Lou Russo is a loyal Burger King customer.
When he ordered a burger with everything, Lou expected the extras to be free. After all, Burger King is famous for offering burgers "your wat."
Lou always ordered the same thing, and it was always the same price, until --
"It was about three months ago that I noticed that all of a sudden the price was different," he said.
An extra 20 cents, he said. When we first aired that story last month, Burger King told us the charge was a mistake and that they would correct it. So we went back to see.
At one Burger King we were charged 15 cents each for extra lettuce and tomato. At another one, we were charged 20 cents for cheese and a dime each for lettuce and tomato.
So we decided to check some other chains. At McDonalds, the extras were free. At Wendy's, we paid 30 cents for each slice of cheese.
Nowhere in the restaurants did we see any notice of these charges and it was only when we asked that we found out about them.
McDonald's told us: "Each local owner determines his or her own pricing based on their cost of doing business."
Wendy's said the same: That franchisees "set their own prices."
As for Burger King? Since they had earlier insisted that everything extra was free, what was up with these charges?
This time Burger King did not respond, but just be aware that those extras are probably going to cost you.
