A $22.43 sack of burgers turned into a huge pain in the ass when Burger King accidentally debited $2,243 from Bryan Sampson’s bank account, leaving him overdrawn and unable to use his debit card lest the overdraft charges keep piling up. Burger King said the manager wasn’t available to correct the mistake because it was a holiday weekend… but the local media was happy to answer the phone.
From KTVB:
Bryan Sampson’s wife picked up food for the family Saturday – totaling $22.43. But a whopper of a mistake left the couple’s account overdrawn. A clerk at the Burger King charged them $2,243.00 – with the decimal point in the wrong spot!
Bryan said he didn’t notice the charge until Sunday – but now the mistake is causing big trouble for the family’s finances.
“My bank account now is overdrawn $473, so anything that might come through at midnight is gonna be charged a $35 fee,” Sampson said. “I know there’s 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 charges they’re gonna charge me for at $35 bucks a pop
Sampson said the assistant manager told him they had cancelled the transaction instead of crediting his account – and that the store manager would not be in until Tuesday – after the President’s Day holiday to correct the mistake.
Burger King should really work on developing a system that will not allow cashiers to accidentally debit thousands of dollars. It isn’t as if this has never happened before.
Burger King Charges $2243.00 For A Meal [KTVB] (Thanks, Dave!)
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@yesteryear: Hey, you’re lucky I’m not using ’70s lingo — I’m old enough that the 1970s Burger King ads are the ones that still really stick in my head…
@Crumbles: Stay classy, soon-to-be-smoten (if there’s justice) commenter.
This wouldnt happen if people werent too lazy to grab a $20 from the ATM once in a while. I hate when people always use their damn cards for 5 bucks or less. It drives up prices for everyone else because all the convenience stores and fast food restaurants raise prices to compensate for the fees. What ever happened to the days when people only whipped out a credit card for an unforeseen emergency. We never paid for fast food with a credit card 30 years ago and we dont need to do it now. BTW Same with cell phones.
@TexasBelle: I still don’t understand why / how using a debit card is any different from a spending perspective than credit cards. I only have credit cards and when I pull up my bank’s website, it clearly shows me the balance in my checking/savings/money market accounts including a total (let’s call this A) and right below that it shows the current amount on each card and the total owed (let’s call this B). So… if I did my math correctly, A-B = amount of money I actually have to spend. Brilliant!
@Gorky: Airline miles, cash back, and easier accounting. The cash back alone is worth it.
If Burger King screwed up, they’d BETTER pay all the overdraft fees. The proximate cause of the overdraft was Burger King, not the customer.
Too bad banks don’t care who they bilk for money, as long as they get to bilk.
I work retail and I’ve made this mistake before, which is why you double-check the price before you send the transaction through and if you screw up even then (and we all have before), CANCEL THE GODDAMN TRANSACTION. It is not that hard to work one of these machines.
@Crumbles: Score! Crumbles is first with a ridiculous blame-the-consumer posting. Well done!
@Fry: Sorry ’bout that. Too much multitasking!
As far as I understand; yes, the dual-use cards can be run as credit or debit functions. Not something we’ve resorted to in Canada, thank God!
no sig required > $25 purchases: gas stations and Loblaws (in Ontario) are the biggest purveyors, but fast-food (notably Timmie’s) is on it as well. It cuts down on the service time because the transaction is completed as the credit card swipes. Sure, it’s risky, but the merchant’s floor limit usually doesn’t fully authorize purchases under $50 anyway. (Meaning that they don’t wait for the bank’s auth confirmation to run the transaction as approved.)
Debit cards aren’t eligible… and so far it’s just MasterCard opting to use PayPass technology. Chase VISA in the US has “blink” which is a similar RFID deal, but no takers in CDA yet.