Complaint Letter to CASE

Hi,

I hope this is the right avenue to complain about poor service and "over-selling". I shall relate my incident:

My friend and I went to have dinner at the Century Square Long John Silver's outlet this evening, (Monday, 12th Sept 2005) at about 7pm. We both ordered the same thing: 1 Treasure Meal (which came with a bowl of rice and fish + 1 coke drink) costing $3.50 with an additional side of french fries costing $1.00. Altogether which would have cost us $9.00 in all, but the register showed $9.60.

So I questioned the Assistant Manager, Ms Linddy Quek, who was serving the 2 of us at the counter, why the price wasn't $9.00. She causally mentioned that we were given larger sized drinks as they were out of smaller cups. I remarked that she could have informed us before this, as she proceeded to fill the larger drink cups in front of us, and when she didn't seem to respond, I further remarked that I expect an apology. She conveniently ignored that as well, as my friend can attest to. In the end, my friend and I still accepted the food with the larger-than-expected drinks, and paid $9.60.

Later, I went back to the counter to ask for her name. She told me and asked what was the problem, to which I replied that I had asked for an apology earlier, and didn't get it. She seemed to feign surprise and said that she did apologise, but if so, it was probably out of earshot of my friend and I.

My bone to pick is not the extra $0.60 paid, but the "tactic" used to over-sell products and the poor attitude towards customers shown by the Assistant Manager of the fast food outlet. In all fairness, my friend and I looked around the outlet and saw that no one had a cup which was smaller that ours, so it could be true that they ran out of smaller cups. But still, it is the responsibility of the establishment to inform the customer that it cannot provide what is requested before the deal is done, not switch the purchase to something else which is available but more expensive without approval from the customer. Furthermore, they could have simply filled the larger cups with only the amount equal to that of smaller cup as shown on the advertisements.

I write this complaint letter bearing in mind that some time back Long John Silver's had a complaint against them over not clearly stating prices with GST, and the fact that I personally have encountered instances where the counter staff would ask me if I wanted to change my Coca-cola drink to ice lemon tea, and if I agreed to it, the ice lemon tea would come in a larger size than my original order of Coca-cola, or what was stated on the display, and I would end up paying for the balance. This shows that it is not the first time Long John Silver's has mislead customers. Now, I always firmly tell the counter staff at Long John Silver's I want the same size as what was displayed in the advertisement stuck on their cash registers.

It seems to me that the classifications of drink sizes in the American style (16oz, 22oz, etc) only serves to confuse and mislead customers as we seldom measure in ounces; our schools taught us measurements in litres. Thus in not knowing how to convert ounces to litres, we are mislead. Surely not all executives in the Long John Silver's franchise in Singapore are educated solely in the US, so why can't they display their sizes in a clearer way, ie. regular/medium/large, just like other fast food restaurants?

My reason for this letter is not to seek compensation for the $0.60 i paid extra, but to highlight that the Long John Silver's chain of fast food restaurants have been using sales tactics that are less than satisfactory, and I as a customer have had enough. Please do not just take my word for it but go for yourselves to any of their outlets and order a meal. If the counter staff asks you for a change of drink, say yes, then see if there is a difference between what you expected to pay and what you need to pay, as well as if there is a difference in drink sizes between what has been displayed and what has been given. My guess is you would have been "upsized" without your permission, and of course have to pay for it all the same.

Thank you for reading this letter, and I sincerely hope that Long John Silver's will clean up their act.