Guilty as Charged

(pardon my rant, and I promise not to make a habit of this - regularly scheduled programming will be back tonight, or at the latest tomorrow morning)

I will admit, maybe I shouldn't have let it, but it's finally gotten the best of me (you know it's 'bad' when I feel like writing about it).

Why is it (and it should be noted that I don't feel this is a result of our economic downturn or the overall tumultuous times we're in the midst of) that people are so quick to take advantage of others and above all, others' money? I find this happens most often with regularly occurring payments, especially cell phone bills, but not always. It also seems to usually involve what they deem as just a 'few bucks'?

To put it lightly, this drives me up the wall - both when it happens to others as well as myself. This morning I made my now regular (only 3 days left!) 20 minute round trip walk up to McDonald's for my free cup of coffee (yes, it's that good). A nice man stood next to me at another register and I happened to over-hear his order - "just a medium cup of coffee, please". However, when his coffee was handed to him, the employee said "that'll be $1.54". He looked both disappointed and slightly stunned and responded "oh, I thought it was free" to which the McDonald's cashier didn't respond (or look up) but ripped up the receipt she was about to hand him and printed out a new receipt, with the complimentary cup of coffee correctly recorded.

This probably doesn't warrant me getting so excited, I realize this. I just continue to be disappointed and have a really hard time understanding why this is tolerated (with the knowledge that sometimes it's simply a mistake - we are all human). The thing is... McDonald's, or at least this cashier, would have gladly taken his payment if he hadn't been aware of the promotion (lucky for the nice customer, I was there and would never have let him pay for it - I'm famous for explaining to random by-standers how they can save more money on a purchase). I've had this happen multiple times on past cell phone bills: seeing a $5-10 charge pop up and calling to inquire - to which the cell phone company nicely removes the charge but had I not noticed... they would have equally nicely taken my extra money.

Nothing said here is to drum up a large group of angry pseudo-food blog readers - I'm pretty well acquainted with the fact that most people don't waste brain cells or stress on this kind of thing. I just happen to be one of the special few (and I do feel special!) who let themselves be bothered by it.

But since misery does love company, I'll leave you with this for fun... have you ever called to appeal a charge on a bill only to have the customer service rep on the line tell you "oh c'mon, it's really not that much money". Don't even get me started.

*just in case I ruined your morning with this, though the risk of that is about this (picture me with my fingers very close together) much... I invite you to join me in finding comfort knowing this adorable little lady awaits us at home, and never tries to take advantage of anyone