Is this right? Or is the McD near me conning people?
It goes like this. Their menu quotes a price for a Meal consisting of ‘Sandwich, Regular Fries, and a regular drink’. And then on the receipt it turns out they’ve charged you the quoted price for the fries and the sandwich, and charged you seperately for the drink. This stinks, but is it what McDs has always done? Or is our local restraunt being naughty? if the later is it possible to report them to the corporation?
I’m confused. The prices on the receipt were broken out by drink, or they charged you more for the Value Meal than they advertised, and the difference was the drink price? You say “regular” drink – could they have asked (or assumed) that you wanted a larger/super size/whatever drink and charged the difference?
They charged more than advertised, and the difference was the price of the drink.
In other words they…
Say the meal includes the drink and costs £3.99.
… Then charge you £3.99 for the meal and £1.99 for the drink (£5.98)
(prices are not accurate. chosen only to make a point)
In my experience there’s no difference in price between buying the items individually or buying them as a “combo”.
Receipts will list the drink as it’s own line item to specify what you’ve ordered (i.e., a medium fry is a medium fry is a medium fry. A medium drink could be a coke, sprite, iced tea and is listed on the order as such).
Since it could be a problem with a register being setup improperly or a training issue with the operator pushing the wrong buttons, I’d probably ask the manager about it first- he may no know there’s a problem. If the local store’s answer isn’t satisfactory, then call corporate.
My first thought is the person at the counter punched the wrong buttons. It could have been a simple mistake if it was a one-time occurrence. If it happens consistently, the establishment has screwed up. Possibly an innocent register-programming mistake, possibly an intentional fraud.
I would have contested the price at the time, expecting they would correct it on the spot.
If it’s happened to you more than once, reporting to the headquarters may be in order. But for only one known incident, I’d bring it up directly to the store. In either case, it would be very helpful if you could show them the receipt.
It happens consistently. I think it isn’t tied to a specific register. And in this case it was someone else who went to get the order, so I wasn’t there to question it.
Next time I go there (which could be a while - one McDs is enough to last me at least a month) If I remember, I’ll question it.
By “register-programming mistake,” I meant the store-wide programming for all the registers.
And presumably for some time now. In that case, I find it extremely difficult to believe that other customers haven’t brought it to the store’s attention. I’d be inclined to complain vigorously, and wouldn’t have any qualms about going straight to headquarters with it. It seems inconceivable that the store management is ignorant of this.
I don’t think the staff are ignorant of it.
But I do think the vast majority of customers are the typical Oblivious Human Being™ who probably wouldn’t notice if they asked for the money twice.
They do this at the McD’s here too. It’s my understanding that it allows for changes in beverages.
For example. a double cheese burger meal:
Burger and fries $2.20
Soda: $1.00
Meal price $3.20 (plus tax, of course)
But you want a milk instead of soda:
Burger and fries $2.20
Milk $1.20
Meal price is $3.40
It seems that in general you save a few cents on the burger/fries part.
Of course if you buy the meal with a coffee, which costs less than soda, you’re still charged the meal price.
I’m guessing it’s a tax issue. Soda Drinks are taxed as non-food items.
I am not sure what your question is. It could be various things
Where I live, in Chicago, they say 2 Cheeseburger meal (2 Cheeseburger, med fries, med drink) = $4.29
If you bought it seperately it’d be
Cheeseburger = $1.09 (x 2 = 2.18)
Med Fry = #1.09
Med Drink = $1.19
Total = $4.46
If I buy the 2 cheesburger meal it says
2 Cheeseburger and 1 Fry = 3.10
Med Drink = 1.19
So you saved 17¢ on the food.
Here it just breaks it down the cost possibly for taxes.
I worked as an assistant controller for a hotel in Chicago, we got taxed different on bottled stuff. For instance, if we sold you a bottle of Coke the tax was higher than if you got the Coke from the resturaunt’s fountain.
That’s definitely wrong. I frequently order a combo meal and see the items are wrung up separately, but when I do the math it’s the same total price. As MissTake suggests, it may be to allow them to customize your order if you ask. But what’s happening to you sounds like something I’d bitch about.
