Nov 23, 2008 12:28
I'm so sick of this El Torito crap.
Here's what happened. I got my credit card bill online on Thursday from Bank of America. A week ago yesterday, I went to eat lunch at El Torito with Sarah and a gay couple after the Rally against Prop 8 passing. We split the tab amongst three different credit cards: one of the gay guys paid for both of their food, and Sarah and I both put our own lunches on our credit cards.
...at least that's what was supposed to happen. Thursday, I look at my bill, and I always check those things to make sure they're right because you never know. And I got a nice little present: El Torito charged me almost exactly double what my receipt said: $54, as opposed to the $26 on my receipt. I'm pretty sure they put Sarah's and my lunch on my card, which is puzzling because when we left the restaurant, we got three different receipts. I got mine, Sarah got hers, and Ryan got his. So it wasn't until I got the bill from Bank of America that I knew anything was wrong.
First I called Bank of America to see what it would take to fix it with them. They said it'd be 4 - 6 weeks. I figured the server screwed up at El Torito, they ought to be able to fix it much faster than that. So I called El Torito and tried to fix it with them.
I might not have gotten around to calling them until Friday because I think I got credit card bill late Thursday. Anyway, I called them Friday and tried to fix it over the phone. They said they wanted to see my receipt. I tried to fax it over because I don't have a car and El Torito is about a half hour walk from here or so, and I didn't want to walk that far to get this fixed. Neither of our fax machines worked.
Mom was getting a hair cut in PG a few hours later, so she gave me a ride and dropped me off since Cannery Row was right on the way for her. This was Friday afternoon, I talked with the manager, and he talked with the corporate headquarters.
...This is the part that seems screwed up to me. They screwed up and charged me double at the restaurant, they ought to have been able to put the money back onto my credit card right then and there when I got there. But no, he had to talk to the headquarters for fifteen minutes or so. He agreed that they screwed up, filled out this form and got my signature. At the time, it all looked fine. He had said it'd take 24 hours to get the money back onto my credit card. Longer than it should have, but fine, that would have been okay with me.
I checked yesterday at after the 24 hour mark online and the money isn't there yet. I checked this morning and it still isn't there. Then I look at the copy of the form he filled out and realized that the last four digits of the credit card number were not the same as the last for digits on my credit card. I didn't notice this when I left Friday, or I wouldn't have left without having fixed it. So someone else probably got my money. What'd be ironic is if they gave Sarah the money back for her meal which they never even charged her for in the first place; I wouldn't be surprised.
So I called back today and tried to talk to the guy I was talking with on Friday. Naturally, he wasn't there, but another manager was. He said he'd call Sergio, the manager who was there on Friday and call me back. He called me back five minutes later and said Sergio will be in tomorrow morning and we'll fix it then. He said he's on top of it, which he isn't because if he was, it'd be fixed by now.
At this point I won't be surprised if they want me to go back in there tomorrow. I'm not mad about the fact that they screwed up in the first place and charged me double. I'm mad that their customer service is shit poor. At the worst, they should have been able to put the money back on my card on Friday right then and there without me wait 24 hours and given me a new receipt that reflects that. I've had other stores do that for much less complex situations and situations where they'd have been within their rights to not give me my money back.
If they do end up saying that I have to come back tomorrow, I'm going to ask for my money back in cash because I don't trust them with the credit cards any more. And I'm tempted to ask them for the whole $54 back. This is completely ridiculous. I can understand screwing up and charging me double, but this is terrible customer service.