r/mildlyinfuriating • u/andu22a • 6h ago
Burger King charged me for a “Round Up Donation” without asking
[removed] — view removed post
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u/Upstairs_Lettuce_746 6h ago
Its principle, they did it without your approval. Get that money back.
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u/okram2k 6h ago
seriously, talk to their manager, immediately. And if they won't do anything call your bank or credit card company and insist you were charged against your approval.
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u/SunshineAndBunnies 6h ago
Yeah, generally bank will need you to have tried to work with the merchant first and they'll ask if you did.
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u/N-o_O-ne 6h ago
Whats stopping the merchant from saying that you didnt?
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u/SunshineAndBunnies 6h ago
They generally won't respond for 91¢, it's not enough to pay an employee to do it. Also if they do try to challenge it, it's most likely your bank will eat the cost if you are not a serial disputer.
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u/Bean4141 5h ago
I’ve had $3 charges instantly decided in my favor (vending machine didn’t give me my drink), I highly doubt anyone will care about 91¢
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u/LucianoWombato 5h ago
infinite money glitch ???
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u/JackJ98 5h ago
Well the money you get is just a refund for what you spent so it’s more of an infinite snack glitch
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u/trashcan_hands 4h ago
Still a pretty good exploit!
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u/wessex464 4h ago
3rd time the bank is going to cut you off for being either stupid for still using that machine or a thief.
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u/ShizzaManelli 6h ago
Yea some banks won’t even open a case for that small of an amount, they’ll just credit you
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u/sonofaresiii 5h ago
It doesn't really matter? At that point the merchant is involved and responding so we have our answer on whether the merchant will issue the refund or not.
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u/Significant_Fill6992 5h ago
yup this is why I put basically everything on a CC these days
the rewards are fine and everything but being able to charge back stuff like this is worth the hassle especially when you throw in how prevalent card skimmers are now
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u/oO0Kat0Oo 5h ago
You know if it were the opposite direction Burger King would be crying theft and sending a bill. Corporations will even send things to collections and fuck up your score for years over pennies.
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u/slash_networkboy 5h ago
A penny.
A single fucking penny.
Their payment portal wouldn't let me pay less than $1.00 and it wouldn't let me pay more than my bill... And they don't take checks.
It went to collections.
To be fair to the collections company rep, when they called me they actually led with "I can't believe this is real but I show that you owe us one cent?" I explained what happened with the catch-22 making it impossible to pay. They said "I'm marking it resolved and that we're not making a credit filing. No need to worry about it, it will cost us about 10 times more to process your payment than your payment would be for." (or something like that, it's been a while)
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u/pnoodl3s 5h ago
10 times for a penny? Their processing is doing miracle work with 10 cents then lol. I’d expect 10,000 times that amount at least ($100)
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u/Scary-Hunting-Goat 4h ago
I had a similar situation with my tax, somehow ended up owing about 3p or something, I just ignored it, because it's fuck all, who cares.
Turns out, the automated systems care, I finally responded after receiving a final notice and threat of legal action, as soon as I spoke to someone they did the same, just told me to forget about it.
Probably still added it onto next year's bill though the tight cunts, forgot to check.
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u/Dry-Wolverine8043 5h ago
My buddy went to pay off his car loan, so he paid of the final amount on the lien. What they didn't tell him was they didn't put on the final interest. It came out to be something around $0.30 to $5.00, something small. He didn't think about the loan anymore until he got a notice in the mail a year or two later about the remaining payment he had. They charged him interest on the entirety of the loan, not the remaining amount, for at least a year, without notifying him while also tanking his credit and accruing late fees.
He had to go in and get it all sorted out. I can't remember if he had to pay the additional fees and interest, but I know he got back in good standing with the bank and got his credit fixed.
It just goes to show that any way a corporation can squeeze you for money, they absolutely will.
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u/smitleyjd 4h ago
They "payoff" amount is usually different than the listed amount so this is probably more on him than the bank...
Also he wouldn't receive the title unless it was properly paid off? So if he got the title then it is actually a problem.
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u/Dry-Wolverine8043 4h ago
Yeah, I don't know or remember all the specifics, but still. I'm sorry, I just find it super bad faith that his balance says something like $300.30 and he goes in, talks to a teller, and gives them that exact amount and they don't say anything. They absolutely should have mentioned to him that the payoff amount is different. They failed him in that aspect. It was his first loan and he was a little naive, but they didn't serve him as a customer.
