Montano's International Gourmet

Review: I enclose a copy of an August 27, 2013 letter I sent to Montano's International Restaurant at 3733 Franklin Road, SW, Roanoke, Virginia 24014. To date I have received no response to this letter. My complaint had to do with the fact that I had ordered takeout meals over the telephone, and had not been told at the time of ordering that the meals selected cost $16.95 each, rather than the $10.95 referenced in the take-out menu from which I was ordering. I was offered no reduction in price, but was only told that the internet menu had not been updated. I had not looked at the internet menu; but when I did, I found that the same meals were listed on the internet as costing $13.95 each, as opposed to the $16.95 for which I was charged, and the $10.95 which was listed on the take-out menu which had been in my possession. On the way out of the restaurant, I grabbed what I thought was a current take-out menu, on the counter, available for customers to take with them; this menu listed the same meals as costing $13.95, not the $16.95 I was charged. I submit that listing the cost of a meal on a take-out menu and on the internet at one price, but then demanding substantially more than that price when the meal is actually purchased, constitutes a form of "bait-and-switch" advertising, which may well constitute consumer fraud. The fact that no one at the restaurant cared to respond to my August 2 7 letter, coupled with the fact that as of October 13, 2013, the same item was still listed on the internet menu at $13.95, leads one to believe that the fraud which is being committed by Montano's is both deliberate and intentional. I hereby lodge my complaint against Montano's International Restaurant.

Business

Response:

In response to your letter of complaint from Mr. [redacted] It was an over sight on our part for having menu's on display that were not updated. We have since taken care of the matter at hand. We strive to make our customers dining in and take out a pleasurable experience. We appreciate Mr. [redacted] bringing his complaint to our attention. I will be sending Mr. [redacted] a gift card and updated menu's in hopes that he will order take out with Montano's in the future. I hope that I have provided you with all the information that you are requesting. If you should have any further questions please feel free to contact me. Sincerely, [redacted] Manager

Consumer

Response:

Immediately upon reading Ms. [redacted]'s response to my complaint, the gist of which was that takeout menus available at the restaurant and prices listed in the online menu were substantially lower than the actual price charged for the dish I ordered and then picked up and paid for, I looked at the menu posted online. The price of the Real Seafood Salad is still listed on the Montano's menu posted on its website, as of today, November 6, 2013, as $13.95, the same price stated on the same online menu in August, 2013, when this issue was first brought to the attention of Montano's, when I was made to pay $16.95.I would respectfully contend that the issue remains unresolved. Montano's is posting different, lower prices in its online menu than it is charging when a customer actually orders and purchases the food.I have not seen new takeout menus, so I cannot speak to whether they have been updated and made more accurate.

Business

Response:

Dear Ms. [redacted],I am responding to a letter that I received today from Mr. [redacted]. He stated that he sent you a copy as well. Therefore, you have a copy of the letter that I sent to him along with the copy of our lunch menu and our dinner menu. He stated that no action whatsoever was taken to change the price on the take out menu.Ms. [redacted], our dinner prices on our dinner menu match the dinner menu prices on our web site. We do not have our lunch menu listed on our web site. Our prices are different at lunch than they are at dinner. I'm thinking this is what may have Mr. [redacted] concerned. Again, the dinner menu that I mailed to Mr. [redacted] matches the dinner menu on our web site. Our Seafood Salad for lunch is $12.95 and our Seafood Salad for dinner is $13.95. I certainly hope that Mr. [redacted] will dine with us in the future. If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact me. Sincerely,[redacted]###-###-####

