The 'stolen' turkey dinner... UPD #331 p23

[CaptainObvious]

Honestly, I think a turkey dinner might bring in more than a $50 gc.  To me a $50 gc makes very little sense.  It is like auctioning off a $50 bill.  How high will people go ona $50 bill/gc?  Probably not much higher than $50.  But if you bid a dinner and all the sides, a Thanksgiving day free of all the work the dollar value of that is a bit more subjective - to some people that might be worth $75 or more.  So I guess as a gneral question it makes a lot of sense to me that a donor would choose a dinner over a gc.  I think it would have the potential to bring in more money.

Captain, I didn't read it wrong - before the deadline she wondered about substituting, when she called after it was with the assumption that there might not be turkey and she was going to tell them she would take chicken if that was the case.  I do believe that would have worked out the way she wished anyway but she was thinking there might not be turkey by friday.

That is why I said early in the thread that I believe the Deli donated the meal to the Church. What would be the point of paying $50, and then getting $50. There is no profit, so the Church would have no gain. Most people solicit donations for their Church. Is that speculation, yes, but I can't think of any other reason why this woman would go to such lengths to make sure she got the dinner. A tax write-off would not be worth this much trouble.

[Sharnita]

The information OP provided indicates that was not the case.  And the donor had no idea what the dinner would go for.  It could have gone for more than that, there is no way of knowing ahead of time.  It isn't like she would have planned for the highest bid to be the exact amount she paid.

[Yvaine]

Honestly, I think a turkey dinner might bring in more than a $50 gc.  To me a $50 gc makes very little sense.  It is like auctioning off a $50 bill.  How high will people go ona $50 bill/gc?  Probably not much higher than $50.  But if you bid a dinner and all the sides, a Thanksgiving day free of all the work the dollar value of that is a bit more subjective - to some people that might be worth $75 or more.  So I guess as a gneral question it makes a lot of sense to me that a donor would choose a dinner over a gc.  I think it would have the potential to bring in more money.

You've said yourself, though, that sometimes people bid over the value of things when it's for charity, so there's at least a possibility it might go higher.

And it sounds like that's the way the store does it, so if Turkey Lady had followed the store's procedure, a GC would be the way the store would have done it, even if it's not the way you personally would prefer. It may be that they can even do "turkey dinner" gift certificates rather than a dollar amount. I've received gift certificates for "one (item)" rather than a numerical amount. But what I seriously doubt they do is honor photocopied receipts. Turkey Lady was incompetent at best and a grifter at worst.

[Yvaine]

Honestly, I think a turkey dinner might bring in more than a $50 gc.  To me a $50 gc makes very little sense.  It is like auctioning off a $50 bill.  How high will people go ona $50 bill/gc?  Probably not much higher than $50.  But if you bid a dinner and all the sides, a Thanksgiving day free of all the work the dollar value of that is a bit more subjective - to some people that might be worth $75 or more.  So I guess as a gneral question it makes a lot of sense to me that a donor would choose a dinner over a gc.  I think it would have the potential to bring in more money.

Captain, I didn't read it wrong - before the deadline she wondered about substituting, when she called after it was with the assumption that there might not be turkey and she was going to tell them she would take chicken if that was the case.  I do believe that would have worked out the way she wished anyway but she was thinking there might not be turkey by friday.

That is why I said early in the thread that I believe the Deli donated the meal to the Church. What would be the point of paying $50, and then getting $50. There is no profit, so the Church would have no gain. Most people solicit donations for their Church. Is that speculation, yes, but I can't think of any other reason why this woman would go to such lengths to make sure she got the dinner. A tax write-off would not be worth this much trouble.

Oooh! What if they sent Turkey Lady to the store with church funds to buy a prize, and then Turkey Lady set it up to scam the church? My sticking point with this theory has been that if the church contacted the store, the store would have done a GC--but if Turkey Lady was the middleman, it all makes sense.

