Girl scouts threaten lawsuit

[North of Mouse]

North Carolina Mom threatened with a lawsuit by Girl Scouts local troop for unsold cookies.

Said her daughter was being bullied and quitting girl scouts and they had 288 boxes of unsold cookies they wanted to return.

Girl Scouts said NO!

Thoughts????

 

[Schmeck]

Link to original info would be helpful.

Cookie contracts do state that cookies can't be returned and the person who ordered them is fully responsible for paying for them.

 

[sunshinehighway]

If she ordered them knowing they can't be returned she should pay for them. It doesn't work like that here. The kids take orders and then get the cookies from their scout leaders. It's during a certain time period so they can take orders more than once.

288 seems like a lot of boxes to order at once.

 

[msjprincess]

Where I live you pick up the cookies after you sell them. In other places do you have to guess beforehand how many you will sell? And if you pick up cookies for a booth sale and don't sell them all you can return the unsold boxes.

 

[clh2]

Link to original info would be helpful.

Cookie contracts do state that cookies can't be returned and the person who ordered them is fully responsible for paying for them.

IMHO - Girl Scouts is all about not taking responsibility for anything. SO - if you as the parent ordered 288 boxes of cookies - you are on the hook for approximately $1080, based on the cost of the cookies in MY AREA.

On the other hand - if each troop that is in district wants to return 300 boxes of cookies - that is a HUGE amount of cookies that need to be dealt with.

 

[Lorelei Lee]

http://www.wral.com/girl-scouts-threaten-lawsuit-over-unsold-cookies/13356259/

 

[JanaDee]

Where I live you pick up the cookies after you sell them. In other places do you have to guess beforehand how many you will sell? And if you pick up cookies for a booth sale and don't sell them all you can return the unsold boxes.

It may have changed, but our troop had to guess at how many we were going to sell and order accordingly.

Our troop was responsible for selling all the unsold boxes left over that we had already paid for. They couldn't be returned.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I could eat that many. Maybe not in one sitting, but I could do it.

 

[richmond282]

I don't know how it is in this lady's area, but with our troop, you have to sign a waiver stating that you are aware that you are responsible for payment for any cookies ordered. Girl Scouts will take you to court and prosecute. It happened in our troop several years ago. In that case, the parent pocketed the $ from cookie sales instead of turning it in.

Having said all of that, if for some reason you are left with extra boxes of cookies (we had one customer pass away last year before cookie delivery), our troop leader will ask the other girl scouts if any of them want your extra boxes. If nobody wants them, then you are still liable for payment. 288 boxes is a lot to have "left over." You are supposed to pre-sell to specific customers and not randomly order cookies.

 

[wiigirl]

I could eat that many. Maybe not in one sitting, but I could do it.

Me too.

 

[Thumper_Man]

Ok. I usually try not to comment on these type of threads, but what does the Girl Scouts in this particular story tend to do about the bullying issue? IMO, the story is sending the wrong message. Who cares if your girl is being bullied, we want our money for our cookies; which in turn makes the organization seem like bullies themselves by threatening to sue. I get it that if you agree to sell so many boxes then you should try to live up to your end of the agreement, but not to address the bullying issue is more disturbing to me. And yes I know not all Girl Scout troops are bullies, its just the sense I'm getting from this particular story for this particular troop.

 

[Arielle22]

Being teased doesn't necessarily mean it was bullying. Obviously the girl didn't like it and quit but just because it is called bullying by the mom doesn't make it so.

If the mom knew she was responsible for the cost of the cookies then she needs to pay up.

 

[Lorelei Lee]

The teasing/bullying is a separate issue, but does need to be addressed.

 

[Arielle22]

I find the timing issue to be very odd. Cookies just came out and the mom says the girl quit several weeks ago. Why take the cookies when you are quitting?

Also it says she got made and sold 107 boxes (of 288) in one day. I get being concerned and deciding to sell the cookies but not mad. When I get mad I will dig my heels in and not change my mind.

If they can sell 107 in a day why not try it for a couple more days and sell most of them? Seems the easiest solution for the mom.

 

[CupcakeKelly]

Me too.

Unless it's the shortbread. If it's 288 boxes of Samoas and Thin Mints, I'm there!

