What would you do if you placed a take out order, and when you went to pick it up, the cost was, unexpected, about twice what you thought you were paying for?

Dude. For $36 I could have tacos for a week. Frak that.

I’d have told them to keep it.

Funny that she saw the need to tell you the price of only one of the items and not the rest.

There is no way that I would pay 16 bucks for a cup of cheese sauce. I would have left it.

Walk away. Done it before, will do it again. “That’s not what you said it would cost! I will pay what you told me it would be. No? Then thanks but no thanks.”

I would pay for it and never order at that place again until I get a chance to complain to the manager

The only thing I can really find fault with her for is not telling me the total price over the phone.

$16.00 cheese sauce
$12.00 4 taco at $3.00/ea
$ 5.00 Chips & hot sauce
$ 1.57 tax

Thats some fine dinin’ there!

I know. I thought $16 was high even when I thought it was for the whole order.

I would have left it there.

I would have asked for the manager and explained that you placed your order over the phone and the person who took the order told you the total was $16.00. If they cannot honor that price then I would turn and leave.

I get what she was going at when she said just the price of the sauce. Sounds like she was warning you. You thought her warning was the total.

Not your fault and not hers.

I would have probably paid and never gone back.

Exactly @johnpowell. It was a miscommunication. That’s the reason I went ahead and paid it. But I won’t be going back. Their food isn’t that good anyway.

This same thing happened to me awhile back. Tried a new taco place and it was $15 for 3 tacos and a medium drink!
I ate them, they were small, soggy and crappy, and I won’t be going back. Yeah, I think @johnpowell nailed it.

It’s standard to confirm the price of a phone order before entering it. It’s reasonable for you to have believed the only number mentioned was the total price.

Poor customer service standards.

I’d look up a menu online or ask for prices. I never order things without knowing the price. Did she not say the total on the phone right before you hung up? That’s what deliverers usually do. Keep mind that there are delivery charges as well.

There’s a place I go to where I can get three tacos, rice, and beans all for $6. It’s a pretty authentic place, too.

@dxs Vallarta’s, up by me (if you’re still in the Tampa area) has $1 tacos on Mondays and Tuesdays. The beef tacos are meh, but the chicken ones rock.

The words ‘stick it up your….’ come to mind.

@dxs It wasn’t a delivery.

I’d tell her I didn’t understand the sauce was $16 and that she never stated the total so I assumed the $16 was the total. I’d probably ask her to see the menu so I can see the price myself. If I was pissed enough I might snap a picture of it. Or, I might just let it all slide, pay, and never go back.

I might tell her I don’t want the cheese sauce (let her sell it to the next customer) and buy the order sans the sauce.

Either way I would log onto tripadvisor and tell the story.

Walk out. You were misled.

You were had.
$16 for 12 oz. cheese sauce?

I just got home from eating Mexican in the Midwest.
2 shrimp salads.
1 shrimp fajita
1 beef tostada
Pitcher of margaritas on the rocks
Jumbo frozen margarita

$40. Chips and salsa included.

Don’t you have a Taco Bell? Sounds like you would have had better food a heck of a lot cheaper.

Even Taco Tico – I used to love their tacos!

No matter what, I misunderstood her, she misunderstood me, whatever – I would never, ever pay $16 for a cup of any type of sauce. Neverrrrr. I would have probably wanted to see it on the menu because I would have trouble believing she is correct that a cup of sauce could be $16, and then if it were correct, I’d tell her take it off the bill. I don’t want it. No thank you. Thank you very much. I’d be very polite about it but I would still find it hard to believe that 12 oz of any type of sauce could be that much. Also, chips and salsa shouldn’t be charged because if you sat in a Mexican restaurant, they’d be free.

@Dutchess_III: Did you verify that the sauce was actually that much? I’d have wanted to see it in writing, on menu or whatever. I find it hard to believe that it could be so expensive. If it was a young counter-help girl, I’d think she must be mistaken.

Of course, the cheese and spinach dip wasn’t $16!

I just thought of something.

You know those little half-ounce dip cups they give you in restaurants? Like the side of bleu cheese you get with chicken wings.

It’s pretty common to charge $0.50 extra for a side of whatever sauce/dressing/dip you want.

32 of those in a cup, with spinach added (gratis, naturally) – $16.

Yes, I verified, the cheese and spinach sauce was $16, @ibstubro and @jca. As @johnpowell said, she was actually trying to warn me, but I misunderstood. I don’t think I was deliberately mislead @elbanditoroso. Do @ Seek‘s math. (And you’re screwing me up with the _ _ thing, girl!

