So You Think I’m Stupid?

I ordered a coke light (= diet coke) yesterday night in the hotel restaurant in Helsinki. But what they gave me was a glass with a liquid that had more affinity with tar syrup diluted with swimming pool water than with a genuine coke. So I let the waitress know about my dissatisfaction, and my strong suspicion that they had not served me a real coke.

To my surprise the waitress acknowledged this immediately, and she said she would get me a real coke from a bottle. Which she did.

What annoys me most is not that a restaurant is trying to charge me the price of a quality product, while serving something that tastes like the excrement of a dishwasher. What annoys me most is that they assume I’m too stupid to notice.

Now I wonder, what are the extra profits from selling substandard products at a premium price? And what is the total loss incurred when some customers vow never to eat or drink there again? Are they being stupid? Or are they being smart?