[Sharnita]

Honestly, I think a turkey dinner might bring in more than a $50 gc.  To me a $50 gc makes very little sense.  It is like auctioning off a $50 bill.  How high will people go ona $50 bill/gc?  Probably not much higher than $50.  But if you bid a dinner and all the sides, a Thanksgiving day free of all the work the dollar value of that is a bit more subjective - to some people that might be worth $75 or more.  So I guess as a gneral question it makes a lot of sense to me that a donor would choose a dinner over a gc.  I think it would have the potential to bring in more money.

You've said yourself, though, that sometimes people bid over the value of things when it's for charity, so there's at least a possibility it might go higher.

And it sounds like that's the way the store does it, so if Turkey Lady had followed the store's procedure, a GC would be the way the store would have done it, even if it's not the way you personally would prefer. It may be that they can even do "turkey dinner" gift certificates rather than a dollar amount. I've received gift certificates for "one (item)" rather than a numerical amount. But what I seriously doubt they do is honor photocopied receipts. Turkey Lady was incompetent at best and a grifter at worst.

Yeah, people bid over on things.  A gc is basically money.  So bidding $75 on $50 doesn't make nearly as much sense as bidding $75 on a turkey dinner that happened to have cost the donor $50.  (I do think that if the cash value of the dinner was known I would not actually mention that when auctioning the dinner)

[Bexx27]

I attend an annual silent auction for a nonprofit and there are several gift cards for local restaurants. The way it works is that a volunteer approaches the restaurant on behalf of the organization and the restaurant donates a gift card. The restaurant, not the volunteer, is the donor. The description of the item is usually something like "Tex-Mex dinner for 4 at Burrito Barn!" and the fine print says it's actually a gift certificate for $40. The whole photocopied receipt thing is so shady.

ETA: It's also common for the winning bid to be higher than the value of the gift card. Bidders are mostly there to benefit the organization.

[Isisnin]

...............

That is why I said early in the thread that I believe the Deli donated the meal to the Church. What would be the point of paying $50, and then getting $50. There is no profit, so the Church would have no gain. Most people solicit donations for their Church. Is that speculation, yes, but I can't think of any other reason why this woman would go to such lengths to make sure she got the dinner. A tax write-off would not be worth this much trouble.

The Deli said they didn't donate it.  As GrammarNerd (the OP) posted in her second post of this thread: "Third, the deli manager was quite adamant that charity donations like this are NEVER done this way.  Gift cards are used. Period.  He was really puzzled as to why my sister had a duplicate receipt and a handwritten note for this."

There doesn't seem to have been any reasoning behind the TurkeyLady's actions.  It's as if she intentionally kept the original receipt and gave the copy of it to the church to ensure no one else collected the dinner (since the deli most probably would not honor the copy).  Then she could get the dinner using the original receipt she kept for herself.  But then the deli and the buyer from the auction would know what she did. 

Why try to a appear to be a nice person by donating something for the church that's not legit (a copy of a receipt, undoubtedly unusable) while at the same time sabotaging your nice person image by ensuring you'll be caught (by claiming the meal with the real, original receipt)?  there is no reasoning behind all that.

[Wordgeek]

Captain Obvious, I've deleted a few of your posts that were inappropriate.  Either stay civil or don't post.

[prock929]

Why try to a appear to be a nice person by donating something for the church that's not legit (a copy of a receipt, undoubtedly unusable) while at the same time sabotaging your nice person image by ensuring you'll be caught (by claiming the meal with the real, original receipt)?  there is no reasoning behind all that.

I suspect that things didn't  go the way TL had planned.

Could it be possible that TL was trying to time it so that she could pick up the Dinner after OP's sister tried to redeem her (possibly invalid) copied receipt?  That could explain the multiple phone calls from TL to the Deli and the 'expiration date' imposed by TL.  Think about it - if OP's sister had tried to collect the Dinner using a photocopied receipt, she probably would not have been able to get it.  Then TL shows up with the original receipt (and possibly the deli had no idea this was a prize, just that TL had ordered a Turkey Dinner to be picked up later) and TL goes home with the dinner.  If OP's sister had tried to get a hold of TL to get the original receipt, TL would probably have ignored her until after the "deadline".   I suspect that because OP's sister waited "so long" to redeem her prize, TL got nervous that she wouldn't be able to get "her" (TL's) dinner in time for her Thanksgiving Dinner.  Thus TL picked up the dinner herself before OP's sister went to redeem her prize.

