I went to go pick up food from a chain restaurant which also has app-based ordering. You don't have to order from the app, but you can, and I did so for convenience.
I have been there a number of times, and while the app has its issues (such as being unable to customize anything in the order), they always had been accommodating and I've never had a problem there.
Tonight, I got there and they informed me that one of the items I ordered wasn't available. It was cheap, and I could easily do without it, but of course the Jew in me thought, "Okay, so how do they refund me for it?"
So I asked them how I get the money back.
"You need to do it through the app," the employee told me. I hadn't remembered any way to do this, and I told her so, but said that I would take a look again. I also asked if she knew how, and she said she didn't.
I went through the app, and there wasn't a way to refund anything. In fact, there wasn't even a way to contact customer service by e-mail or whatever. So my only choices were to either eat the cost of this item, or waste my time tracking down the corporate number and asking for them to refund me in some way, which obviously wouldn't be worth my time, given the small amount of money.
This was irritating to me because the restaurant should definitely have a manual way to refund customers when they are out of something which was ordered online. I was told that they couldn't do it, yet they also conceded I was probably correct that the app didn't provide a way to do it. I was just basically told to find a way to deal with it myself, which is bullshit. Why can't they just pop open the register and process some kind of refund?
I asked for the manager. The woman went to talk to the manager, who I could see was furiously making food in the back. The manager seemed irritated by this request, and told the employee to tell me to just use the app. Again, I responded that there was no way to do it. "Well, I'm sorry, we can't do anything, it's through the app", she responded again. I answered, "Actually that's illegal. If the customer orders something, there has to be a way to refund it if you don't have it", to which she rudely responded, "You need to calm down", and walked away to get the manager again.
Keep in mind I wasn't raising my voice, using profanity, or acting aggressive at any point. I just wasn't accepting this bullshit that they couldn't refund me.
Again, she came back and said the manager is busy and will "come out when she's done making that food".
Well, almost all of my order was given to me shortly after I showed up (before we got into this argument), and there was one item left -- which the manager was responsible for making. I figured since I was waiting anyway for that last item, I'd wait until it came out, and then make a bigger deal at that point if the manager still wasn't coming to talk to me.
Well, the item came out, and the manager still wasn't coming. I asked when she was coming, and I was told to "be patient" and "we are short staffed". I asked why she could take a 30 second break from making food to give me this quick refund. I was told again "We're short staffed" and I had to wait.
5 more minutes passed and I finally had enough. This was a small amount of money, and I was tired of standing there like an asshole, with my food getting cold, waiting for a small refund. I said again that I really needed to talk to the manager, and didn't want to wait any longer.
The manager came over and said, "I'm giving you this refund, but you can't be rude to my employees like this. We're short staffed and busy, and you need to wait your turn."
I said that it was unreasonable to make me wait all this time for a refund for something they couldn't deliver, and she needed to either take a moment away from making food to give it to me, or authorize someone else to refund me that small amount of money. She told me, "There's a code which only I have, so it has to be me." She could not explain why she couldn't walk away from the food prep for 30 seconds to do it herself. I think she just didn't feel like being interrupted until she caught up with all the food prep.
I asked her how I was "rude", and how long a customer is supposed to stand there waiting for a small refund for something which was out of stock. She couldn't answer that, again just repeating, "It was through the app", and "You just need to wait your turn."
Keep in mind that it was now over 15 minutes since I brought up the issue of the refund, so I was definitely done "waiting my turn".
At this point, a third employee (also female), told me, "You need to go. You have your food, you have your refund, what's the problem? Why are you still here?"
I said that I was called rude by the manager and wanted to understand what I did wrong. Nobody had any answer for me. They just kept saying, "You need to take your food and leave."
I got the name of the general manager, who supposedly will be in tomorrow morning.
Obviously I could have just walked out without the money, and dealt with it later, but it was just really tilting that they wouldn't do something as simple as refund me for an item they couldn't provide, and I was treated like a burden they didn't want to deal with.
I wasn't very concerned about the food being fucked with, because I had almost all of it by the time this argument began, and the last part was being made by the manager, who only had her altercation with me after I already got the final item. However, I probably won't go back again for awhile, for this reason.
What should I do at this point?
JEW MAKE THE CALL