WIBU to be annoyed in this cafe?

[Hoppinggreen]

Went for lunch today at a local cafe. I was paying as a treat for my friend. Bill was about £30.
When I went to pay the person on the till made a mistake and over charged me by £10. It was actually a lot more complicated as she mixed up my bill with someone else then tried to add on someone’s takeaway but that was basically it.
After a lot of discussion between 2 staff members they said the only thing they could do was refund and charge me again. No problem I said.
So they did the refund and I said it hadn’t appeared back on my banking app to be told that I had to wait up to 10 days to get it. I was then expected to pay again.
I (calmly) said that I wasn’t happy about that as I would have paid £70 for a £30 lunch until the refund arrived. I was told there was no other alternative. I said again that I didn’t think this was reasonable. The staff member who made the mistake kept apologising and I said that it was a simple mistake and everyone made them so she really didn’t need to be upset about it. The other staff member said that I just needed to pay again and if I hadn’t received it in 10 days to call in.
There was a queue at this point so I said fine but I wasn’t happy about it. The staff member then told me that I had “upset” her colleague and was very short with me. I said again that I didn’t blame her for a simple mistake, it was the lack of resolution I was annoyed at. I did not raise my voice at any point and was very calm and measured. We left and I could hear the staff member telling her colleague she could come out now (she had vanished into the back as apparently she was too upset to deal with me) since I had gone. I left feeling as if I had done something wrong, honestly happy to be told I did
Was I unreasonable being annoyed at this? It won’t cause me any issue financially but I’m a bit miffed at being £40 out of pocket due to their mistake for up to 10 days. It might come earlier I know

Don’t be ridiculous. What do you think happened when the only way to pay was cash?

Doesn't mean the staff member was able to open the till or wouldn't have gotten fired for giving a cash refund. Front line staff don't get to change the rules even when it makes the most logical sense

Surely the refund timescale isn’t the issue here.

Yes.

The refund timescale isn’t the issue here.

Yes, a refund takes up to ten days to come through on a bank account. That’s not within their control.

What is within their control however is the fact that the charged the OP wrongly, and then insisted she pay again. After issuing the refund they had a bloody cheak to charge her at all.

I would have walked out without paying. Not a chance would I pay again, and I’d be reviewing them on tripadvisor.

This happened to me, kind of. They overcharged me and said they had cacelled the transaction, I said well the money has gone from my account & they said oh your bank will be holding onto it until they get notified it’s cancelled, should
bounce back in a couple of days. In the meantime pay again. I refused and walked out! Good job too because the money never came back into my account!

@Sparkleshine21 this does happen. The money gets stuck in a holding pattern and then if not actually taken by the company in question, it drops back into your account. It isn't shown as a refund transaction however, your balance just reflects it.

Usually anyway, yours may have been a scam but just thought I'd say! :)

They could have and should have given you the £10 from the till whatever their usual "process" is (and in a cafe, surely refunds are only going to be for mistakes or problems with service/food almost all the time?), or frankly apologised, issued the refund and said "it's on us" as a goodwill gesture. The manager should be able to do all this and then account for it, it's a rubbish company if they can't. As a company, it's up to them not to have a system not to have to double-charge you for their mistakes. It's very different to when you make a return of a purchase that you changed your mind about.

I would write a stiff letter pointing out the error of their ways, how unreasonable this would be for someone suffering with the cost of living crisis who couldn't afford to have more than double the bill out of their account for that length of time, and the fact that if this isn't resolved to your satisfaction then you certainly won't be eating there again even though you and your friend like the place and will be giving anti-recommendations to family and friends.

Yanbu I hate it when people cry and play the victim when everyone is just being normal

^^Also, this. Pathetic and passive-aggressive.

