topic Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee in Guest Experience

Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

Tarek — Tue, 16 May 2023 14:54:19 GMT

Dear Toast POS Community and support,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am writing to express my deep concern and strong disagreement regarding the recent announcement of implementing a $0.99 Order Processing Fee for customers on orders of $10 and above through Toast Online Ordering Channels. As a long-time customer of Toast POS and a proud owner of a coffee shop that uses Toast, I must emphasize that this decision is both short-sighted and detrimental to the success and satisfaction of our valued customers.

To begin with, the current subscription fee of $50 per month that we already pay is intended to cover the cost of utilizing the Toast POS system and accessing the necessary tools to enhance our business operations. We initially subscribed to Toast with the understanding that it would provide us with a reliable and comprehensive solution for managing our orders efficiently. Implementing an additional fee on top of our existing subscription feels like a breach of trust and an unexpected burden on our business.

Furthermore, the imposition of a $0.99 Order Processing Fee directly contradicts the principles that initially attracted us to Toast POS. One of the key factors that made Toast an appealing choice was the ability to offer pickup ordering to our customers conveniently and without any additional costs. This feature has been instrumental in enhancing our customer experience, driving sales, and ensuring customer loyalty. By introducing this fee, you not only diminish the attractiveness of your platform, but you also risk alienating customers who have come to appreciate the seamless and cost-effective nature of Toast's online ordering system.

While I understand that companies need to innovate and explore new avenues for revenue generation, I strongly believe that this particular approach is misguided. Charging customers an additional fee for using your ordering channels would undermine the trust we have established with our clientele. It is essential to remember that the success of our coffee shop heavily relies on the satisfaction and loyalty of our customers. By implementing this fee, you risk damaging the goodwill we have built with our patrons over the years.

Moreover, the timing of this decision is particularly unfortunate. As the global economy recovers from the challenges posed by the ongoing pandemic, businesses, especially small enterprises like ours, are struggling to regain their footing. Introducing a new charge now would undoubtedly place an unnecessary financial burden on our customers and discourage them from using Toast Online Ordering Channels. Rather than supporting our efforts to rebuild and thrive, this decision appears to be hindering our progress.

I implore you to reconsider this ill-advised decision and rescind the proposed $0.99 Order Processing Fee. Instead, I encourage Toast POS to explore alternative revenue streams or business models that do not involve passing on costs to the very customers who have helped build your brand and platform. As a loyal customer, I genuinely believe that focusing on improving existing services, developing innovative features, and providing exceptional customer support would serve your company's interests far better than introducing additional charges.

I urge you to consider the long-term implications of this decision, both for Toast POS and for the countless businesses like mine that rely on your services. I hope that you will take this feedback seriously and reevaluate the implementation of the proposed fee. Your commitment to listening to the needs and concerns of your customers will undoubtedly play a crucial role in maintaining a positive and mutually beneficial relationship between our businesses.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I trust that you will make a wise and customer-centric decision that reflects the core values of your company.

Sincerely,

A concerned valued customer of Toast POS

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

MariaM — Tue, 16 May 2023 18:58:05 GMT

Very well said. I agree with all of the above. Passing fees onto our customers without our consent is bad business and will drive our existing online customers away. I have spent the last few years building my online ordering presence and now I feel like it will be in jeopardy due to this ridiculous fee. I would rather be charged more on my end than do this to our customers. It's just plain wrong.

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

Bonfattos — Tue, 16 May 2023 20:55:51 GMT

Very well stated. I couldn’t agree more. Please remove this fee

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

Rob — Fri, 19 May 2023 17:31:17 GMT

Thank you for taking the time to explain your frustrations with this rollout. I want to assure you this has been relayed to our internal teams. I have explained a bit about this fee in the thread listed here:
https://community.toasttab.com/t5/guest-experience/order-processing-fee-to-guest-on-mobile-ordering/m-p/1651/page/6

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

briantsiv — Tue, 30 May 2023 20:15:17 GMT

I couldn't agree more. I can only image the uproar if this $.99 fee was charged directly to the restaurant and not the guest. I have to imagine that this was done to "hide" this fee but as you all know our customers are already very price sensitive and are choosing to order directly from us to both support us as a local, independent restaurant and to not have to pay all the delivery fees. Does anyone know who replaced Emmanuelle Skala as the SVP of Customer Success? We should be reaching out to that person directly.

-Thanks

Briant

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

Whidbey_Dnuts — Wed, 31 May 2023 19:04:06 GMT

I am going to use the messaging areas of the online ordering pages (which I now use for messages like "busy times may equal longer prep time" etc.) to protest the new mandatory online fee. Something like 'Toast has gone FULL EVIL EMPIRE - Please email the CEO of Toast (e.g. chris@toast.com) and tell him you object to the money-grabbing $.99 online ordering fee!'

From my little shop alone, Toast stands to rake in an extra 8K/year. 8K! This is an incredible grab. Shame.

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

Jparker — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 14:59:43 GMT

Very well stated. I hope Toast listen's to our voices hear and reconsiders this deceptive fee . We are very concerned about keeping our loyal customer due to this additional deceptive fee we are unable to opt out of for our customers. I feel our long term customers (who have help us during the tumulus times over the past few years) are going to start thinking the restaurant's are benefitting from this fee (even though it is coming from Toast) and will stop ordering.

One of the original reasons we moved to Toast was is was a company that was restaurant ordinated to help us provide a good experience to our guest. Lately, I get the impression TOAST seems to be moving to a revenue generating only instead of focusing on us the customers that have improved there business. Please reconsider removing the fee.

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

nkotselas — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 17:56:03 GMT

Honestly being charged to the customer is equally bad, if not worse. It looks tacky and will incentivize customers to call in and take servers time to field orders. And isn't it toasts goal to grow their platform of online ordering users. Why charge a fee to drive them to call us instead? Even from their end its a bad decision.