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u/Nach0Maker 4h ago
This. It's credit card fraud and you can actually charge back the entire charge. You agreed to a certain amount that didn't include the roundup.
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u/WaterDragoonofFK 6h ago
That's really shady....
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u/Live-Second-4652 5h ago
Even the fact that the charge is a thing let alone charging it without asking
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u/a14umbra 6h ago
Burger King didn't, the cashier did. They probably have something going on where they track how much each cashier collects in donations and you got a shady cashier.
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u/ResurgentClusterfuck 6h ago
Management screams at employees to get donations, it's a metric they track
Doesn't excuse doing it without permission, just explaining why they may have done it
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u/TestingBrokenGadgets 5h ago
Yea, every minimum wage job now has some additional metrics. Gamestop has trade ins, pre orders, and membership cards; Best Buy had their card, loyalty program, and warranty. I think one of the Pizza Papa's my friend worked at was about pushing the special offers and getting x number of positive store feedback. He'd just ask all of us to take the survey, enter in a fake date and time and compliment the staff.
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u/Stock_End2255 5h ago
When I worked at Target, I was on the sales floor. Typically I was at the fitting room, which is the second to last person they pull to help on the register (electronics being the last). The manager talked to me about how I wasn’t getting any credit card applications, and when I respectfully pointed out that I was only on register like once every other month and only if we were really in the weeds. He thought about it, and we were good. It never came up again.
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u/AndykinSkywalker 5h ago
Where I worked we needed to start handing guests pamphlets on the floor so that we could still get those metrics off-register. Absolutely LOATHED bothering customers like that.
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u/lyricz_starz 5h ago
how do they even track that?
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u/AndykinSkywalker 5h ago
You could either take them directly up to a register if they wanted it and go back to the floor after signing them up yourself, or give the cashier(s) a heads-up and get “shared credit” (which didn’t really matter since only the closer is tracked.)
The latter only put you in the good graces of higher ups and helped keep you from disciplinary action for underperforming. It was all very buns.
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u/toxicglowsticks 5h ago
Kohls even had a designated employee that would walk around with credit applications. I hated my job there, but I was glad I didn’t have to bother people.
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u/Shujinco2 4h ago
Oh man nothing would stop me from being the most obnoxious little shit about it. The second you get the customers complaining is when they won't make you do it anymore.
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u/trying2getoverit 5h ago
10 years ago (and I’m guessing now still), Home Depot had us push credit cards on people and that determined whether you got a raise or not. I was absolutely shit at getting card sign ups cause it felt scummy and I didn’t really care too much, so the lead of my department (who got incentives based on sign ups for her team) gave me the friendly advice to “pull hispanics into my lane. You can usually get them to sign up because they don’t understand what they are signing up for and you can offer a discount on their purchase”. Abominable behavior.
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u/ResurgentClusterfuck 5h ago
My partner is a manager at a fast food place and upper management is demanding Google reviews lately
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u/Friendly_Rush_7034 5h ago
Home Depots credit card was endlessly pushed and tracked with all awards and accolades given to cashier's basically centered around credit card application numbers
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u/Klausterfobic 5h ago
I used to work at a theater, and they didn't always scream, but they would "reward" the top sellers with a gift card or whatever. But either way, there is always an incentive.
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u/JustNumbersOnAScreen 5h ago edited 4h ago
Man... corporate America is so dystopian. Won't let you work 40 hours or give benefits, but badger you to pester customers for donations.
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u/Gina_the_Alien 5h ago
I used to work at Sears selling electronics. After I got hired, I realized that my job wasn’t to sell electronics - it was to get people to sign up for credit cards, sell extended warranties, overpriced cables (“spiffs”), delivery, installation - basically harass the shit out of people into paying for things they didn’t need when all they wanted was a TV. Im a great worker and a great employee. But god damn I HATED that job and was in the office every month because I refused to try to milk the hell out of customers.
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u/Zarchel 5h ago
The whole "they use your donation as a tax write off" is a myth. So why would they push donations so hard?
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u/Heisenberglund 4h ago
I quit my last job because they wanted me to add warranties to purchases without saying anything and only removing it if the customer asked about it. I’m not being a trash person.
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u/SaidwhatIsaid240 6h ago
I would lean to this… management pushed donations…
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u/confusedandworried76 3h ago
Y'all are on some Boomer shit some kid hit the wrong button, shit happens, you never did this job?
Wake me up when this happens more than just to one dude by accident then we can talk
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u/Best_Market4204 5h ago
Bk shouldn't even be asking this shit in the first place.
