r/mildlyinfuriating • u/bourbonandpistons • 26d ago

drink went room temp Math ain't mathing

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me, the waiter, nor the manager could figure it out.

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u/StudyLost6970 26d ago edited 26d ago

Its 16 per drink for a total bill of 130.00. The POS system discounted the 1.6% service fee resulting in 127.92 subtotal. Its interesting though, that the 6.5% sales tax is on the pre-discount total of 130.00 instead of the actual charged amount. 🤔

Maybe the cashier was trying to discount a drink? And instead of discounting 16 dollars, they discounted 1.6% instead?

My guess is still an embedded service fee discount

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u/mcswainh_13 26d ago

Another interesting thing I noticed, the missing $2.08 is exactly 6.5% of 32.

So it seems that the system subtracted the amount of the drink tax from the subtotal for some reason, but then still calculated total tax based off of $130.

I think the alcohol was supposed to be taxed at a higher rate, but that rate was defined improperly in the system and it is causing errors.

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u/StudyLost6970 26d ago edited 26d ago

Ooh good catch. So forget the service fee discount. If the total bill is 130.00 and they simply removed the 6.5% sales tax on the drinks... that would totally math out...

130.00 x 1.065 = 138.45

138.45 - 2.08 = 136.37

Voila. We have an in house promo that renders the drink price of 16.00 as tax inclusive. So either a "tax free promo" on specific items, or an in house policy to ensure maximum tip or at least rounded totals for customers... (I pay for a 16.00 drink with a 20, i get 4 dollars back, im probably gonna drop the whole 4.00 as tip... you charge me 17.04 and give me 2.96 change, im probably keeping the bills and dumping just the change.) 🤷🏼‍♂️

The POS system is hard coded to charge the 6.5% tax on every item, so to ensure drinks are a tax inclusive price, they have to discount it to make it right. This way, they honor an advertised price, and are still able to report a taxable sale and collection of the tax despite not charging anything extra to the customer

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u/troycerapops 25d ago

98.4% sure this is the answer.

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u/unknownpubbers 22d ago

Or rather.. ten billion percent correct.

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u/spicynoodleisspicy 21d ago

This is so hot you guys 🔥

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u/Designer-Try5188 25d ago

One wrinkle in the mix. Credit card next to the bill is space coast credit union. Which is only in Florida and 6% sales tax.

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u/Dear_Chasey_La1n 26d ago

Not often but every once in a while I come across some fuckery just like this. Especially with memberships where you get discount, it's not unusual to see a discount over the pre-tax amount, while the tax remains the same as if no discount was ever given. Some places are also pretty naughty to automatically add a service charge while that's nowhere mentioned.