HomeTown Buffet review: overcharged by mistake but won't refund promptly ( 2 comments)

On wednesday 8/10/11 I went to a hometown buffet in newark california for lunch and the cashier who was obviously new and inexperienced overcharged me tenfold. She must have pressed "7" twice, so instead of charging me $7.71 she entered $77.71. I didn't notice it at that time, but the next day when I was checking my bank statement, I immediately found that mistake and went to the buffet for a refund. The cashier was not there that day and I did not have a receipt, just a bank statement. So I was not surprised when the manager did not pay me back but promised that he would investigate the matter and would call me in 24 hours. I accepted that because I had no receipt. Later that day I found the receipt with the overcharge, so today I went there again to get a refund. That same cashier was there, she recognized me, and we called the manager again. Of course, he did not call me back, and to my surprise he still would not return the money, and continued to claim that "the corporate office" needs to "investigate it. " like maybe I was not alone, so it was not a single charge etc etc. But it is absurd, because the girl (The cashier) remembered me. So instead of apologizing for their obvious blunder they prefer to cast suspicion on me. He never told me the timeframe of their "investigation". I called the corporate office with a complaint, and they put me on hold, obviously called that manager, and then confirmed his story about the need to investigate - without any time frame, again, and without a proper apology. I know that eventually they will return my $70, but I will never set my foot there again. If it happened in a regular restaurant, I wound have been refunded immediately, with proper apologies, and without the need to go there multiple times and ask for my own money. This is not the way to treat a customer, period.