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The Bacon Scam

So, in the last two days, on two separate occasions, I ordered from TWO separate places, sandwiches without bacon on them.  One, was a turkey hoagie at Wawa, which I pushed the "Add Bacon" button, but when I unwrapped the sandwich on my way up to the Comedy Improv fest in Bethlehem, there was no bacon to be found.

The second time was just tonight at Whole Foods.  I ordered bacon, and paid for it, and did not receive it.

And you're probably saying, what's the big deal?

Let's assume, that both Whole Foods and Wawa add bacon let's say, thousands of times a day at every location.  Now, let's assume that on maybe one in every 10 times, they don't add bacon.  I'm going to assume this rate is much higher since it happened to me at two separate businesses in two instances in the SAME weekend.

The odds of that are very low if this does not occur often.

SO, what happens?  Most people I'm willing to bet say, "oh well".  And that's that.  It goes unchecked.  That extra dollar or 80 cents goes right into the companies top line.

Their revenue is now showing cashflow for a product or service that was never delivered.

1 dollar here, another there.  It's possible that hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, or even millions of dollars in undelivered services are processed.

This is a boon for the company because they effectively just received money on a service not delivered.

I'm calling this The Bacon Scam.

Look for my book, The Bacon Scam, out next year.  Okay, not really, but in all honesty, how much of this bacon scam is happening around the world?  How do you know an espresso shot has been added to your Starbucks drink?  Maybe it wasn't.  You paid for it.  But how do you know?

How do you know your oil was changed when it wasn't?

Jiffy Lube actually cracked my oil pan the last time I used their services... In 2007.  I never went back.

My mom even the night before she passed away her central line cracked, where she was getting her meds.  That means they had to start rotating meds because they couldn't get any other line in her.

To me, this happens because people are either not qualified for the job, not properly trained, or the system as a whole is not properly designed.

It's a transparency issue.  Anytime you restrict any kind of view... You get mistakes and issues.  Any time you don't have complete transparency and checks and balances.  You get problems.

There needs to be better quality control on everything from sandwiches, to hospital procedures.

The Bacon Scam isn't happening because the company is TRYING to be malicious... It's a talent and HR issue.  The employees aren't properly doing their work.  Maybe it's because they just can't possibly DO the job... They might lack the skill set...

Many people are suited for different jobs, and sometimes people are just placed in jobs they aren't suited for...

The Peter Principle applies here.

But there are ways to compensate for this... For example... Wawa could implement a big flashing bright LED when someone pushes the ADD bacon button on an order.  So when someone goes to make the sandwich, the screen they are looking at to follow along could stop at a certain point and FLASH RED

ADD BACON!!! ADD BACON!!!

Or, they could use transparency packaging that is see through.  That way, a person can see the order before it is finalized.

Alternatively the person could show the sandwich to the customer BEFORE it is wrapped up to confirm it is correct.

Either way it is up to the consumer to fight and be vigilant no matter the industry or situation.  The Bacon Scam is everywhere and it's up to people to stop and check and make sure they get what it is they paid for.

After all, that extra dollar, or 80 cents adds up, or companies wouldn't do it in the first place.  If you see something, say something, and be loud about it, don't be afraid to get in people's faces.

Investigate, demand answers, be proactive, be pushy...

Because that's how problems come to light and that's how things get fixed.

Otherwise you end up paying for something that you never receive delivery on.

An update... So one of my friends just told me that her grandmom was charged extra at Sheetz, but did not receive bacon.

I'm willing to bet that The Bacon Scam is a multi million dollar industry, or possibly multi billion.  Companies possibly do it on purpose just to make the extra income betting that customers won't be bothered enough to go back to fix the order.

Employees may be told to omit this, on the hopes that the customer may over look the extra dollar, or 50, or 80 cents.

If so, this is definitely one very big scam...