This story came out that a woman went out on a date with a man to an expensive restaurant where he proceeded to order over $100 of food and drinks. Then he excused himself to go check his phone and split, leaving her with a $163 bill! What an ass! Apparently he has done this to other women also.
Now this hasn’t happened to me but I’ve heard of others where the table was ordering beers, some guys left, and the others had to pay the whole tab (and were not happy). The closest for us was when we agreed to split the check but the other couple ordered wine and appetizers and was way more expensive than ours but I still had to pay an equal cut.
Here is my questions:
has this ever happened to you?
If a person is at a restaurant where say you said “separate checks” and one person leaves, can they still hold you responsible for their bill?
Yes. My first night in Tokyo my buddy and I met up with two Irish dudes our age and decided to go out for dinner together. The two Irish dudes skipped out before paying. I bumped into one of them two years later and he came up to me and tried to apologize. I ignored him - didn’t want his money or his excuse.
I would assume that the responsibility for paying the bill lies on whoever’s left at the table. The restaurant is not listed as a party on the splitting-checks contract.
I’m not sure I’d agree on that. If I’m with a group that says that we want separate checks, to me that means that I’m telling the representative of the restaurant “We are each entering into separate contracts with the restaurant, to pay for the food and drinks that we’ve ordered.” Therefore I’m not entering into a contract with anybody else at the table, only with the restaurant.
Nicely put… I see your point and tend to agree. But if I were the restaurant owner I’d probably insist that my waiter was doing that as an additional *service *for the table.
Tricky situation. Clearly the person left at the restaurant can sue the dine-and-dasher for their portion of the meal, or even the whole thing if they can prove that person had agreed to pay for it all. But the restaurant can’t make that determination, they have a customer left, they don’t know that whole thing wasn’t a set up, the police can’t make the determination of the civil matter but they can hold the remaining person responsible for theft if they refuse to pay.
I don’t think you can just say ‘separate checks’ and obligate the restaurant to eat the loss. Again, there’s the possibility of collusion and fraud in such a case, and the lack of clear agreement between the restaurant and customers. Unless there are security cameras in the restaurant there’s no way to prove the remaining customer didn’t share in every dish ordered.
[ul]
[li]If you have already asked the server for separate checks, and they have brought the separate checks to the table, then no, you would not be responsible. (Although I think you would get a strenuous argument from the restaurant, and they would probably want to redo the split-up checks to include something to cover the dine-&-dashers.)[/ul][/li]
[ul]
[*]If, on the other hand, you had all agreed as a table to split the check, and the server brought a single check to the table, then yes, you would be responsible.[/ul]
Unless I very much miss my guess, no one actually forces the remaining clientele to pay up for the absconders. But most human beings ARE going to feel an obligation to, regardless.
The only other choice is to drop your half on the bill and bolt, making YOU feel like you’re absconding! And no one wants to feel that way, I think!
Well the way I see it normally when we go out with other families we tell the waiter right out this and this person is on a separate check and the waiter/waitress then writes up each ticket separately. so hence, they ARE separate contracts. If I happen to eat my neighbors desert that’s between me and my neighbor.
Actually they usually ask when we all sit down if this is to be on same or separate tickets.
I think though that Elbows is right, its not so much law but just common practice. Sort of like tipping - they cant force you to tip.
I don’t believe you can be held responsible for services not rendered to you. I believe it’s the restaurant’s responsibility to receive payment on each customer’s behalf.
Restaurants work on the honor system. If an individual doesn’t act honorably, then that liability shouldn’t arbitrarily go to to the last person siting at the table.
That risks falls completely on the owner who chose to use the honor system in the first place.
That was my thought. Even if he had the lion’s share of the food, that’s a lot of hassle for a free $100 meal. Seems more like he gets his rocks off by metaphorically screwing women over.
I’ve never been in that position but I’m a guy so I’d expect to be paying the bill whether my date stays through the starlight mints or flees through the bathroom window during the salad course. Plus I’m married now so I know where to find my date after she leaves
I would assume the restaurant in a “separate checks” situation would make a heavy press to shame the rest of the table into paying the bill but I don’t know (or think) that it would be enforceable. You probably wouldn’t be welcome back even if you had a legitimate case to say “That’s more of a you problem than a me problem”.
But for the benefit of those who think the big bad corporation is going to eat the loss, in practice it is going to be your server.
And note that even in states where it is illegal to make the server pay, they often do. Their employers bully them into it and it is not illegal to fire a server for mishandling money. Again, I am not saying this is just or right or that this is your problem.
You might have something if the waiter actually begins writing out individual checks for the customers, some sort of contract might be implied in that case. But there is a legal concept of Joint and Several Liability. A lawyer would have to weigh in on how that applies in this case.
Good call. There is a nonzero chance that the apology was going to turn into an invitation to dinner at his expense, but during which, he scams you again.
I mean, it might not be that, but the soft, apologetic approach to repeat scamming is something I have personally experienced in the past.
Quite an odd story, and I agree that this sounds like the guy that just has a grudge against women. If it was a date that was arranged on an app, it wouldn’t be uncommon for the other party to have screenshots of the profile including pictures.
At a decent restaurant, it seems like it would be hard for one party to slip out unnoticed since there are usually staff at the front. Perhaps if the scammer is familiar with the restaurant, they might know of an exit out the back where the staff slips out for a smoke.
I’ve certainly heard of people being scammed for cocktails by someone who feigns interest long enough to get some free drinks and then disappears. However, being out the cost of a couple of drinks isn’t quite the same as a $100 dinner.
It’s not even as complicated as that. I’ve slipped out of various restaurants for all sorts of reasons, e.g., to fetch my wallet, and no one’s ever raised an eyebrow or said anything to me. In 100% of times I’ve done this, there’s been another party sitting at my table, a hostage of sorts.
There’s no way the restaurant can hold the remaining diner responsible. Suppose instead that I’m eating alone at one table, and some creep I’ve never met before eating alone at the next table over does the dine-and-dash. Nobody would hold me responsible for that, would they? How is the situation any different when the creep is at the same table and we asked for separate checks, beyond the fact that I’ve now been lied to and exploited by the creep directly?
