Local florist suffers 'painful loss' after fake bulk order, comes days after biryani incident

What was meant to be the highlight of its year turned into an expensive lesson for a local business.

Kiki Florist said it suffered losses of more than $1,000 after preparing flowers for what appeared to be a fake bulk order that was never collected.

The florist, located in KAP Mall along Bukit Timah Road, recounted the incident in a blog post last Wednesday (Sept 10), saying it had received a large order on Sept 8 at 3pm for 150 small bouquets and four extra large ones.

These items were to be picked up within 48 hours at 1pm on Sept 10.

"For a small business like ours, the request was massive, but exciting. His instructions were, 'Just make as many as you can. I'll take what's ready'," the business recalled.

The customer claimed it was a corporate order from the government and that he was from Bedok Army Camp, according to the blog post.

Despite him disappearing after being asked for a down payment and saying he would send the invoice, Kiki Florist said it started preparations on Sept 9 with "good faith and maybe a touch of overconfidence".

At 3pm on the same day, he offered to pay $2,200 in cash upon collection but without deposit, but later agreed to settle with 50 bouquets.

On Sept 10, the customer called three hours past his pickup time only to say he would only accept the order if they had all 150 bouquets.

"At that moment, it was clear: we'd been led on, strung along, and stood up," Kiki Florist said.

"We had already bought supplies, invested hours of work, and completed 50 bouquets. The outcome? A painful loss of around $1,100."

They had even rejected legitimate customers for the fake order.

"This experience left a really bad taste in our mouths after the amount of resources we have put to make it happen," Kiki Florist wrote.

Kind buyer steps in

Following the incident, Kiki Florist shared on Sept 13 that all the bouquets have been purchased by a "kind gentleman", and they've since received three large orders and many small ones.

They had listed the unsold flower bouquets at a discounted price of $17 (originally $22).

But the business humbly added it won't be accepting further orders as it did not wish "to profit from this incident".

Co-founder Joselyn Lie told The Straits Times that she would not be making a police report as she "was not sure if it was a scam or just an irresponsible customer".

SAF aware of fake orders, says no evidence of affiliation: Mindef

This incident comes days after a similar occurrence involving fake bulk orders made by buyers claiming to be personnel from the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF). 

A hawker stall, Muhammad Shazain Faiha Muslim Food Paradise, in Tiong Bahru Market shared an incident in which a person claiming be to an SAF representative had made an order of 150 packets of chicken and mutton biryani but never showed up.

In light of these incidents, the Ministry of Defence (Mindef) said in a Facebook post published on Sept 14 that the SAF has observed "a number of allegedly fraudulent bulk orders made by individuals claiming to be SAF personnel".

"SAF takes a serious view of this. For the seven cases that we are aware of, we have not found any evidence that these individuals are affiliated with the SAF, and have made reports to the police on them," Mindef's post said. 

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syarifahsn@asiaone.com