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.

Invest in a flask, I've actually just done this, I'm seriously turning into my grandparents and doing anything to save a couple of bob (as my grandad would say 😁😁😁😁)

Omg - I have spent my career in hospitality - and just occasionally I make a mistake. Human error. And luckily we can refund the difference, but some systems and policies don’t allow it. It’s really not a big deal.

Why are people having a go at op not being able to afford a few quid? That's all some people have in their account. Should that stop them buying something they want or need, just in case a cashless system or an employee fucks up?

Wtf how did you not notice you were being charged loads more than the price of 3 glasses? Surely you're a grown adult, some of the responsibility lies with you...

Error that the customer has to pay for, maybe if whoever fucked up had to refund the customer you'd actually find it a big deal. It may be trivial to you but do not dismiss the person on the end of your error!

I can't believe some people have such a victim mentality that they don't think it's on them to actually check the amount before they agree to pay it.

Don’t think I said anywhere “I was dismissing the person on the end of my error”

Mistakes happen. Perhaps even to you I’ll bet. Also, I’ll assume from your comment that you are exactly the type of person haranguing the poor minimum wage server for their mistake. Your language and attitude are unnecessary.

Customers?? Accept any responsibility for themselves??

Hilarious 😂😂😂

My pet hate are customers who don’t understand how refunds work and jump on minimum wage staff for every little error. If only they were perfect.

Complaints should always be to management/owners and leave staff out of it

But why can't business' refund the amount they overcharged instead of charging customers double for what was their mistake? Now that most have moved to being cashless seems like something that would be benficial to implement.

Staff can’t just refund random amounts. There has to be a trail. It’s often the bank system anyway, not the cafe. They also can’t use cash to refund if it’s a card payment as the till won’t balance correctly.

Where I work it's because the till is directly linked to the card machine, and the till doesn't have the ability for me to input 40p refund and then process it on to the card machine, I can only refund actual orders, so if we didn't have anything for 40p (unlikely anywhere these days tbh) then I literally have no way to refund just 40p. Only the price of an actual product on the till.
It's supposed to cut down on issues like typing in the wrong amount,or even deliberately and pocketing the 'change', on the older style machine, that weren't linked to the till, where I could have just done a one off 40p refund and explained it to accounts, now I can't.
It also means that tips are an issue because we can't manually add an amount on to a card transaction as there's no function for that either (not moaning btw, just pointing out that it's not a system that you can manually manipulate) you literally have the product buttons and refund button and then once you total the transaction and the customer is ready to pay, the amount is sent through to the card machine.
It has advantages, but it also has disadvantages, like anything.

We could do an exchange and the difference would be refunded on to the card, but we can't refund contactless, have to have your card with you and enter your pin number.

YANBU to want to be charged correctly
However
You become unreasonable when you:
Talk about a staff member chatting for 5 minutes to a friend at the till - this was probably another customer, was about 1 minute and they were trying to politely extract themselves to continue to serve
Expect a cash refund when the place is cashless, presumably well advertised, and even if it wasn't cashless for accounting reasons most places will only refund to the same payment method
Expect a free drink - yes it might have been nice to have been given it for free because of human error but its a business at the end of the day. There's also enough "hacks" online that are basically "order wrong then make them give you it for free by claiming it was the wrong order" that people may be suspicious.
Got irritated because a likely stressed worker made a mistake that they rectified as best as they were able within confines of their till system and the banks (its down to the banks for the refund to be processed)
Came to MN to rant about it

You could have checked before paying, both sides have responsibility there. And also asked for a receipt if you were concerned.

Also - the person saying about leaving a scathing review... get over yourself.

You get refunded using the method by which you paid

Yes so surely if they charged you £5 and it should've been £4, they can process a refund for a £1?

Rather than overcharging you £5, then making you also pay £4, so you end up paying £9.

I agree it isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things but I don't think it's an ideal solution.

It would depend on their operating system I guess. Our tills have the ability to change the price of the item refunded to reflect if it was purchased at a different price, so if they paid £10 and it was now scanning at £5 because of a sale the customer won't lose out. Likewise if they exchanged something that cost £10 for something that cost £5 they would get the new item and a £5 refund but we are a big supermarket and a small independent coffee shop may well have a more basic system.

But that’s the whole fucking point!!!!!!!

THEY HAVEN’T REFUNDED HER, THEYVE CHARGED HER TWICE AND THE OP HAS TO WAIT FOR THE REFUND OF THE FIRST PAYMENT TO BE RETURNED TO HER BANK ACCOUNT, SEVERAL DAYS LATER.

Jeez, why are so many posters incapable of understanding a simple OP.

Today it’s £3:50 for a coffee, maybe it will be £500 for a phone next week? 🤷🏻‍♀️

maybe it will be £500 for a phone next week?

Actually not as unlikely as it sounds. Not through selling wrong thing , but there are times when payment has not gone through the system due to some glitch, but goes into pending with the customer bank. They haven't actually paid because the payment won't be taken, but it doesn't instantly bounce back into their account either so yes in that case they would either pay twice and wait or leave shopping and wait.

Although as a measure of good will we would probably say take some of the very basics with you.

Didn't you see the amount before you tapped to pay?

But THEY have refunded her
It's the banking system which is holding up her refund
Unless they didn't process the refund. That's a different issue though
You can get an email telling you a refund has been processed, the company has refunded you on their end, but it might take 3-5 working days to appear in your bank, because of the banking system.

You obviously need a big hug 🤩

I was in a busy loud bar and was talking, she put the card machine out and I paid, easy mistake, I am a grown adult and function very well, how does a bartender not realise they’re charging that when it’s their job!

No it was an extremely busy, loud bar, I take some of the responsibility but mistakes happen just like the bartender made a mistake by hitting on the wrong buttons and not checking what they’re charging

You've clearly never worked in retail/hospitality before to not know how refunds work. 🙄