13th May 2024 – (Hong Kong) During the recent Mother’s Day celebrations, many people took the opportunity to show their appreciation to their mothers by preparing gifts or buying fresh flowers. However, one Hong Kong woman had a disappointing experience after purchasing 100 carnations from a flower shop at Flower Market Road. She later discovered two dishonest practices by the shop, prompting other netizens to share their own unpleasant encounters with the same establishment, declaring their refusal to support it in the future.
The Flower Market Road, renowned as a haven for flower enthusiasts, attracts both individuals who love to decorate their homes with flowers and professionals in the floral industry seeking wholesale purchases. It serves as a popular destination for flower lovers in Hong Kong. A Hong Kong woman, suspected to be involved in the floral industry, visited the market recently to procure 100 carnations and 10 additional flowers for a bouquet order.
The woman had previously purchased 40 exquisite light purple carnations for $190 from another shop in the flower market. However, due to an urgent order, she needed an additional 100 carnations, leading her to return to the market. Despite most flower shops having insufficient supply, she decided to patronise the shop in question. The shop assistant offered to sell loose carnations at wholesale prices, but due to the scarcity of light purple flowers, they had to be supplemented with other colours. The woman had no objections and made the payment before returning to her office to count the flowers. To her dismay, she discovered that out of the supposed 100 carnations, she only received 90, some of which were even broken. Furthermore, she found that some loose flowers were priced lower at retail than the wholesale price she paid.
Feeling dissatisfied, the woman immediately called the shop to raise her concerns. She later went back to the shop to request a refund. However, the shop insisted on charging her the full wholesale price. The woman pointed out that some loose flowers were priced at only $3X, accusing the shop of overcharging. In response, the shop assistant explained that a packaging fee of $5 was applied to each pack of loose flowers. Not wanting to prolong the argument, the woman quickly obtained her refund, realizing that she had overlooked counting the flowers on the spot. Nonetheless, she questioned why the shop couldn’t be more honest in their dealings.
The woman’s experience resonated with sympathetic netizens who had also encountered rude treatment from the shop’s employees. They further criticised the shop for having relatively higher prices compared to other stores, with one netizen sharing, “I asked for a stalk of orchid, and they said they wouldn’t do business with me,” while another commented, “All the employees there have unfriendly faces and bad attitudes.” The shop’s reputation for being expensive and having impolite staff was widely discussed, leading some netizens to express their reluctance to make purchases there.
It appears that the woman’s ordeal is not an isolated incident, as other netizens also shared their grievances, particularly regarding custom-made wedding flower arrangements. One netizen recounted their experience of having the shop unilaterally replace peonies with roses without consultation, stating, “They even insisted that I had ordered the roses, but I showed them the receipt and the sample photo they provided, and only after involving a lawyer friend did they finally replace the bouquet with one that matched the sample.” It seems that many netizens have become victims of the shop’s practices.