Restaurant Rip-offs

kaiser715

kaiser715

Doing hard time
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Location
7, Pocket, NC
We eat out a lot (working on changing that, but thats another story).

It all goes on the credit card (not another story...paid off every month, and I get 2% back).

You know that line where you write in the tip, and leave it on the table, for an employee to enter and close the transaction later? I had noticed that every once in a while, the charge on the credit card would be a dollar or two more than what I had remembered. So a long while back, I started saving every restaurant receipt, and comparing to my online account as soon as the charge was finalized. I'll catch a dollar or two added on every once in a while. I actually started taking a pic of the 'merchant copy' of the receipt, in order to have documentation of what I had turned in to them.

In the past two weeks, I have had 3 charges come out for more than the receipt, an added $1, $2, and $5 at 3 different restaurants.

If it's a restaurant I don't frequent (traveling, etc), I'll just dispute the charge with my card company. If it is a local place, I'll catch the manager on the next visit.

Which brings me to tonight. At at Olive Garden (usually one of my stay-away places, but this was with family). I got the bill, and looked it over as usual. Its not out of the ordinary to find an extra tea or coffee, of if you have more than a couple of wines/beers/etc they'll drop in an extra on you. Everything was right. I gave the waitress my card, when she comes back with the receipt to sign, I catch that is is two bucks more than the itemized receipt that left with my card. Turns out a "table game" had been added...OG has those electronic pad things that you can play games on at the table. Our table was crowded, so when we got there, our pad thing was set up on the bar right next to us....nobody had touched it the entire time we were there. "Somebody"....in the 3 or so minutes she was gone with my card (which I normally don't like/do) ....added a $1.99 charge to the ticket manually.

Moral of this story...check your receipts and charges against your actual card statement.

I hate a fawking thief!
 
One solution - use cash.. never been shorted that way. I actually try to have a 20 busted down to where I have exact change (neglecting coins, & forget pennies) for any total & tip, but that's how I roll..
 
we usually pay cash and leave the tip on the table to avoid these types of problems.Its funny how the change they bring you is all small bills,Example,you have $7 comin back to ya and instead of a $5 and two $1's you get $7 worth of 1's.I swear they teach the wait staff to do that.
 
1-tonmudder said:
we usually pay cash and leave the tip on the table to avoid these types of problems.Its funny how the change they bring you is all small bills,Example,you have $7 comin back to ya and instead of a $5 and two $1's you get $7 worth of 1's.I swear they teach the wait staff to do that.
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well, if your total was in 20-40 range, if they give you 7 1s, you can leave them 4$ instead of saying well they gave me a 5 and 2 1s... I'll just leave them 2$.. it's good of them to do that. I would be irritated if they didn't give me 7 1s. If I wanted to leave just 3 and I had 5 and 2 1s, they would only get 2. Or I'd have to ask them to break the 5. So yeah. They kind of are trained to do that. Heck as long as the change was right, I'd be happy, some can't even do simple math! (Without a crackulator)
 
The other thing I hate...but I bet it works on some folks that are too timid to say anything....or drunk.

Last week, we ate at a place that was cash-only. The bill was $52 and change. I pulled out a hundred dollar bill. The waitress looks at it, and says "do you need change?"

No, honey, you surely earned a 48 dollar tip with your mediocre service....
 
kaiser715 said:
The other thing I hate...but I bet it works on some folks that are too timid to say anything....or drunk.

Last week, we ate at a place that was cash-only. The bill was $52 and change. I pulled out a hundred dollar bill. The waitress looks at it, and says "do you need change?"

No, honey, you surely earned a 48 dollar tip with your mediocre service....
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Yes that would be the appropriate response....and watch that face melt.
 
kaiser715 said:
The other thing I hate...but I bet it works on some folks that are too timid to say anything....or drunk.

Last week, we ate at a place that was cash-only. The bill was $52 and change. I pulled out a hundred dollar bill. The waitress looks at it, and says "do you need change?"

No, honey, you surely earned a 48 dollar tip with your mediocre service....
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At least she asked. I gave a waitress a $100 assuming she would come back with change. We waited for probably 10 minutes until I had to go find her and explain I needed change. She didn’t earn $40 for a few drink refills for two people.
 
@kaiser715 I agree, I try to check my itemized receipt against the CC receipt every time. I also check the written customer copy against my CC charge. I can't think of too many times I was charged extra. Heck, a couple times the tip was never charged!

In other countries I have traveled to, most places now have a wireless CC reader/scanner, so the server never leaves your sight with your CC. I think more US places should adopt this. Most restaurants I have seen with the table top units, you can swipe your CC and get your receipt right away, no waiting on the server or them taking your card.

Yes cash is safer than a CC but you don't get the cash back benefits that most CC's have these days.
 
When I/we go out to eat, it's almost always the same places and we almost always get the same exact orders, and I've managed to memorize what the correct totals should be...or I'll just do the math if something varies. It's gotten to the point where I'll request a familiar server and have even requested the manager to wait on us, because my bills tend to come back higher when it's someone new. I've especially noticed since having kids...almost like the server knows we're on a time clock and in a rush to get out and might not check the bill. Kids meals turn in to entrees, waters turn in to beers, etc etc. If I can't get a familiar server and notice the bill isn't right, if it's just a couple bucks, I'll pay and let the server know to recalculate, because their tip is tied to the overcharge and their overall tip would have been higher if they would have gotten it right the first time.
 
Hit em where it hurts. They'll straighten their shit up.
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a_kelley said:
I may or may not have been at a Denny's with worse than that service and may or may not have just got up, walked out and left after eating...
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If you ever find yourself walking into a restaurant and one of the people with you has had a few years of working in restaurants especially as a cook, it's almost entertaining. I know two that have. If its good, it's great, but let anything be cooked wrong and they will get downright LIVID. :lol:
 
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