More Double-Ds

Further to our previous 'adventure' at Dunkin Donuts, the S.O. visited another outlet in Denpasar on August 30. He bought a few donuts and they gave him a receipt for the purchase because, according to him, the outlet manager present was the one who gave him the receipt.

So there is some honesty among the staff, we thought.

Yet when we stepped into the same Denpasar branch last Thursday, instinct (or maybe it was the presence of that same insulting sign, but this time only in Bahasa Indonesia and none in English) made me say to the S.O. before ordering: "Make sure you ask for a receipt for the purchase."

He replied, "If they don't give me a receipt, I am not paying."

True enough, as the male staff put together our order of two Triple Choclate donuts, one hot chocolate and one hot tea, his female co-worker started punching numbers on a calculator instead of on the cash register - the exact same thing that happened at the Sanur branch on our previous visit.

At this point, the S.O. whispers to me, "I'm going to tell them that I am not paying because they didn't give me a receipt."

A good idea! So I walked away first to find a table. A minute later, the S.O. arrives at the table and places down the tray with our order, then walks back to the counter and tells them exactly what he said to me. He later told me that they immediately started to key the purchase into the cash register but he told them it was too late, walked back to our table and sat down.

Surprisingly, the staff did not make any protest or come running after him and demand that he pays. We slowly ate our donuts and drank our bevarage. I think we took at least 20 minutes to savour or little snack.

Yet in that entire time, not a single staff or even a manager walked to our table and get us to settle our bill. But they did print a receipt for the purchase made by an Indonesian Chinese lady, for herself and her two daughters.

Thus with this incident, we have come to some decisions:
- the moment we see the purchases being added on a calculator, we will take the tray and walk to a table without bothering to pay;
- the lose of about S$5 (the cost of our snack), from one out of millions of international outlets, in a month means nothing to a billion-revenue American corporation;
- if the sign is meant to make unwary non-Bahasa Indonesia speaking customers look stupid, we hope to make a change to that perception;
- the employees still get their monthly salary, even if they lose that little pocket money;
- this was 'payback' for the last meal, where we were not given a receipt but still paid for the purchase.

So if you are a visitor to Bali and decide to make a purchase at Dunkin Donuts, you know what to look out for, and most importantly, what to do!