Being charged for drink when ordering from child's menu. Check your bills closely!

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The drinks are the big profit area for the restaurants as it is. $3 for a glass of coke is about a 400% profit considering it costs them maybe 20 cents to fill the cup with ice and soda.

I hate that sodas are so expensive at these places and have stopped ordering anything other than water for myself. Call me cheap, but $3 is just too much!

I got fed up with the drink prices a few years ago. The kids and I only order water. DH won't drink water with his meals when we dine out. I've politely informed him a few times that his drink alone would buy us at least one if not two two liter bottles of soda at the store.

 

[kymom99]

Wow! This just happened to me a couple weeks ago and I thought it was a coincidence. We went to Hoggy's. The waitress took our drink orders, and my son asked for a Sprite. He had the kids' menu in front of him. She brought out a regular glass and I didn't think anything of it. He ordered a kid's meal. Later she brought him a refill even though he didn't drink a third of his first drink. The bill came and it was $38 something. I gave my card and when she brought the slip back it said $41 something with no explanation about the change. I stopped a waitress (turned out to be a different girl, but they looked alike!) and questioned the change in the price. She took it to the manager who corrected it. He told me that she "accidently" charged us for the Sprite. I guess I know better now! How dishonest to add on a charge after presenting me with the bill!

 

[IDoDis]

OP here.

We went to Olive Garden on Saturday. When DS gave his drink order, DH added, "from the kids' menu." When his drink came, it was in a big plastic Olive Garden cup with a lid. It was not the small cup size we usually see. During our last few visits there he was always given a regular sized drink in a glass and we'd get charged and have to dispute it. Well, since DH said he was ordering from the kids' menu, the waiter had to bring a kid's cup, but it was THE SAME size as the glass -- just plastic! And, we didn't get charged extra.

Funny how they've had these larger cups for the bigger kids but never offered them before and instead just tried to charge us full price.

 

[Pixie Princess]

I have actually noticed this happen several times lately in many different restaurants. It seems the newest way to make extra money but I always scrutinize my bill and make them take it off.

I don't like saying this, but it very well may be the server who is making the extra money. While it is the exception, unfortunately there are servers out there that will input one thing on "their" side of the transaction and another on "your" side of the transaction and pocket the difference. I had a friend who did this back in her table waiting days along with several other servers at the restaurant. At her restaurant it was with iced tea. My guess is the restaurant monitored the soda yeild (and it did not offer free refils on soda) so they couldn't do this with sodas. When people would order tea, they would enter a water on "their" side, and would charge you for the tea. They would then pocket the difference. It was an easy $50 a shift. The tea couldn't be tracked so they thought they had beat the system. They got caught and were all fired. Again, I know this is exception. I worked for several years in the restaurant industry and the vast majority of people would not, and do not do this. Sadly, thought, it does happen.

My DD9 is routinely brought full-size beverages rather than child cups when she orders from the children's menu. I rarely check the bill for accuracy. Will have to start! Every dollar counts.

 

[kymom99]

You mean "every $2.59 counts!"

 

[allison443]

OP here.

We went to Olive Garden on Saturday. When DS gave his drink order, DH added, "from the kids' menu." When his drink came, it was in a big plastic Olive Garden cup with a lid. It was not the small cup size we usually see. During our last few visits there he was always given a regular sized drink in a glass and we'd get charged and have to dispute it. Well, since DH said he was ordering from the kids' menu, the waiter had to bring a kid's cup, but it was THE SAME size as the glass -- just plastic! And, we didn't get charged extra.

Funny how they've had these larger cups for the bigger kids but never offered them before and instead just tried to charge us full price.

That's probably the easiest/best thing to do, just specify "from the kids' menu" when ordering the drink, like your DH did. Save everyone the aggravation/hassle of adjusting it later.
By the time my kids were 9 or 10 they didn't always order from the kids' menu anymore, so if they were getting the kids' meal, I would just say they wanted the kids drink. Never had a problem in many years (let's just say all my kids are well beyond kids' menu ages!!)

 

[maxiesmom]

I think that if you have a child along, you should specify what size drink you want them to have. I can see how some people would get mad if you brought out a child sized drink and that is not what they wanted. Kind of a darned if you do, darned if you don't thing from the servers standpoint. Just be clear about what you want when you order. Then if they try to overcharge you, raise heck!

 

[AndreaDM]

AndreaDM,
I am wondering if the problem at Applebees is that there is no seperate child's drink. It may be that you get the child's size drink only with a child's meal and if you don't order the meal and only the drink that you get charged for a regular drink.

I would think maybe, but this was before we even ordered, so for all he knew, she was going to be getting a kid's meal. This is only one of the many reasons we try and avoid chain restaurants like the plague, but we were out of town and our options were limited.