A Texas man is suing 1-800-Flowers for $1 million after a thank you note from the web florist outed him as an adulterer. Leroy Greer specifically asked 1-800-Flowers not to send him a receipt for the cuddly stuffed animal and dozen long stemmed roses he ordered for his mistress. Despite his request, 1-800-Flowers sent a thank you note to his house several months later, prompting his wife to ask who the hell got flowers. She called 1-800-Flowers, which gladly faxed her a copy of Leroy’s order form that included the following message meant for his mistress: “Just wanted to say I love you and you mean the world to me! -Leroy.” Above The Law has the legalese:
Breach of contract action in which the defendants agreed to keep the plaintiff’s order of flowers for his girlfriend private, with no record of the transaction mailed to him at his home or office.
Months later, the defendants sent a thank you card to the plaintiff’s home, and his wife called the defendants for proof of the purchase. The defendants faxed the plaintiff’s wife proof of his order of flowers for his girlfriend, which resulted in a divorce being filed.
Shucks, we thought giant internet florists could be entrusted with secrets. Maybe Leroy should have sent his mistress flowers from the local florist instead.
Lawsuit of the Day: Greer v. 1-800-Flowers [Above The Law]
Greer v. 1-800-Flowers: An Update [Above The Law]
(Photo: candiche)
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Cash + fake contact info. Just make up a fake name / number / address that are not in use, and use them for all the places that require your info for their system (easy to remember off the top of your head if you use the same fake everywhere).
@The Walking Eye: But that wasn’t the person who placed the order. No one but that individual has the right to know what was ordered. I certainly would not want anyone snooping in my order histories, even though there’s nothing I’d really want to hide in any of them. It’s just not done.
This reminds me of a morning radio show stunt I’ve heard. They call the mark at work and convince him that there’s a promotion or some crap that he has won a free flower delivery. They have some woman make the call and does a very convincing job despite how silly it may sound. Then they ask the sap to whom does he want flowers sent. Needless to say it’s very funny, and sad since the wife is listening in.
@dbeahn: lol! nah, Michele doesn’t ever visit the Consumerist unless I send her something I find particularly entertaining. (guess i should have signed up as ‘bo’, but its a force of habit.
@Charles Duffy: I would be really hesitant to call something like this anything CLOSE to a contract. There was nothing in writing at all. All he had was one phone CSR’s assurance that a receipt would not be mailed to him. While the CSR might be able to do that, I doubt they have the power to take a customer off of future mailings (and I’m sure most policy manuals discourage it, anyway), and I really don’t think they should be able to hold 1-800-Flowers legally liable for anything. Besides, such an agreement would likely be null and void once a spouse calls asking for information. I say good for the wife for milking the idiot because of the affair.
Any word on whether Leroy’s still with his mistress?
A thank you note is not a receipt. The article specifically states he asked for no receipt. He should have stated no paperwork.
The problem is then would this guy have sued 1800 flowers if his mistress did not get the flowers because he had no receipt.
This guy is dumb and should lose the lawsuit.
A thank you note is not a receipt.
@majortom1981: But then they sent one anyway after the wife called and asked for one. I agree with Buran that they shouldn’t be sending receipts to anyone other than the person who made the order. They sent a receipt after agreeing not to. 1-800-Flowers is in the wrong.
@agb: Punitive, not consequential, and not the million he’s asking for. I’m not sure what the appropriate award for that would be. Maybe the cost of the order?
As for breach of contract, I doubt he would be able to prove that a contract for confidentiality ever existed, much less that it was breached. I would bet they are pinning the fact that the receipt was faxed to his house as the basis of the lawsuit. Since it was requested by his wife, he will have a tough time proving that the company was at fault for following her request. Most likely she had enough info to make the request appear legitimate enough to convince the CSR she spoke to. As for the advertisement, as others have stated, that is not a receipt. Even if he had asked that no advertisements be sent, the law allows for one “Oops” on the part of the companies after you opt out of mailings or telemarketing, so he has no recourse there.
Either way, the actions of 1-800 Flowers can’t be considered to be the cause of the divorce. The best he could hope to win would be the cost of the order he placed with them. And since there’s no dispute that they performed that action, he shouldn’t even get that.
This idiot and his no-good lawyers have NO case. Frankly, it’s embarrassing that this case would have even been initiated. Every company has a terms of use policy. From the 1800-Flowers website: If you also prefer that we not use the personal information you have provided to contact you or your message or gift recipients for our own marketing and promotional purposes, please indicate in your email or letter that you wish your instructions to apply to “1-800-Flowers.” Leroy’s VERBAL request for no receipt did not apply to promotional fliers. Also, the only guarantee the 1-800-Flowers offers is that your flowers will stay fresh for 7 days; your marriage is your responsibility.
@Rectilinear Propagation: But if she’s an authorized user on the card, isn’t she allowed to get the receipt? If you’re married, your spouse has access to accounts which are open in both your names, correct? (No, we don’t know if this is the case here)
He was dumb. If your marriage is so important to you, make sure you leave no paper trail regarding your mistress.
