penny pinching: getting my proper refund from fedex kinkos

Tonight I stopped by FedEx Kinkos Office Whatever It's Called as I had to FedEx some documents (including my visa app for India!) and make a quick copy of them first.

I used the copy machine nearest to the "office center" or whatever. I hit "black & white" and made two copies. As you know, you have to insert your credit card (or get one of their cards, but their machine was Out of Order). I was shocked that it cost me $1.04 to make the two copies. I hadn't been to a Kinkos to make plain old copies in a very long time, so I assumed that the inflation monster had gotten the best of them. Keep in mind there was no price listing on the machine itself.

When I went to go ship my packet, I mentioned to the guy "wow, the price of copies has really skyrocketed." He asked which machine I used and I pointed. "Well that's our docucolor copier." I explained that I only made B&W copies and had hit that specifically. He sort of shrugged. I asked "Is there any way that you can refund my money to what the correct amount should be? Seeing as there's not a sign on there saying that it costs more." He shrugged again.

That's when the Consumerist starting floating around in my head, I really need a "What Would the Consumerist Do?" bracelet. I was like "That really sucks, I'm probably going to call and register a complaint unless your manager maybe can do something?" A couple seconds later his tune changed. "Did you pay by credit card?" he asked. I nodded and handed it over. He disappeared and came back shortly with a receipt showing a refund and then the correct amount of 18 cents. I thanked him kindly, but apparently he must've been afraid of me at this point because another CSR helped me ship my packages.

Anyway, lesson learned to be very careful what machines you use at Kinkos and if you're not sure, ask the price before hitting the green button.

Score
Meghan: 82 cents!