The customer's always right ... or is she?

You may have heard the one about the fly in the soup, but did you hear about the hair in the pie?

Plenty of cafe and bakery owners and staff in Rotorua have - and they say the hair comes from a shaggy dog story. A woman calling herself Mrs Blain has been calling Rotorua bakeries and cafes claiming she found "a disgusting hair" in a pie bought there with other food. She has asked each for a refund of the $19.20, the amount she says she spent.

Some took her at face value, including Dana Symons, who runs the Robert Harris Cafe at Rotorua Airport. She sent Mrs Blain a $20 note as compensation. That was before she heard from other bakery owners warning her of the scam.

Mrs Symons said when she spoke to the woman over the phone her story had sounded plausible and she felt very sympathetic.

"She told me she had taken the pies and some other food she had bought from us to the Lakeside concert. She had been so disgusted she had chucked the lot in the bin and had bought Chinese instead.

"I told her I was terribly sorry ... I did not even twig that there were no Chinese takeaways anywhere near the concert."

When the Daily Post called "Mrs Blain" on the Tauranga number she had given the bakeries and cafes, she initially said she had found three hairs in three separate pies. She became very angry at the suggestion she had tried to scam the businesses.

"I'm with the Mongrel Mob and I will get my husband to hunt you down," she shouted, before hanging up.

Sue Connell, who owns Le Bonne Bakery, was ready to send off a cheque before realising she was being scammed. Calls to other bakeries and cafes confirmed her fears. "I just want people to be aware that there are people like this who try this sort of thing."

"Mrs Blain" called Express Bakehouse owner Vinh Yip.

"At first she was very sweet and nice. She told me she had bought four pies and two filled rolls. I told her I would be happy to give her back the money for the whole pie but not the whole lot. She started to talk about health inspectors and swear at me and said 'you are all bloody greedy Asians' and told me she would go to the newspaper."

Other bakeries and cafes contacted had similar stories.

The Rotorua police intelligence section said they hadn't had any complaints.