Meal Plans
It Pays To Pay Attention
Nabeeha Chaudhary
Issue date: 12/12/09 Section: Feature
Therein lies the problem.
"There are so many reasons why students should take an interest in what they are paying," says Miami junior Claire Boylson, a student manager at Martin dining hall. "Students tend to assume that nothing major can go wrong when they are purchasing stuff with their meal plans."
Boylson thinks students don't pay attention to what they are spending because it's already been paid for. She says there are many things that can go wrong if students don't watch out for themselves.
"An item could scan wrong," Boylson says. "It wouldn't be anyone's fault, but simply an error in the system. I've heard of a 99 cent bag of chips getting scanned as $99, and it could have very easily gone unnoticed."
There are mistakes cashiers can make as well, including accidentally scanning an item two or three times, not noticing that a customer's card did not completely go through (which would simply add to the balance of the next customer's total) or pressing the "diplomat guest" key instead of the "diplomat" key, resulting in the customer not getting the diplomat discount they're entitled to for living in the dorms.
"You cannot entirely blame the cashiers because they are, after all, human, and to err is human," Boylson says. "Often, they are working really fast to get through a long line, and in the rush such mistakes might go unnoticed by them."
Miami freshman Hilary Zdanowski has a Diplomat meal plan. She agrees that cashiers cannot be held solely responsible and that students should make an effort to keep a check on their spending.
"However, I feel that cashiers should be extra conscientious because it is, after all, their job," Zdanowski says. "At the same time, the very least students can do is to check their balance regularly, which is really easy to do because it's all online."
Zdanowski admits she had never really thought about all the things that could go wrong at the register, but she almost always checks to see if her card has gone through before walking off.
Boylson points out a few more scenarios where customers can get overcharged.
"Sometimes cashiers might need to estimate the price of a certain item if it's not listed," Boylson says. "Usually this isn't such a big issue, but occasionally their guess might be way off from the actual price and could lead to the customer being charged a lot extra."
On the bright side, cashier's mistakes can benefit customers. Boylson recalls an incident where she accidentally pressed the "diplomat" key instead of the "diplomat no discount" key for a guy purchasing an iPod at the end of the semester.
"Students are not supposed to get the diplomat discount on iPods, but due to my mistake, there's a guy out there who got a 40 percent discount on his," Boylson says.
Boylson advises all students to do their part to ensure they are paying the correct amount for their food and to not become too careless with their diplomat or snack plans.
"Keep spending within a limit the whole semester," Boylson advises. "That way you don't have to worry about running out near the end."
At the other end of the spending spectrum are those who have passport meal plans and have to stay within a fixed budget for every meal. Not only do they have to worry about not going over their allotted budget, they also have to worry about not spending too little and having pre-paid meals go to waste.
Miami senior Lauren Meyer, a passport meal plan holder, says even though she prefers having passport over diplomat, there are certain problems associated with it.
"With passport, I can manage to keep spending to a minimum," she says. "I tried diplomat for a while, but it was difficult to keep a tally of how much I was spending. With passport, I don't have to keep checking how much (money) I have left in my account, but it is a hassle always having to add up prices of items and trying to make sure I'm not spending too much or too little."
Miami junior Jennifer Griggs, another student with passport, says she usually loses money because her purchases are never exactly the right amount.
"There's not much that (passport meal plan holders) can get for under a dollar, so I often end up wasting up to a dollar on my meal plan (each day)," Griggs says. "Also, even though I do go up to the register for price checks a lot, I always worry about holding up the line. It isn't easy to get even close to your spending amount everyday without going over."
Boylson suggests installing calculators at registers for students to use. Or, students could use the calculator on their cell phones to add up their purchases.
"It's better to be safe than sorry and not waste all that money that has been paid for the meal plan," Boylson says. "It will not be refunded. Moreover, if you want to skip a meal, stock up on laundry detergent or something. Think of all the extra money you'll save."
Meyer thinks it would be a good idea if markets would indicate whether or not certain items are affordable to passport meal plan holders.
"They have whole meals in Shriver which are within the passport spending amount," Meyer says. "If other places on campus began to do similar stuff it would save people a lot of worrying about what they can and cannot buy."
Both Griggs and Meyer feel it would also be a good idea to have a selfscanner available inside on-campus markets.
"It would work out great, and people would not be left guessing the prices of unmarked items," Meyer says.
Boylson adds, "With so many easy ways to avoid overspending, students should not be wasting money."
