(Click to enlarge) Priceless menu at Bill’s
South DaCola decided to do a food review of the new sports bar, Bill’s. The new restaurant is a great concept from one of our local hospital’s for-profit divisions.
At first glance when you arrive, it’s your typical memorabilia sports bar with some local flare.
While we found the food to be your normal bar food fare and the service friendly, we wondered why the menu at Bill’s didn’t have any prices listed on menu. So we asked our server, who grabbed a shift manager to answer the question for us.
The shift manager came over and grabbed the menu from us, looked on both sides and said, “Huh? You are right, no prices are listed.” He walked off without explanation and seemed confused. He returned a short time later and said, “I checked our POS computer, and the prices are not listed there either, not sure what to tell you.” I asked if there was someone else he could check with. After waiting about 20 minutes we decided to order anyway, two 16 oz fizzy American tap beers and two bacon cheeseburgers with fries. We were about to finish up our meal when the shift manager returned with a phone number scribbled on a piece of paper and told us if we call this number they could give us the pricing. Since my guest and I have never experienced such a strange thing before, we decided to call. It was about 5:43 PM in the afternoon when we called. I got voicemail that said, “Thank you for calling Bill’s price coding office. Regular business hours are 9 AM to 4 PM, Monday-Thursday. If you need immediate menu pricing please dial ‘0’.” I tried that several times, and all I got was a recorded message that said, “Thank You for calling Bill’s, have a nice day.” and the phone disconnected.
I waved down the shift manager one more time and told him what happened and he responded. “That’s to bad.” and walked off.
We asked for our bill figuring we would finally get the pricing with a receipt. The tab arrived with a Bill’s header on it and a line that said amount due; $172.57. I asked our waitress if there might have been a mistake and she checked her POS and told me everything was rang in correctly, then gave me a phone number to call for customer complaints and coupon for free onion rings on our next visit.
I didn’t bother calling. Anyone want my coupon?
*This article was a parody. There is NO sports bar in Sioux Falls called ‘Bill’s’. It was an attempt to make light of the fact that most hospitals won’t show patients a price list of procedures that are usually overpriced.
WOW! $86 for a beer and a cheeseburger! Oh and some fries-Ha!
The view or atmosphere must be to die for!
You should get oral for those prices.
Finally, a place for the rest of us.
Well, generally the health industry has never provided prices and only confused billing. So I guess this reality is a carry-over into their new calling as sports bar operators.
From their perspective, it is nothing new. Or it speaks to who they hope to cater to, which are merely the elite, who never ask for prices in most cases and are offended when you mention prices to them or what is cheaper.
I also guess one can assume their is no veteran, baby boomer, or senior discounts either, huh?
This is a joke, right? A jab at how their high prices for health care are carrying over to the food industry?
Dumb. Swing and a miss.
😉
CNN blog now?
bills hahhaha
flingers or chotchkies
obscure film reference
dog bless mike judge
iaal obg
I guess we already have a place to fill our stomachs called Denny’s so maybe we need a place called Kelby’s?
Healthcare is good but medical billing is the mafia. From experience I had an overnight surgery and got a bill for 100k that the VA paid. According to any hospital and they say they’re broke. 2/3 of patients don’t pay so the third that does subsidizes them. Everyone should have insurance but a better option is not to then take bankruptcy every 6 years. It’s an unspoken rule. Insurance forces a hospital to pay a reasonable price. With no insurance, you’re bill is 10X. The write off the hospital takes for bad debt is how they don’t pay income tax so 10k is 100k on paper.
There’s no prices on the bar bill because you’re expected to take bankruptcy if you don’t have the new Beer/Burger insurance plan.
So let’s fix it and go to single payer as the health care industry would never overcharge or scam the government and taxpayers.