5 Ways Customers Feel Cheated (And How You Can Fix It)

In the Pilot episode of Nathan for You, Nathan Fielder advises a local pizza restaurant on how to gain a larger customer base: if the customer doesn’t get their pizza within eight minutes of ordering, they get a pizza free. The catch? The promotion doesn’t specify the size of the pizza. The following scenes show a delivery boy disappointing customer after customer with a “free” pizza the size of a US quarter.

While this is a particularly outrageous example, there are ways we set our customers up for disappointment all the time. While nearly 60% of brands argue that their brand’s reputation is a crucial component of their success and 30% of brands say they hope to use marketing technology efforts to assess and improve their brand reputation, employing this type of “false advertising” shows users the opposite values. To be clear, false advertising, lying to the consumer, and intentionally deceiving your customer are all illegal. Customers still, however, feel that brands use loopholes to lead their customers astray.  

There are two key ways brands deceive their customers:

1. The Dollar (and up!) Store Phenomenon

If you’ve been to any major US city, you’ve likely seen a “megabus.com” tour bus. On the side of the vehicle in bright yellow letters are the words, “From $1.”

When reading these words on the side of the bus, a passenger expects to be able to take a trip for a dollar. But do the trips really start at $1? Well, yes. After lots of searching, I found one bus ticket for one dollar to go from Orlando to Hollywood Florida. If you do not reserve your seat for this trip, do not have reservation notifications sent to you, and do not have additional needs, the trip totals at $4.99.

How could this be? I thought I could get a bus ticket for a dollar? Well, one dollar plus taxes and fees. The megabus is one of the cheaper travel options for sure, but in no scenario would you only pay $1. The lowest price possible is $5 and, more often than not, you will pay upwards of $30. Saying you can purchase a bus ticket for a dollar is great advertising, but it is setting your customer up to be disappointed. Instead, consider clear advertising. Megabus.com could write “average bus price is x” on their buses in large, neon letters and still prove they are the best option for your budget. Better yet, they could change the 1 to a 5 on all their buses. Not only would it be more accurate, but it is still an incredibly cheap price (especially considering current gas prices).

2. The *before added fees*

In the same light is the dreaded, “before added fees” notification. Food delivery, rental cars, and hotels are constant examples of this. Grubhub advertises Grubhub+ as a subscription that gets you, “Unlimited Free Delivery, Exclusive Perks & More.” With this subscription, you may be excited to get a $14 salad delivered to you for no additional charge. Including the average state sales taxes, the salad should be $15.05 to be delivered. Unfortunately, Grubhub also has an unavoidable 12% service fee, a small cart fee if your order is under $12, and then the tip (the minimum suggestion is 15%). With all these things considered, it will be $19.92 for a salad you could have made at home. Enjoy!

Grubhub obviously has to make money. The service fee seems reasonable as you are paying Grubhub for a service instead going directly to the restaurant. What is not reasonable is advertising a Grubhub+ membership as a money-saving option when, in reality, the only exception is lower delivery fees—something many restaurants offer anyway. The “exclusive perks and more” advertisement is intentionally vague, leaving little room for customer complaints they do not receive the undefined “more.” Grubhub is not lying to you, but they are stretching the truth. Advertising Grubhub+ as a solely free delivery service would not just be more realistic, but likely lead to higher customer satisfaction.

3. The “If you read the fine print” response

In 2019, CCW Editor Brian Cantor wrote a story about a customer in Subway that asked for the new falafel on his sandwich. Subway is a brand that has built its identity on the promise of unlimited toppings. Most Americans can sing the “Five dollar foot long” commercial song in their head on command. The falafel protein topping was advertised as part of the $5 foot long menu but, “Upon ordering the sandwich, [the] customer was told that he only had the option of adding cucumbers, spinach and tomatoes.” Understandably, the customer was outraged. Every ad suggested there would be unlimited toppings—cheese, dressings, the works—but now he was being told he could only get three? The exchange ended when “the customer delivered one final hostile remark and stormed out the door. Looking at [Cantor], the employee rolled his eyes. ‘Do you believe that guy?’”