 

[kamik86]

Does anyone else think that a national organization that is willing to get this much bad press over what has to be under $1500 is being very short sighted?

I think when I was a scout that if you got cookies for specific people you already had orders but they didn't pay for them until we delivered the cookies (so it was risky doing door to door sales or even sales to coworkers of parents that they didn't know well). I'm not sure if the troop paid for them before they were delivered though. The few times this happened we tended to just add them to our troop pile to sell at booths (again don't know if those were paid for before hand or if they could be returned or not).

 

[MSLRAC]

I find the timing issue to be very odd. Cookies just came out and the mom says the girl quit several weeks ago. Why take the cookies when you are quitting? Also it says she got made and sold 107 boxes (of 288) in one day. I get being concerned and deciding to sell the cookies but not mad. When I get mad I will dig my heels in and not change my mind. If they can sell 107 in a day why not try it for a couple more days and sell most of them? Seems the easiest solution for the mom.

This is happening in a neighboring council for us and there is far more to the story than is being reported. She ordered more cookies than they could sale and then wanted to return them which is against troop policy. When she was informed that she couldn't do that and had signed a cookie agreement agreeing to those terms, she started claiming bullying against her daughter, pulled her from the troop, and went to the media.

 

[sunshinehighway]

Does anyone else think that a national organization that is willing to get this much bad press over what has to be under $1500 is being very short sighted?

I think when I was a scout that if you got cookies for specific people you already had orders but they didn't pay for them until we delivered the cookies (so it was risky doing door to door sales or even sales to coworkers of parents that they didn't know well). I'm not sure if the troop paid for them before they were delivered though. The few times this happened we tended to just add them to our troop pile to sell at booths (again don't know if those were paid for before hand or if they could be returned or not).

Nope.

I think they have to stick to their rules because it's not just 1 person and $1500. I'm sure they have lots of people that would try to return unsold cookies if they started making exceptions.

I also read the girl quit because she said the other girls teased her. That doesn't mean they bullied her. It actually doesn't even mean they were really teasing her or mean to her. Sounds like the girl didn't like it so she quit. Mom doesn't want to follow the rules and pay for the cookies so she goes to the media and uses buzz words like bully.

 

[2Kds2K9]

I just read the article and am not surprised by the response from the Girl Scouts organization.

As a former Cookie Mom, yes, the troop/girls/families are responsible for selling the cookies they order from GSA. GSA gets paid FIRST. From then, whether you sell the remaining cookies or not, the GSA could care less. Each troop gets a very small percentage of each box. When I did it, the cookies sold for $3.50 each and the troop got .55 from each box. Once we paid off our debt to GSA, then the rest was our profit.

The paperwork and accounting was a nightmare! I've spent less time doing my taxes! Each box IS accounted for and if you want to exchange types of cookies, there is a form for that.

The amount of time and effort put into cookies sales is horrible for the rate of return. BUT, GSA REQUIRES each troop to sell cookies. If you do not sell cookies, then you are not allowed to participate in any type of fund raising for your troop.

Living in the DC area, another troop leader and I had to go to the GSA store in DC. We walked into the wrong entrance and ended up in the GSA Executive offices. Both of us looked at each other and said, "At least we now know where the cookie money goes."

I would just like to see the individual troops get more money from these sales. In turn, now that my DD is out of GS, when I see a troop selling cookies, I hand over a $10 or $20 and tell them that is for the troop's kitty. Beats the 55 cents they would get if I bought a box.

Sorry to say that the mother in question is going to have to pay for the cookies. It's on that ton of paperwork she signed at the beginning of cookie sales.

 

[cabanafrau]

Nope.

I think they have to stick to their rules because it's not just 1 person and $1500. I'm sure they have lots of people that would try to return unsold cookies if they started making exceptions.

I also read the girl quit because she said the other girls teased her. That doesn't mean they bullied her. It actually doesn't even mean they were really teasing her or mean to her. Sounds like the girl didn't like it so she quit. Mom doesn't want to follow the rules and pay for the cookies so she goes to the media and uses buzz words like bully.

Precisely, the council has to be mindful not just of this one case, but of other people using it to press an advantage. Having been a GS leader & knowing what was going on a few years back, I do understand the organization's stand on this.