I do wish folks would read other comments before they respond, or even just the details. I said in the details, @ibstubro “I’ll go to Taco Tico before I’ll go back there.”

I just wondered what the different responses would be, and it’s been interesting. Some would tell them to “shove it!,” others (like me) would pay up, learn their lesson and move on.

I know how you feel. I just paid 90 bucks for 12 guioza (I’m not sure of the spelling), 2 servings of fried rice, 1 beer, 1 soda, chicken diced up that looked like a hand size chicken breast and about 14 shrimp and two tiny salads that was the equivalent of 4 lettuce leaves.

I think the little plastic cups are about 1 oz, @Seek , because 1 oz is a shot glass, which is about what those little plastic cups are. At that rate, at 50 cents each, 12 oz should be 6 dollars.

Regardless, I would never pay $16 for 12 oz of any sauce. I wouldn’t even pay 6.

@Dutchess whoops. In that case you could just ask to take something back. The other night I was at this taqueria I always go to (different than the aforementionedone) and some new person took my order. In the end, the total came out way more than normal, and I asked why. She said its because the beans and rice in the quesadilla I got cost extra. I said they never charge me for that and it was too much. She said she wouldnt charge me just this time. Next time I made sure to get the people who work there that I know.
@seek that sounds awfully familiar. I might’ve even been there before. I’ll be in Tampa in december if I can find money for a flight, so I may check it out.

I wonder if that whole tip thing is going away and restuarants are trying to get ahead of the change. http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/14/pf/no-tipping-union-square-hospitality-group-restaurants/
Anyhow, it seems that in NYC a lot or restaurants are jumping aboard and I heard on the car radio yesterday that DC is considering making minimum wage mandatory for all service workers in restaurants and that tip will no longer be required. Servers wages are to be paid by the restaurants, not the whim of the customers. Some critics say that restaurants will need to raise food prices by 25 percent to meet the cost of wages.
So I’m wondering if perhaps they are all preparing for this, or have already decided to adapt to the future changes.

Derp, Seek’s dyscalculia strikes again. I was thinking it was a 16 oz cup.

@Seek – No worries.. I was thinking about it more last night, and thinking that if it were any more than about 4 bucks, I would say hellz no.

Honestly, I’m still shaking my head at a cup of something being sixteen bucks. I’m also shaking my head at the thought of multiple people (enough, obviously that the cost stays the same) being willing to pay that for that item.

I do wish people would include all the facts in the question, instead of adding pertinent details as the discussion unfolds, @Dutchess_III.

For example, people in your town appear to be stupid enough to willingly pay $16 for 12 oz. of cheese.

Why is it that some crucial detail is always revealed _after_there is discussion, and then you get all huffy because people are responding to the OP?

That’s the part I really don’t get, @ibstubro. People actually pay that?

I did include the fact in the question, in the details, @ibstubro. In fact, it was at the heart of the question.

I will repeat for you:

“I get there..and the bill was $34.57!

I said, “I thought you said it was $16!”

She said, ”$16 is just for the cheese and spinach sauce.””

Apparently there are people who are willing to pay it which is ridiculous, in my opinion too.

Like @dxs I’d never order or pay for food without having some idea of the cost.
There’s surely an on-line menu, perhaps even on-line ordering.

How did you know they had a large cheese and spinach sauce, and be unaware that it costs $16.00, @Dutchess_III?

For those that say they’d pay it (@Dutchess_III, @Coloma, @johnpowell), how high would it have to be for you to say “forget it?”

For everyone else, what amount do you think it sounds like it’s worth?

I said if it were over $4 or close to that, I’d say forget it. It sounds like it’s worth about $4.

If the total bill for 4 tacos was $20 or over, I’d skip it.

A large white cheese might be $6–8, @jca. Appetizer, meant to satisfy the whole table. 2,000% RDA of sodium. lol

Put me in the column for leaving empty handed.
I imagine I would have also used your expletive.

I had no reason to think I wouldn’t have an idea of the cost. We’ve eaten there a couple of times before, and it’s comparable to the other two non-fast-food Mexican restaurants in town.

I magically knew they had a large, @ibstubro, because when I ordered it she said, “Do you want large or small?” Since I had never ordered it before, even in the couple of times I’ve eaten there, I said, “Large,” and was blind sided.

@jca, IDK. If the bill had been $50, then hell yes I would have left. $35 we could absorb. I felt partially responsible for my side of the misunderstanding. I didn’t want her to get in trouble, because I’m sure she didn’t do it on purpose. Like @johnpowell said, she was trying to warn me, but I missed it.