My apologies if this is unclear. 

I agree with PP's who think that this was part of TL's plan from the beginning and that OP's sister needs to contact her church at the
very least to let them know that she didn't get her prize.  (who knows, maybe this has happened before but the church wrote it off as a 'mistake'.)

[elephantschild]

Why try to a appear to be a nice person by donating something for the church that's not legit (a copy of a receipt, undoubtedly unusable) while at the same time sabotaging your nice person image by ensuring you'll be caught (by claiming the meal with the real, original receipt)?  there is no reasoning behind all that.

I'm going to differ a little.

I agree it's possible Turkey Lady was running a scam of some kind.

However.

I'm picturing a few slightly dotty ladies at the church where I grew up. (Not that I mean all church ladies are dotty ... oh, you know what I mean.)  This could also be a sincerely well-meaning person who simply wanted to do a good thing, had a somewhat confused and impractical idea about how to go about it and then was so worried it would "go to waste" that she kept calling to be sure that it was redeemed. (And when it wasn't, picked it up herself. Maybe even donated it to a shelter or something.)

It doesn't make it right. But it doesn't mean it's a plot, either.

Maybe I just don't want to assume the worst. Naive, perhaps.   But I think it's at least as likely as a planned-out scam.

[DottyG]

But it doesn't mean it's a plot, either.

May not be a nefarious plot.  But, if this is the case, this "dotty lady" needs to be informed that she stole something.  And that's not the most Christian-like thing to be doing.  She needs a little guidance on how to not do something illegal - even if she did think it was, somehow, benevolent.

[elephantschild]

Oh, I agree with that. I'm just betting (hoping) that there was nothing ill intentioned.

[Hmmmmm]

Honestly, I think a turkey dinner might bring in more than a $50 gc.  To me a $50 gc makes very little sense.  It is like auctioning off a $50 bill.  How high will people go ona $50 bill/gc?  Probably not much higher than $50.  But if you bid a dinner and all the sides, a Thanksgiving day free of all the work the dollar value of that is a bit more subjective - to some people that might be worth $75 or more.  So I guess as a gneral question it makes a lot of sense to me that a donor would choose a dinner over a gc.  I think it would have the potential to bring in more money.

Captain, I didn't read it wrong - before the deadline she wondered about substituting, when she called after it was with the assumption that there might not be turkey and she was going to tell them she would take chicken if that was the case.  I do believe that would have worked out the way she wished anyway but she was thinking there might not be turkey by friday.

That is why I said early in the thread that I believe the Deli donated the meal to the Church. What would be the point of paying $50, and then getting $50. There is no profit, so the Church would have no gain. Most people solicit donations for their Church. Is that speculation, yes, but I can't think of any other reason why this woman would go to such lengths to make sure she got the dinner. A tax write-off would not be worth this much trouble.

No, I don't think the deli donated.  The turkey lady as a member of the church decided her donation for the charity was a dinner and she bought it from the deli.  That is why she had a receipt.  While most auction items are usually business donations, it is not unheard of to have a member of the organization donate items they have bought.  But I do agree the church did not buy the dinner. 

[Amara]

Is it possible the TL originally ordered and paid for the dinner for herself and her family (which would explain the receipt), then when asked for a donation by the church suddenly thought, "I'll donate the dinner!" without thinking through the ramifications of that action?

Regardless of why she did what she did--and frankly it really doesn't matter--she needs to make things right with the church. The church is responsible for making things right with the bidder.

[Marguette]

People have been mentioning that she has to go straight to the top – the pastor. Actually, it depends how the business end of the church is organized.

In some churches the pastor would have nothing to do with it, and the only thing s/he could do is point Sister to the right person – the head of the committee that organized the fundraiser, with the ultimate organizational responsibility lying with the congregational chairperson – that’s what it’s called in my church, the position could have a different name in Sister’s church.