This tale of curry confusion will convince you to double check before making a complaint
A close one, this.
In a cautionary tale that wouldn’t look out of place in a book of children’s stories, one Twitter user told the excruciating story of how a bank statement almost led him down the path to humiliation.
Artist and cartoonist Moose Allain’s tale of misunderstanding began with a curry, as many great stories do…
I'm going to tell you a story that I'm afraid doesn't reflect well on me. But it's a cautionary tale and hopefully you will benefit from my telling of it. This happened yesterday.
— MꙬse Allain (@MooseAllain) April 18, 2018
I was checking my bank statements when I noticed something odd. A couple of months ago I'd ordered a take away curry via curriesonline. It was a memorable occasion because there'd been… I wouldn't say an altercation, but I'd been extremely annoyed.
— MꙬse Allain (@MooseAllain) April 18, 2018
You see, the curry had turned up 2 HOURS LATE, despite the fact I'd phoned up several times and received assurances it was on its way. You can understand I was a bit miffed. The film we'd wanted to watch was long since ended. We eventually ate in terse silence.
— MꙬse Allain (@MooseAllain) April 18, 2018
Anyway, this is by-the-by, except that it partly explains what occurred. I noticed only a couple of days later there was another transaction with the website. And this time it was for more than £300. I hadn't ordered any more curry, certainly not that quantity.
— MꙬse Allain (@MooseAllain) April 18, 2018
The only explanation was that they'd been equally annoyed with me (surely I'd been polite, if exasperated?) and taken money from my account! Unbelievable! My more rational mind realised it must be a mistake.
— MꙬse Allain (@MooseAllain) April 18, 2018
But how? You don't just accidentally transfer money out of someone's account. Perhaps it was a glitch with the website. The only way to resolve it was to phone them up. If they weren't willing to be helpful I was prepared to accuse them of… what? Stealing my money?
— MꙬse Allain (@MooseAllain) April 18, 2018
If it came to that, yes. But let's not be hasty. I found their number with some difficulty. They no longer seemed to be using the website I'd ordered through. This increased my suspicions. I dialled, quite angry again thinking about my previous encounter.
— MꙬse Allain (@MooseAllain) April 18, 2018
At first it said number not recognised. Had the business closed, was it all part of a scam? I dialled again. No reply. And again. The same. Useless. By now I had resolved to drive down there and talk to them in person, assuming they were still in business.
— MꙬse Allain (@MooseAllain) April 18, 2018
Just before leaving I thought I'd better double check my bank statement to make sure I got the amounts right. No mistake there. But… hold on. That's odd. The website had two slightly different addresses recorded on the statement.
— MꙬse Allain (@MooseAllain) April 18, 2018
The first one, yes, was curriesonline. But the second…
Oh god. The deep shame descended on me, a cold sweat of what I'd just done.
The second one was currysonline.
— MꙬse Allain (@MooseAllain) April 18, 2018
And with that it came back to me that the reason we'd had the curry was because our cooker had packed up. Two days later I'd gone to Currys and bought a replacement.
— MꙬse Allain (@MooseAllain) April 18, 2018
So the next time you think you’ve been overcharged for a curry – or undercharged for an oven – remember this tale before picking up the phone.