Would You Back the Customer Up in this Situation

[guywithashovel]

This happened to a former coworker of mine.

She went to a nearby Tim Horton's. If I remember correctly, she ordered a dozen doughnuts, but the cashier heard her wrong and rung her up for a half dozen. She paid for the half dozen, and when she got the half dozen, she realized what had happened and pointed it out.

Of course, the cashier adjusted her order, and since the order had been adjusted for a dozen instead of a half dozen, she owed a little more money. However, she thought that since he'd made the mistake, she should get the whole dozen for the price of the half dozen. She asked for the manager, and the manager said that she would still have to pay for the full dozen. She got pissy, and the manager apparently told her she needed an attitude adjustment.

Most people at work who she told this story to thought she still should have had to pay for full dozen. Personally, I would have just gone ahead and paid for the dozen without complaining. For starters, I seriously doubt it cost that much more. Besides, one thing about customers that used to really annoy me was when they thought they should get free or discounted stuff every time there was a bump in the road.

[Mytical]

Ok..no I would not back the customer up, mistakes happen. However..you have to consider price vs hassle factor here (yes I know, I know..give em an inch they take a mile). Still lets say for the sake of argument that the difference between 6 and 12 donuts is about 3 dollars (probably a bit more, but neither here nor there). Factor in the time it might take to argue with the customer about this. Is it worth it is the question? Maybe...maybe not.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Well, I know what a dozen donuts cost. And it aint' much.

Had I been in a comparable situation at Kinko's (and I have), I would have given the customer the extra gratis (and I did)...

with the caveat that the customer was not acting like a shitbag about it. If they were, then no. Because technically, the inconvenience is not all that great and they are not really owed freebies. The free stuff is not owed, and I'm not doing favors for sucky people.

Had I been on the receiving end of that, I would not expect to get free stuff as a result of a simple screw up. I would have certainly appreciated it, but I would not have expected it, and I sure as heck would not have been so ungracious as to ask for it.

[Gravekeeper]

Wow, your coworker dialed Entitlement to 11 there. To answer the question no, she doesn't deserve anything except an apology. Why do people think they deserve monetary compensation when they're inconvienced? Especially over a simple honest mistake.

This "Ah ha! You screwed up, now you OWE me!" attitude is ridiculous.

[Peppergirl]

If she didn't want to pay for the donuts, why did she even point it out? Did she expect to be rewarded for it? What a freaking waste of time...why not just slink out and feel that she got away with something, since that's clearly what she wanted?

I mean, yeah, it would have been nice if they had just told her to keep them - and I would have too if i was the cashier, but jesus. What an EW!

Similarly, I've accidentally left an item or two in my cart before in grocery stores, and discovered it when I got to my car to unload. I always promptly returned and either handed the item to the service desk (if I didn't feel like waiting) or paid for it. The times I paid for it were always met with a hearty 'thank you' from the cashiers, but yes - I was still asked to pay for it. It never occured to me that I should get it for free as some kind of reward.

[Ree]

Just to clarify:
She asked for a dozen originally and was willing to pay for a dozen, but was only given 6 and charged for 6?

The mistake was caught and she got her dozen as she had originally requested, and was then charged for the extra 6 to make up the price of a dozen?

She felt she shouldn't have to pay for the extra 6 now because of the mistake?

Yeah, it would have been nice to get 6 free donuts because of the error, but the store was in no way obligated to offer that, and she should not have expected it, since, in the end, she got exactly what she originally asked for.

Now, if she had only asked for 6 but received and was charged for 12, that would be totally different.

Mistakes happen, especially in a busy donut shop with all kinds of noise and staff running around.

I hope the next time your coworker makes a mistake, the person on the receiving end is a lot more understanding than she is.

[HYHYBT]

Giving the others free would have been a nice gesture, but that it was *expected* negates that.

Anything similar for me, depends on a few things. The price involved, the attitude of the customer... and how likely it seems that they really did say six in the first place. If I plainly heard you say "half" or "six" in there, I might say "oh, I'm sorry, I misunderstood," but you're getting charged for what you get.

[Rageaholic]

I'm usually more sympathetic toward customers, but in this case, the customer is trying take advantage of a simple mistake. It would have been nice of the restaurant to comp her, but it should not have been expected.

No one was hurt, no one got ripped off, there was no inconviences, and in the end, she got what she paid for. The restaurant did nothing wrong.

[guywithashovel]

Just to clarify:
She asked for a dozen originally and was willing to pay for a dozen, but was only given 6 and charged for 6?

If I remember correctly, she ordered a dozen, but the cashier didn't hear her correctly and thought she said a half dozen and therefore rang her up for that. Therefore, she paid for a half dozen. Then when she got the six doughnuts, she realized she didn't have a dozen, and the error was caught.

[jackfaire]

I could understand if she was upset if there is a discount on buying a dozen instead of six and she was being charged full price for the other six.

For example buy 6 doughnuts and it's 5$

Buy a dozen doughnuts and it's 3 dollars per every six doughnuts so it's a total of 6$

So they now make her pay 4$ more than she should have.

Then her ire is justified.

Getting upset that they won't knock off the price when that isn't the case is dumb. I mean I could understand jokingly asking if that means you get a discount, annoying as hell to listen to but, at least make more sense than just figuring boom automatic discount.

If a company decides that a small mistake like that is worth money to you then freaking celebrate.

[Peppergirl]

Ah - ok - I misunderstood. She's still a twat, though.

It was a simple case of misunderstanding. She ordered, paid for and got 6 and thought that she ordered 12 and somehow thought that pointing out 'their' error, she should get the additional 6 for free? Wow.

I think that's being even MORE of a EW than the scenario I originally thought it was.

[wolfie]

I'm assuming that even if a dozen were cheaper than two half-dozens, that the adjustment would be to sell her a dozen for the price of a dozen, rather than to open a second transaction to sell her the other 6 for the price of a second half-dozen.

IF the customer weren't acting like a jackass, give her some MINOR compensation for the inconvenience - along the lines of giving her a 13th donut free.

[tropicsgoddess]

The employee could've been a bit more attentive but the customer didn't need to get harpy about getting a freebie or discount on the order. I really hate when customers think that they should be entitled to some freebie, credit, discount of some sort for every little inconvenience.