Restaurant credit card charge snafu, what to do?

[MichaelB]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scratchy OP here, thanks to all for the comments and advice so far. Certainly agree it is not a good idea to divide payment of the bill between cash and credit card. And obviously, not reviewing the amount on any credit card slip before signing it is asking for trouble. I will report back on the final results of the efforts to get the restaurant or credit card company to correct this. At this point, I am more interested in what people think regarding whether persons a, b, c, d should offer to reimburse e for some part of his loss, and if so how much? Many thanks again to those who shared their perspective and insights.

This looks like a careless but honest mistake. If I were any of a/b/c/d, I would offer to reimburse my share of the error, purely out of friendship. If I were payer 5, I'd let others know, expect nothing, and be grateful if any chose to help out.

[Chuckanut]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scratchy At this point, I am more interested in what people think regarding whether persons a, b, c, d should offer to reimburse e for some part of his loss, and if so how much?

IMHO, all involved should offer to call the restaurant and see if they can put some pressure on management.

But, e is the one who made the big mistake. And I don't see a legal or moral obligation on the part of others to compensate him. Suppose a, b, c, and d had just given e the money and e still managed to sign an incorrect charge. Would they be on the hook to pay e? I think not.

OTOH, a friendship may be at stake, and friends help out friends even with the friend screws up. It's not like e is asking people to perjure themselves in court, or lie to his spouse about where he really was the other night when he said he as at the dinner with friends.

[Aerides]

I recommend you all gather up and go as a group - same day same time, and deal with it. Then, if that fails, you split the pain.

(editing - see my revised post below - changed my mind!)

[Bestwifeever]

If the overcharge stands without reversing, $281 charged minus $84 correct share equals $197 overcharge. Split among the group five ways, if I’m not E, I offer $40 to E. If I’m E, I’m touched if my friends offer to chip in but refuse to take it. That’s what I would do to maintain thefriendship.

[gayl]

If you all storm the restaurant they'll take it out of servers pay. Then instead of him thinking / posting: "wow look what these great guys did! Now I can pay utilities / rent / kidd shoes" he's thinking "does fired get unemployment " after all he did ask if your tab was correct


What Wpuld I Do? Mark it up to lesson learned / swallow pride / let friends know

(But then I even tip at Sbux)

[kaneohe]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Scratchy Love to have opinions from this forum on the following: I was one of five friends who enjoyed a nice dinner together at a fairly nice restaurant. Unfortunately there was a major snafu with the bill as follows: Bill was $365. We decided to leave $420, i.e $84 each. Persons A,B,C each left $84 cash, total $252. Persons D and E each submitted credit cards and told the busboy to charge each card $84. .................................................. ......... Next day Person E realized his card had been charged $281, instead of $84. Apparently the busboy had not transmitted our instructions correctly to the cashier, who had charged the bill of $365 to person D $84 and Person E $281. The $252 cash was apparently assumed to be a tip. Person E unfortunately did not check the amount charged before signing. .................................................. ......

This will be an interesting test for the restaurant management if you can arrange to talk to them in person. The numbers look reasonable with conventional 15% or so tip and should show in their records. The sticky part is the cash part where you need to rely on the busboy so a good test for him too...........probably no record of that? but because it was so large, it should have stuck in his mind or maybe it is recorded.....but it is certainly not a normal tip. A sympathetic management and an honest busboy (or good restaurant records) would certainly help your case. Good luck!

If no luck, hopefully you guys fight over it as Bestwife suggests but I would think you pay in proportion to your contributory negligence so perhaps E pays 2 shares worth so you split the pain 6 ways and E pays 2 shares worth
and the rest pay $33 each

[Aerides]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gayl If you all storm the restaurant they'll take it out of servers pay. Then instead of him thinking / posting: "wow look what these great guys did! Now I can pay utilities / rent / kidd shoes" he's thinking "does fired get unemployment " after all he did ask if your tab was correct

That's a really good point. So I went back to the OP, and I'm changing my mind on this one:

You (collective you, the party) had a nice enjoyable dinner at an upscale restaurant. And yet your original calculation was EXACTLY a 15% tip. That seems....slim?

You then asked the bus boy - not the server - to relay a somewhat non-standard financial bill-handling request.

Your server sought to confirm what was then (in his mind) a VERY good tip, but still not one that's unheard of for a higher end place if he thinks he's done a great job, and asks you if anyone needs change. That is the polite way of saying "wow, I'm thrilled, but did you make a mistake?".

Everyone said it was fine. (not knowing the error that was made because E forgot his glasses that night).

So... yeah, <$50 each to chalk this one up and not run the risk that waiter and bus boy get fired or docked pay? Worth it.

[Texas Proud]

Sorry, but I do not think that many people leave a 70% tip!!! So this IS an error that even mgmt can grasp...


Sure, a 15% tip at a high end place might be a bit slim, but no unheard of...


I would be on the establishment to make it right... let them deal with their server/busboy if they do not tell the truth... but mgmt should refund the money without question even if they have to take the hit...


As for making E whole, I am mixed about this... he created the problem by not looking at what he signed... as someone else said, if you gave money to him and let him decide how much cash he wanted to pay and how much to put on the card and he messed up would you reimburse him? I doubt it...


