They Ordered Takeout From Their Favorite Restaurant During Lockdown—Until Opening the Bag Revealed a Missing Order Essential
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Imagine ordering takeout from a restaurant. What would you do if you picked up the food, got home and then realized that someone you ordered wasn’t actually in the bag? Would you go back to the restaurant, call them, or let it go?
In this story, one couple is in this situation, and the husband is pretty upset about the missing bacon. It’s not that he’s terribly sad not to get to eat the bacon. He’s upset at the restaurant employee’s attitude and refusal to refund the cost of the bacon.
He decides to make the restaurant pay, literally.
Let’s read all about it.
Don’t want to give me my bacon? That’s fine.
There were several restaurants that were struggling last year – somewhere near the peak of Covid. Several shut down completely and others fired all of their staff just to try to stay afloat.
Around this time, my wife and I made it a habit to order takeout from our favorite establishments. We always tipped the standard 20+%, despite these always being takeout orders.
One restaurant in particular forgot to include the bacon that was supposed to come with our order. The order was around $20 – with a tip of around $5, so around $25 total.
He thought it would be easy to resolve the issue.
When you picked your order up from this restaurant, you had to park and come inside – there was no drive thru or curbside pickup.
On this particular day, I picked up our order as usual and drove home (~5 minute drive).
We immediately discovered that the bacon we had ordered was missing, so I called the restaurant. I expected to call and simply have them refund the ~$3 cost of the bacon.
Simple enough, right?
Wrong.
Let’s see how the phone call really went.
This restaurant only had one person working the front – so when you called, you knew exactly who you were speaking with.
When I called and stated that they must have forgotten to include the bacon, before I had a chance to ask for any type of resolution (refund, replacement, etc), this person informed me that there was a “large” sign in the restaurant instructing customers to check their orders for accuracy before leaving the store.
As it turns out, the sign they mentioned was there. The instructions for checking your order was one of about 5 “notes” hastily written on a piece of printer paper taped to a wall. It was out of the way, not obvious, and sloppily handwritten.
However, I had failed to read this note and I had failed to check my order for accuracy before leaving the store. I admitted this, and asked them to either refund the ~$3 or I could come pick up the missing bacon (definitely not a preferred option, but whatever).
OP was pretty upset.
The restaurant refused these requests, told me the missing bacon was my fault, and went as far as to question whether the bacon had actually been forgotten – stating that they “remembered” packing my order.
This is where the MC comes in.
They had basically accused me of lying about $3 worth of bacon that was missing from an order. This conversation had escalated quickly – in the span of about 30 seconds – and I was mad.
I informed this person that they had failed to provide what I had ordered, and that I would be forced to seek compensation – all $3 worth. I asked how they preferred I go about seeking this compensation – hoping that they would succumb and just give me a $3 refund.
Time to talk to the credit card company.
However, to no-one’s surprise but my own, the restaurant told me to “go ahead and file a chargeback” because they had “video proof” and that I would lose that chargeback case.
So, I did exactly that.
I called up my credit card company and filed a chargeback. This chargeback was for $3 on a $25 charge – only $3, not the full charge.
The agent with my credit card company offered to simply refund the $3 several times, but I kept insisting that it was the principle of it at this point. So, I proceeded with the chargeback.
It was quite an involved process for $3.
There is paperwork that you have to fill out if a merchant contests a chargeback.
About 3 months after initiating the chargeback, I get paperwork in the mail that instructs me to provide all of the proof I have.
I provided no proof, other than a recollection of what the merchant had stated – including them stating that they had video evidence of the bacon going into my order.
I felt like I had already won at this point – it was costing them time and energy – and I was happy to fight the fight – all for the sake of $3.
Then he got a letter.
A couple of months after I submitted this follow-up paperwork, I get a letter from the credit card company stating that they had decided in my favor – and that the merchant was forced to credit me the $3.
A big win for humanity!
What many people don’t know is that a chargeback costs the merchant – especially small merchants. And this cost can easily be upwards of $100 – despite the chargeback being for only $3.
It gets even worse for the merchant.
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Additionally, if a merchant has enough chargebacks, a card processor may increase the merchant’s rates, or discontinue a contract entirely.
Basically, any chargeback a small merchant has on their record is bad.
So, in all, the restaurant instructed me to file a chargeback, I wasted a ton of their time, ended up costing them in the neighborhood of $100 for the chargeback fee, and won the $3 that they should have just credited me in the first place.
All for $3 bacon. I probably would’ve just ate the cost (pun intended) and never ordered from that restaurant again. Or, I would be very careful about checking my order before leaving.
Actually, always check your order before leaving any restaurant. I’ve had missing items or wrong items in my order more times than I can count. It’s pretty quick to look in the bag, open the pizza box, etc to save disappointment and frustration later.
Let’s see how Reddit responded.
This is a good point.
A former fast food worker weighs in.
This person provides more context about chargebacks.
If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about a college student who decides to send his university a counter-bill after they try to get him to pay “inconvenience fees.”
Here’s another good point.
Wow. That is pretty crazy that the restaurant employee refused to refund the $3 or replace the bacon. What awful customer service!
It’s not like someone would lie about bacon. If they really want customers to check their orders before leaving, they need to say that when the customer picks up the order instead of having a hard to notice handmade sign that’s supposed to do the job for them.
I’m glad he won.
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