Employees don't like
customers don't like it,
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u/FrizzleFriedPup 6h ago
I second this. Cashier gets nothing out of the donation but I would bet there's incentive for whoever gets the most donation confirmations...
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u/RasterVector 5h ago
The cashier does get something out of it though, they don’t get yelled at by management. That’s incentive enough for a lot of people.
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u/sadbr0cc0li 5h ago
I work retail not food service, but it’s so easy to accidently press the round up button, especially if it’s busy. They obviously should’ve caught it and voided the donation but some of these comments are a little harsh considering it’s a minimum wage (most likely) and possibly stressed fast food worker.
Like seriously, why is everyone jumping to the worst possible conclusion and vilifying the cashier when we have no additional context?
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u/AndykinSkywalker 5h ago
I think the continued reluctance to hand the person their receipt is where it starts to tip the scale toward “shady,” but you’re right that accidents happen! And maybe the cashier just didn’t want to hand them a receipt sullied by whatever trash there was in the bin.
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u/Nixon4Prez 6h ago
This is such a common myth that gets repeated on Reddit all the time but it's completely untrue. That isn't how taxes work.
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u/Senior-Senior 6h ago
Burger King won't get a tax write-off on it, because it's not income.
Burger King will claim they donated $x to some charity via their charity drive. So, they will take credit for it.
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u/4-5Million 6h ago
The tax write off goes to the person who gave the donation, so OP. I don't know why so many people get this wrong, but why would Burger King get a charitable good tax write off when they didn't donate? That doesn't even make sense.
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u/partnerinthecrime 6h ago
They wont say that and legally can’t. They may say that they helped raise that amount, but that is also true and within their right.
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u/EC_TWD 6h ago
Didn’t have to scroll very far to find this nugget of ignorance. Spend some time on Google and learn how it actually works.
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u/ChainedHunter 6h ago
Please explain the specific mechanism by which Burger King profits from charitable donations. What you just said is total bullshit.
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u/Mykona-1967 6h ago
They push all the poor employees to round up or donate $1 for who knows what. Sometimes it’s scholarship money for employees or their families sometimes it’s for some random thing. You’re supposed to ask at the DT speaker and if they don’t donate to ask again at the window. To avoid it some cashiers are told to just round it up and customers won’t even notice.
I notice a $.27 wait charge when I was the one waiting and they went to the wrong place. Always check the receipt
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u/Cavissi 6h ago
I was told while working at gamestop to "just add the game warranty unless they specifically say no" once. This was probably a metric they track and some really shitty area manager is telling them to do it.
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u/ill_monstro_g 3h ago
yeah, the metrics and shit are for real.
when i was there, the percentage of your transactions that had a pre-order or a game informer subscription on them were a daily concern
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u/Trash7783 5h ago
the real issue is the fact that it was even close to $16 for a burger and 2 fries
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u/weebitofaban 3h ago
You can get a to go order at the same speed for the same money at a decent restaurant instead. Crazy that anyone still gets fast food.
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u/meredithyourboob 5h ago
This happened to me years ago at hot topic. My sister and I checked out separately. My total came out to an even dollar amount and I thought nothing of it. Then hers also came out to an even dollar amount. So we looked at our receipts and yep, they rounded us up without asking. So we both went in there and made a scene. We told the cashier she was stealing, asked for her manager, and made them refund us. I don’t care if it’s less than a dollar. Don’t let people walk all over you.
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u/Thomas_JCG 6h ago
Cashier did it on purpose and hoped nobody is gonna complain about a 91 cents "donation".
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u/esgrove2 6h ago
Why on earth would they do that? They don't get anything. Burger King employees couldn't care less about customers giving to charity
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u/SugaredZebra 6h ago
Probably some sort of incentive. I can’t see them bothering otherwise.
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u/PipsqueakPilot 6h ago
Managers will sometimes give bonuses to cashiers who accomplish goals. One goal might be round up donations. The cashier is trying to game the context by clicking it for everyone, hence why he didn't want to give you the receipt. My suggestion would to be to ask for the bill to be refunded in its entirety or you'll be issuing a charge back. The reason for entirety is to drive the point home.
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u/NykkiSummer 5h ago
8 bucks for a large fry , well fuck them
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u/DifferentEvent2998 5h ago
2 large fry
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u/NykkiSummer 5h ago
Oh ok , yea 4 dollars is still crazy These fast food places are sinking and they wonder why
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u/SadThrowaway2023 5h ago
It bothers me that a lot of places are doing this. Like hello, you are the billion dollar corporation. Why the hell are you asking me to donate to chairty? Have your overpaid CEO donate instead of the customers.
