So, did your order total ip to 9.45?
If so, move along - there is no fraud or theft because the silly computer screen is locked.
If she is over-charging and is ringing up a 7.00 as 9.45, then the store may be stealing.
If she is issuing receipts, she is propably enterring the sale into the system, and will need to have the money in the till at end of shift.
Do you really think the petty theft of the value of 2 happy meals raises to a level the sops want to hear about?
2 kids in the car expecting a treat, and you make a scene? I hope you went to the next closest place and upgraded the order a bit…
The receipt is generated when she enters the amount that goes into the register. In order for her to generate a receipt, she basically is telling the register that she has the money in hand. This is to prevent you from driving off without paying (which is what you did), and her having to back out the charge.
People drive off all the time from fast food windows without paying, and then they have to void the order. It’s a pain in the ass, and it has to be tallied at the end of the shift. I’m certain they have a policy in place to combat this, and that policy is to not give out receipts for orders until the have the money in hand. Going against policy is grounds for corrective action.
Why hold up the line? Just pay for your food and go. If you don’t get a receipt, or if the receipt looks suspect, and you feel like getting into it, then pull in to a parking space and deal with it. That way, the person behind you (likely me) doesn’t have have to wait for you to finish your Dwight K. Schrute routine.
Wow, our local McD must be behind the time. All there is a display board with most of the menu items and their prices, and a microphone and loudspeaker. No electronic type display at all. You order, the clerk repeats the order with a 'Is that correct?", you say Yes (or no), and then the clerk says something like “The total is $7.56, pull around to the first window please.”
They offer a receipt after you pay, but I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen anyone take one.
(I mean, come on: are you going to a #3 Value Meal in on your expense account?)
Yeah, eat your food and get on with your day. Life is too short to get worked up about things that happen in fast food restaurants. If you want to make the world a better place or set a good example for your kids, wouldn’t your energy be better spent volunteering at a soup kitchen or something? Teach them to take an active role in making the world a better place, rather than just being reactive?
If this is theft, they will get caught eventually. It’s not like corporate hasn’t seen every scam imaginable. I promise- they count each of those happy meal boxes and will at some point be expected to explain what happened to each of them. The place I worked even inventoried the gum balls in the giant gumball machine!
Did she actually talk to you like that, or was that just part of the story? Because if she talked to me like that even if she wasn’t stealing (which she TOTALLY WAS) I’d report her rude ass just for that.
Let it slide.
Think about it this way — there are people in a hidden place preparing food that your family will eat. Do you want to be a jerk to them?
Do you eat at that particular Micky D’s often?
My restaurant motto: never be rude to anyone who handles food that you are going to eat.
I’m with Zsofia on that one.
Right, you get a reciept after you pay. This seems like there was a glitch in the computer- not a case of theft.
You were wrong.
Look, having the ability to do basic math, I could probably figure out if I was overpaying based on the menu price on the board. If the price of a happy mean is $3.99 I would probably be like “that doesn’t make sense, you overcharged me”.
If she made an issue, I’d simply be on my way without paying.
If she was rude I’d just call her a fucking cunt and then be on my way without paying.
Life’s too short to sweat some burger jockey.
I mean what do you think is going to happen? You call some 800 number and they’ll launch some massive fraud investigation?
And what’s the theft here? You place a $5 order, she wrings up $10 and then what? The register still says there should be $10 so she can’t skim. Basically she would be stealing from YOU and giving it to the McDonalds corporation. If she wanted to steal a burger, she could just grab one off the counter. They don’t track them.
Another thing is sometimes they don’t have a particular item programmed into the register (or the button is busted). So they have to ring up an equivalent item.
So the alternative theory is you pissed off some drive through good becuase you mistakenly thought she was robbing you of 89 cents.
I have a confession to make. When I go to fast food places I ask for a water cup and then fill it up with soda.
THIEF!!! STOP! THIEF!!!
Maybe she just wasn’t at the register when she took your order? They do have those wireless headsets ya know.
In the unlikely event that corporate follows up on this, it’ll just look like you were trying to scam them by insisting they tender cash that was not recieved. Shortages in cash or inventory are the store manager’s problem anyway.
My advice: pick up the pieces and move on with your life…somehow.
To which I would have asked how an even number of items can create an odd total.
