Now, before I start off, I want to disclose a couple of things. I'm not trying to toot my own horn or anything, but for the context of the situation i feel its necessary to say that I don't consider myself a petty individual. I am what I think most people would consider to be a pretty generous person and a generally nice guy. That being said, I do have a pet peeve - that being customer service. Probably like alot of you, I have encountered too many terrible customer service situations, and I personally will not tolerate shitty service. I will make it my mission to have a situation rightfully corrected or expose an establishment for what they have done. I don't like people being taken advantage of, including myself.
Ok, so about a week ago i decided to make a spur of the moment trip to a local bar to have a few drinks. These days, and at my age, my bar trips are fairly scarce and if i want to have a drink i will mostly do it at home, unless a bar trip involves my friends being there and i want to be with them. I have only been to this particular bar once before, but A friend of mine texted me late at night asking me to come out so i did.
I didn't have any cash in my wallet so when I got there I used the ATM (see the receipt posted) I requested $100. Like the receipt says, it only dispensed $20 for me and then immediately declared it was out of order because it was empty. As you can see, it still charged me a withdrawal fee. Now first off, I have never ever seen an ATM dispense less money than requested. I have only seen an all-or-none deal. Now, ok, if there are ATM's that do that, then i guess it is what it is. To disclose - There was no warning or anything before I made the withdrawal that the machine was low or anything like that. But that withdrawal fee tho...
At this point, im not really upset or anything, i mean, things happen right? So I go up to the bar and order a drink. While she is making the drink in front of me, I kindly tell her my situation. In a nutshell im saying, hey i used the ATM and it only gave me a $20 but im going to need more, and I asked her if there were any other ways to get cash. ( I wasn't looking for a tab either) (i said this because a few bars in my area will run the card through their equipment behind the bar and give you $$.
She responds by saying "no we can't do that here". I said OK, no problem... I understand. She then said that the owner of the bar will be out shortly and he will refill the ATM. I then discussed the ATM fee. I explained that I was (in my eyes) given an incomplete transaction from the ATM and was still charged the fee. I asked her if I could be reimbursed for the fee since I wasn't given the full amount. Mind you now - it was $1.95, and im fully assuming that she would painlessly satisfy me by either crediting me back or say "hey how about I just buy you the next beer".
Her response? "No, we won't do that". I then reiterated my point that I wasn't given a complete transaction but I was still charged. She says "that happens all of the time, there is nothing I can do". I then ask to speak to the owner and she says he will be out in a few minutes to fill the ATM and ill tell him to come by you. Two other patrons (one of them being an off duty bartender there) chime in and say " yeah, that happens here all of the time". Im waiting and about 15 minutes go by, and I flag the bartender down asking when the owner is going to come out. She says, oh he already came out and refilled the ATM. Im like, "ok...he never stopped to talk to me about my complaint". She tells me she'll get him and another 5 minutes go by, and he finally comes out.
(oh, btw, I recorded part of the convo on my phone)
This guy does not look happy. He looks like he is inherently pissed off and on a mission to breath fire at any customer who
dares to complain. He comes up to me and I don't even get a few words out of my mouth explaining my situation and he says " the ATM's refilled, go use it". I ask him, ok am I going to be charged another transaction fee? he of course says yes and theres nothing he can do about it. I try to reason with him and say "hey look, this shouldn't be a big deal for you. I was ready to withdraw $100 and spend it at your bar...you mean you can't just credit me ONE $2 beer so i am not charged twice for what I wanted to withdraw?!" he says"NOPE, there's nothing I can do". He got very feisty and defensive and wouldn't calm down whatsoever with me...no apology either....nothing. I wasn't mean to him, I wasn't mean to the bartender, I wasn't mean to anyone there....heck, none of them even knew me, yet this is how I was treated. I drank the last gulp of my drink, grabbed my change, he was still bickering - and I said, "hey, save it...you said it, there is nothing you can do...but guess what, everyone is going to know how you treat your customers." Then he got even more pissed LOL
Oh, BTW - I did a little research since then and also asked a number of my local friends about this place, and many of them commented on how rude the owner was and saying "yeah, that's about par for him"
Now, for a few of you who may not have truly followed along. This was NOT really about getting $2 back. That $2 back should have been EASILY handled by the bartender when I first brought it up. 30 seconds and on, this isn't about $2 any more. It's about seeing if a business owner passes a test and makes the customer happy so I decide to keep returning there; in a small town like mine, businesses cannot afford to be shitty to customers.
So, what say you?
Please don't give me a "dude, it's $2... STFU" This isn't about $2. It's about service. I could have easily spent a couple hundred there...but now I will never go back. And to top it off, I don't know the regulations, but is charging someone a fee like that for an incomplete transaction even legal?? Ive never even encountered an atm that gave less money than what you request in the first place. Once again, think about it: The owner of the business fills the ATM; he has
complete control of how much money is deposited into it. Two bartenders of the business, and one patron says that what happened to me happens
ALL of the time. What exactly are the odds of that?? Very very slim in my book.