Really, Taco Bell? Really???
To all my scrappy friends, I'm sorry. This isn't even CLOSE to scrappy related, but I have to tell the story. I think it's important, particularly in these hard economic times.
For those who know me, you know I'm big on letter writing. Whether I get very good customer service or very bad, someone at the company is going to know about it.
#1. Some of you may remember my computer saga a few years back. I had a Sony Vaio laptop, called them up to tell them of my issue, and the rep tells me that's considered a major repair so it'll cost me $699. plus tax and shipping both ways. I said "but I can buy a whole NEW computer for that!" And he told me I should. And I did. I bought a Gateway. And Sony execs got a letter for that.
#2. Fast forward to last year, I sent my Gateway in and they did the repair for less than $100. AND I had my computer back in 3 working days! AWESOME, right? So they got a letter for that.
#3. Have you ever gone clothes shopping and picked something off the clearance rack only to have it ring up full price? This happened to my girls at Rue 21. I went to their website and told them, no biggie, BUT, the little girl that was working there was quite argumentative and said that the item should not have been on the clearance rack. Well, guess what. It was. And we don't work there, so one of the employees should be going through to make sure there are no regular priced items on the clearance rack. Two days later, my home phone was ringing with a call from the district manager wanting to make it right. Nice! Love that!
#4. Just last week, because of my poor planning, I ran out of Chanukah candles. Because I live in Alabama, I can't just run to the store to pick some up, I have to hunt for them and maybe I get lucky and find them. In light of the fact that I waited so long, I was in a pinch. Looked at some of the places I'd bought them in the past, but no luck. So I go to my local Publix store, where there is about 2 feet of floor space for Jewish items. Like I said, Alabama. LOL So I go to the customer service desk and asked the manager on duty. First she walked the store looking with me, then she immediately got on the phone and started calling to other area stores. The closest one that had candles was 30 minutes away. She asked if I could wait until the next day for the candles. I said yes. After her shift, she drove 30 minutes to the other store, picked up the candles, and brought them back to my store to be picked up the next day. How inconvenient for her and very convenient for me! SHE got a very nice letter sent by me on her behalf to the home office in Florida.
Okay, by now you get the drift. I'm a HUGE letter writer. And sometimes a tad lazy. Which is why I wanted Taco Bell Friday night. We don't eat out often because 1. it's expensive to feed all these people, so eating out is a treat and a rarity and 2. it's a pain to take the 85 year old father in law out in public. So, the hubs and I had a little "date" to pick up dinner to bring back to the house. The reason I'm having to post here instead of direct to the Taco Bell website is those sites don't allow photos. So, I'm going to post the photo and before you read on, really LOOK at the photo...
Okay, let's review... 2 Grande Meals (20 tacos total + 2 drinks) = $41.46. Whoa! So, the hubs starts going over the receipt with the girl behind the counter. She informs us that because we wanted sour cream and tomatoes, she added the additional $18. Holy CRAP! Are you kidding me? I was hoping to get a photo of an actual taco, but we just have a real aversion to paying another "roosevelt" to Taco Bell. But if you've ever ordered a taco supreme, you know that there are on average 7 pieces of diced tomato on each one and about a tablespoon of sour cream.
Here comes the fun part, math! So, here's a receipt from yesterday from Publix.
First, take note that a standing rib roast that fed all of us not once but TWICE, was $25. Yes, I know, that means we had to prepare it and clean up the mess, but it was WAY better than fast food.
Back to the point... Publix brand sour cream (16 oz.) cost $1.19 + tax. Tomatoes are $3.49 per POUND. Now, I'm estimating here, but I would say at MOST, there were 4 oz. of tomatoes on ALL 20 tacos. So 1/4 of $3.49 comes out to almost .88 worth of tomatoes. So even IF they had used an entire container of sour cream, and assuming that Taco Bell buys their food items from an upscale grocery store, it cost them no more than $3.20 to embellish our 20 tacos with tomatoes and sour cream that they charged us $18. for.
We felt totally raped paying $18. for tomatoes and sour cream! Before we left, we did some more math... The #3 value meal is 3 taco supremes and a large drink for $5.29. We would have been further ahead buying 7 of the meals because we would have gotten 3 more large drinks and 1 additional taco to the tune of $37.03.
As always, Caveat Emptor!
And I promise, my next post will be scrappy related! :-)