BUT, I would also take a look at how easy it is for E to absorb the loss (if it comes to that)... IOW, some friends can absorb it easily, some cannot... if this would be a strain on E I would chip in after hitting establishment and mgmt hard to get the money back...



If I made that same mistake I would not be expecting any of the other parties to chip in for my error...

[gayl]

Yeah ... happens in California ... sometimes 100%

[aja8888]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gayl Yeah ... happens in California ... sometimes 100%

What does?

[gayl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by aja8888 What does?

Heavy tippers .... but I only tip 50c on my daily $2.05 at Sbux so I guess I'm not in that category? My usual is between 2×tax to 50% depending on waiter. Teaching grands that MINIMUM is 2×tax (8.75% here so 17.5%)


DD doubles, moves decimal 1
DS same buy rounds up to even $

[gayl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gayl Heavy tippers

Op / Op friend made an error by not looking at what he was signing, server asked him to dbl check, he said it was right, server did mental happy dance. Servers work for tips as pay sucks. Made the guy's night.

Laugh about it at next meet up but LOOK AT RECEIPT B4 SIGNING [emoji48]

[DFDubb]

You guys made a mistake. Specifically the guy signing a bill w/o looking at it. The server, being the honest guy that he is, brought it to your attention and you still didn't bother to double check. Going back to the establishment would be in extremely poor taste.

[ChiliPepr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud Sorry, but I do not think that many people leave a 70% tip!!! So this IS an error that even mgmt can grasp...

Check out #TipTheBill. There are people that will tip 70% or even tip 100%. I will tell you I have tipped 70% many times, and I have only on very rare occasions tipped 15%.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Texas Proud Sure, a 15% tip at a high end place might be a bit slim, but no unheard of...

The bill was for $365 and the restaurant got paid $365 ($84 + $281). I do not think the CC company will give you much help since the cc's paid the correct amount for the services rendered.

The restaurant may give you a refund because they want to be nice. But, the bill was for $365, you left $365 on credit cards, and $240 in cash. The waiter came over an asked if you needed change and you said no (basically saying everyone paid the correct amount).

YOU made the mistake, not the restaurant. And who should you get the money back from? The restaurant got paid what the bill was, the server got the $240 (He asked and you all confirmed that the $240 was correct!), but then a portion of that went to the the bussers, some went to the bartenders and some may have gone to the kitchen or host staff. Do you go to each person and ask for a refund?

[ChiliPepr]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gayl What Wpuld I Do? Mark it up to lesson learned / swallow pride / let friends know

Yup, me too.

[mystang52]

If I were e, my biggest concern would be keeping my wife in the dark about it. I wouldn't ask anyone to chip in for my error. But if I were d, I'd quietly ask a, b, and c if they'd be willing to help out. About a dozen of my college buds meet for dinner every 3 months, and we all pay by cash. One time, a guy was short so we all paid him the cash and he charged the entire bill on his card.

[Scratchy]

OP here again. Appreciate the thoughtful responses since my last post.

I am person A and B in this tale, having paid in cash for myself and my partner, It is too late at this point for me to tell E not to attempt to rectify this with the restaurant.

One detail I omitted so far is that we did not choose which staff at the restaurant collected the bill. I presume the person who collected the bill was a busboy because he was wearing something different than our waiter and performed functions more like a busboy but I do not really know what his title/role is.

IMO, Person E is mostly responsible for what happened, but whoever picked up the bill did make an error transmitting our instructions and there may be an opportunity for improvement for the restaurant if they are having potentially inadequately vetted/trained staff pick up the checks. I emphasize that may be the case, I really do not know what their policies/training are or even what may be reasonable/standard. But perhaps it may not be unreasonable to let the restaurant know what happened. I do hope that person E acknowledged that the waiter did check on the amount, as I think that was a commendable thing for the waiter to do.

Anyway, as others suggested would be nice, I have told E that I will chip in if he is not reimbursed. I think the calculation someone mentioned of $40/person is reasonable. If E declines, we will take him out for another nice dinner-probably at a different place though!

[Scratchy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by mystang52 If I were e, my biggest concern would be keeping my wife in the dark about it. I wouldn't ask anyone to chip in for my error. But if I were d, I'd quietly ask a, b, and c if they'd be willing to help out. About a dozen of my college buds meet for dinner every 3 months, and we all pay by cash. One time, a guy was short so we all paid him the cash and he charged the entire bill on his card.

Hilarious comment

Also interesting about whether to ask the others to chip in. In this story, I paid for A and B. C paid cash, D paid credit card. If I asked, I'm sure both C and D would agree to chip in. But maybe D might secretly feel that the cash payers were part of the problem and he was blameless. I don't know but don't want any hard feelings here. So I said nothing to C or D and I told E privately I would chip in or alternatively we will take him out for dinner.

[GrayHare]

"Now look! We've figured it 17 different ways, and each time we figured it, it was no good, because no matter how we figured it, somebody don't like the way we figured it! So now, there's only one way to figure it. And that is, every man, including the old bag, for himself!"

[grasshopper]

Here 30 miles from Mexico, most busboys don't speak english, just nod and smile.