Is there anything worse than waking up the morning after a night out and taking a look at the dent you've made in your bank account?
Well imagine Toby Wilson's horror when he woke up after a night out in York with his mates to find that he had spent an eye-watering £666.50 on a burger.
Toby, 35, stopped at to the Efe's Kebab Kitchen food truck at about 11pm on his way home for a reasonably-priced veggie burger and chips - but he accidentally wound up paying for the most expensive meal of his life.
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It wasn't until a few days later, when he was back home in Manchester, that Toby noticed the miscalculation, spotting that his account balance had dropped 'significantly'.
“It was like: 'No way, this can’t be real!'" he recalls.
"I am a non-drinker. Maybe it would be different if someone was drunk and just stumbled into to get a kebab and got it all wrong. But that’s very much not the case."
Toby asked one of his pals from York to head into the kebab shop and explain the mix up for him.
But after the pair exchanged a few texts, Toby claims that the company's HR manager Ahmed Abdullah told him to speak to his bank.
Over a month later, Toby and Ahmed are still at a stalemate over any possible refund of that £666.50.
“Being a large conglomerate, they have rules to follow and things like that," he explained.
"I explained the story to them [his bank], and they essentially need him [Ahmed] to say 'Yes, it’s happened.'
"I’ve worked in hospitality, so I know how these things work. I know he’d be able to see it in his accounts and what that transaction would relate to."
Although the mix-up was 'funny' at first, it's now causing him unending weeks of 'stress'.
He says: “It’s very frustrating. Admittedly, at the start, it was a bit of a funny story.
"I thought it would be quickly sorted out and the banks would go, 'Yep, it’s an error.'
“But the bank is very slow at doing things.
"They said, 'have you got a receipt?'
"The human aspect of it is I don’t.
"No one has a receipt for things like that.
"I have a mortgage and bills to pay.
"It is just very worrying.
"The point is the money is mine, and it’s a significant amount."
Business owner Ahmed Abdullah told a local paper that he had wanted Toby to talk to his bank for safety reasons, insisting: “This is the legal way”.
Toby is still stunned that he managed to spend hundreds on a burger and chips meal that should have cost him a few pounds.
"Sometimes I still look it now and think, 'Was it definitely that?' I look at the bank transfer, and it’s got the name of his business.
"It’s not like it’s an incorrect number. It’s been paid for by Apple Pay. You can see it goes into his bank account.
He added: “If it was £50, I might be able to go, 'You know what, just keep it, I’m not bothered with the stress', but it’s a lot.”
Ahmed said on Friday (3 February) he was speaking to his card company to see if they could provide proof £666.50 of Toby’s money had gone into his account.
“I’m talking to them to prove that the money is in my account or not. If they prove it, or if they don’t prove it, I’m going to tell him."
What a nightmare!
Topics: Money, Food And Drink, Weird
Ali Condon