Has ownership of the Drop Off Cafe changed recently? I have been twice in the last month and haven’t seen the guy I knew as the owner the whole weekend. No MTB DVDs in the evenings any more either.

Anyway it seems to be pretty normal for the staff (in particular a young girl with pink bits in her hair and a face piercing) to make up prices and overcharge. When challenged, the price changes

Two examples

English breakfast advertised at 4.95, several us ordered breakfast and aorange juice, and the price varied between £7.30 and £7.60 which we thought made the orange juice a real rip off. The next morning a friend orders just an english breakfast to be told it is £6.40. He tells them on the board it is £4.95 to which the girl just says oh yeah, £4.95. £4.95 still is quite expensive as you don’t get a drink with it (you used to get a tea as well)

Ice creams. 2 mates buy ice creams, £1.50 each. Another mate further back in the queue pays £2. Gets back to the table and the other two tell him he got ripped off. Went back up and complained, the girl just says “oh yeah” and gets 50p back out the till.

Still the Working mans club was a good laugh as usual. They ordered our curry from Maesteg, worked out at 6.75 each! They had a special on bottled beers, 5 Sol or Coors Light for £5 – bargain!

I agree that some of the girls there could do with a bit more training but I don’t believe they’re deliberately scamming anyone.

they could just be thick

Second what Andy said.

Why not just speak to Ian and mention it to him, rather than carping on here.

is she fit?

consider it an eye candy tax?

ya can’t knock the lasses honesty by sound of it, which is a far better quality to have than numeracy.

Still the Working mans club was a good laugh as usual.

For a really special night out, The Goytre United Football Club bar by the LA Riding Centre is hard to beat…

I’m afraid guys that this is a scam pulled quite often in cafes, especially in places popular with tourists. Staff on the tills over-charge people, then when they count up their till at the end of their shift they pocket what ever is over, quite often telling the boss that it’s ‘tips’.

I work for Lavazza Coffee and here about this sort of malarky all the time on the North Wales coast.

For the record, mates and myself have never had reason to complain.

It was the fact that it was backed down with no argument that made it ring alarm bells for us.

Anyway, if they aren’t scamming, then at least people should try to work out how much there order should be before paying.

I would have spoken to Ian, but this was the second weekend that I didn’t see him once.

The food is still very good though.

Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity.

— Robert Hanlon

Sounds like a scam, looks like a scam… These people don’t sound ‘thick’ they sound like they know exactly what they are doing.

I reckon there’s some right wrong uns knocking about up them valleys…

Nobody can actually prove dishonesty. The perfect scam.

Hence just owning up when confronted. We like to think these people are perfectly honest, but that sounds reet dodgy to me!

I was stood in the local takeaway leaning on the counter a guy walks in and orders, the price comes up on the till and she overcharges him by £1.20 ish, she could clearly see the price there was no other excuse but theft.
In the case of the cafe
She is either skimming or cant be arsed to do her job either way she needs the boot

I use the cafe regularly and never have a problem, I also add up what I’m about to pay for beforehand(only because I have to count my pennies 😆 )
Forums are tricky places for humour djglover so i’ll just assume you are being funny, although sweeping generalisations based on accent or location can be offensive (and I’m not being pc about it)
I think the best way to deal with this would be to speak to the cafe owner ( Ian can be emailed) before making allegations on a forum frequented by customers and staff.
thats my twopenneth anyway 🙂 I’m off to bed to dream of sheep

I don’t believe they’re deliberately scamming anyone.

Not from the valleys then mate? 😉

She overcharges all day then takes an extra £20 for herself from the till.

Easy money.

Unlikely to be scamming for their own benefit if they ring the amount they say into the till. Cash will need to meet till total each night.

IMHO – just pressure – long queues of hungry mountain bikers and issues with remembering prices and adding up. What they actually need is a decent till that has the pricing programmed in. Then everyone is happy and the staff are under less pressure. I guess working there is a bit like a pub where the prices can be wrong quite a lot. Suggeste people just politely correct (as has happened in the instances suggested) and the mistake is rectified. No worries.