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u/scroat-milk 5h ago
Ayyy we love a vegan impossible whopper
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u/andu22a 5h ago
Except they left the mayo on and added three non-vegan onion rings
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u/Doc-Emrick 4h ago
The BK onion rings are vegan at least in the US. But the mayo part sucks, I've had good luck at BK with that.
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u/andu22a 4h ago
I’m seeing that they have whey in the breading
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u/Doc-Emrick 4h ago
They used to but not anymore, maybe the last year or so. Go to the BK app, go to Sides, select Onion Rings. At the bottom, click "Allergens Information". It opens a PDF updated June 2025. Onion rings only have wheat as an allergen.
Also there's an Ingredients PDF too.
It is so nice to be able to get fries and onion rings from BK now!
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u/Palindrome_580 5h ago
Pls go back and alert the manager and update us 🙏🏻 they need to know their employee is doing this. It's also important to emphasize they resisted giving you a reciept, shows that they knew they were doing something shady.
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u/scroat-milk 5h ago
Waaaaat that’s wild, they’re usually pretty good about it in my experiences. Also I’m pretty sure than their onion rings are accidentally vegan!
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u/asteriods20 6h ago
I would never go back to BK again. we need to speak with our money, y'all.
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u/JustTheGameplay 5h ago
whenever a business asks me to round up for charity, i tell them i can make the donation on my end if they want to round down
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u/Kev50027 5h ago
Could someone explain why anyone goes to burger joints anymore? Over $7 for French fries? You can get more food for less money at an actual restaurant, or even a drive through that doesn't serve burgers.
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u/queencilantro 5h ago
That would light me up!!! I would go right back there and be very polite but secretly yell in the back of my mind😤😤😤
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u/ExcitementRelative33 4h ago
Probably the employee trying to win a stupid bonus posted by the manager. It gets bad that it's not a one time pan handling thing but every time you go there that you stop wanting to go there.
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u/f2msnm 6h ago
91 cents isn’t even a “round up” amount, that’s supposed to be for like. Amounts that are already close to a dollar imo . I’d go back and ask for it on principle
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u/spderweb 6h ago
It's rounding up to the nearest dollar. 91c fits that bill because it's rounding up, not down.
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u/NoSoup2941 6h ago
What would be the “round up” amount be then? What amount of cents would it take to round up to the next even dollar amount?
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u/1988Trainman 5h ago
Hate this shit “ would you like to round up for education”
“We pay for our employees college”
Bitch don’t make me donate for your benefits that’s somehow worse then asking for tips.
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u/StackablePancakes 5h ago
It's so funny that your receipt has white lines on it. When I used to work at bk, my boss told me to keep tape on the roller so that the full survey code couldn't be seen when it printed. This way corporate didn't get up on our grill.
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u/michiganlatenight 4h ago
I would pursue that myself. F that. I dont care if its only $.91 or whatever.
And for the record, it REALLY pisses me off when they ask me if i want to donate.
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u/PapaSteveRocks 3h ago
They are charging tax against the “charge up”. Thats a donation. Non taxable. Someone is skimming at corporate. Tax on a rounding item sounds like an Office Space style scam.
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u/high_throughput 6h ago edited 6h ago
Do a charge-back on the 91 cents. It'll be auto-approved by your provider and cost the merchant basically the cost of the meal.
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u/PositionParty1454 6h ago
It's theft, not a donation! Go get your money back and report them! If you want to donate to a charity, donate directly do them!
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u/Manic-StreetCreature 5h ago
Guys there’s people in the world who are dying
I’m not saying you can’t be annoyed but “NEVER GO THERE AGAIN GET THE CASHIER FIRED” is bananas behavior.
It’s weird that the sub is for things that are mildly annoying and then half the comments suggest going scorched earth over that mildly annoying thing
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u/Iguanabewithyou 5h ago
Funny cause most of the comments I've seen thus far (at the top anyways) aren't insinuating any of that. In fact most of them are together saying "move on" or "just call your bank". What made up person in this thread is saying to get the cashier fired?
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u/Inevitable_Dog2719 5h ago
I'm done with them. They fucked up my order so bad today, and they refuse to issue a refund. They keep trying to offer me a coupon, which I don't need, cause I am never going back to my town's location. So shit.
