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FacebookWhen life gets too busy or I have nothing to complain about, I just reach back and find something I wrote earlier but never posted (usually because it was uninteresting or poorly written…or maybe even both). This is one of those stories.
I don’t mean to be a troublemaker–things just sorta happen to me. I think the reason why is because I’m a fighter–I simply don’t lay down when unjust situations arise. I don’t wanna inflate my own ego here, but I believe strongly in my convictions and I’m never going to back down. Some might call it stubborn, but I prefer ‘determined’–it puts a positive spin on things.
The Girlfriend and I went to Jack in the Box because she was craving one of their fruit smoothies. “Should I buy the small one for $2.69 or the large for 3.39,” she asked after studying the menu.
“Go with the small,” I told her. She rarely finished drinks like that and it didn’t make sense to spend the extra 70 cents on something she wasn’t going to drink. We went through the drive-thru and ordered the smoothie. The cashier didn’t tell us a total–only to pull up to the window.
It took awhile to get through the window. I despise fast-food drive-thru–but that’s another complaint for another day. When we got to the window, the cashier informed us the total was $3.22.
“Is that correct,” I asked her. By my math, the two sixty-nine drink should have been under $3 after taxes. “I wanted the small smoothie.”
“It’s $2.99 plus tax,” she said.
“But the price on the menu says $2.69.”
“It rings up at $2.99,” she argued. After minor negotiations, she wouldn’t honor the lower price and I asked to see the manager.
I don’t know what his problem was but immediately he was determined I was wrong and didn’t even wanna bother talking to me. It took three or four minutes of shouting for him to even go outside and look at the menu. He came back and insisted that the menu said $2.99 and I was wrong. He then told me to leave and said he wasn’t going to sell it to me anyway. “I don’t want your business–go away,” he said and waived his hand.
Not being one to let things die, I exited the drive-thru and went back around to double-check the menu. Sure it enough, it said Real Fruit Smoothie $2.69 (I even took pictures of the menu on my phone). I pulled up to the window again and again started arguing with the manager. He said I was wrong–that the shakes were $2.69. I offered to go out and show him the menu myself but he didn’t care. “It’s $2.99 on the register.”
Now I believe a business is allowed to charge as much as it wants for a product–that’s what capitalism is all about. If Jack in the Box wants to charge $2.99 for a smoothie, that’s its business. But you absolutely cannot charge customer a price that’s different from the menu. Good customer service dictates take the 30-cent loss, give the customer the menu price, and promptly change the menu after he leaves. But this dolt didn’t give a damn about good customer service–probably because the best job he could ever get is a manger position at a fast-food restaurant.
I stormed off: an angry email to Jack in the Box will be written.
Later on that same evening, me and my buddies–El Diablo and Reebok–went over to Denny’s. Say what you want about Denny, there aren’t a lot of options when one craves an ice cream sundae after midnight. When the bill came, I noticed I was charged ten cents more than the price listed for sundaes in the menu. The manager walked by the table and I pointed out the error to him: “I’ll fix it when you pay the bill,” he said to me.
My buddies noticed that they too were charged extra for their milkshakes–30 cents apiece. The bill came out to be $15.58; I gave the manager $16 as Reebok told him that the shakes were overcharged too. “What do you want me to do,” the manager said immediately, getting on the defensive. “I already told you I’ll correct your bill.”
I don’t know what his problem was. Neither one of us was bitching or being an angry tyrant: we simply pointed out inaccuracies in the billing. But the manager responded like we wanted him executed…all over a meager 70 cents.
“It’s not about the 70 cents,” Reebok said. Up until then, he had been subdued. The manager’s reaction triggered an angry response from him. “You’re charging people prices higher than it says on the menu. The only reason we know is because we caught it: how many other people have you overcharged?”
“I just got here,” the manager said. “I’ll correct your bill and tell corporate in the morning.”
Instead of adjusting the bill via the cash register, the manager subtracted 70 cents from our $15.58 cent bill. I thought about telling him it should be 75 because there was also tax to consider, but I didn’t wanna look like a cheapskate. With $16 already in his hand, the manager had to figure out change on his own–without the aid of a calculator. He gave me a five-dollar bill, a dime, and two pennies.
“That’s not right,” I said to him. The manager gave me a glare–like he was about to rip my esophagus out with his bare hands. “You gave me too much: it should be a one-dollar bill instead of a five.”
For a moment he was confused: “Didn’t you hand me a 20?”
“Nope–16 bucks,” I said and pointed to the cash on his register. He took the five back and handed me a one.
“That’s what integrity is about,” I said to him.
When we got in the car, Reebok suggested that maybe the manager handed me the incorrect change on purpose–as a way to test me. “Maybe he gave it to me just to shut me up,” I joked. But in actually, he probably was just flustered by the whole situation.
People laugh at me and mock the way I get so angry about situations like this. It’s not about the 10 cents for the sundae or 30 cents for the smoothie: it’s about the businesses we frequent trying to rip us off. There has to be some sorta integrity. How often when you buy gas do you double-check the math and make sure you charged the proper price? Hell, we don’t even have a way to measure if we actually get the amount of gallons the pump puts in our car! Most folks don’t check to see if they were charged the right amount of tax. We don’t because there’s an expected level of trust between consumers and business. A dime here, a quarter here–when they start ripping us off, the integrity is all gone.
That’s why I get angry. It’s not about the money: it’s about the principle. Consumers should get upset when business try to rip us off. It’s one thing when they tried shady shenanigans like giving us a large drink when we don’t indicate size or offering as a salad without telling the price. But when a business becomes so bold as to charge a different price then what’s on the menu…it’s beyond shady–it’s flat-out dishonest.