Big Wheel Burger VIC WEST — Restaurant in Victoria

EDIT: Since the owner decided to respond with such a lovely display of passive aggressive vigor... I guess it's time for an edit.

Pardon me, for living in a fantasy land where my food shouldn't come with fees hidden in the fine print. I thought it was a burger joint, not a lawyer's office.

Lovely that you use "We've been doing this for a year and a half" to infer a first time customer should know and accept your shady practices. as if that timeline matters though.

You know, if you feel auto-gratuity is necessary, you could just pay your serve staff a living wage, right? Or Increase the cost of food by 15% and give them a portion of sales, Or have staff ask "How much would you like to tip?" or state "There's a 12% auto-gratuity." when they ring up the bill. Though, none of those options give customers the disingenuous impression* that the food is cheaper then it is. Odd, how you chose the one method that does...*

*Feel free to disregard the implication of disingenuous impressions if for some reason you, while hungry, read menus in the same way an android reads data.

"We are sorry you did not read the signage. We removed the auto-gratuity as we do in person dining."

Well, as you transition back to in person dining I will not be returning to your restaurant, nor giving the normal 25+% gratuity I otherwise would have. but we both know you don't care about me as a customer. so that's no loss for either of us, right? 😉

Though, all in all, despite the unreasonable business practices and passive aggression, I will earnestly and graciously accept your apology. It's absolutely okay that I didn't read your signage more thoroughly then most read legal paperwork. There's no need for an apology, really. 🙄

--- Original Review --- Staff added a tip without asking or informing the customer.

Because service industry staff are under payed and work one of the hardest jobs, I normally tip 25-30%

However, adding an undisclosed amount, without asking or informing the customer is at best dishonest and at worst fraud and theft.

There is no reason to add a flat % to every bill without informing customers, except to defraud them. If that extra amount is needed you can just add it to the itemized price. But they decided it'd be better to trick customers into thinking there food was cheaper.

The only reason I found out is because I was surprised there was no tip option when I went to pay and asked if I could. I wouldn't have known otherwise. The irony being I otherwise absolutely would have tipped more. Absolutely...

See my edit below

I debated whether to even leave this review, but I honestly don't really feel good about eating here anymore so maybe this would be useful for the managers to hear (if they even read these things).

Let me just first say that I've been a customer since Big Wheel moved into the plaza years ago, and in all the time I've ordered food here, I've never had a single problem until this year.

Back in March they forgot an entire burger on one of my orders. Since I live close by, I offered to swing back around and pick up the missing item. The employee was friendly, but didn't offer any sort of compensation beyond making the missing item. He didn't do anything to show me he appreciated me spending my time and gas money to fix his mistake. I let that one slide because these guys had such a good track record before that.

But...now it's got to be 3 or 4 times that they've forgotten my gravy also. Again, no compensation; just a refund on the dollar-fifty I paid for the gravy. What do you think I'm going to do with this gravy, just drink it straight? Refunding me the gravy doesn't remedy the fact that my whole meal was diminished by the mistake. The most recent time it happened I even texted back that I thought it was a pretty weak response and they just ghosted me. Cool cool cool. Good to know my years of patronage are appreciated.

When you screw up (and it happens, that's life), you should do something to make up for the mistake. Acting like you don't owe me anything after you waste my time is a great way to ensure I don't want to return.

It kind of pains me to say, but I'll be taking a break from Big Wheel and taking my business elsewhere for a while. Hopefully things haven't gone further downhill in a few months.

Edit: The general manager reached out with a gift card for the inconvenience, which was appreciated. It sounds like they did indeed have some issues with turnover during the height of the pandemic. It also sounds like management is making an effort to reform the training protocols to address the issues mentioned above. I was also promised that no one would get in trouble, which is great. I'm going to leave my review as is for a bit, but if things go well the next few times I order, I'll add the...

This place started out great. They have several locations around town but I normally go to the Uptown and Cook Street locations. I have slowly seen the decline of customer service at these two spots. The Cook St. location is probably the worst. 6 different times they forgot my fries. Yes, 6. Once they forgot cheese on my cheeseburgers and when I told them, they literally handed me two cold pieces of fake american cheese. Another time they was a massive hair cooked into my burger patty. And then at the Uptown location I placed my order on the phone which I was told would take 10-15 mins. I pulled up ten minutes later and paid. The gal up front said she would check my order. 20+ mins passed by and I saw people that came after me keep getting their orders. I finally went up to the cooks and asked for my order by my name. They looked around clueless until one of them walked out to the front fridge and pulled my order out. It had been sitting there the entire time. I will say that the Uptown one is usually pretty good but after all the fails I just won't order from Big Wheel again. On top of it, they add an automatic gratuity which I don't feel is justified. If you want it,...