Had to pay twice in cafe, as they got my order wrong

[CoffeeDrinker2023]

I called in to a decent coffee place yesterday morning. As usual it was busy and all the tables were full. The lady at the counter was chatting to someone she obviously knew, while me and the person behind me had to wait. Maybe this went on for 3-5 minutes.

I told her I wanted a Long Black, paid for it, then moved to the other end of the counter where they make the drinks. But I looked up at the board and realised I’d been overcharged for my drink. It turns out she had imagined I’d said Flat White, so had charged me that higher price.

She then corrected the order with the baristas and told me she could refund me. I said you can just give me 40p in cash? But no she said, they are cashless.

So I thought she would refund me the 40p back to my card. But actually she refunded the whole price of the drink. And then said “But you still need to pay for your Long Black”. Which I did.

So essentially I had to pay £6.60 to get
my £3.10 coffee. And I’ll have to wait till later in the week to get the £3.50 back.

I’ve been to this cafe a dozen times before (never ordering a flat white!) and she’s probably seen me there before. AIBU to think she should have either just refunded me the 40p, or if the system didn’t allow that then she should have given me the Long Black for free to make up for her error?

It is a busy and surely very profitable cafe by the way, though it is an independent.

Surely nobody is this entitled to expect people to remember your orders 😂

Mate it's 40p

I wonder if posts like these are purely made up to get people on here or something, surely people are not this petty!

This happened to me and I also was annoyed

£3.80 coffee which they accidentally charged me £4.80 for

The guy said he'd refund me, when he'd set it up I laughed and said "oh looks like you're charging me for it again?" He said it was fine.

BUT he was charging me again, when I asked why he'd donet that he said he'd cancelled the previous order and charged me again. I asked when I'd get the money back and he said "depends on your bank".

So in total I spent £8.60 on a cup of coffee and didn't even get an "oh, sorry"

Given it was their mistake, the relative price of them to give out coffee etc I personally think it would make more sense to refund and not charge again BUT that's just me.

I appreciate I'm the lone voice on the thread though!

Don't use the place again it really is that simple. This is going to be a problem from now on because people won't use cash, if you will only use card payments how the hell do you expect the cafe's/shops etc to have cash ? You reap what you sow.

I would suggest that if your cashflow gets stressed enough about buying two coffees rather than one then going to places that charge £4 for a coffee is probably not advisable.

Also you didn't get charged twice, your card was refunded.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

It's not about being stressed it just didn't seem like a great response.

I did get charged twice - both payments came off my card.

I know on AIBU the OP is always wrong but my exp just seemed like bad customer sevice! Others may (and have ) disagree

But why isn't it a option to refund a customer the cost of what they overcharged?

Charging the wrong price and making the customer also pay the correct price is going to annoy people especially as things get more and more expensive. Especially when it's their mistake to begin with.

No big deal.

But I looked up at the board and realised I’d been overcharged for my drink.

Am I the only person who reads the amount before tapping their card? I sometimes see people moaning about the amount charged AFTER paying when looking at the keypad for half a second would have meant it was fixed before paying.

Am I missing something? 🤔
But much, over 40p/£3.50

*bit

I think you are making a huge issue out of £3.50 (as someone who can clearly afford to spend that on coffee regularly) and it's slightly ridiculous.

Oh they definitely are!

"Same again" when the place is packed and you've served about 200 people a variety of drinks and then a huff like you're doing them a disservice by asking them what it is they actually want and not being able to mind read, and there's like 8 bar staff and they could have been served by any of those too.

"Usual please"
"What would that be?"
"I always have the same!! I come here all the time, normally get served by Brad"
Oh so you think service staff have a hive mind then?!

Some people genuinely think they're that important that the people serving them will remember not only them, but their order every single time. They don't comprehend that mainly, we don't take that much notice past being polite and generally getting the order right, or putting things right if we -gasp- happen to succumb to human tendancies and make a mistake now and again. Some people have an inflated sense of their own importance.

You sound like the worst kind of customer. You need to take a long hard look at how you treat others. I'm not sure i have ever read a post so entitled. If they don't have cash she can't just give you 40p. I doubt the system would allow her to just do a random amount of a refund to stop staff fraud. Unless she is the owner she can't just decide to give out free drinks. You have clearly never worked in a customer service role. If you can afford to buy a £3.50 coffee you can afford to wait 3-5 days for a refund. For me it's the entire way you have written this post. She imagined I said flat white.... couldn't possible be that she miss heard you. It must be that she imagined it just to spite you. I don't understand why you would expect a free drink for a simple human error that anyone could make? Are you telling us you have never miss heard someone? You didn't have to pay £6.60 you paid £3.10 and will get the money back. If this is a big enough issue in your life you feel the need to come to mums net and write a post about it you need to get a hobby. I can't believe anyone has a this much time of their hands. Maybe you could go and get a customer service job and realise how frustrating it can be when they encounter customers like you.

I'm with you, OP, I think that was poor customer service and I'd have been pissed off too. She made the mistake and you shouldn't be inconvenienced for it.

I don't understand why people will cut an independent business slack when they wouldn't a chain. I've stopped using my local bakery after being overcharged three times by staff.

My thoughts exactly. The refunded you, so your title is misleading anyway.

OP you sound lovely - you are laughing at the situation and at yourself and staying v good humoured about it all. I think you deserve nice coffee (as well as a refund). And I think that you should go there tomorrow and treat yourself to a second breakfast with your long black.

Talk about first world problems.. You bought something, there was human error, they refunded you and made you what you asked for. You create a whole thread about it. No problem here.

What kind of bonkers world are you inhabiting?

It's not entitled to ask for what you want, pay for what you ordered and to receive what you ordered.

In fact I'd feel pretty sure that Trading Standards would be interested in checking out businesses where customers were expected to put money up front for items they hadn't ordered.

100 % this also I highly doubt it was 5 minutes people always say things like this when in reality it's usually less then a minute

Since when are refunds instant?! It's at least 24 hours

I’d be more concerned about it being a ‘cashless’ cafe. Very Orwellian.

Seriously OP???

if you can’t wait patiently for few days for a refund of less than £4, I’d have to say you have no business being in the cafe ordering a coffee of any description in the first place!