Why are people so keen to think the worst?

Its not scamming, its skimming. Put it this way, a small business owner wouldnt let someone whos ‘thick’ be in charge of a till. He would have watched her/worked with her first before letting her alone. An easy mistake to make once or twice but theres a pattern there. Its till skimming, as old as the hills in the Catering world. Tell the owner asap.

Saying that, if he hadnt appraised her work beforehand then he/she not a good judge of character.

If it isn’t deliberate, the till will be up every night which should ring alarm bells just as much as a till down

as Hora says – it’s an old trick
Most people don’t look at the till display so the staff just ask for more & probably usually get it

uplink, the till wont be up as her pockets may have the extra contained within…

some people arent even that bright. When I was a student I worked at Woolworths and the tills never matched (common and accepted) and on a fairly regular basis we caught people who had pocketed cash after CCTV was installed. Any coins etc in pockets were not allowed and one lad was caught with notes and coins stuffed down his socks.

uplink, the till wont be up as her pockets may have the extra contained within..

That’s what I meant Hora – if it wasn’t deliberate the till would be up & raise the alarm – as I guess it isn’t – the cash must be elsewhere

We didn’t get the money back we were overcharged on the saturday. There were 10 of us who had breakfast, and about 20 or 30 other people. Whether everyone got skimmed I did not know.

You can’t see the cash register, as it is behind the wall.

With the ice cream, surely the till will be down as the 50p just came out of it. Although I guess in a busy place like that they don’t expect the till to register exactly correctly.

Skimmings harder with odd amounts, I worked in Macds thoughout uni, when the 2 big macs for £2 were available, lot of the Stokeys used to fail to put them through the tills on big orders, easy to mentally add £2 to the overall price…do it 5 times and stick a tenner in your pants..fair play I thought they were clever at the time….surely you’d need to be einstein to remember odd little amounts to take out so the till wasn’t miles out…I’m guessing its a training issue not deliberate

re valleys folk…you’ll go a long way before you’ll find another community thats as trusting and welcoming

Sounds like a scam, looks like a scam…

next thing you know they’ll be asking you all to stump up a few quid to ‘help with the rent’, like anyone would fall for that….

tails you say you cannot knock her honesty.. what she says oh yea when she is challenged, the prices are on the board and she cannot argue with that, of course she will act all oh sorry.. but anyone with any nouce working in a cafe should know the cost of a breakfast it’s prob their main selling dish. over charging by £2.50 for a breakfast is not a mistake, its either skimming into the pocket and the till is level at the end of the day or she is plain thick.. customers knowing what a breakfast costs but not the staff, I think not. Either way not good business. Better off taking a risk with BK

I’ve onoly been twice but the service and attitude was grim on both occaisions.

Shop her to the boss, send them an email/letter.

I’ve onoly been twice but the service and attitude was grim on both occaisions.

They dont have a sister cafe in CYB?

If you get undercharged do you correct their mistake and pay correct price?

Ive never had anthing but good service in the Drop off.

Either way I think Welsh girls have great accents, innocent and proper dirty at the same time.

Tell the owner or dont visit there again.

Marmalade in Chorlton, Manchester used to be a really nice place to eat. Gradually the service went down hill, really really badly. Regularly we’d say the food was good but you’d have to ask 3 times for a bottle of wine etc etc. You had to book in advance then gradually you could book an hour before and get a table on a Sat night. Soo bad we gave up. It closed a couple of weeks ago.

I wish I’d contacted the owner with hindsight. Now, the place could have closed due to money issues/waitresses getting grief from the owner and thus not giving a toss (so why not leave and work elsewhere?) but it was a great place- they did a great Cornbeef Ash!

Contact the owner, or go elsewhere. If you simply go elsewhere, the owner might experience a loss of trade and loose his hardwork to some local lasses who feel a wage isnt enough and people should pay them handsomely to do a so-so job in return. At the very least she isnt earning her wage.

innocent and proper dirty at the same time.

mmmm. Cerys Matthews. 😉