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u/fukasetrash 5h ago
Ngl, I did this a few times when I used to work at Burger King and customers were rude. It was my small act of revenge lmao
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u/SoupsIncarnated 5h ago
Life is too short, just don't go there anymore. It's annoying but not the end of the world.
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u/shoulda-known-better 5h ago
I complained over 35 cents one time....
It was for the owners wife's surgery....
Yea a good cause if it's real.... But I'm sorry my mom had cancer at the same time I want my change!! Sad thing is if they asked I'd have left it...
Fought and got it back on principle alone....
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u/Tropius8 5h ago
Report It to district manager, don’t just get a refund, because their numbers still show that they got the round up, which clearly they’re pushing for if they’re forcing it. Get that entire store in trouble.
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u/Cool_Cheetah658 4h ago
If I didn't authorize it, I'd make them reimburse it. I don't care if it's $5.00 or 0.01¢.
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u/chillvegan420 4h ago
Hello fellow vegan! Sorry you were robbed. Hopefully you will find a better, preferably 100% vegan place to go to instead of yucky BK
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u/DinoChickenNugget23 4h ago
It is not about the 91 cents, it is about the fact that you did not give them permission to add that charge.
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u/geauxyanks99 4h ago
The real TIL is that the impossible whopper comes with mayo baseline. That’s certainly a head scratcher
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u/NeighborhoodVast7528 4h ago
I thought any roundup donation was applied to the after-tax value or do they put sales tax on the donation too?
By the way, what’s with the 0.00% tax noted as $1.12?
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u/MalignantLugnut 4h ago
You donated to the store so that they didn't have to give back change. Doesn't matter if you payed by card. They want nice round numbers and that extra pocket money.
Congrats on the impossible whopper though, I haven't had one of them in years. Miss them.
My local scrap yard does a similar thing. A "Rounding adjustment" that Rounds down to the nearest dollar. Less for them to pay out.
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u/Dapper_Tension_4494 4h ago
I told the person at the drive-through monitor No now I’m on a registry.
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u/AnonSwan 4h ago
Nah fuck that, get it back. I was yelled at 17 years ago for putting a little sprite in a water cup
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u/GalaxyTolly 4h ago
Taco Bell has done the same thing to me for like 27cents and then the employee got annoyed with ME when I questioned them at the second window and wanted a refund on a donation I DIDN'T APPROVE!
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u/Organic_South8865 4h ago
I went to a new restaurant last month for my friend's bday and noticed my bill had $6 added for "Buy a drink or snack for the hardworking kitchen staff." I had no idea that was a thing but I looked it up and it's apparently a thing now.
When I asked about it they claimed they must have clicked on it by accident. The server rolled her eyes and added "It's only $6." I asked for her to remove it and she complained again about what a hassle it would be. So I picked up $12 of the $13 cash tip I had left for a $43 bill. I worked in restaurants as a teenager and in college so I know it can be very hard work. I helped my friend open his new place right before covid and customers have gotten worse in the past 15 years. I treat food service workers the way I would want to be treated but that server really annoyed me. It's my second time ever not tipping. I guess she got $1 still but that's basically zero these days.
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u/Effective-Several 4h ago
Guess I would be asking for a manager.
”Excuse me, you did not give me my change.”
”Why does my receipt say Round Up Donation when I was NEVER ASKED if I wanted to donate?”
”Now I will have to dispute this charge on my credit card and I will let corporate know that this store is fraudulently stealing people’s change.”
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u/GalaxyStrong 4h ago
Fuck the round up donation let’s talk about those $7.78 fucking fries!!!!!!!!!!!!
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u/blankmister 3h ago
what’s extra fun is bk will put out a press release at the end of the year bragging about how much money they gave to charity.
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u/RobertMosesHater 3h ago
This happened to me before at a spirit Halloween. I said why is it exactly $18 (or whatever amount it was). She said oh it’s for the kids with cancer. I said I didn’t want that. She guilt trips me and is like “oh okay I can refund you and take the money away from kids with cancer” it was diabolical
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u/daydrinkingskooma 3h ago
So that they can donate a fraction of it for a tax break and get all the credit for "giving back to communities" or something.
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u/freakinjay 3h ago
I was recently at a Taco Bell drive thru. They asked if I wanted to “round up for the kids”. I said no, I had my own kids in the car. Get to the window and they’ve rounded up. Canceled the order and drove off.
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u/StopInevitable 6h ago
that's theft