I’m going to dive straight in without the shenanigans.

I just received the food that I ordered from <name withheld> and to my surprise there was only 1 item instead of the 2 I expected because I ordered an item which was under a 1+1 offer.

So, immediately after seeing only 1 my first reaction was maybe there was some mistake and I can just complain/get reimbursed etc. I usually do not bother with things like these as they take more of my energy that I am willing to spend. But today it was important for the order to arrive correctly as it was not just for me.

Anyways, before reaching out to their customer care I wanted to make sure if I did not do anything wrong (make sure my cards are in place before complaining). As it turned out, in order to get the 1+1 deal you had to add 2 same items to your order. If you do not do that, you get only 1 item with the normal price instead of 2 with the same.

End of story, I did not bother any further.

Now come to think of it the app/restaurant did nothing wrong. It functioned exactly how it is supposed to work. It is deliberately programmed that way to “scam” customers. Now that I think about it this change could be done recently as I do not recall it happening before, and I for sure have ordered 1+1 items many times in the past.

Bottom line is when such a thing happens to a customer what is his response? Does the average person think it could be their fault or think they just got scammed? I could bet more than half would think the latter. Customers do not care how things are programmed to work, they want it to work in the easiest, straight forward way as possible – to their satisfaction.

Although <company name withheld> did not lose a customer today but they could lose a few for the same, but the reality is big companies like them do not care about a single customer. They see you as a whole.

On the other hand, imagine this happening in one of your small scale business where every customer is important. Not only you could lose them for sure, but you are going to lose their respect, be foul mouthed in the market, lose your credibility and labelled as a scammer.

Therefore, make sure your checkout cart, sales page lists everything straight and clear. There is no coming back after a bad impression. A thread once broken can never be the same again.