Believe it or Not!

This must be the ultimate rip-off!

So the next time, you go shopping with that credit card of yours, scrutnize the bill or receipt before you leave the store. If not, the supermarket ghost of yester-month will come back and haunt you!

I attached the report (with some paraphrasing) below minusing the name of the so-called up market store that was purportedly involved.

So, happy reading.

They are an expensive retail market, and do double or at times triple their prices compared to others. However, the quality of their goods is excellent! No complaints. Nada!

And then the complainant was ripped-off complete with bad bad customer service.

Let's have the storyteller tell her story.

"XYZ, if you don't know already, is a very expensive clothing and supermarket outlet (they sell a typical R50 T-shirt for R150). My daughter and I had just finished lunch at a Woolies Cafe in Hyde Park, Johannesburg . Because both of us are such biscuit lovers, we decided to try the 'Woolies Cookie'. It was so excellent that I asked if they would give me the recipe. The waitress said with a small frown, 'I'm afraid not, but you can buy the recipe.'

I asked how much, and she responded; 'Only two fifty - it's a great deal'

I agreed to that, and told her to add it to my bill.

Thirty days later, I got my Visa statement, and the XYZ's charge was R485. I looked at it again, and I remembered I had only spent R49.95 for two sandwiches and about R120 for a scarf. At the bottom of the statement, it said, 'Cookie Recipe - R250.00'. That was outrageous!

I called XYZ's Accounting Department and told them the waitress had said it was 'two fifty', which clearly does not mean 'two hundred and fifty Rands' by any reasonable interpretation of the phrase. XYZ refused to budge. They would not refund my money because according to them; 'What the waitress told you is not our problem. You have already seen the recipe. We absolutely will not refund your money.

I explained to the Accounting Department lady the criminal statutes which govern fraud in the state of Gauteng . I threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau and The Attorney General's office. I was basically told: Do what you want. Don't bother thinking of how you can get even, and don't bother trying to get any of your money back'

I said, OK, you've got my R250, and now I'm going to have R250 worth of fun. I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the world with an e-mail account gets a R250 cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus for free. She replied, 'I wish you wouldn't do that.' I said, 'Well, perhaps you should have thought of that before you RIPPED ME OFF!' and slammed down the phone.

So here it is! Please pass it on to everyone you can possibly think of. I paid R250 for this, and I don't want XYZ to EVER make another cent from this recipe!

WOOLIES COOKIES (Recipe may be halved as this makes heaps)

2 (500 ml) cups butter

680 g chocolate chips

4 (1000 ml) cups flour

2 (500 ml) cups brown sugar

2 tsp. (10 ml) Bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp. (5 ml) salt

2 (500 ml) cups sugar

500 g Grated Cadbury chocolate

5 (1250 ml) cups blended oatmeal

4 eggs

2 tsp. (10 ml) baking powder

2 tsp. (10 ml) vanilla

3 cups (375 ml) chopped nuts (optional)

Measure oatmeal, and blend in a blender to a fine powder. Cream the butter and both sugars. Add eggs and vanilla, mix together with flour, oatmeal, salt, baking powder, and bicarbonate of soda. Add chocolate chips, grated Chocolate and nuts. Roll into balls, and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes at 180 C.

The above quantities make 112 cookies. Enjoy!"