DASM: Do you want a refund?

There’s a big truck in front of me at the Dunkin’ Donuts drive-through line. It’s so big, the driver can’t get near the tinny speaker and has to shout his order for a coffee. He turns the corner to go to pay and I then place my order for two coffees. But when I turn the corner, the truck is gone and there’s a pickup in front of me. When I get to the window the charge is higher than usual, but I pay it, and the woman then hands me three coffees! I tell her one isn’t mine and she stares at it. I suggest the large truck couldn’t fit close enough to get to the window, so the driver just left, the third coffee being his.

She then says to me, “Do you want a refund?” with a pained expression. Now, I would gladly have treated someone else to the coffee, but it was clear that the guy who ordered it was gone. “Yes, I want a refund,” I reply, and she’s nearly in tears.

It turns out, the owner has never taught her how to provide a refund, but fortunately, someone else knows. I wonder what happens if you teach a nurse to put a needle in a vein but not how to draw the blood, or a cook how to start to make an omelette but not how to know when it’s done? The owner here has done stupid things before, like discontinuing dog biscuits or refusing to take anything over a $20 bill. The twenty is the MOST counterfeited bill, but he accepts them, just not 50s or 100s.

Small business has a lot of problems these days, but one problem you can’t help is dumb ass, stupid management.