I understand what others are saying about operating cost for a web site. I also understand it does not completely replace a human answering a phone. However ever a web site is another avenue to customers, or another option for a business to make PROFIT.

A business that has a web site will get some customers from the web site that they would not have seen without the web site. That means a new customer, new revenue or cash flow into the business that would otherwise not be had if it were not for the web site.

With that said, my opinion is that the cost for starting up a web site is mute as far as charging “some” of the customers for the service. A smart business will incorporate those cost into the complete budget of the business and then spread it across the board as in raising prices a bit on their products.

For example it does not cost any more money to order things from the Sears web site, but you do pay shipping charges if you have it delivered to your home. If it is in store and something your local Sears covers then it cost you nothing more then if you went to the store and bought it to begin with.

Having a web site for ordering food is nothing more then like playing the stock market. You invest money in the hopes of making MORE money in return. There is no guarantee it will work out.

I don’t care what anybody says, when someone offers a web site for their products the statement “it’s for our customers convenience” is a bit vague, because the main reason, the FIRST reason for the web site is another avenue to customers and bringing in more cash flow into a business. The “it’s for our customers convenience” is just a nice added benefit but not the leading reason for offering the service to begin with.

People can argue that but I am telling you anyone being honest will tell you a web site is about MONEY first and not about customer convenience first.

The web site is a risk like any business adventure is, you can not always ask the customer to pay for all the risk because if you do your business will FAIL in the end, no if, ands or buts about it…

 

Woke up itchin' for a fight!

I would presume, that stopping by and JAP SLAPPING the suckers would not be politically correct.

OR

Maybe leave the carcass of a dead dog/cat hanging out of their trash can and calling the local news to see if they are using dogs/cats for meat. Also mention the neighborhood seems devoid of any pets or stray animals.

 

if i lost a customer over a $1.50 charge, chances are I would loose them over something anyway.

went to Chilis last night, free soft drink refills (i remeber when everyone charged for this) gave us extra tortias for the leftovers, extra cheese free and on occation if the kids get somthing they dont like, they bring something else no charge. if you have experince any of that, then you are way ahead of that $1.50 fee.

 

Are you over reacting? Probably a little bit, because your statements/replies suggest you suspect yourself of it, but ultimately you decide if you're over reacting or not.

The bigger question is is it bad that you're over reacting? I don't think so. You've got the right to decide where and how to spend your money, but you'd rather not take your money elsewhere because you like the food so much. You're disappointed. That's not wrong, and neither is voicing your complaint.

I've gotten upset of things like this before, then like you I question myself later if I'm over reacting. It's like, why do I complain over $1.50 to this place that I otherwise really like, yet I'll let something else just as trivial slide in another situation. A little basic psychology would say there is some other issue that's bothering you, not the $1.50 extra charge. –Of course Freud would say it's because we all want to have sex with our mothers, so you may not believe the whole "basic psychology" bit

Also, I've run websites before and the fact is, most don't even pay for themselves but rely on the regular business to carry them along. Many websites are just an attempt to stay afloat in the age of the internet. That doesn't apply to all websites mind you, but most of the sites that act as a supplement to a regular business are not making or even saving money.

And one last note - someone said that anything automatic like credit cards and debit cards save businesses money but that's also not entirely true. A business has to pay visa/mastercard/discover/etc a fee for each transaction that uses thier card (kinda like we pay a buck or two to use an ATM owned by a different financial institution.) That's why so many of the big stores (best buy, sears, target, etc) so heavily push their own credit cards, because they eliminate/reduce those fees by having thier own credit lines.

 

Dave, I agree with that comment for the most part, some people just look for a reason to get pissed off.
In my particular case, this is not true.

As far as your dinner experience about getting free this or free that, there's places around here like that, and it's nice once in a while to get a break on something, but this place I'm talking about, they won't give you anything for free.
Nor should they because I don't expect it.

I remember one night, the order came to 100 bucks, I asked them for an extra lemon wedge, and they charged me a buck.

Bottom line? Their food is good, it's fresh, it's expensive.
I never complained once, but they IMO should suck up this charge as a cost of doing business.

Passing it to the customer directly is a cheap move.

 

Is the only thing you can do on this web site is order food? They are paying if you order or not. They should just have a .001% increase in all food ordered and not tell you what it is for. If they did that than you would wonder but not be upset because the food is so good.

Now....Forget word of mouth, Get a web site. If you want you can get a comm web site hosted for free for 3 yrs. with no contract to continue service. http://order.1and1.com At this site you can buy a web site domain for I think like 5.95 usd. This is not slander because you are telling the truth as anyone can see by going to this restaurants web page. Fry's Electronics is company here in the states that has a couple web sites dedicated to how bad their service is.

This would kinda blow the whole "we charge so much because the web site is so expensive" right out of the water. Of course from this time forward anytime you order food from anywhere look for spit in it but that is part of the fun..

 

OR try tis approach. May make you feel better and the food prices would probably come way down..

 

Calm down Habibi. There's other places to eat. LOL!

 

By us, we get some damn good chinese food for $25.
I always order the monthly (different items every month) family pack special. It comes with 3 main dishes, which no single person can possibly consume, 4 egg rolls, a large container of Won Ton soup, a Large container of white rice, and a large container of chicken (or pork) fried rice. It's alway good, and the four of us (includes BF) can't eat it all.
Now if we go in and have the same items as a sit down dinner, it would be about twice that. We've done both, so I know. I guess we (both the restruant and us) actually SAVE money for the "added convience". They can better plan how much, and what types of food to have onhand, plus they don't have to serve it to us, and we save enough money to buy a DVD, plus we get to eat it at home while watching the new DVD movie we got.

I could hardly imagine paying $75 for take out !
but by that same token, what's another buck fifteen?

and for them, why don't they just put their menu and fax number directly on their website? Make it user friendly so people can "copy and paste" (ie don't use Front Page for the webdesign which makes images out of text - thereby making the text impossible to copy and paste) then have people fax the orders directly at no additional cost? Many restruants do this. Heck, even the coney down the street does it.

 

Hrrm... okay. Umm... well... I don't think I'm going to respond.... well, other than with one question...

How incredibly off beat is this? *shakes head* Geesh... the more I read, the more I figure that we're simply not alone on this earth.

RP

 

Archie Bunker is alive and well and living in Jersey

 

meat head LOL

 

Wow $75 for takeout ???

I'm not sure how many people you're feeding, but lets just say that you are a family of four. Normal takeout would cost $40. The added expense of their online ordering should be absorbed by the general margin they make on the food. I think $35 easily covers the $1.15 without losing significant profits. As it was said before, the company should have absorbed the charge. I've never heard of a company charging you just so that you can buy their product. Thats just stupid.

BTW - Habibi how is life going as a non-smoker?

 

Thats $75 Canadian Thats $57.5 USD

 

You beat me to it. Meathead!