I have a pet peeve with restaurants at the Cougareat charging less than advertised. You might be thinking, “Sounds like your lucky day! Who could ever have a pet peeve about that? That’s great!” Well… let me get started.
The first time I went to the salad wrap place, I looked carefully at the menu. I didn’t want cheese, but wanted sunflower seeds in addition to black beans, so I decided I would simply pay the extra price for the sunflower seeds.
To my horror, the person who charged me for the wrap was not the person who prepared it – how was the cashier supposed to count the different types of things when it was all jumbled together? I tried to add up the price in my head… and I was charged the normal price. I asked if they were sure, and they said yes. I hurried away, confused, but I got a receipt. I counted up the items again and realized they were wrong.
So, maybe the real pet peeve is having to correct something that wasn’t my fault. I don’t like going and confessing the situation, especially if I didn’t even do it on purpose. So I went back and told them that they charged me wrong. I found out I was right about being undercharged, but the worker said it was okay and it was only bad if I was overcharged.
I wanted to pay it back. It was such a small amount, it was not even close to being worth all the stress. I was upset and thought about talking to the manager to complain. I thought, there is no way I am going to sell my integrity for 70 cents (or however much it was).
A similar thing happened at the dessert place. They charged less for my cookie than the sign said, and I asked about it – the worker said that they charge less for the old ones, or something. I wish they would have an accurate price tag or a “sale price” listing on the official menu, or else let me know when I am getting charged less than advertised.
That’s not all – once I realized that the sunflower seeds were cheaper – 1 point and not 2 – by questioning the total “points." It felt like a facepalm moment.
I would like to think that the Cougareat is responsible for advertising correct prices – yet I don’t think they think it is even a problem to undercharge people. Me being responsible to change my mindset, in my opinion, would require knowing what is the right thing to do in those and similar situations, and I think that “what is right” in those situations is subjective – so I don’t really want to write about it – that could take many paragraphs.
This is a very interesting dilemma. On one hand, we're always eager to accept "freebies," particularly if they're sanctioned. My opinion is that if you told them the truth, and they're okay with not charging you for the mistake, then you are not selling your integrity--it's just good business practice for them to forgive the occasional seventy cent charge, since mistakes happen. However, I also see your perspective of feeling burdened to make sure that you're doing the right thing. Thanks for bringing up an interesting topic that most people don't think about.
ReplyDelete