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. I have now received the response of manager [redacted] of Montano's International Restaurant & Deli, to my complaint submitted on October 15, 2013, to which ID No. [redacted] was assigned. I would respectfully submit that Ms. [redacted] has somehow missed the point. I ordered two takeout Real Seafood Salads on August 23, 2013. The takeout menu in my possession listed the price of these salads as $10.95 each. When I arrived at the restaurant, I was charged $37.40. I was told by the young lady who dealt with me at the counter that the price for the Real Seafood Salad was $16.95. She apologized to me, to the effect that the internet menu had not been updated. When I checked the internet menu, the Real Seafood Salad was listed as costing $13.95, not $16.95. When I consulted the takeout menu that I obtained that very night, August 23, 2013, the price of the Real Seafood Salad was listed as $13.95. $16.95 is $3.00 more than $13.95. I was charged $3.00 more for each Real Seafood Salad than the price listed on the internet menu. I was charged $3.00 more for each Real Seafood Salad than the price listed on the takeout menu available at the restaurant on the very day that I made my purchase. Ms. [redacted] has now sent me two menus, which she says are current, one of which lists the Real Seafood Salad as costing $12.95, the other of which lists the Real Seafood Salad as costing $13.95. Neither one of these menus list the price of the Real Seafood Salad as $16.95, which is what I was charged on August 23,2013. If the actual price of the Real Seafood Salad is $16.95, the point I am trying to make is that the current takeout menu, available to any customer in the restaurant, should list that price, rather than $13.95, which is $3.00 less. The same is true with regard to the menu available on the internet. If the true price is $16.95, then a customer ordering over the telephone, consulting the menu available on the internet at the Montano's website, should not be reading the price for the Real Seafood Salad which is printed there as $13.95. The point I am making and the complaint which I respectfully submit has not been addressed as yet, is that the price I was charged, which I was told was the actual price of the Real Seafood Salad, was $3.00 more than price for the same item listed on the internet menu and the takeout menu. It is apparent that since August 23, 2013, this situation has not changed, despite the matter having been brought to the attention of Montano's by myself and by the Revdex.com. Given the above, I am mystified by Ms. [redacted]'s response. For ease of reference, I enclose as an attachment hereto the receipt I obtained on August 23, which is marked as Exhibit 3 to my initial October 15 letter to the Revdex.com, which clearly shows two Seafood Salads being purchased for $33.90, which sum divided by two is $16.95, which is the sum I was told on August 23 was the actual price of the Real Seafood Salad, as opposed to the incorrect price listed on the internet and the incorrect price listed on both the current and former takeout menus. Very truly yours, [redacted]

Business

Response:

I am writing in response to the customer complaint regarding Mr. [redacted]. There was a huge over sight on Montano's with the over-charge that Mr. [redacted] paid for his two Seafood Salads that were purchased on August 23, 2013. We have since corrected our prices on our computers, web site and our menus. I have sent Mr. [redacted] a letter of apology for our mistake along with a copy of our lunch menu and a copy of our dinner menu. I think that I must clarify that one menu is lunch and one is dinner. However, it doesn't show on the outside cover of either menu which one is lunch or which one is dinner. There is a dollar difference in price on our dinner menu. We have it that way because it is dinner. I also enclosed along with the menus a $50.00 gift card in hopes that Mr. [redacted] would dine or take-out in the near future. I am sending you a copy of our lunch and dinner menus and writing at the top of each page lunch or dinner. Please let me know if I can be any assistance to helping Mr. [redacted] come to some resolve on our mistake. Again, we do strive to provide our guest with the best service. Sincerely, [redacted]

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. It is my understanding from the latest response received from Montano's manager [redacted] that the complaint that I originally made on August 27, 2013, which was that I had been charged $16.95 for each of two Real Seafood Salads, which was $3.00 more per salad than the price listed on the take out menu, $3.00 more per salad than the price listed on the internet menu, and $6.00 more per salad than the price listed in my apparently outdated takeout menu, was a mistaken overcharge due to a computer error. Please let me state that if this had been the response to my letter to Montano's dated August 27,2013, this issue would have never gotten to the Revdex.com. I do not know why someone did not simply respond promptly to the complaint, by informing me that I had been overcharged $3.00 for each of the Real Seafood Salads purchased, through an error in the computer, and that the error had been corrected. Instead, a flurry of letters back and forth have taken place over a period of months, with the complaint going unresponded to for six weeks, and never once was I told until now that the price quoted to me at the time I actually paid for the salads back on August 23 was simply incorrect. I appreciate Montano's sending me a gift card, and a generic apology; but I will say, once again, that this entire dispute could have been nipped in the bud immediately if someone had simply said I had been overcharged by mistake. Very truly yours, [redacted] Regards,[redacted]