young to think it was really suspicious or out of the ordinary that this woman would ask her for money up front in cash?
Probab… well, she didn't really know the proper protocols of any sort of accidents that occur within, like BC, like what you're supposed to do. She knew that you were supposed to get each others' numbers, but she didn't know that she was supposed to go through ICBC. Right.
And also, Emily thought, she knew she had rubbed against the truck, so she didn't really look to see what the damage was. Okay.
So in a way, she did feel at fault, because she did rub against it.
Yes.
So, my sister came into the store while I was helping a customer and told me this, said that she had rubbed against a person's truck (she was crying at the time, too) and that she is demanding that she gives her… that my sister pay, like hundreds of dollars and that she had to give the phone number and she's gonna phone. And I got upset 'cause I'm, like, "Well, let me go see the truck and see how much damage there is, 'cause we really should have a record of this, so she doesn't start, you know, taking you out of like lots of money." So I gave my flowers to my co-worker, my cousin, who works at the store, and just ran out of the store and she dealt with the customer. I ran out and the lady in the truck was just about to drive out of the parking lot. I stopped her and I told her, "My sister has just rubbed against your car and you claim that there is damage. I would like to see it." So did you stop her right in the middle of like, in her parking stall, or did you stop her in the middle of the parking lot?
In the middle of the parking lot.
Oh!
I stopped her there and she could have parked the car in a stall, but instead, she just stopped it there, turned off the car, and I ran over to the side in which my sister had said she had rubbed against it.
Okay.
I then looked for any type of damage, a scratch, anything like that, I couldn't see anything. There was nothing there. There was dust and that was about it. I then told her to get out of her car and to come over and to show me where the scratch was, that she had claimed had been on her truck.
Okay.
She came out, she said, "The scratch is right there!" She sorted pointed in a general area of where I was looking already. I said, "Well, directly point to where the scratch is 'cause I do not see anything." I then continued to rub the truck just to get the dust out, just so that I could get a better view of the area that we were looking at.
Okay.
And she continued to claim that there was a scratch there, but she would not be able to point it out.
Okay.
I continued to ask, "Just point out where the scratch is! I just need to see where it is!" And she wouldn't be able to! And in the meantime were there other people around you as witnesses?
There were other people. There was a lot of people who were just sort of, I guess, standing and watching and just listening to us argue and sort of bicker back and forth, and a lot of people were actually trying to get out of their parking stalls, but couldn't because she was parked right in the middle of the parking lot. I see.
I then said, "Well, just park your car, I just want to get a camera so that I can take a picture of this, so I have some sort of proof that we did not do any damage to your car 'cause we are not going to pay for hundreds and two hundreds of dollars for no damage! Right.
And it's really strange that she would demand that from someone who, from her point of view, is basically a kid! That's taking advantage of a kid! Exactly! So, eventually, I think she just got embarrassed, she went back into her truck and said "Fine, whatever." She just sort of brushed me off, got back in her truck and drove off quickly. We never heard from her since, so obviously she came to her senses and realized that there was no damage and that she was just trying to get money out of my sister. I think it was very dramatic… traumatic for my sister at the time because she, I guess, didn't know what to do, and secondly, I think this was the first time she had ever seen me, like get upset, like get sort of, frustrated and angry with someone, so I think she was even more sort of emotional that I was getting angry and emotional. And I think in the end, it was just a really Negative experience. negative experience, yes.
Well, also, maybe at 17 for her, she was still very trusting of adults, and she wouldn't, she wouldn't take into account the fact that people do take advantage of other people. And do you think that that woman was maybe waiting for someone to scratch her car? Do you think she purposely was trying to scam your sister out of money, or do you think she honestly did think that there was a scratch there and just realized that she was wrong?
I don't think she… I think she was scamming my sister. I think she took the opportunity… she knew my sister had rubbed against her truck, took that opportunity that she had done that act, that she was young, that she was a new driver, and realized, "Hey, I can say that there is some sort of damage and get some money out of it." That's quick thinking on her part, because when things like that happen, I don't think, for myself, or for most people the first thing that would occur to you is that you can take advantage of the situation. There was this woman who maybe didn't have a lot of money and that's why she was thinking that way? Or did she just seem like a normal person who might have just been mean?
Well, she might not have had a lot of money, but she was driving a new large truck, so Oh. you know That's really interesting. I mean there are some people who are really nice. I've been in an accident, well not really an accident, in which there was a bug in my car, and I was trying to kill it. So I was decelerating and there was a car in front of me and I gently sort of tapped it. Not very hard, and he came out and he's like, don't worry about it, there is no damage, I'm not going to call ICBC, so just don't worry about it at all. And we, we drove off fine. And he was nice about it, knowing that, even though there was a potential of damage, or potential that he could get me out of money, he realized that there was nothing wrong, there was no scratch, and that it wouldn't have been worth it in the end to go through all this ICBC and everything, so Well, it's nice to know that there are people out there who aren't looking to take advantage of anyone every chance that they get. Exactly.
Well, I guess there are all kinds of people out there, and it's really kind of interesting that you've met all these kinds of people in your flower shop, or around your flower shop. It's an interesting job. Well, it was good seeing you again.
Thank you.
And thank you for sharing your stories!
You're welcome.
