AITA for not accepting to pay full price for my coworker's food delivery meals?
AITA for not accepting to pay full price for my coworker's food delivery meals?
My coworkers are big into food delivery services and it's a common conversation in our office. I've tried a trial order before and it wasn't for me - the meals were really expensive compared to regular meal prepping.
Two days ago, one of my coworkers was complaining she messed up her delivery window and now has too many meals, so a few of them would have to be thrown away. I told her if she was going to throw them away I could buy them off her. Today she brought two chicken meals in and told me they would need to be cooked today because they were expiring soon.
I asked her how much she wanted for them and she said $80 - full price. I was awkwardly quiet about it for a minute and said I will take one of them. She didnt really say anything back but I could tell she was annoyed.
She works in the connecting office so I haven't had a chance to talk about it with her, but charging full price after having a conversion about them expiring soon was really unexpected. Should I pay the price though? We never agreed on a price ahead of time and there seems to have been a lot of miscommunication, so if I'm in the wrong I would like to know before talking to her.
Edit: Thanks for responses guys. I talked to her and told her that I appreciated her bringing the food but it was more expensive than I expected and I was going to pass. She didn’t really have much to say back, she wasn’t upset but changed the subject. I did check the servings before she took them though and they were 2 servings each. Definitely not $80…
Here's what people had to say OP:
Love_Fashioned wrote:
NAH. Not really anyway. Co-worker should have been upfront about the pricing. Or been kind enough to give you a discounted rate - just because the food would be wasted otherwise.
Not really sure why she couldn't have froze the meal/ingredients and saved it for herself another time but whatever. It's completely okay for you to say, "Whoa - $80? Sorry - I didn't realize how much they are. I'm not interested in spending that much, especially since they aren't really the freshest."
I get why it's awkward. She's completely cool with charging full price and she has that right. I guess you could add on a bit of your own responsibility, "I'm sorry you went to the trouble of bringing them here. I guess I should have asked how much they were."
OP responded:
Thank you! I told her exactly this next time I saw her and the issue was squashed. Lesson learned.
witsendgame wrote:
80 DOLLARS FOR TWO MEALS??! That’s more than most restaurants for a dinner. That’s wild. Do not pay that.
OP responded:
That's what I said to my other coworker lol, might as well just go out to dinner for that price.
Embarrassed-Row-2025 wrote:
NTA, if she was to charge you like that, she should have provided a list for you to choose from. Honestly, I would have said "I thought you were giving them away so you didn't have to toss them" (and she does have options like preparing them and freezing etc)
She wants awkward...give her awkward.
beckdawg19 wrote:
NTA. You never agreed to a price ahead of time, which is a blunder on both ends, but she takes TA cake for expecting full price for nearly-expired meals.
OP responded:
Yeah 100% learned my lesson about not making that clear ahead of time.
Anakin-Vs_Sand wrote:
Why are you even involved in this? You said you don’t like meal services, I don’t understand why that changed suddenly. My response to her saying she over-ordered would have been something along the lines of “oh no!” or “D*mn, that’s the worst!”
I certainly wouldn’t have offered to try to resolve her issue, knowing that I myself am not a fan of these types of meals and the extra costs associated with them.
OP responded:
Only because she was talking about throwing meals away and I didn't want her to do that. I definitely should've minded my own business and let her deal with the over ordering.
Maleficent_Web_6034 wrote:
It was insane to even offering to pay for them. She had expiring meals that she wasn't going to eat so if she wanted to do good she could give them away, or she could throw them out. Expecting any amount of money is absurd, and expecting full price would have me never speaking to her outside of what is required for work again. She just isn't the type of acquaintance I would want in my life. NTA.
celticmusebooks wrote:
Honestly, the price should have been discussed BEFORE you agreed to take the meals and full price for a two meals that she was going to throw away and are almost spoiled is over the top IMHO. Curious, how many people did each meal serve?
OP responded:
I'm not sure actually, she never told me. Conversation ended pretty fast after she said the price lol
itspeppercorn wrote:
It's generous of you to offer to buy them at all. She should have asked anyone if they wanted them for free. If she was wanting compensation, she should have spoken to the delivery service for messing up her window instead of trying to get compensation from her coworkers.
She should have given them to you for free, or at a significantly lowered cost. Also she could have frozen them even if they are expiring soon- the whole thing to me seems like she's making a non-issue more complicated.