This is why you pay cash

I'm not sure why they couldn't just refund the items they over charged you for as surely it comes up as individual prices that would show on a receipt/on the till run? E.g. tea £1:80 cake £3:50 coffee £2:20 etc then the total at the bottom? Like when you get a refund for items in a retail shop..you get refunded the item for stock purposes as well as refunding you the correct amount. You don't get the whole lot back then have to pay everything apart from the returning item again? (By the way, I just put random prices there for anyone judging how much I said a cup of tea would be..it's just an example...chill okay 🤣)

So why couldn't they refund the individual item they accidentally added to your bill back to your card? That way surely when they do the till run at the end of the day it prints the transactions clearly so it would balance then even if it took 10 days it's £10 not bloody £40 you're waiting for. Even if items aren't noted individually and they do it on a calculator and just type in the amount surely just refunding the difference on the same payment method makes more sense? Especially as they would be charging that same amount to another customer directly after surely because it was someone else's food/drink and they would need to pay? Also, yes the person messing up then running to hide in the back is a bit much...

The manager was literally standing right next to her!

I would write a stiff letter pointing out the error of their ways, how unreasonable this would be for someone suffering with the cost of living crisis who couldn't afford to have more than double the bill out of their account for that length of time, and the fact that if this isn't resolved to your satisfaction then you certainly won't be eating there again even though you and your friend like the place and will be giving anti-recommendations to family and friends.

Do people really have the time and will to do this over a mistake that could have handled a bit better? By the time OP writes and posts it the money will be back. What would need to be resolved? Unless OP needs compensation for the stress?

It doesn’t need to become common practice unless staff are routinely overcharging people.

Surely the issue is you are waiting for a £40 refund not just the additional £10? I would find that unacceptable that you are waiting up to 10 days and in the meantime have paid£70 for a £30 bill. Not just one mistake but two. I can understand refunds taking 10 days in shops where products are being returned but you quite clearly had just had the one meal so I don't understand why they could not have used their internal accounting to switch the £30 on the wrong bill to the correct one then return you £10 in cash. I would not be eating there again. As for the staff member, "if you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen". Anyone dealing with customer service should be able to cope with customers standing their ground when businesses are being difficult and unreasonable. As long as you were polite she was ridiculous to hide from you. What a way to run a customer service business. YANBU.

Op, you are 100% in the right. The person who made the mistake played the victim and the other one the enabler, acting like overcharging you then charging you again to fix it which equals a ridiculous 70 pounds which was their fault not yours and you hoping for a refund in 2 weeks was totally fine and dandy and you should be grateful and then berate you for questioning them.

You should complain to their superiors. That is not how a business should be run.

No stress involved so I think I will be ok in time
Im not bothered enough to write a letter about it and I do think I will get it back - eventually

Agree.

Appallingly handled.

No idea.
There was much confusion, pressing of buttons, saying “I dont know what to do”, fetching of a colleague who pressed more buttons and also didn’t know what to do then the first one vanished because she was very upset and I was told this was the only solution - which I only agreed to because I had no idea the refund could take so long

I was very nice, I told her we all make mistakes and she shouldn’t get upset.
Apparently this meant she had to go and hide

It is what I would expect.
Along with a credit note for 10 pounds.

They do if theyre just £10 from the till 😵‍💫

Yup, this.
I also would have stood there until it was sorted.
I'm a bit fed up of everything being for the convenience of the shop/eaterie and not the customer.
I'm never rude, but I am stubborn.

So basically the first person didn't know what they were doing so ran away to play the victim and then the second person just decided to try and make you the bad person rather than accepting responsibility and rectifying the issue appropriately (even if it means taking slightly longer to do so/figuring out how to) as the people representing the business? It seems they majorly inconvenienced you to make it easier on them as it was likely the fastest way for them to do it rather than taking a moment to think about it? 🤦‍♀️

I don't blame you for just going along with it at the time, they put you in a really awkward position. Hindsight is a wonderful thing but picturing the circumstances I probably would have done the same thing in the moment that you did. Very frustrating for you and absolutely unreasonable on their part.

They probably can't just take money out of the till as has been explained already. Refunds often take ages. 10 days is standard.

It is not acceptable though. Why should we just say this is the way it is?

Surely the time to dispute was when you saw the card machine said £70? I think you need to let this go as a lesson learnt unfortunately: card refunds take a few days and always check how much you’re paying.