Said by someone that probably never worked in food service. No, you aren’t entitled to an invoice prior to paying. You guys are basically saying if something weird was happening with the display board at a fast food place you’d sit there, and say “I’ll be happy to come around once this problem is fixed.”
If I was working at a place like that my response would be swift and to the point, “I’m going to move you through here right now, ring you up and give you what you’ve ordered. If some sort of technical problem we’re having means you don’t want to eat here, fine, but I’m not going to take however much time it may take to fix this while you sit out front like a child. Guess what, I make minimum wage and don’t really care one way or another if you’re comfortable with this transaction or not or whether or not you choose to eat here. If you think I’m stealing, call the police and we’ll see how the dice fall.”
Again, I wouldn’t be surprised if the person mentioned in the OP was stealing. But as a customer in a QSR you have no right to sit there and demand an “itemized bill” up front. You can demand that the cashier explains the bill to you, for example “well, you ordered this which costs this, and this which costs this.” But there’s no entitlement to an itemized, pre-sale bill, I say this because every QSR POS I’m familiar with doesn’t have the capability to print such a thing out.
In my (limited, and dated, but quite enlightening) QSR experience most managers and even owners, while they’d probably offer you something for free if you came in with a complaint about “rudeness” would limit their corrective action to laughing about how you’re a “bitch” or something of that nature the moment you left the store.
Your average QSR employs people who are prone to walking out at a moment’s notice, not showing up for shifts, and et cetera. Your average wave of customers in a given day will be made up regularly of at least a few total assholes who exist just to make life for the workers bad. The managers and owners know this. They know that the most they can do is fire someone, which just means they have to cover that person’s shifts–the person who was fired can get a similar paying job at any of the other dozen similar places in town no problems.
I think the people who think they have to report “employee rudeness” at a QSR should probably get over themselves. The rare occasions where I eat at one of these places, I expect my food to be right and that’s it. I don’t really give a shit if some 30 year old woman with three kids who is barely able to afford rent even with Section 8 housing and food stamps who has been shit on for 7 hours by some of the worst humans in the world treats me like I’m a special little snowflake. Even the management of these places regularly has to deal with so many assholish customers that even the customers who have been legitimately maligned by a worker will probably just trigger the “this person is an asshole just trying to make trouble” line of thought in a manager’s head, unless they observe the bad behavior for themselves.
Sales tax.
Scenario:
Happy Meal @ $4.50 x 2
Subtotal = $9.00
Sales Tax = $0.45
Total= $9.45
Not that hard.
I notice you’re not in the United States. Here, most retail outlets and fast food places list menu items at “pre-tax” cost. So it can easily result in a situation like this.
$0.45 is exactly 5% of $9.00, and that’s not a totally uncommon sales tax rate.
That happens quite often; sales tax is applied to the total, not each item individually.
If I order two $1.50 items in a jurisdiction where sales tax is 7.5% the total will be $3.23 after rounding to the nearest cent.
ETA: Martin Hyde’s example is better than mine…
People I get it. I never called, my question here was would you call. And by far the vast majority of you said you wouldn’t so now I know the answer.
Maybe the board was broken; I could have gone inside. All the registers have displays on the back so you can see what the total costs & figure out the tax in your head. I guess that was all I was looking for. Was the price high? It was a little high, but I doubt she’s getting to Rio on the overage.
I was pissed off by the ‘Drive the hell around’ part, by her calling me ‘Papi’, and the ‘Now’ part. But my money is good at any store on any street and I don’t have to shop there.
Question asked. Question answered. Thank you all for posting!
I didn’t make the cutoff! Well I would’ve called, but only because I used to be a movie theater manager and had a special experience to share. At one of our locations an enterprising youth put 2 and 2 together (or in this case $2.50 and $2.50 - the cost of 2 small drinks) to make $5. Whenever we’d clean auditoriums between shows it turned out he was washing out the cups, not ringing them up, and pocketing $5 for every 2 he sold. So now whenever I see someplace doing something hinky with their cash register I wonder if I’m getting some twice-used cup (or food!-ew!!! Who knows?)
You do realize that if they call the police it will be to have you arrested for tresspassing. They do not have to serve you at all, and the drive-tru you’re in private property. You need to leave if they ask you. If pressed the police will side them.