Was I unreasonable to accept this refund?

[tiredmama23]

Yesterday evening DH and I got a takeaway from our local Indian takeaway. I ordered it online for 7.30pm delivery. When it arrived, there were two items missing - one was a starter and the other a portion of rice (mine). I couldn't share DH's rice as he had mushroom pilau which I don't like, mine was plain pilau.

I called the takeaway and explained. They said the driver wouldn't have time to come back with another portion of rice until at least an hour's time, by which time my half of the curry would be cold (DH and I were sharing a curry). He said this was the best he could do given how busy they were. He wasn't particularly apologetic tbh and just said "we're busy it's human error, it happens".

So I was like fine, but can you at least offer to refund us the items we are missing since we aren't able to eat them but we've paid for them? (Around £4.50 total). He said defensively (and I'm not sure if he misheard me): "I can't refund the whole bill, I'll be out of pocket!!" I said, "no, I didn't say the entire bill, but we are missing items that we've paid for...?" He then said I'll tell you what I'll do, I'll refund £10 back to you as a good will gesture (the total bill was £22). I said that's lovely, thank you very much.

I then had a disappointing tea of oven chips with my curry!

Anyway... relayed this story to my friend this morning and she said I can't believe you took a tenner back off them! I said what do you mean, he offered, I just accepted 🤷‍♀️ She said if it were here she would have just said "no need for that, just refund me the cost of the missing items please". She said I've now swindled them out of £5.50, even though the takeaway owner offered me that money for the inconvenience.

Was I unreasonable to accept the £10 refund?

Fair enough! My husband goes into way too much detail so I get a bit eye rolly sometimes (esp with the early starts and too much info!)

Hope your next curry is a better one.

I would have just drove down for the rice. But instead of having oven chips why didn't you wait for the rice and just microwave the curry?

Exactly. Just cook some rice....?

We had no rice in, already explained that. Driving there and back for rice would have taken longer than cooking the chips so it was a case of which option allows me to eat soonest!

I think you were totally fine.

Not unreasonable and your friend is mad. If she wants to accept poor service and get nothing more than the actual cost of items thats up to her. But the minimum a restaurant should do it not charge for items you don't actually have. A decent place would then compensate you for the aggro. I agree with a pp that when you order a good meal, not receiving items ruins it. A takeaway is expensive for a lot of people and a rare treat. Not everyone orders one every week or multiple times a week. To have it not turn up complete or turn up cold or really really late or anything like that would not be acceptable. Rather than feel sorry for the restaurant, who chose to offer the £10 let's remember, she should instead think of it as what any decent business would do. Yes its human error but its their error. In my business if I mess up I compensate.

Of course you weren't unreasonable. What you actually asked for was a refund of the missing items. He offered you more, which you were pleased to accept. If you'd haggled for it your friend might have had a point.

Anyway a bag of microwave rice is not the same as properly seasoned, freshly fried or boiled rice from a restaurant. It fills the gap, much as the chips did, but if it was just as good we'd all microwave rice at home in 5 minutes and save a lot of money, wouldn't we!

Absolutely fine to accept it. They offered it.

Lol, me neither

What would you do without oven chips though?! Eat curry by itself? 😱

I was STARVING I needed the carbs 😂

DH has never been happier that I don't like mushrooms, otherwise half of his pilau would have been mine 🤭

Such a non issue. Keep your food warm in a low oven and cook some rice.

As the driver said, humans make mistakes. If this is your reaction to missing rice I dread to think how you would be in an actual crisis.

😂😂

Eh? What was my reaction?

I also deal with "actual crises" for a living and I am trained to do so quite effectively. So worry not. 🙄

Why didn't you put the curry in the oven to keep warm while your chips were cooking?

Threads like this make mumsnet worthwhile. A whole essay for nothing! I love it!

😂 I'm bored can you tell

@RiderOfTheBlue

Hmm would that not have burned the curry? 25 mins on 180/200 in the oven when it was already cooked? 🤔

Eh? What's so shocking about OP asking for her money back on items she never got? Do you regularly donate money for nothing to local restaurants? Dumb comment.

OP YANBU - you were compensated £5.50 for the effort and aggravation (and energy bill) for cooking your chips and the disappointment of not having the meal you wanted Seems perfectly reasonable - it's less than minimum wage for the time you had to put into fixing it (and less than it would've cost the restaurant to put it right, which they were contractually obliged to do).

Although @VladmirsPoutine what I will say is, this "non issue" I have described in unnecessary detail is a lovely distraction from the actual serious and more stressful issues I have going on. It's nice to be posting about something so trivial tbh 😁

It was fine. I’d have accepted it too as it’s the inconvenience as well as the actual missing item. Not sure what your friend is on about really, it’s not like you accepted more than what the whole thing cost.

you could have waited for the rice and kept DHs rice & the shared food warm, or reheated it.

He offered a goodwill gesture, and you took it. He was right, it was human error and it was probably insanely busy yesterday. He apologised - what did you want? An abject grovelling apology?

No. I wanted pilau rice 🤷‍♀️ thought that was obvious 😂

@tiredmama23 Oh absolutely! I read the whole thing, you have a captivating writing style!

Anyway... relayed this story to my friend this morning and she said I can't believe you took a tenner back off them! I said what do you mean, he offered, I just accepted 🤷‍♀️ She said if it were here she would have just said "no need for that, just refund me the cost of the missing items please". She said I've now swindled them out of £5.50, even though the takeaway owner offered me that money for the inconvenience.

presumably you are very very close friends to either see each other or speak to each other first thing on NYD

and yet… she thinks you’re a swindler and you start a thread canvassing opinion. Odd friendship