11/29/12 – Calling out another small injustice

I had been the complacent victim of opportunistic food vendors throughout this trip.  Jacked up prices on water and coffee; clearly inflated prices that were revealed only after you had consumed the item; low quality tourist trap food; surly servers.  I had let it all go…up until now.  First, the owner of Everest Café (a spot near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre chosen by our local tour guide…cough...kickback...cough) attempted to justify the changes in prices from what was posted in the menu by saying the canned soft drinks chosen weren’t included in the prices and that they were $3 US.  If that wasn’t insulting enough, he charged my father $5 for a minuscule plate of fries, I wish I had taken a picture, it was absolute tiny.  The owner attempted to explain things to me and then asked “do you understand now?”  I handed over my money in protest and told him that I understood completely; I understood that he was a con man.

I was prepared to keep quiet, after all this was a spiritual trip for the group and I didn’t want to create a scene.  But when I heard that he charged Bernadine from Cornwall $10 for fries and a drink I couldn’t remain silent.  He was clearly adjusting prices to extract a minimum of $10 from each person.  When I called him on his pricing he backed off and returned $2 to Bernadine while giving me his best cut eye.  I told him that he was a liar, a cheat and an opportunist for taking advantage of an “old lady”.  I quickly turned to Bernadine and assured her that I had only used “old lady” for emphasis, to which she responded “you tell him!”  A heated exchange ensued and when our tour guide attempted to calm the situation by telling me that I could not argue with the owner on his premises, I became even more incensed (I blame all of the actual incense for this).  I told Amnon that he brought us here and he most certainly was aware of the Shady practices of the owner.  How dare he take the owner’s side and ask the entire group to consent to being ripped off simply because we were sitting at his tables.  This wasn’t about money, it was about principle.  When I demanded that money be returned to all of those that had been overcharged the owner glared at me and said it was his place and his prices…nobody was getting any money back.  He then banned me from future visits as if my return was even a remote possibility.

Since I was officially banned, I figured I should do something to actually earn the ban and I proceeded to turn into his worst nightmare. I announced to the entire patio that the owner took advantage of tourists by overcharging them.  Some got up and left and an entire group that was about to be seated tuned and walked away.  Check mate.

One of the servers was quickly sent out with a wad of cash to return to those that had been overcharged.  I thanked him for returning the money but did not accept his apology; there was no accident about the way the patent white leather  shoe wearing proprietor and affront to fashion had conducted himself.

Each and every one in my group thanked me for speaking up.  Dad wasn’t exactly thrilled that his son was an agitator, but it only proved that part of mom was on the trip as well; she would have done the exact same thing.