The promise was a five dollar foot long with falafel. The expectation was a five dollar customized foot long with falafel. The reality? A five dollar foot long with falafel and not much else on it. The customer was completely misled on what he could receive when he walked into Subway that evening. Despite nothing on the advertisement being an outright lie (the falafel sub was only 5 dollars, and only the specific three vegetables appeared in the picture), it seemed to value market appeal over customer satisfaction. If the company sacrificed a few dollars to appease the falafel sandwich eaters as they got extra toppings on the new special, or was simply clear on the promotion that they were only permitted to get three additional vegetables, this whole interaction would have been completely positive—for the customer who ordered and the customers watching the interaction.

4. Fly for Cheap— but only if you can survive with none of your belongings

Spirit airlines is known for its cheap flights. Take this trip from Albuquerque to Las Vegas, for example. You can buy a round trip ticket for under $40. That’s a hard find with any other airline, even for a short distance. When travelers book flights, they usually expect to pay extra to check a bag or buy food, but to have their small carry-on and personal item included. Unfortunately, to get this lucrative price with Spirit, travelers must take a random seat and only a personal item. Not a carry on—a personal item. Spirit has strict guidelines for their personal items: “Personal item: (e.g., purse, small backpack, etc.): Dimensions must not exceed 18 x 14 x 8 inches (45 x 35 x 20 cm) including handles and wheels.” That size backpack would not suffice for most high school freshmen. But don’t worry, Sprit has more advice: “PRO TIP: If you know you’re going to need a carry-on or a checked bag, buy it right when you book your flight to save major moola.” Thanks, Spirit.

This one is simple: include carry-on bags in the price. Paying a cheap price for a flight does not mean passengers would like to be treated poorly.

5. 1-800-Flowers Are Not Cheap

During the Summer, flowers bring delightful odors and energy into your home. During special holidays and birthdays, especially ones you can’t spend with loved ones, sending flowers is a gesture that the sender hopes leads to tears of joy. 1-800-Flowers capitalizes on the fact that finding a good local flower shop is difficult and takes time. Going on 1-800-Flowers’ website is easy and quick.

Sadly, for the customer, it is also unexpectedly expensive. When showing you the promotional image of the flowers, they show the buyer the largest bouquet of flowers possible with that arrangement. Next to the image of the large, they show you a price. The price is, presumably, for the flowers shown in the picture, right? Wrong. Although the large arrangement is shown, the price can only be found after clicking the image. The price potential customers see is for the petite version of the same bouquet. When the flowers are chosen, if the buyer wants the flowers they saw in the image, they must pay nearly 50% more than the posted price. If the flowers are being sent on a holiday, there is another surcharge. To get the flowers delivered there is an additional charge.

On holidays, it is more expensive to get flowers delivered because they need to employ more delivery drivers, more customer service agents, and there is more logistical planning. Adding extra charges at these times is not unreasonable. However, the delivery charge is simply unacceptable. The entire point of buying flowers with 1-800-Flowers is so they get delivered. There are no 1-800-Flower stores to pick them up at. There is no option to not get the flowers delivered. Please include delivery in the price. Furthermore, showing the picture of the nicest flowers with the price of the cheapest ones does seem to be skirting the border of false advertising. To increase customer satisfaction (and, very likely, sales), 1-800-Flowers needs to check their ethical policies.

All these examples show a company that technically was in the right. Technically, the starting price for a megabus is one dollar, but once you put in your credit card information there’s no way you will be spending less than 5. Technically, Grubhub said that delivery “and more” was free—they didn’t tell you what and more was. Technically, the Subway low price only applied to sandwiches with limited toppings. What is better for your brand, though: winning an argument on a technicality or being on the same side as your customer?

At the end of the Nathan for You episode, the owner of the pizza shop stopped doing the free pizza after the “eight minutes or you get one free” promotion. His reasoning: “We can’t make a pizza in 8 minutes.” Despite the fact that the owner understood he was technically delivering on what the customer was entitled to, he also realized he was making false promises. Sure, orderers were getting a free (mini) pizza, but they wanted the pizza they ordered to be there in under eight minutes. That is what they felt they were promised, that is what they felt they deserved.

Our latest market study asks the question: “How can brands close this dramatic gap and more meaningfully connect with customers in today’s hypercompetitive landscape?” One answer: by being honest with the customer and delivering on the promises you make.  

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Stephanie Kilgast