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

Jparker — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 18:03:58 GMT

Totally agree

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

5297 — Thu, 15 Jun 2023 15:29:49 GMT

I really hope Toast seriously considers how ridiculous this is. If their shareholders knew how ticked all the restaurant owners are over this everyone would be selling off asap. Not looking good for Toast right now.

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

nkotselas — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 00:09:36 GMT

They don' t care. I met with Toast's gm of financial tech and he literally compared buying food at restaurants with booking flights. That the "ticketed price brings the customer in but the customers are willing to stomach the fees that show up later". Bro wants us to look like spirit airlines lmao he also said its normal to charge such a fee - i've never once had this fee in all my years of ordering food online.

Had a good meeting with lightspeed today. Meeting with spot on pos tomorrow. Both of which already confirmed they don't have such a fee.

Rip Toast

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

fbh — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 01:24:10 GMT

This is a crazy move. No one even responds to the email address they gave us to discuss these changes. Im out as well.. Im already in implementation with another provider to take over my online ordering... and its going to be cheaper.. All this is doing is driving customers to other third-party solutions. Even if a restaurant sticks with Toast for their POS, they will lose credit card processing of those online payments since they have to use a third-party credit card processor.. Then once their POS contract is up, they will move their POS too.. This move really does not make sense considering all the other attempts to move to a one-shop-stop approach. They have actively developed internal solutions such as Reservations/Waitlist, Catering, and Invoicing to make it a one-stop shop. They even bought other companies (ie Sling, XtraChef) to eliminate the need for third-party apps and to make it a single-source technology solution for restaurants. If they needed to raise the price of online ordering that is one thing.. but there are far better online ordering solutions for restaurants that are cheaper and more advanced.

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

Jparker — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 14:31:17 GMT

Totally agree.

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

Jparker — Tue, 20 Jun 2023 14:40:58 GMT

Agree that nothing will be done:

Toast does not care about us restaurants (their customers) just generating new revenue streams. Trying to package this online charge to our loyal customers and "say it benefits restaurants". When all it will do is give them a new revenue steam. What they need to work on is customer service agent training and fixing POS platform issues.

They will not have to deal with fallout from this fee we will....

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

teriyakisteve — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 18:25:07 GMT

With the online fee per order, Toast has directly inserted itself between a restaurant and its customers. 99% of our customers don't know, or care, who Toast is. I have had a couple discussions with Toast about this fee, the go to answer is to explain some made up benefits. I am happy to pay Toast for their products -- in the long run, it will be difficult to believe a company that thinks they have the right to set the gross sales amount for my restaurant can be a long-term partner. Today $.99 tomorrow $5.

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

ZK — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 20:59:57 GMT

I agree with the majority of the criticisms in this thread. We have operated our business in what we believe to be an upstanding & ethical manner for almost 30 years. Our menu is priced with no additional fees, we even include sales tax in the prices we display to customers. These hidden fees undermine the trust we've built with our customers & cause damage to our reputation.

Our business is a customer of Toast. Our customers are not Toast's customers. Would it be acceptable if our bread supplier decided they wanted a fee directly from our customers every time we sold them a bagel? Would it be acceptable if our electricity supplier wanted a fee directly from our customers every time the made a purchase? Absolutely not. Yet somehow Toast feels like this is an appropriate course of action.

There are a lot of things Toast does well, but the decision to impose a fee directly upon my customers erodes any trust I have that Toast will operate in an upstanding manner and not simply try to squeeze more money out of my customers wherever they can. Why would I want a mission critical business partner that cannot be trusted?

If Toast needs to generate additional revenue, they should be collecting that from their customers (restaurants), not our customers (restaurant patrons). Last year I paid Toast an average of $14,000 per month in credit card fees & software subscriptions. Toast has decided to risk that revenue for an extra $2,500 per month. If our bills from Toast increased by $2,500 per month (approximately what our customers will pay due to this fee), we might stick with them and adjust our pricing accordingly. Exploiting our customers, however, is not acceptable nor negotiable.

I am hoping that Toast will reconsider this new fee.

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

Jparker — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 21:32:52 GMT

Totally agree. Toast really needs to reconsider this fee. It will be perceived as a fee we are adding on. Customers are going to the restaurant's website to order online and being directed to the online platform we pay monthly for to Toast (Toast online services). The little note will not change that perception.

Most off our customer are going to our website to order.

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

ZK — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 21:36:54 GMT

Precisely. Customers will view this as a fee from the restaurant. That appears to be by design.

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

Rob — Fri, 23 Jun 2023 18:52:38 GMT

Thanks for reaching out. We understand how important it is to be transparent with your guests on who is charging the fee. For Toast Online Ordering, Toast Local, and Toast TakeOut orders, guests will see “Set by Toast to help provide affordable digital ordering services for local restaurants" if they click on “Taxes & Fees” before checking out for all orders $10 or above.

If you receive a question from one of your guests, we suggest explaining that the new Order Processing Fee helps Toast keep the price of Online Ordering technology lower for restaurants and provide a seamless ordering experience for guests.

Re: Strong Disagreement with the Implementation of Order Processing Fee

Jparker — Fri, 23 Jun 2023 19:08:34 GMT

Most of our customers are going to our websites to order then being directed to Toast online ordering platform we pay for monthly. They are generally not going to the TOAST Online Site and selecting our restaurant. The perception is going to be we are charging the fee. The have to click on the little icon next to Taxes & Fees on order to get explanation. This is just a forced revenue stream for TOAST.

Our restaurant does not like to nickel & dime our customers with extra services fees and have not way to opt out.