Cheeky Fucker - Group Gift

[TulaOfDarkWater]

Friendship group of six. One member has a birthday coming up & the other five people decided to get together & buy her a big ticket item.

Site A sells the item for £500 so £100 per person, everyone agreed & was happy with this.

Site B has a deluxe version for £700 so £140 per person, everyone agreed this was out of budget & unanimously decided to go with the £500 option from site A.

Just before the item could be purchased, a member of the group, let’s call her Anne, said she had a 20% off voucher for site B which was due to expire soon & it would be silly to waste it so how about we use it to buy the deluxe version & pay a little extra as birthday girl has had a shitty time of it lately etc.

In the group chat, we discussed:

£700 - 20% = £560

£560 / 5 = £112 per person

Anne thumbs up emoji liked this message!

Everyone agreed they could stretch to the £12 extra & it was decided that we would buy the deluxe item from Site B. The ONLY reason we agreed to this was due to the discount voucher, everyone was happy to purchase from site A otherwise.

Anne purchased the item using the voucher & sent everyone her bank details asking for £140. When this was queried, Anne said the 20% voucher represented her 1/5 contribution & so everyone else owes £140.

1. Anne knows the reason the £700 option was vetoed in the first place was because everyone - including Anne - agreed £140 was out of budget

1. At no time did Anne say the 20% voucher was her contribution & the rest of us had to pay full price. Another member of the group had the exact same voucher & we could have used hers if we had known

1. There are text messages where the group discussed the maths & agreed to £12 extra each & Anne did not dispute this & in fact thumbs up emoji’d it. Her excuse for this is she didn’t read the messages properly, the thumbs up was a mistake / she didn’t do it deliberately / know it was there & she is bad at maths anyway so tuned out!

So am I being unreasonable to think Anne is a cheeky fucker & deliberately mislead us? If we had stuck to the original plan then Anne would have had to pay £100 but this way she pays nothing & the rest of us an extra £40!!

Just to be clear, this voucher was one of those promotional email ones that are sent to those on the company’s mailing list, it wasn’t a voucher that had any monetary value or was a gift to her which would be different & like I said, another member had the exact same voucher which she was happy for us to use instead if we had known this is what Anne was doing.

Oh, that makes sense.

Hilarious!

I too was confused by this and your explanation helps but I am still confused as to what ‘so she would be whole’ means? Argh, thanks to anyone who can explain. I am presuming there is some typo there of course.

@Friars23 Making whole = putting someone back into the same position they were before the transaction.

ie Before Vouchergate, Anne had a (short dated) 20% off voucher and the £560 she paid for the coffee machine. When she returns the machine she will get the £560 back but not her voucher. So they gave her a (probably useless and equally short dated) voucher.

Honestly your ‘friend’ is an absolute joke, bin her off and tell us what the special item is

Just transfer 112. She'll have to deal with it.

Bloody hell she will though won’t she?!

So guess she’s not coming back?

what a prick! Wow. I can’t fathom how she thinks a free discount code is equivalent to hard cash from FRIENDS. Good riddance!

Transfer in 112 and don't send any accompanying message to explain why it's 112 not 140. She knows. So don't say the obvious.

Those saying transfer £112, the OP has already given the update several pages back and Anne is now having to return the item.

Rest of friendship group are getting the £500 gift as originally planned.

As an aside, I bet there are 700 people reading this thread who would happily contribute £1 just to ensure Anne doesn't get away with it 😂

I was thinking the same thing. 🤣 A “Stop Anne’s Cheeky Fuckery” GoFundMe. 🥳

I doubt that Anne, being the massive CF that she is, will let it go at this. After throwing her all toys out of the pram she’ll need to let anyone and everyone know about how the “other CF’s” mistreated her!

When it's Anne's birthday you should all give her a discount code, especially one that she has to spend x amount to redeem

In the absence of Anne giving up the CFery, it sounds like you've come to a reasonable solution, and that Anne's just lost a bunch of friends. I wonder if she'll think that £112 is worth it in time? She'll probably continue to tell herself she's the scorned woman, but you're better off without her!

Let's just hope that Anne's vindictiveness/inability to accept defeat doesn't overcome Anne's tightness, resulting in her getting in first and giving the super duper coffee machine as a gift just from her to get one over on the rest of the friendship group ...

What a shame she’s prepared to ruin a long term friendship over this. Who would be so cheeky? Unbelievable, and rude. I wouldn’t be friends with her after this

You could all tell Anne to stick it where the sun don’t shine then between the four of you buy the £500 one £125each and leave her to buy her own gift. (Or maybe Anne could give her the 20% off vouche)

Great to see you all stuck together OP and didn't let Anne dictate. I see too many people like Anne controlling a group. Something tells me Anne won't leave it rest though.

What is it with people spending a small fortune on friends whilst they are struggling financially especially today. £500 is expensive enough she should be grateful she has lovely friends who can afford to get her a nice present at all in the first place.

Where does OP say they're struggling financially? I understood it that they all set a fair budget which would buy a nice present - not that they didn't have any more money available for anything else. One of the friends even offered to pay Anne's share following her (Anne's) unwillingness to keep to her agreement, so probably not especially 'poor'.

I don't know if I'm misinterpreting your comment, but you sound like you're suggesting Birthday Girl is also a CF, or at least a bit grabby. I'm sure she is a lovely, genuine friend and not a CF at all - and she will be thrilled with the generous present, whichever of the two versions it is; I'm not getting anywhere that she was demanding or expecting it. I presume it's because she is a genuine friend that the others (the four excluding Anne, at least) wanted to get her a really special present - especially as she is going through some very challenging circumstances right now.

Anne is an absolute CF of the highest order. A discount voucher does not count as a contribution towards a gift as much as me farting doesn't count as a contribution to society.

Sorry that you had this experience Tulaofdarkwater. Hope things improve for your friend soon and that she loves her present.

Often on CF threads posters are told 'just say no', 'no is a complete sentence' etc but this is an example where the friends have been firm and consistent about being ripped off but Ann still couldn't back down. It's a sad end to a friendship but I would be seething at giving to a joint expensive gift when one of the 'givers' had just contributed a voucher.

haha! I was thinking exactly the same thing.

If discount codes and vouchers are equivalent to cash in Anne's mind, then these are exactly what should be sent to her. Perhaps then the message will go into the CF's head.

One of the friends even offered to pay Anne's share following her (Anne's) unwillingness to keep to her agreement, so probably not especially 'poor'.
God, did they really? . Why would anyone do that?

Just grab a big bundle of "XX% off!" posters from various shop windows and Robert's your auntie's husband.

One of the friends even offered to pay Anne's share following her (Anne's) unwillingness to keep to her agreement, so probably not especially 'poor'.

God, did they really? Confused. Why would anyone do that?

It's not an uncommon reaction from people who hate confrontation or 'awkwardness'. It's actually a big part of your regular CF's modus operandi: to deliberately cause potential awkwardness, in the knowledge that other people will do what they (the CFs) want in order to avoid upsetting them and protect them from the consequences of their own self-orchestrated awkwardness.