As for what it was worth, $16 sounded fair to me, for the whole meal. For just the sauce, five bucks, maybe.

I would never pay twice what I expected for anything—especially if I already thought the expected price was pushing the boundaries of reasonableness. I’ve even refused to buy medications that I thought were too expensive (though in that case, I also just plain couldn’t afford them at the price being demanded). I don’t care if I’m being asked to pay $2 for something I think is worth $1 or $200 for something I think is worth $100. If I don’t think it’s worth the price, I leave it behind.

I’ve never heard of cheese and spinach sauce, especially at a Mexican restaurant, @Dutchess_III.

Did you magically know that was an offering, too?
If you’d eaten if in-house previously, wouldn’t a small have been at least $8? Well over your “5 bucks, maybe”?

Odd that you were willing to curse the employee, then spend $35 to keep her from getting in trouble when someone failed to pick up a take-out order.

I’m lost.

@jca I told you I’d get yelled at!

@SavoirFaire, sure. I’ve done that before. In this case, however, it meant good food was going to go into the trash. It’s not like they could resell it.
I felt that the right thing to do was chalk it up to “My bad, lesson learned.”
She probably learned a lesson too, to be more specific in the future.

I didn’t curse the employee, @ibstubro. It wasn’t her fault. I impulsively blurted out an R rated version of “You’re kidding me!” in disbelief. I didn’t yell, either. As John Powell said, she’d even tried to warn me, but I missed it.

OK, here is the long, and very fascinating story behind it all @ibstubro. Back in the 80’s I fell in love the the Mexican white cheese sauce called Queso Blanco. After the first time I had it, if we went to a new place, I always asked if they had it and, without fail, they said “Yes.” I not only use it as a chip dip, in conjunction with salsa, but I put it on my food after it comes. (just FYI, I have neither a weight problem nor a cholesterol problem, ibstubro, so just leave the preaching at the door.)

Then in the late 90’s, in Manhattan, Kansas, I got some Queso Blanco at a restaurant I’d never been to before. It was SO SO SO good! I asked them what all was in it, and they told me just white cheddar cheese and spinach, which surprised me. I didn’t think I liked spinach, but I sure liked it in that sauce.

Since then I have continued to order Queso Blanco, but never got anything comparable to what I had that one time in Manhattan…until, about 4 months ago, when, just on a whim,I asked the waiter at our favorite Mexican place whether they had Queso Blanco with spinach. To my surprise he said, “Yes. Of course.” They even have a special name for it.

So since then, that’s what I order. I really couldn’t tell you what the individual price was for it, but it didn’t affect our bill substantially or I would have noticed.

Last Sunday our favorite Mexican place was closed. Rick and I both really wanted tacos, so I ordered from this other place. I figured they couldn’t screw up tacos too bad.

I asked if they had the Caso Blanco with spinach, and she said “Yes,” and they even had a special name for it. As I have said, four or five times, already, we just don’t eat at that other place. We’ve had a sit down meal there 2 times in the 13 years we’ve been together. The last time was about 5 years ago.

I hope that answers all of the questions you keep asking me, over and over, or lays to rest the erroneous assumptions you continue to have, over and over.

PLEASE READ EVERYTHING THAT I WROTE, ESPECIALLY SINCE I WROTE IT JUST FOR YOU, @ibstubro!

Queso blanco, along with other similar cheeses including queso fresco, is a creamy, soft, and mild unaged white cheese, commonly used in the Iberian Peninsula, several Latin American countries including Mexico and many parts of the United States.

A melted cheese appetizer using white American cheese is sometimes called “queso blanco dip” but the name is merely descriptive. It does not include queso blanco cheese.

Espinaca Con Queso

Odd that you’d been craving Espinaca Con Queso for 20 years and at least 2 of the 3 Mexican restaurants in town serve it.

They said it was cheddar cheese. It doesn’t matter. It’s good.

The place, the one we don’t like, incorporated their name into the name of the dip, as though it was their idea.

I didn’t think to specifically ask anyone if they had until just recently.

I find it odd that you’ve never heard of the dip until now.

Only the melted American cheese that I don’t order because it’s too salty and too expensive.

Not surprising that I’ve not heard of the Spinach version…by and large I find that I get as much or more than I care to eat at Mexican restaurants. The only way I’d order an appetizer is if it was eaten as a meal, so I don’t shop the app menu.

