I haven't posted it before, but I went to Wendy's at SM Centerpoint, had I think P125 in my wallet, ordered the P125 meal, and then it turned out that the bill was more than P125, thanks to the additional tax that Quezon City imposes on these establishments (and that these establishments do not add to their listed price). So my order was there already, as well as my payment, although lacking by a few pesos. I think I told them to cancel my order na lang because it turned out I didn't have enough money pala.
The manager, a nice (young) lady, then decided to just let me go with the few bucks. Thank you, Ms. (or is it Mrs.) Manager, I'm sorry I didn't get your name.
That was a long time ago (a few months).
What's up with the Quezon City tax? Technically I'm fine with that. The extended value added tax (EVAT) after all helped strengthened the Philippine Peso. But how come these establishments (not just Wendy's, but most of the fastfood establishments including #1 Jollibee, and #2? McDonald's) do not yet include the QC tax with their listed price. For uniformity among their branches I guess. It would be weird that Value Meal #3 is PhP125 in Makati and everywhere else in the Philippines, and PhP128 or whatever in Quezon City locations. But, what's wrong with that? It's the price you have to pay for doing business in Quezon City.
Anyway, just last Tuesday, I had a snack at the same Wendy's store. Different manager now, or at least on that time and day. I paid more than enough which meant I had change. The cashier asked, "Sir, okay lang po ba na kulang ako ng 20 cents?" My mom would have reacted "Centavos, hija! Cents, mahal yon." Anyway, I reacted by saying "No." It turned out, my change should have been 21 centavos. If they just gave me 25 centavos, their change would have been over by 4 centavos only. Imagine, they were asking me to give up 21 centavos, and they can't give up 4 centavos. Wendy's earns thousands more a month than I do, and they can't afford to give me 5 times what they're demanding me to give them. Well, it's not Wendy's maybe. It's that stupid cashier. And she's not the only one. Almost everyone is like that. I pity them for they do not know what they are doing is STEALING. Well, on the good side, at least she asked me. But she asked me to give up 20 centavos but I was actually giving up 21 centavos.
Do you get my point? It is so pathetic. It's happening all over the Philippines. Is this post detrimental to Philippine Tourism? No, I don't think so. What that cashier did and that many other cashiers do, that's detrimental. We can argue all day, everyone in the Philippines always seem to justify their mistakes, even "educated" and "rich" people. A typical excuse is "everyone else does it." What you are does not define who you are, it's what you do.
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I happened to stumble upon your blog, while googling for pc options. I respect your opinion but calling a min wage earning cashier stupid is way uncalled for. If you just know the working conditions that they endure everyday, i think you would have thought twice before calling them names. Ive personally had conversations with several service crew from Jollibee (not exactly Wendy;s but they are all the same), i know their plight.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I guess I might be barking at the wrong tree. But really, I think it is the management guys and the owners, who are responsible for what I think is happening all around the Philippines. Why do they let these things happen? Why do the frontliners and employees do not communicate these things to their employers so that they could take action? And so on and so forth. You can't blame a child for his attitude; after all, he was brought up that way by his/her parents. There is a big, country-level social issue here that we're touching. And it's a very sensitive issue. By this post, I do hope that people start to notice and people start to do things for the better.
ReplyDeleteI meant to say that I do hope that people start doing the RIGHT things. The other problem is that, and this is a universal one, people JUSTIFY the WRONG things they do. "I am poorly compensated therefore people should understand why I am taking away money from them." "I am the boss and if you are short by a few centavos today, you don't have work tomorrow." "If something goes wrong, it's my employees' fault, not my company's." Oh well. Again, for these things that are happening, the owners and the management people should take responsibility. Who hired these people? Who are paying them so little?
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