Some fastfood joints these days offer combo meals that specifically don’t include the drink and it’s fairly clearly marked on the menu, but people just assume the drink is included when they see “combo meal.”
I’m not quite sure what you’re saying here. Would they advertise the combo at $2.20, in which case Lobsang is incorrect in his assertion that they include a drink in the quote? Or that the advertised price is $3.20, but broken down on the bill as $2.20 + $1.00? That isn’t consistent with his description of the incident either.
Myself, I’m not sure what’s going on, if it’s incompetence or crookery, but it sounds not-right on the face of it. And around here, combos show up as something like:
Burger (value combo price): $1.30
Fries: $0.90
Soda: $1.00
Where the advertised price of a burger by itself might be $1.49
On a seperate note, I have noticed a LOT of stores, especially Wal-Mart are raising prices and they’re not doing it the best. I found for instance in Wal-Mart, cheese, eggs, coffee creamer, Splenda and pasta, was all cheaper to by the more of the smaller boxes. You’d wind up with more and it’d cost you less.
I noticed a few grocers also doing this. I found it cheaper to buy many instead of the larger one. I think with the economy grocers are trying to fool people or they are not paying close enough attention.
Are you sure that you’re remembering the prices correctly? It’s pretty standard for fast food places to break down combos on the receipt by putting one price for the sandwich and fries and another for the drink. This allows substitutions to be done easier, ie: getting a shake instead of a soda (Misstake accurately describes this in post #9).
To be clear, the advertised price should include the drink; the price for the combo on the receipt would be less than this advertised price, with the addition of a standard soda bringing the total up to the claimed price.
It’s just so the store can properly record what drinks are being sold so they can reconcile the usage of each of the drink syrups with what the register says they’ve sold. (This is called a “stat” or statistical inventory and is done in each store weekly.
Also mans if someone is “backing up” the counter person they know specifically what drink the customer has ordered and can get the right one.
Finally, if you want a juice or a coffee instead of the soda then this can be priced into the meal package appropriately.
Lobsang is in the Isle of Man. If the deals there are the same as they are in the UK, ‘meal’ almost universally means the sandwich, standard fries and a standard drink - almost always at a cost saving against buying the same items individually, and almost always agnostic of any variations in the prices of various drinks.
It sounds to me like some kind of fraud, Lobbers - I’d gather a bit of evidence and go direct to head office.
I believe that many grocers do this on the assumption that most shoppers will make the assumption that the larger packages are going to have a better unit price. But my experience has been that if you’re a smart shopper, you don’t assume that. You can’t assume that the larger packages are going to be a better deal. You can’t assume that the generics are going to be a better deal than the name-brand. You can’t assume that the sale price on one name-brand is going to be a better deal than the non-sale price on another name brand. You always have to check.
Checking receipts at fast-food places and such in order to call them on possibly shady behavior may not be right (we shouldn’t have to protect ourselves against shady dealings), but it’s part of being a smart consumer.
Of course, if you’re in the OP’s position and someone went to the store/restaurant to pick something up for you, the only thing you can do is to save the receipt and complain next time you’re in (if you think the potential savings is worth your time).
Just another thought… You didn’t happen to notice them discarding part of the receipt before giving it to you?
It could be:
Charge for meal
Charge for drink
Hit ‘Subtotal’
Void drink
Ask you for subtotal amount
Tear off the receipt just below the subtotal
Pocket the drink price
(I used to work in internal audit, although not for McDonalds - this was one we caught several people out at)
Did you read the rest of my post? I’m well aware that a combo includes three components: sandwich, fries, and drink. The distinction that you glossed over is that things are broken down differently on the receipt; the sandwich and fries are listed as one item (for a lower price than the overall combo) and then the drink selection is also listed. The sum of these two items should add up to the advertisted combo price, given a standard meal and standard soda. If the prices on the receipt do not add up to the advertised combo price then there indeed is some sort of valid issue at hand.