Traditionally we order 4 meals off the lunch menu, eat 2 baskets of chip/3 bowls of salsa and drink a pitcher of margarita on-the-rocks and a (at least) 32 oz. frozen margarita. The guy at the register accepts 2 $20 bills as payment and waves us on.
Lunch fajitas are $7.50 for 12 shrimp, peppers/onion/broccoli, 3 tortillas, rice and beans.
That’s the most expensive meal I order.

I usually get Shrimp Quesadillas. I never eat the sides. The quesadilla is totally filling, especially when I start loading it up with cheese sauce and sour cream. And we each have a margarita. That liquor is what runs the bill up. Bill is usually around $35 with the liquor. Which is another reason that other place shocked me. I’ll never go back.

I still go back to that $16 is a whole lot of money to pay for a cup of anything. I can have a bowl of great soup in a fine restaurant in NYC for less than that.

I agree totally @jca. You can have a lot of great things for $16.00.

This thread is making me hungry. I just ordered six soft beef tacos from taco bell. Through delivery.

HOW MUCH WAS IT???

@Dutchess_III $20 and $5 tip. So $25.

Dude. That’s a ton of money for a few crappy tacos.

@Seek I liked them. I’ve never had a good taco. I got sick from the flu shot. delivery cost $10. 6 tacos for $10. I’ve got 2 left in the fridge. I Really really wanted a taco.

Fair enough.

Well, shall we talk about…KFC now?

I’ve noticed that your name doesn’t go orange, @Seek, even when you click on it from the list. Well, now you’ve gone and broke Fluther again, Girlfriend. Good to have you back!

Orange? I thought it was red!

The fact that my name can’t be linked amuses me to no end.

Don’t worry about the food going to waste, @Dutchess_III, very often employees take home the orders that aren’t picked up.

I’ve worked in restaurants where taking or eating unclaimed food was strictly forbidden, @canidmajor. The fear being that employees (or their families) would call in and order take out with no intention of picking it up.

I’ve worked in restaurants where it was common practice for the employees to take home unclaimed food, rather than it going to waste, @ibstubro. The issue of the kind of fraud you describe just didn’t come up.

Gosh, I worked briefly, as a short order cook in a restaurant run by a nut case. Her cook had walked out on her, and as one small business owner to another (I owned a small engine repair shop a block away,) I stepped up to the plate for a couple of weeks.

She would make these HUGE pans of lasagna. One time she told me that one of her employees always asked if he could take the left overs home for his dog. One time she said to me, “I have a feeling he isn’t giving it to his dog. I think he’s giving it to his family.”
If he had said it was for his family she would have said he couldn’t take it.

Nut case.

@Dutchess_III It makes no sense. Why waste the food? My husband is staying at Residence Inn and leftovers that would otherwise be thrown out are offered to the guests.

I seem to recall that it was fine to eat/take food at the outset, and the policy was changed that unclaimed food had to be destroyed, @canidmajor. Either it was abused or the manager suspected it was.

Oddly, I’ve heard the exact same thing about suspecting the leftovers weren’t going to the dogs. Although I can see that there might be liability in willingly letting the food be eaten, @Dutchess_III.

My husband and I have both worked in restaurants where it depended mostly on which manager was on duty.

Basically, some feared employee theft, the rest were afraid good employees would leave because they weren’t paid enough to eat well anyway, and free food that didn’t cost the restaurant extra wasn’t that damned big a deal.

Told you…she was a nutcase. She was a total, power tripping idiot. She had her “own” business and she thought that made her, like, omnipotent.

She had some high school girls working for her. She’d get all giggly and “in” with them, like it was some high school clique thing. I think it made her feel “popular.” She was, probably, 40 years old. She treated everyone else like shit. Finally I told her, “You know, I don’t need this job. I have my own business to run. I stepped up to help you out, to do you a favor, but tonight is my last night.”

Her restaurant lasted about 4 months.

I don’t see the liability inherent in it, @ibstubro, especially in this case. These weren’t unclaimed, individual orders. They were big pans of lasagna that she made every morning.

@Dutchess_III Unfortunately, restaurants throw away plenty of perfectly good food every day regardless of whether any orders are abandoned or refused. One meal would hardly make a difference. If it’s a question of me wasting my money or them wasting slightly more food than they would anyway, then I’m going with them wasting slightly more food—especially since they always have the option of giving the food away, whereas I can’t recover wasted money (that is, it is necessarily a waste on my part, but optionally a waste on their part).

@ibstubro You are correct: a lot of people are worried about the liability. As it turns out, though, this is a needless concern because people who give away food are protected from litigation so long as they donated it in good faith.

If anyone is interested, John Oliver did a pretty good piece on food waste recently.