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Dorchester man sues Dunks over alleged overcharging for bagel schmears and whipped cream on its mobile app
By adamg on Wed, 03/22/2023 - 11:44pm
A Dorchester man who says the Dunkin' mobile app sometimes adds unexpected overcharges for everything from cream cheese on his bagels to whipped cream on his frozen hot chocolate has filed what he hopes will be a class-action suit against the company.
In his suit, filed in US District Court in Boston, Martin Kelledy says he was shocked to learn, on April 23, 2022, that when he used the app to order a Large Original Blend Iced Coffee, with a listed price of $3.69, and an Everything Bagel (with Plain Cream Cheese) with a listed price of $3.09, for what should have been a pre-tax total of $6.78, the app instead insisted he pay $8.03 - plus tax on that amount, rather than on $6.78.
The imposition of this Undisclosed Charge has resulted in Mr. Kelledy paying an unknown extra amount of money, through the Dunkin’ Mobile Application, to an unknown number of Dunkin’ stores, on an unknown number of occasions. ...
Because of the organization and operation of the Mobile Application, Mr. Kelledy may not know what qualifies as a free Add-On, or whether he is being charged for an Add-On, how he will be charged for the Add-On, or how much he will be charged, when making a specific purchase.
He alleges the app often makes similar - if lower-priced - additions for butter on bagels and for whipped cream on frozen hot chocolate.
Now compound that by all the other people using the app and you've got a class action worth more than $5 million in unwanted charges, he alleges, adding the practice violates Massachusetts pricing law.
[T]he Undisclosed Charge was systematically included in all consumers’ purchases of such bagels with plain cream cheese, when those items were purchased through the Mobile Application in, upon information and belief, hundreds of Dunkin' stores throughout the United States.
Neighborhoods:
Free tagging:
| Attachment | Size |
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 Complete complaint | 700.09 KB |
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Comments
All this time and effort, he
All this time and effort, he could have just gone to a good coffee place instead of supporting a soul-less chain.
He's got a point.
And if I'm not mistaken, Starbucks does the same thing.
Seemingly every business
It is really frequent now that I find big discrepancies between the prices online and the prices in store. It is to the point that even with the time benefit of ordering ahead for pickup I rarely ever do so anymore.
What law says online and in
What law says online and in-store prices have to be the same? That's not the issue here. The problem is showing one price and getting charged another.
It sometimes works the other way: cheaper prices online. I make use of this, and I don't consider it illegal. But it offends me on principle that people without smart phones, who need the money the most, get screwed.
The best way to fight this AND save money: go in person to the stores that charge the least to begin with, like Market Basket and Trader Joe's.
Fees?
Is it some sort of "convenience fee" for using the app?
I don't think so?
It appears this "fee" is simply added on to items like cream cheese for bagels at some stores when you use the app but not other stores, and not when you order in person (and this fee structure is not listed anywhere per the law).
But I found this interesting:
Guy admits he is getting probably 5-10% off anyway by using the app, but still wants that Cheese tax removed.
We all know the cheese tax is unavoidable.
As Bart Simpson would say...
...only if you cut the cheese, man.
This undisclosed fees rubbish has to end
I hope the guy and his lawyers nail Duhnks to the wall. And that every other corporation that has taken to doing this kind of stuff catches (legal) hell also.
Has anyone else had Uber stop disclosing fares until after you make a reservation? Of course you can cancel if you don't like the price, but that risks having your rating as a rider reduced. Corporate scumbags.
And anyhow, who needs 'em? What's so hard about making your own coffee and bagel with a smear anyhow?
For a lot of people,
For a lot of people, everything is harder before we've had breakfast.
I agree
I typically find it hard getting up in the morning.
I had a meal at the Minneapolis airport recently
At the end of it, the check came with a "a 4% hospitality fee has been added. This fee does not go to staff." It was not disclosed on the menu.
I went asked the server (who I have a nice tip to, of course) about it and she said to take it up with the manager. After refusing to pay the bill unless it was removed, it was removed. Apparently they don't want to raise prices too much, but also need to cover their costs, so they do this. Just charge us what it costs to pay your goddamn employees! Not that hard! We're already paying $300 to fly somewhere, paying an extra 75¢ for a hamburger isn't going to break the bank.
I emailed the airport commissioners but got no reply.
Right on
These junk fees suck and should be illegal.
If companies want to itemize they can list the price with a note saying, "Includes x% for..."
Same goes with "compliance" and "administrative" fees found on cell phone and utility bills.
On a related note
Actual functional capitalism ended in the early oughta when the neoliberal manager class abolished the itemized receipt in favor what I call the "opacity-for-us, transparency-FOR-YOU" receipt, the latter which shows only what you owe but never what you bought.
That was the beginning of America's collective bone cancer.
Don't you love it love it love it? Yes you do!
My first guess would be that
My first guess would be that this is not malice on Dunkins' part, but probably garden-variety shoddy software (in the app, the servers that back it up, or both). Just playing the odds there.
I'm not so kind
These companies are fully aware of and are purposefully adding these charges.
If it was flakey software, it would occasionally error in the customer's favor.
> If it was flakey software,
> If it was flakey software, it would occasionally error in the customer's favor.
Not necessarily.
The app and the fulfillment
The app and the fulfillment process are both a disaster. My son likes the frozen hot chocolate. On the menu there is no whipped cream but it is automatically added in the app. But apparently most people want it so if you uncheck the box there is still a chance you show up and there is whip and they scrape it off....
Same thing with trying to get a bagel that is sliced but not toasted. If you check "sliced" on the app they toast it 100% of the time even though there is a separate choice for "toasted".
They should buy whoever built the Panera app. That thing is flawless.
Does it ever undercharge?
If your software glitch is exclusively to your benefit, always overcharging and never undercharging, it is not a glitch it is a scam.
He is not alone
My favorite is when you get charged an undisclosed fee for a specialty donut in the app and then they are out of stock and offer a standard donut as a substitute
I had a related problem which is why
I stopped ordering groceries from DoorDash because there were discrepancies between the store receipt and the amount charged. If an item was on sale DoorDash wouldn't adjust the total without a fight. So DoorDash just started telling drivers not to give the customers the store receipt.
It's well known that online
It's well known that online prices can differ from in-store prices. That's not the issue here. The issue is you should get charged the price you agreed to.