Jack-in-the-Box

So the other night my best friend and I were going through the drive-in at Jack-in-the-Box. We like Jack-in-the-Box and so we were excited when one opened earlier this year. We have been there a few times now.

Just recently we found out that they use a “call center” for taking orders at the drive-thru menu. In other words the person taking the order is sitting in Texas while we are at a Jack-in-the-Box in Colorado. Weird. Still kind-of a cool idea and pretty efficient when we thought about it a bit.

Back to the most recent drive-in experience…

We are sitting at the menu and the voice asks us as it has EVERY time we have gone through since it’s opening, “Do you want that medium or large”. We each said medium (as we always have) and I noticed for the first time that the prices on the “total” screen were .40 higher than the price on the menu. Ok, strange. We thought that there must have been some kind of mistake and pulled around to ask the person at the window.

Now, before I proceed with this story you need to understand. There has never been anything in the tone of the order taker that even suggested there was anything other than a medium or large option. It has always sounded COMPLETELY matter of fact that the order taker was inquiring which size, medium or large was preferred as if there were only two sizes. The same tone and inflections were also used each visit as we were asked if we wanted regular or curly fries.

Turns out that there are THREE sizes…small, medium and large!!

They don’t ever say it is an upgrade they are offering you or give any indication that they are offering you two choices that BOTH increase the price of the meal you are ordering.

Shame on you Jack-in-the-Box!!!

Oh, by the way…can you say “deceptive business practices by electronic communication across state lines”…can you say “a pattern of deceptive business practices by electronic communication across state lines”…can you say “RICO”?

I knew you could!