If you thought you were done for the week and were ready to drink your weekend away, here is a piece of news that will make your head spin. After actor Rahul Bose was billed Rs.442 for 2 bananas at a luxury hotel in Chandigarh and a Man billed Rs.1700 for 2 boiled eggs in Mumbai, now it’s a journalist who had to pay a huge price for a bottle of British beer. Not because that’s the actual cost of the beer, but for a completely different reason altogether.
Australian cricket journalist Peter Lalor is the unfortunate one who was charged $99,983.64, (Rs.71.6 lakh approx.) for a bottle of beer at a hotel in Manchester.
He took to Twitter and shared the entire episode tweet by tweet explaining the saga of him paying a huge price for a bottle of Deuchars IPA.
See this beer? That is the most expensive beer in history.
I paid $99,983.64 for it in the Malmaison Hotel, Manchester the other night.
Seriously.Contd. pic.twitter.com/Q54SoBB7wu
— Peter Lalor (@plalor) September 5, 2019
An expert in beer, Lalor says that although the original version of it won a heap of awards, it’s not worth $100,000. The beer was originally priced at £5.50 (Rs.484.07 approx.)
It’s a good beer. The original version of it won a heap of awards, including the Supreme Champion Beer of Britain, but if you are thinking that no beer is worth the best part of $100,000, then I am inclined to agree with you.
— Peter Lalor (@plalor) September 5, 2019
He explains about the unfortunate night when he went to the hotel and desired to try a British beer.
It was a quiet Sunday night when I made the fateful purchase. I asked a young barman if he had anything that was not an American craft beer or Eurolager. I wanted something a little British.
He had no idea. Said he’d only worked 6 shifts at the establishment.— Peter Lalor (@plalor) September 5, 2019
He said he would get the senior bar attendant. She suggested Heineken, so I knew she had no idea what she was talking about. Just quietly, it annoys me a bit when people show no interest in their job, but I persisted politely and opted for the very English IPA pictured above.
— Peter Lalor (@plalor) September 5, 2019
Apparently, all this was a billing mistake by the hotel. According to reports, the hotel spokesperson told, “We are currently carrying out an investigation into what took place. We have been in contact with Peter to apologise and ensure this has been resolved as quickly as possible.”
Anyway, I didn’t have my reading glasses when she presented me with a bill for the beer and when she had some problems with the machine I didn’t think much of it, but it was eventually resolved, I said I didn’t want a receipt and she went to leave.
— Peter Lalor (@plalor) September 5, 2019
Something, however, made me ask “how much did I just pay for that beer”.
She checked, covered her mouth, started to giggle and refused to tell me, saying only there had been a mistake and she would fix it.
I insisted.
— Peter Lalor (@plalor) September 5, 2019
She kept giggling, I told her it needed to be fixed and fixed right now. She ran to get her manager who took the situation far more seriously and went about attempting to arrange a refund.
She told me somebody would be in contact. Three days later I’m still waiting.— Peter Lalor (@plalor) September 5, 2019
Well, Lalor also has to pay a transaction fee for the amount deducted which amounted to $ 2,499.59 (Rs 1.79 Lakh approx.).
Then came the call from home. The sum of $99,983.64 had been removed from our account.
And, there’d been a transaction fee of $2,499.59 to add to the pain.
The fee has been refunded but not the larger amount.— Peter Lalor (@plalor) September 5, 2019
Here’s what Lalor learnt from the entire incident:
Lesson to be learned: Always find your glasses when presented with a bill.
— Peter Lalor (@plalor) September 5, 2019
Well, the hotel’s mistake does reflect that it is always sensible to check details of payments and receipts.
Happy weekend!
It really is baffling that both Visa and our bank would allow such an amount to go through unquestioned.
And, guess what? They agree that there is a refund in the system but it will take 9 working days for it to go through.
In the mean time there’s a massive hole in my finances
— Peter Lalor (@plalor) September 5, 2019
Cover image: right