If students are aware of how much money they're spending, instead of having to call mom and dad for some extra cash mid-semester, they might be able to get that iPod at the end of the year.
"There are so many reasons why students should take an interest in what they are paying," says Miami junior Claire Boylson, a student manager at Martin dining hall. "Students tend to assume that nothing major can go wrong when they are purchasing stuff with their meal plans."
Boylson thinks students don't pay attention to what they are spending because it's already been paid for. She says there are many things that can go wrong if students don't watch out for themselves.
"An item could scan wrong," Boylson says. "It wouldn't be anyone's fault, but simply an error in the system. I've heard of a 99 cent bag of chips getting scanned as $99, and it could have very easily gone unnoticed."
There are mistakes cashiers can make as well, including accidentally scanning an item two or three times, not noticing that a customer's card did not completely go through (which would simply add to the balance of the next customer's total) or pressing the "diplomat guest" key instead of the "diplomat" key, resulting in the customer not getting the diplomat discount they're entitled to for living in the dorms.
"You cannot entirely blame the cashiers because they are, after all, human, and to err is human," Boylson says. "Often, they are working really fast to get through a long line, and in the rush such mistakes might go unnoticed by them."
Miami freshman Hilary Zdanowski has a Diplomat meal plan. She agrees that cashiers cannot be held solely responsible and that students should make an effort to keep a check on their spending.
"However, I feel that cashiers should be extra conscientious because it is, after all, their job," Zdanowski says. "At the same time, the very least students can do is to check their balance regularly, which is really easy to do because it's all online."
Zdanowski admits she had never really thought about all the things that could go wrong at the register, but she almost always checks to see if her card has gone through before walking off.
Boylson points out a few more scenarios where customers can get overcharged.
"Sometimes cashiers might need to estimate the price of a certain item if it's not listed," Boylson says. "Usually this isn't such a big issue, but occasionally their guess might be way off from the actual price and could lead to the customer being charged a lot extra."
On the bright side, cashier's mistakes can benefit customers. Boylson recalls an incident where she accidentally pressed the "diplomat" key instead of the "diplomat no discount" key for a guy purchasing an iPod at the end of the semester.
"Students are not supposed to get the diplomat discount on iPods, but due to my mistake, there's a guy out there who got a 40 percent discount on his," Boylson says.
Boylson advises all students to do their part to ensure they are paying the correct amount for their food and to not become too careless with their diplomat or snack plans.
"Keep spending within a limit the whole semester," Boylson advises. "That way you don't have to worry about running out near the end."
At the other end of the spending spectrum are those who have passport meal plans and have to stay within a fixed budget for every meal. Not only do they have to worry about not going over their allotted budget, they also have to worry about not spending too little and having pre-paid meals go to waste.
Miami senior Lauren Meyer, a passport meal plan holder, says even though she prefers having passport over diplomat, there are certain problems associated with it.
"With passport, I can manage to keep spending to a minimum," she says. "I tried diplomat for a while, but it was difficult to keep a tally of how much I was spending. With passport, I don't have to keep checking how much (money) I have left in my account, but it is a hassle always having to add up prices of items and trying to make sure I'm not spending too much or too little."
Miami junior Jennifer Griggs, another student with passport, says she usually loses money because her purchases are never exactly the right amount.
"There's not much that (passport meal plan holders) can get for under a dollar, so I often end up wasting up to a dollar on my meal plan (each day)," Griggs says. "Also, even though I do go up to the register for price checks a lot, I always worry about holding up the line. It isn't easy to get even close to your spending amount everyday without going over."
Boylson suggests installing calculators at registers for students to use. Or, students could use the calculator on their cell phones to add up their purchases.
"It's better to be safe than sorry and not waste all that money that has been paid for the meal plan," Boylson says. "It will not be refunded. Moreover, if you want to skip a meal, stock up on laundry detergent or something. Think of all the extra money you'll save."
Meyer thinks it would be a good idea if markets would indicate whether or not certain items are affordable to passport meal plan holders.
"They have whole meals in Shriver which are within the passport spending amount," Meyer says. "If other places on campus began to do similar stuff it would save people a lot of worrying about what they can and cannot buy."
Both Griggs and Meyer feel it would also be a good idea to have a selfscanner available inside on-campus markets.
"It would work out great, and people would not be left guessing the prices of unmarked items," Meyer says.
Boylson adds, "With so many easy ways to avoid overspending, students should not be wasting money."
If students are aware of how much money they're spending, instead of having to call mom and dad for some extra cash mid-semester, they might be able to get that iPod at the end of the year.
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