I know, know, know that most of us with kids . . . if we have to take the drive thru . . . are not there because we want to spend time arguing with the manager of the store but I seriously almost got out of my car parked and then raised a ruckus. I just want to warn those of my friends out there who are penny conscious anyway to be ware of drive thrus. The more kids you have, the more sorry I am for you because it means the more this will happen without your noticing.
This morning I stopped at the Sonic near work to pick up a breakfast toaster sandwich. I quickly checked the value of the meal vs. the sandwich by itself and decided that since I had planned on getting a soda with the sandwich the meal would work out wonderfully and I could do the Route 44 upgrade and nurse the soda for the rest of the day. The board says the meal is $3.99. I ordered it and said yes when she offered the "free" upgrade to the Route 44. She said my total was $4.97. That is almost a dollar in supposed tax and that didn't sound right. Before I made a fuss I wanted to see exactly why I ended up with a higher bill than I should have.
By the way the price on the menu for the sandwich alone is $2.26 so you are already getting charged .03 more for the sandwich than if you order it separately. $2.29 plus $1.49 for the tots plus$1.79 for the route 44 with a discout code of .98. Yep that adds up to $4.59 for a sub total but if the advertising were true I should have only been charged .21 for the Route 44 to make it match the advertised price with the applicable discount. With a total sales tax rate of 8.375% does equal .38 for a total of $4.97. However if they had charged me the actual advertised price of $3.99 for the meal my meal would have been $4.32. A difference of .65.
I can tell you with almost certainty I was charged for a side of tots instead of the "meal" tots but the question is, was this intentional. Are they purposely over charging on the tots to make up for the Route 44 upgrade. Does this happen on a regular basis even when they are not in the middle of some crazy promotion? I can tell you it does happen. It has happened to me at several Sonics and some local Mc Donald's as well.
Now those of you who say that .65 isn't worth getting in a tiff over let me express to you again that the more people you are ordering for the more this is going to cost you. Let's say you are ordering for a family of 5 that is an extra $3.25 added to your bill that you probably won't really notice and since your kids are screaming for their food and you have a million other stresses you'll chalk it up to "well the price of things is going up."
I am telling you that what it is, is false advertising. Some of you might thing that $3.25 is not big deal either and maybe you are right. $3.25 isn't much for just one transaction but if you have watched "Office Space" (and I know you have) you know that $3.25 in mistakes at the register times the thousands of people they serve every day is a lot of money. Since this kind of accidental pricing happens more often at Sonic than at any other chain I have visited I have to insist it is not, repeat NOT, and isolated incident and therefore not an accident.
I did call their number to complain and the nice woman on the other end of the line took my complaint and said it would be forwarded to the appropriate manager (I imagine with a job well done memo attached). I would turn them in to the BBB but honestly when it comes to fast food would you check them out with the BBB or would you be more likely to check them out with the health department. By the way if you are going to call, they are going to ask you the address of the store and that is not printed on the receipt so make a note.
I just want people to know to look out for the switch when it comes to that stinking upgrade. I haven't ordered the regular meal during this promotion yet but I will and I will make note of how it is handled.
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