Originally Posted by airborne_artist
He could have said "Shortbread One, are you experiencing turbulence on finals?", apart from anything else he could then have warned subsequent aircraft.
Only ever heard ATC ask if there is turbulence following a previous aircraft reporting such.
A simple misunderstanding that, due to the OP being brave enough to post (and matspart investigating), we have all learned from.
I don't believe there is any need to analyse it to death in an attempt to apportion blame on either side. As I said a simple and understandable misunderstanding, nothing more.