Women can’t be trusted; I’ve had girlfriends snoop through receipts, count condoms, snoop through text messages, etc.
Of course, i usually deserved it, heh heh.
@The Walking Eye: Umm…I don’t know? I hadn’t even thought of it.
Does Leroy know Barry Bonds?
Our florist friends never heard the sage advice: Don’t shit where you eat.
Well, cheating/getting caught drama aside, I am curious about something…
If you make a purchase, and someone else finds proof of purchase, and calls vendor and starts asking ‘Look, I have this receipt number, can you tell me who bought this / who was it mailed to / what it was’ etc, the answer from vendor should be ‘Umm, no?’ – It’s called protection of customer’s privacy.
Now, admittedly, not enough details were provided, and if wife and he shared the credit card point is obviously moot – but then again, I’m inclined to dismiss this scenario as wife didn’t notice it off the card statement but off the thank you card.
So, while I find the whole case to be highly amusing, I still think man -might- have a case against 800-Flowers for disclosing his purchase details to third party without his consent.
@rdm7234: Cause giant, nationally-based companies really have to worry about ticking off one person. Just goes to show, if you want to be a sleeze, stick to small businesses where the threat of cutting off cash flow is enough to keep people in line. Or maybe he should have just picked her some posies on the way to her place.
I actually work for a florist and have also worked for a wire service- not 1800 flowers. We do get in the middle of the most insane family dramas – this story is small potatoes. I just wanted to add that 1800 flowers may have had a legal obligation to give his wife the information she asked for – there is an anti-stalking law in CA or maybe federal, I don’t know, that if someone calls and asks us “who sent these flowers” we cannot keep the sender anonymous. Some aspect of the same may apply here. Also, since this is a consumer advice site, I will just add that if you are looking to send quality flowers don’t call 1800 flowers. Best would be to meet your local florist. Go in once or twice in person, and let them know what you like & your wife/girlfriend/mistress likes. Then you can just call them up and get some personal attention – and the flowers will be made up specially for you each time. Any good florist will also be able to take care of sending flowers long distance as well- to your mom in florida or wherever.
He should have at least used the excuse, “it was really meant for you but them incompetent 1800-flowers got the address wrong.”
I hope the judge throws his case out for being an idiot.
Leroy should have went to the local florist and bought flowers with cash and hand delivered them hisself, the next time he saw his mistress. Or he could have given 1-800 Flowers a friends address or a fake address if he wanted nothing to do with maybe getting something in the mail.
I’m sure that Leroy’s mistress is now waiting for the divorce to be final so she can be the next Mrs. Leroy and he will do the same to her.
Someone said females are sneaky and go into your belongings…..guys do the same thing. My ex used to every single number on my cell phone and ask who it was and how they knew me. It used to make me so mad that I wanted to kick his ass. I kicked him out.
@Cowboys_fan: My husband works for a call center for a bank, and he once got a call from a woman asking about a check for $500 drawn on her joint bank account. He pulled up an image and read the check off to her.
Turned out it was for a local escort service. He couldn’t make himself feel too guilty about revealing that information, as the wife had the right to know which checks were being drawn on the account her name’s on.
And here I was thinking that husband was in a slim minority.
Geez, I hope that’s a post dripping in sarcasm and I just missed the clue.
@bbbici: If your marriage is so important to you, make sure you leave no paper trail
How about: if your marriage is important, don’t cheat and destroy it? Though I don’t think someone who does things like this could possibly value their marriage, anyway, so it’s a moot point.
@bbbici: Women can’t be trusted; I’ve had girlfriends snoop… Of course, i usually deserved it, heh heh.
So, of course, the girlfriends are the untrustoworthy ones, eh? Ri-i-i-i-ight.
A thank-you note is not a receipt. One you file with your accountant, the other you consider briefly, smile slightly, then trash.
Leroy *could* have gone down to Krogers, bought a $9.99 bunch of posies & a singing Hallmark card & delivered them himself. No one would have been the wiser… except his girlfriend, who would have marveled at his lack of taste.
What does he think he’s owed? Alimony payments? Child support money? The manhood his evil shrew of a wife took from him? His lost youth?
What a maroon.
Social engineering for the wife’s win!
He got what he deserved. Cheating is soo wrong. Hope he loses the case.
All you who have been cheated on, go picket at the court house over his civil case against 1-800-FLOWERS.
They faxed his wife a copy of the order form just like that? It sounds like they were trying to expose his cheating ways. I mean, seriously, what kind of company sends thank-you notes in the first place?
@Jesse in Japan: None I ever heard of. Usually its $10 gift certificates or free meals when they screw up.
@jmschn: is that real? how about some personal responsibility. suing the city because he was caught cheating… unbelievable.
I know a lot of companies that send thank you notes after you shop with them, and I have never heard of people being upset over receiving a thank you note! I personally think it’s nice and a form of good customer service…Shouldn’t even be a question!